Harry Wessel on blogs in the workplace

This is a pointer to an overview of blogging by Harry Wessel of the Orlando Sentinel. It’s been popping up in various newpapers and been pointed to by various bloggers. This time it shows up in St. Louis, which is my old home town. Maybe someone from my high school days will get in touch. I don’t love the editorial slant that got put on it, but I’m not trying to sell papers. And most organizations are likely to think of risks before they see opportunity.

On the other hand, I did get to have a good chat with Harry while he was writing it courtesy of an introduction by Buzz. Better yet, I got a good quote and they spelled my name right! Here’s what Harry had to say:

Jim McGee, director of the Huron Consulting Group in Chicago, said blogs are among “the most important developments in technology in doing knowledge work that we’ve seen in 15 years.”

McGee is a former clinical professor of information technology at Northwestern University’s business school, and he’s an influential blogger (mcgeesmusings.net).

“I track something like 320 sites that are relevant to my work,” McGee said. “In terms of leveraging my time as a knowledge worker, I have at least an order of magnitude of maybe 100 times improvement in my productivity. If part of your job is to be informed, this is the fastest way to do it.”

A few minor quibbles. I’m not the Director of Huron, I’m one of many; it’s a big place. Also, what I remember saying was that blogging gives me between an order of magnitude and a 100 times improvement in productivity. I can see how Harry transcribed it as he did in our phone interview. It’s a reminder to me to be mindful of how what I say is likely to be heard.

STLToday: Blog slog can get you in trouble in the workplace. Sensible words of warning: don’t blog about your sex life or your boss’s dirty laundry without considering the impact it could have on your job security. At some jobs, it doesn’t really matter what you blog about; you boss or… [Business Blog Consulting]