Blogs for organizational knowledge sharing - how to go about them?
My firm has decided to use blogs as a tool for organizational knowledge sharing and I have a mandate to lead that effort. We are currently experimenting with a few individual blogs and a group blog for a particular department. I have the following set of questions to ask the experts that dwell on these boards :-)
1. How does one get employees to buy in this knowledge sharing model by writing blog posts on a regular basis? Who should we target and how do we encourage bloggers to post regularly?
2. What are the tools and strategies we can adopt to raise awareness of the blogs and encourage viewership. currently a single email informing employees of the existing of available blogs hasn't had the desired effect.
3. Do you have ideas on how to break free from the vicious circle of low viewership feeding low motivation of bloggers to post on the blog which leads back to less number of readers?
Good Answers (4)
David D
Consultant, Engagement Manager at SITA
Best Answers in: Internationalization and Localization (5), E-Commerce (5), Using LinkedIn (4), Organizational Development (3), Air Travel (2), Hotels (2), Government Policy (2), Blogging (2), Web Development (2), Wireless (2), Purchasing (1), Travel Tools (1), Government Services (1), Compensation and Benefits (1), Offshoring and Outsourcing (1), Treaties, Agreements and Organizations (1), Internet Marketing (1), Business Development (1), Public Relations (1), Sales Techniques (1), Corporate Governance (1), Change Management (1), Planning (1), Supply Chain Management (1), Ethics (1), Enterprise Software (1), Computers and Software (1), Telecommunications (1)
Akbar - sounds excellent stuff, good intent all round. As others have said, you could debate what tool is best, but none of that makes any difference to one background element that nobody seems to have mentioned......
.... what proportion of your potential audience are LIKELY to be regular participants, either as contributors (small) or as readers (larger, but probably not tending to 100% of the company population) even in the technology centric company you appear to work for?
Without some assessment of that your measure of success is unclear.
By definition all of us responding are positive about such things, that is why we are here - and why we participate in other fora/blogs etc etc.
But that blinds us to the fact that there are an awful lot of internet users who DON'T participate in such things. (I saw stats somewhere recently on this, but cannot locate at the moment.)
I've lived and worked in a technical environment that had online information sharing, blog-like fora etc. way (many years) before the internet burst into public notice and therefore with a very well developed culture for this sort of thing. Even there I would characterise participation as variable and "niche". It tends to ebb and flow as topics become more or less important and people come and go.
Consider for example this forum in LinkedIn and the proportion of members who either ask or answer questions. You can get some idea from the stats on the Q&A page. It is pretty small!
So, my advice would be
- set a realistic expectation of participation. It might be as low as a few percent contributors and double or treble that as readers.
- recruit a few opinionated individuals who will drive things along (should not be too hard to find them in only 350 employees) and make sure their management value and encourage them personally to participate.
- the most successful, long standing and attention attracting "application" I have seen is a commonly used Q&A tool rather like this forum in LinkedIn - launch that ASAP. If people can link from it to their other blogs/fora you are starting to create a virtuous web of activity. (If you have people who travel a lot it is a good idea to devise a way of participating by e-mail, but for me that is a secondary issue unless they dominate your population.)
Good luck!
Terrence S
Engaging learning facilitator and journey coach
Best Answers in: Organizational Development (27), Change Management (5), Staffing and Recruiting (2), Ethics (2), Professional Networking (2), Occupational Training (1), Personnel Policies (1), Corporate Governance (1), Labor Relations (1), Manufacturing (1), Project Management (1)
As an OD Guy who blogs, I like what you are trying to do. Some thoughts on your three questions...
1. The only way to get people to blog is to get people who like to write. If you have some writers, make them your bloggers.
2. E-mail aint going to do it. Instead, try speed-geeking, where you gather everyone up to proudly show off their blogs and build excitement.
3. This can be a real uphill climb if people are not responding to one another's blog postings. Rather than an arbitrary mandate, some thinking about the WIIFM and WWMMS* factors would help.
