Topic: Energizing the blog
Conditions: Internal (for now) company blog opened about two weeks ago
Problem: Low participation
Process of Understanding 01.
Well… what we think is the problem here rests on many assumptions, and the original cause of what we think is the problem may actually lie elsewhere. Packaging this gracefully(?) makes the sentences long.
In short, before the problem, the original purpose and direction for creating the blog is itself the problem.
Compare the two thought processes below. They are easy to overlook, but even when the agonizing is the same, the meaning clearly differs.
#1. Thought process A
1) I want to share this nice thing(content).
2) What is the best way to express it?
3) Should I share it inside the company?
4) No—not top-down; I want a space where sharing happens freely.
5) Should I try a blog?
6) Why aren't people coming?
#2. Thought process B
1) Let's do a blog.
2) Let's put up fun(good) posts to draw attention.
(Shouldn't you try it offline first, before going online? Sloppy, half-hearted attempts based on this kind of mindset end up producing only excuses like 'we tried it' or 'we tried it, it doesn't work, it's just not doable.' Even if an attempt fails, there should be the humility to first honestly ask 'why didn't it work, what was missing?')
3) Why aren't people coming?
(The scope of 'fun (good)' here is purely personal; enforcing that 'goodness' on others is just a more polished expression of an internal (unconscious, deliberately hidden) authoritarian streak.)
4) Why aren't people coming? OK, let's run an event.
(For whom is the blog? For what is the blog? Agonizing over ways to entice employees to participate… Even 'what do I want to say?' is missing, and despite that, a company blog (not a personal one) was opened—this deserves some self-reflection.)
5) Why aren't people coming? Even so, why is participation so low?
(While claiming not to be bound by form or frame, why are we obsessively recognizing low participation as a problem?)
6) Of course it doesn't work!
(Some time later, when someone proposes something related, this only produces 'oh, we tried that before, it doesn't work.')
Process of Exploration 01.
#1. One more thing to think through across A and B
1) Not 'what are you doing now' or 'what have you done' but
2) why, how, and how are you doing this (blog or new proposal) now? 'why,' 'how,' 'are you doing'
3) If you tried it before and it failed, you must clearly know 'why that happened' or 'why I / the situation / the result could only be that way.'
4) If you didn't, it was not an experience but merely waste or playful experience.
5) If you failed to grasp it, you need preparation and reflection to grasp future experience objectively, before you judge by your own experience.
#2. Even if you are making fish-shaped bread, the important thing is not first 'what shape the fish-bread is' but 'how you are going to make the red bean filling.'
Process of Exploration 02.
#3. Conclusions for critique, not condemnation
1. Rethink why we started.
2. If it is truly for sharing, start from offline channels.
3. If it is a personal trial or experience, do it personally.
4. Omniscient author viewpoint: maybe some trigger caused the insights stored up until now to pour out like a dam release, producing a relative thirst for empathy—that is the regret that remains.
Process of Exploration 03.
#4. "The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that there is one…"
Whether in an organization or in personal daily life, what we frequently overlook is whether what we think is the problem is actually the problem. Correctly identifying the problem is the first button to fasten; since it is the opening section of the many events that will follow, careful attention to small details is needed. The situation is not exactly identical, but I am sharing a video I think is contextually very similar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYFMzIi0WiY(The Newsroom)
#5. Simon Sinek's TEDTalk on Starts with Why "How great leaders inspire action"
Consumers choose not based on what you do (the mission) but based on why you do it (the belief).
That is why people buy an MP3 player not from an MP3 specialist (iRiver) but from a computer company (Apple). You do not sell what you have to people who need it (not 'hire people who need a job'); you sell what you believe to people who believe what you believe (hire people who believe what you believe).
Lack of capital, poor employee skills, or bad market conditions are not reasons for failure. The Wright brothers worked with the belief that they could change the world. Samuel Langley worked for wealth and fame. (Langley was a specialist in the field, wealthy, and the era's media, including Time, was shining a spotlight on him.)
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/ko/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action
