TechFold - Bold tech & web commentary

Workblogging

One post ago, I used the word “workblogging.” I’m not sure if its widely in use or not (google evidence is inconclusive), or if it is, what its widely accepted meaning is. But for myself, I’m using it to refer to blogging in a work setting, specifically as an internal communication tool, complementing email and the phone.

I’m trying hard to promote workblogging at my office, as an ideal means of cross-pollination, knowledge capture, transparent/accountable decision-making, and so on (more on this later). But to communicate the concept, I needed a simple catchphrase that can communicate the notion of “blogging at work” and provide a conceptual rally-point for people - workblogging is it!

workblogging

Share This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Workblogging is not “more” work, just different

At work right now, one thing I’ve been working on is shifting my division to using blogs as an internal communication mechanism (vs. email, phone, etc.). I’ll write another post on the why later, but for right now I wanted to share a simple graphic that I’ve been using to refute a common “push back” on adding blogs to one’s communication toolbox. The objection is that blogs just provide “another thing” that employees need to be on top of - an addition to phone, email, voicemail, etc.

My refutation is that blogs don’t add to one’s workload (either writing them or reading) - they just change the venue in which that work takes place. The width of the column below represents 100% of your communications.

1. Prior to email it was 100% phone-based (ignoring face to face, physical mail, etc. for simplicity’s sake).
2. Sometime in the nineties, email will have spread through your workplace, shifting the venue of some portion of your communications away from the phone. That portion has likely grown over time, and for many people, the transition is not yet complete.
3. Now blogs will be carving out a slice of your communications too.
4. Note: the width of the column doesn’t change - just how its divided up.

This is, of course, a gross simplification (the width of the column has changed over time, for example), but I think it communicates the basic point regardless: that adding blogs to an internal communication mix does not have to be looked at as an onerous addition to one’s existing workload - instead its a complimentary communication channel.

workblogging

Share This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!