Comments on: What Value is Blogging redux (or: Dear Anonymous Grade 11 Manager)

By: Cylonbuster

Cylonbuster — Wed, 10 May 2006 08:18:23 +0000

G11 manager, you should be practising proper Intel Values and their subset points. Ranitng on a public blog is hardly the way to demonstrate the the company is GPTW, especially if you are verbally slaying your own. Practise constructive confrontation just like a person of your grade should encourage.

By: Josh Bancroft

Josh Bancroft — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:52:55 +0000

Thanks, Eric, and all the others, for your responses. I’m glad to hear that overall, I’m making a positive difference to your relationship with Intel - that’s the whole reason I’m doing this.

I’m having a great time blogging, and working on other cool collaboration tools inside the company (wikis, podcasting, etc.). I’m seeing great success and encouragement, and I really think that all of it (not just me) is starting to make a difference.

Scoble once told me that you know that you’re starting to make a difference in the company when people start calling to have you fired. I guess in that sense, I have arrived.

Josh

By: Eric Skiff

Eric Skiff — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:45:59 +0000

Hi Josh, just some words of support and an example for both you and the Grade 11 Concerned Corporate Manager.

I spent some time last year setting up and populating a wiki inside the nonprofit where I work. Yes, it took some of my work hours, but I knew that the potential benefit far outweighed the time it cost me.

Even though it was up and running in a day (mediawiki is a breeze to install), there were questions and resistance. Why did we need this? What was the cost? Who took the time to set it up? Who would maintain it?

To be fair, these are valid concerns, but I trusted my experience and judgement that this was a valuable tool. I also trusted that I work with smart people, and that the community (in this case, my fellow employees) would find uses for the wiki itself, most likely above and beyond what I could imagine for it.

Fast forward to a year and a half later: The people who voiced concerns about the wiki didn’t have to think about it much. It was just there in the background. In the meantime, some of the less senior employees quietly started filling things in. When they realized they could easily share and publish info, documents, and work collaboratively, all without asking for my permission or help, it began to spread. The wiki is arguably the most important tool we have for sharing internal processes and info now, and early detractors have come completely 180.

In a bit of a repeat, we’re currently launching a podcast for internal communications. I’m interviewing heads of various departments and spreading news about what others are doing.

The same voices who spoke out against the wiki are again asking questions. Why am I spending my time doing a radio show rather than working? What’s the benefit?

Again, these are valid concerns, but in the end, I smile and work through it, because I trust my experience and judgement. We need to communicate more internally, and this is one way to do it. We can’t all talk to each other and know what’s going on in all departments at all times, but you can easily tune in to a 5-10 podcast during lunch and get yourself informed about what’s going on in our org.

Keep doing what you’re doing, Josh. I can tell you that in my eyes, you’ve done more for Intel’s pub than their marketing department has in the past 2 years. Hell, you completely reversed my opinion of Viiv with a single, honest sentence.

You’ve changed my opinion about the company, and based on the fact that they’ve got smart, clued in people like you working there, I have a hunch that intel is up to something big. (Anyone else smell a suprise early Core Quattro release coming?)

This is a good sign, Josh. You can be sure that Scoble felt the same heat from above. Trust yourself and your instincts, and you just might change intel from inside. In fact, I think you already have.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 06 May 2006 18:15:31 +0000

If it were up to me, I’d have the two of you share an office for six months. If nothing else, it would go far in furthering Mr. Grade 11 Manager’s education so that he could be even more effective in his job. This assumes, of course, that he is already somewhat effective, although I haven’t seen any evidence of it so far.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 06 May 2006 17:13:08 +0000

The facts are that some people just dont get it. Change doesnt agree with them. You can still work hard and also use the newer communication tools (blogs, wikis, etc) to make your team more productive. I wish there were more bloggers like yourself from companies, it gives added value as it actually puts a face on the company. It shows they arent afraid to communicate with their actual users. It shows a different way of thinking…instead of just thinking about the “bottom line”, and that is all, you also think about customers and sharing and the end users and how you can get in their heads, etc, etc. You still need to think about the bottom line, but in the eyes of the customers, that shouldnt be the number one priority. They (the customers) should be the number one priority to the company, and with your blog, you show that you are striving for that. Most managers dont see that I think, because they are looking out for themselves first, then the company, then the company’s partners, then the end users - and that doesnt always sit well with end users.

Keep up the good work