Blogging isn’t an obscure term anymore. Many a web-addict has turned into a blogger by choice and some, by default. Blogging is now turning out to be no less than a fashion statement. Discussing one’s blog over coffee might be like discussing the weather or the latest Hollywood flick. But lest you imagine that this one is about how blogs help one in society, this article is about how blogs can help in an organizational context. Read on if you want to explore what for, and how, blogs can be used by organizations.

Organizations worldwide are venturing into knowledge management (KM) practices and systems to know what they know, to network their employees, to leverage on expertise and knowledge across the company, to brainstorm and collaborate seamlessly, to innovate, to improve efficiency & productivity, and to learn faster among other things. KM systems make use of applications like repositories, expert locators, virtual workspaces, communities of practices, project/team dashboards, project and best practice databases, et al. A common thread that runs across all these is the effort to get people and their varied opinion/thoughts/ideas/experiences together. Following are some of the very basic thoughts on how actually corporate Blogging helps.

• Fundamental Communication: Communication or rather lack of it, it is said, is one of the root causes why there are misunderstandings among team members in a project, employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, expectations are perceived not to be met, relationships between employees and their supervisors sour, etc. Feelings and emotions are not completely expressed at times either because of the inability or unwillingness of the person concerned. The lack of listening skills among the masses is perhaps the most critical factor that plays a key role in the promotion of blogs for those who want to express themselves. Blogs are more often than not, likely to bring out the truth since blogging is more or less a product of introspection, and/or reaction & response to circumstances, and events. They facilitate communicating the whole, stopping when one intends to. And once thoughts and ideas have been blogged, they are captured forever and are open to those interested for reading.

• Introverts Day Out: Every organization has its share of introverts among extroverts. If extroverts can mouth their thoughts and network comfortably well with others, introverts will not even use an opportunity to socialize and share their thoughts while in the company of others. If an organization cannot elicit ideas and thoughts from its introverts, it simply means that it isn’t tapping into many minds. Written communication, on the other hand, might come easy to many introverts.

• Cross-pollination of Ideas: In a company with a blogging culture, it would be extremely easy to identify think-alikes provided the technology is designed appropriately. This would be critical in the formation of communities, especially in a big organization. A tool that helps employees identify ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ Bloggers would help establish networks conveniently. These networks can then be formalized if required. With the tool behaving as an enabler, it will be a very easy task for employees to share ideas across domains and business units.

Blogging is very popular among the Internet pundits but is yet to probably find its right-of-way into the organizational lexicon and/or KM/HR/IT processes. Whether it will have a similar or better impact within organizations is a million dollar question. More of these positives and negatives will perhaps be realized and understood better only the hard way - when Blogging is piloted or maybe implemented in a big way.