Using Blogs as Status Reports
Has anyone tried using blogs to replace the traditional status reports required by most corporate managers? I am toying with the idea to eventually replace my status reports to my bosses with a internal blog.
Rather than sitting at month-end or week-end for a hour or two to recall what were accomplished and what’s planned for the next period, perhaps I should spend 5 mins a day writing a blog entry on my day’s work. Should the entries be written as ready for consumption (so that my bosses no longer need to wait till month-end to get my status report)? This way, my day’s work is available for consumption real-time, technically by anyone in the company. There should be ability to save certain entries as private and only for consumption by my bosses (e.g. employee performance-related) or even for my own consumption only (e.g. as a form of record-keeping and it is ready for anyone’s consumption).
Point to note: If this method of status reporting is practised widely in an organization, Enterprise Aggregators (e.g. Netvibes) could come into play here. The users can subscribe to RSS feeds of anyone’s ‘office blog’ and catch up on the work status as and when they need to or is ready to.
It’s an interesting idea, but managers shouldn’t forego the opportunity to meet with direct reports. The technique you describe could be very helpful as a diary, something to review before or during a review with your manger. But the manager owes it to you and your organization to have a face-to-face meeting. Without it — in a worst-case scenario — you would be come a “flog,” a faceless blog. Not a good thing.
rkenneth
April 11, 2008
rkenneth: Good point there, managers should continue with their regular 1on1 with the direct reports or skip-level meetings with the staff. In fact, I believe, with this approach, it encourages the managers to increase the communication level with their team. I would still encourage to use the blog as the status report, rather than just a ‘dairy’; something to review before or during the 1on1 with the manager – it defeats the whole idea of bring the ’status reportnig’ to another new level.
brandonphuan
April 14, 2008