*WWMMS = What Will Make Me Successful
Links:
Rakesh V
Director, Prosares Solutions (http://www.prosares.com) - Sharepoint | Business Intelligence | ASP.Net
Best Answers in: Web Development (6), Organizational Development (5), Personnel Policies (3), Enterprise Software (3), Computers and Software (3), Offshoring and Outsourcing (2), Change Management (2), Career Management (2), Information Storage (2), Government Policy (1), Government Services (1), Intellectual Property (1), Business Development (1), Business Analytics (1), Planning (1), Equity Markets (1), Project Management (1), Quality Management and Standards (1), Market Research and Definition (1), Business Plans (1), Small Business (1), Computer Networking (1), Software Development (1)
Akbar,
First, an advice on the technology you may use. Take a look at Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS 3.0). It comes free alongwith MS Windows 2003 Server which (in all likelihood) your organization may already be using.
You need to look for the early adaptors in the organization - the people who like to break away from the mould. They are your "project champions". Ideally, you may look for a few who have some interesting ideas/knowledge to share with the rest of the organization/department. It is not a bad idea to even incentivize them for participating (incentive may be in the form of recognition..).
Subjects that seem to attract/build a lot of interest are "I have a problem" (e.g. a sales person sharing a question/objection raised by a prospect), "My vision of XYZ" (XYZ=the company - it is surprising how many people have an opinion on such subjects)...Once you have a significant number of people participating, the others will come in through the word of mouth. The key is to ensure an extremely positive reaction in the initial phase of the project.
Drew B
International Organizational and Leadership Development Consultant Strategic Planning Facilitator, Professional Coach
Best Answers in: Organizational Development (13), Non-profit Management (11), Change Management (5), Using LinkedIn (2), Economics (1), Government Policy (1), Compensation and Benefits (1), Internationalization and Localization (1), Business Development (1), Project Management (1), Professional Networking (1)
Akbar,
My first overall question is this - what is driving this initiative? Is it a senior level response to feedback from the rank and file? Or, did someone at the senior level read an article or a book and decide this was something the company needed. The response to this question will help answer your other questions.
However, regardless of the genesis of this initiative, I do have some feedback on the first question regardless of where the idea started. It comes from my experience successfully developing performance management plans. What is the current average work load of you work force? If their work time is already fully booked, it will be difficult to ask them to find time to add another task. If someone takes the time to write for the blog, what will be the impact on their performance review? Does your organization have a performance management plan?
There is a lot more to add, but would need to do it offline as LinkedIn gives only so much room and I need to understand the initiative genesis, first.
Drew Bishop, MSOD
DBIshop Consulting
More Answers (3)
Have you considered that perhaps a blog isn't the solution?
I have found that wiki's do a wonderful job of sharing knowledge while allowing others in the organization the ability to add or correct information.
If you are set on blogs, perhaps one blog for each department would be better. This should be easy enough to do (provided you have an adequate employee base).
You could provide incentives to people who keep up with their department's blog. You could penalize people who don't keep up with theirs. A mandate across the board of "Minimum one post a week related to what's going on in your department". I don't know of many people who would tell their boss there is "nothing worth writing about" in their department. Do I smell budget cuts? *chuckles*
Anyway, those are the ways I might go about that task.
Alex M suggests this expert on this topic:
Jay Ferrari is our resident blog expert (runs our corporate blog) and consults on blogging, social networking with our clients.
He would be a good person to contact.
www.mindandmedia.com
inspireaction.mindandmedia.com
Deane B
Content Management Professional; Editor, Gadgetopia
Best Answers in: Web Development (7), Computers and Software (3), Blogging (2), E-Commerce (2), Customer Relationship Management (1), Enterprise Software (1), Information Storage (1)
First, I'm reading a great book now called "Laughing at the CIO" by content management guru Bob Boiko. In it, he discusses a fictional, failed project exactly like what you're describing. His book is about the culture of information in an organization and how it gets shared. It might be worth a look.
Second, I'm recommending Jay Allen here. He used to work for Movable Type, has written a book about it, and his company has built multiple blogging apps for large companies -- Boeing and Intel, to name two.
Links:
- http://www.amazon.com/Laughing-CIO-Parable-Prescription-Leadership/dp/09109...
- http://texturadesign.com/
Deane B also suggests this expert on this topic:
Clarification added July 26, 2007:
Sorry, forgot to add Jay as an expert.
