I would also argue that people, especially in positions of management, are responsible for learning what's going on in the marketplace instead of turning a deaf ear to it. I would argue that people, especially in positions of management, should take more proactive roles in exploring new avenues which will invariably change their company. Which might mean picking up a book or two instead of watching the season finale of Alias. Because fifteen minutes a night with that book will give you the knowledge to not only understand what's going around you, but to empower those who work for you to take part in it as well. Otherwise, quite frankly, you're wasting time and resources.

So whether or not blogs are the end-all, cure-all isn't really the point. The point is that these kinds of people are curmudgeons—a virtual wet blanket that stifles innovation and stonewalls the success of a company. And people like me don’t understand why people like that are allowed to hang out at the big management table.

But the season finale of Alias was so good.

I have to say that blogging is but one small portion of the communication ecosphere, but they seem to be the one that's garnering the most attention. I guess everyone needs a bandwagon to jump on.

It's about communicating with your customers and letting them into your business, good and bad. Personalities aren't all wine and roses, sun and sand. Everyone's got skeletons in their respective closets.

I guess I'd just encourage you to look less at the mechanics and more at the ideas. It's easy to preach blogging, it's much harder to preach openness.

Great points from the both of you.

Mz. Pocket - we both know that personal development makes all the difference when it comes down to it. Those people who don't take the time to learn and grow stifle their own ability to succeed. Yeah, they might still be sitting at that big management table for one reason or another - but in the long term, those who are not growing will have less and less influence as those around them sense their lack of growth. People who are not at the table don’t really see it, but it does happen.

And to the mysterious Holy Moly – you are totally right – the mechanics are really not that important, the communications are.

What is good about blogs is they are a gateway drug into valuable communications with customers, suppliers, and your business community. (Actually reminds me of an old post - http://www.marketingpunk.com/2005/12/corporate_blogging_as_a_gatewa.html ) By having the mechanic, people in the corporate world have a concept to get behind and to sell to their bosses. Yeah it is easier to preach about blogging than openness, but expecting a company to go from no open communication to full communication without a catalyst is unrealistic.

I can’t go to my management and say “hey guys, tomorrow let’s be open – good or bad.” There is no plan there, and I would say that in most companies no plan equals “no go”. By starting with blogging my company can get its feet wet in the world of openness – and hopefully see that openness it isn’t all that scary. My management team is already starting to see that openness is a smart way to go, and the way they got there is through a catalyst, in this case a blog.

Holy’s comment that I should focus less on the mechanics and focus more on the openness shows that Holy is more of an idea person, and less of an execution person, which is great. Unfortunately, most people in a corporate environment need to execute to thrive, and that is what blogging helps me do, execute the “openness” vision you and I are both proposing.

Today the catalyst is a blog, tomorrow I am sure there will be another bandwagon for me to hop on and hopefully my ass will be on that one too. Because as long as a bandwagon helps drive my team to success, I know I am doing the right thing.