Blogging in government intranets

I have been working on building the correct conditions for intranet blogging within my agency.

This has involved introducing the concept (or 'meme') into the collective consciousness of key managers over the last twelve months, through;

1. forwarding links to online blogs which were of interest to individual managers,
2. publicising the increasing use of the agency's intranet by staff and the specific effectiveness of certain communications using the medium,
3. providing information on different approaches to communication using language and materials readily understandable by a lay audience (such as Commoncraft videos),
   
4. positioning my self as knowledgeable in the area - by being knowledgeable, and
5. identifying existing problems within the agency which could be addressed through the medium of a blog - such as team communications across diverse sites.
   

It's a slow process but has begun to bear fruit. Our Internal Communications team is now interested in exploring the use of a blogs by senior managers to provide a two-way communications option for their engagement with staff.

There's still the need for executive mandate, to fund ICT to deliver and the challenge of supporting senior management in developing blogs - helping them develop appropriate communications styles and approaches - but the seed has been planted!

Here's an interesting article from Andrew McAfee of Harvard's Business School which demonstrates one of the benefits of internal blogs.

Homework the Teacher Learns From