Mark Jacot

I recently had a good chat with a colleague from Project One who are a great change consultancy I have done lots of work with. They have come up with an interesting concept called “Real Change”. This led me to think about what Real Communications might look like.

I’ve been writing a weekly blog now for 18 months since I joined the Open University, having experimented before in my previous jobs. It seems to be quite successful, I get on average between 200 and 300 reads each week, a 50% hit rate. Some of my most popular bogs have been read by over 10% of Open University staff. Whilst my blog is written in the context of my current Service Delivery Role, I think the principles may apply to a programme or change role too.

My recipe for real communications would be as follows

• Short – easy to read in one short sitting
• Edgy/Interesting/topical – If you are not on the edge and occasionally overstepping the mark, your blog will be boring. Try this test – look at the opposite of what you wrote and if it is daft, then it was not worth writing down – add value please!
• Authentic – you can’t fake it, or get someone else to write it, it has to come from and reflect the real you
• Honest – You can say more in a blog than a formal announcement, my blogs come with a health warning, and circumstances may change, so if you want me to be honest and open, sometimes I may get things wrong.
• Emotional Connection – makes you smile, think, feel challenged, and act (Thanks Geoff Mason for that one)

The topics are up to you, I cover an honest update on service when things go wrong, blogs on direction and strategy, updates on projects, hints and tips on systems and summaries of interesting things I learn in my job that I share.

What would be a good list of topics for a programme or change manager to blog on? Am I missing some interesting topics?

Do you know any Change Leaders that do a good and interesting blog?

If so please let me know either by commenting on this blog by clicking here.

If you are interested in more on this topic – this blog covers blogging/brands and twitter. And this blog covers more on how to blog.