Blogging in Corporations … Strange Attractor(s) At Work ?

I have often wondered why blogging hasn’t been adopted more readily in organizations and corporations … as have many others, and there are a plethoras of opinions readily available on the subject.

What that means to me … when so many people write about it … is that it is obvious that it would be useful. After all, it’s online conversation and would serve to advance projects, enhance the possibilities of innovation or responsiveness, and so on … just as real-life conversation does.

But then, as David Weinberger has famously said …. coonversation is only possible between equals … and in 99% of organizations, traditional hierarchy is alive, well and thriving.

Blogs are viewed suspiciously because they enable real, raw voice. It’s not obvious how they can be controlled in the same way that employees are controlled by the fear of performance reviews, or ostracization, or dismissal. Microsoft has many bloggers, and supposedly it has a corporate policy on same … Don’t Be Stupid - which makes all the sense in the world.

I’ve stated before that I believe that developing and using an active network of blogs in an organization would accomplish most, if not all, of the stated desirable results of many many dollars spent on leadership development and developing flexible, responsive, open, more motivating corporate cultures - rather than the current appetitie for “fit-in-or-fuck-off” cultures.

Suw Charman, Corante’s Strange Attractor, has some well-thought out words on the gradual evolution of the prcesses and real possibilities of blogging in corporate environments