Blogging and Leadership - Plus Other Communication Issues

As a communicator and speechwriter for two IT executives, I often find myself wondering about the best way to communicate with employees. When a colleague indicates he or she has no idea about the newest campaign in our department, it makes me think twice about the way we attempt to disseminate information. Because our department is made up of over 10,000 people, we struggle with several communication barriers. One is that our employees tend to engage in selective perception. The weekly online newsletter we send out has so much information in it, employees cannot help but filter through the messages and only pay attention to what they think involves them. I also believe that some of our employees do not know our executives very well and therefore disregard most messages sent from them, indicating a lack of source familiarity or credibility. Additionally, as an IT organization, we tend to use acronyms. AIAOT (An Insane Amount of Them). This jargon means something to part of our department, but for the non-techie folks, the message falls flat when it uses a lot of these semantics.

All of these barriers seem to lead back to the fact that employees are trying to deal with information overload - the idea that there is simply too much out there to know. Verbal communication to everyone from executives is just out of the question; when the executives try to disseminate messages through mid-level management, the message seems to get lost. Which brings me back to my original concern: How do we get the important messages to the employees in a way that they will pay attention? Last year we began experimenting with blogs. We have a monthly post from one of our top three IT executives on the most relevant topic to everyone in the department at that time. Employees can comment on the blog and occasionally, the executives will respond to certain comments. While we do see good readership numbers with these blogs, I don't think we're necessarily using them to the extent of their capabilities. 

Northern Trust CEO Rick Waddell is an example of a leader who takes advantage of his internal blog. Waddell started his blog in 2007 at the behest of his communication team, who did a survey and found out employees wanted to hear more from senior leaders. Waddell posts twice a month and addresses important issues such as what happens at the company's board meetings and the company's diversity. He even used the blog to announce a change in benefits. Employees are allowed to post comments - and Waddell responds personally. The blog is well-received internally, and Northern's Trust company culture has no doubt played a part in 2007 fourth-quarter results that were better than expected in light of the banking crisis.

Effective employee communication can also help during times of change. Although blogging is perhaps the most fashionable way to get the message to employees these days, internal memos and documents have done the trick in the past. When Microsoft was facing the threat of falling behind the industry in web technology, CEO Bill Gates sent a memo assigning the Internet the "highest level of priority" at the company. Gates created a vision for change and then communicated that change in a way that showed the transition was supported directly by him and other senior leaders, a key element of ensuring the change resonates with employees.

At my company, we are undergoing a lot of organizational change, including ones related to technology, hiring, and a change in consumer base. The more our leaders are called upon to communicate about this, the more we need to seriously consider the best way to get the message across to all employees. What methods would you suggest if you were in my position?

Traci Finch