Joe Blogs

I’ve been checking out business and political blogs in the UK to see which business and political leaders blog. I’ll be bringing you various of these blogs on ZenGuide from time to time. My overall impression is that not many business people or political figures in the UK have blogs at this point and the ones that are around range from those that are informative, articulate and all about transparent communication to those that are, well, hardly blogs at all and more like static press releases with the word “blog” stuck on the title. I’ll be focusing on the great blogs rather than the not so great ones as I think it’s more rewarding to learn from good examples than have a laugh at bad ones.

So, here is one that I think is a sterling example of a great blog, which will hopefully inspire you. Joe Duckworth is the Chief Executive of the Isle of Wight Council and he has a blog on their website called “Joe Blogs”, a clever take on the name that we use in the UK when referring to your typical average everyman “Joe Bloggs”.

It looks like he started the blog in November 2006 as that seems to be the oldest entry on the page and there isn’t an “Archive” section you would normally find on a blog to indicate that there are older posts. He has blogged on average about twice a month since then.

His tone is informal and direct, as if he is having a chat with you or dropping you a line by email. It’s easy reading and it’s very easy to get to like the guy very quickly. For me, his informal tone does not undermine his authority as the Chief Executive but rather makes him an approachable leader. In particular - and this is the key to why I think he has a great blog - he does not shy away from the tough stuff. In his first post in November last year, he says (my emphasis) “We are only two star which is not very good. But did you know 40 percent of our services are in the best 25 per cent in the Country. The average for other councils like us is half of that. So, don’t shy away of things which are unacceptable, but more recognition about where we are flaming good.” He acknowledges the negative, which is something that many leaders can find difficult to do. When he balances it with a positive, the effect on the reader is “OK, fair enough. That is a good point he’s made about the Council” - ie. his credibility in stating the good thing is strengthened by the fact that he is prepared to acknowledge the bad point, it’s not just spin to tell us how great the Council is.

Later in January 2007, he blogs (my emphasis again) “For example this week I got my first glimpse of the staff survey results. They are still interim results as the consultants complete analysing the data. I have to admit that it made uncomfortable reading. Staff clearly are not happy with certain aspects of working for the council. As I have said before we are going to take these results very seriously and act on them. Furthermore we are going to publish the results - warts and all. The council I want to be chief exec of is open and honest and we are prepared to take the knocks because we know that we are going to deal with them and ensure that issues are dealt with properly.” Again, to make those admissions about unhappy staff and his personal response of discomfort about the results - that takes a strength of character. His openness to publish the results is consistent with this straight-talking. So when he says “the council I want to be chief exec of is open and honest “, you believe that he means it. Organisation and nations are a reflection of the people who lead them and we can see that Joe is open and honest from his blog and we can trust that he will lead the Council by example.

I was also particularly impressed when I emailed the Isle of Wight Council via their contact form to say that I couldn’t subscribe to his blog using Google Reader as there did not seem to be a feed. I got a reply back from Matthew Pattinson, the Council’s analyst and web developer within a couple of hours. He created an RSS feed there and then for me and has put it up onto the blog for other people to subscribe as well. To me, that immediate response and the tone of Joe’s blog together gave me a sense that the Isle of Wight Council is all about getting the job done and is focused on providing service to its constituents and stakeholders.

In contrast, I also found a couple of other UK councils that purported to have Chief Executive blogs but these were all statice brochure type pages that read like press releases. One of them labelled each post “Blog No. 1″ , “Blog No. 2″ etc - hmmm, a blog is the thing itself like a magazine is a thing and each article in it is a post. That simple mislabelling plus the press release style text gave the sense that this organisation didn’t have a clue about what a blog is meant to be. They also did not have feeds and I emailed them in the same way as I emailed the Isle of Wight Council via their contact form, asking about the feed. To date, over a month later, I am still waiting for their reply.

Going back to Joe’s Blog, I’d like to offer a couple of suggestions for making the most of the blog, if I may:

• Add an Archive and a also a Category section for easy searchability in the future as Joe fills the blog with a body of work

• Make it easier to find the blog from the Council’s main page - I had to really search for it to find it. I think it’s one of the strengths of the site and of the Council’s conversation with its stakeholders.

Joe also writes frankly about his family’s personal experience of crime in his post on 03 April. What a horrendous experience and my sympathies go out to them. He moves on to discuss local policing and tackling not just crime but fear of crime. This mix of personal and professional discussion in his blog is the sort of thing that will make the readers keep coming back and keep having trust in this straight-talking leader.