There are many stupid reasons why people don’t blog. I have had numerous discussions with former colleagues, friends, and family about the value of blogging. I am astounded by all the excuses people come up with for not blogging.

I hear things like:

“My blog does not make a difference!”

“Why write about something that has already been blogged about a thousand times?” or

“No one is going to read my blog”

It’s about fear

I have been blogging for some years now and can say that these things don’t matter. I think the main reason for not blogging is based on fear. The reasoning I often hear very often based on the fear of embarrassment. …

How do you create a great digital employee experience? How can Netflix help inspire you to change corporate communications? And why could freedom turn out to be about becoming invisible?

These were some of the topics we discussed at the Rivelty conference in Moscow in February — just before the world went into lockdown. The conference was focused on the digital workplace and internal communication.

Here are six things I took away from the very special and awesome three-day conference.

1. The future is not about Intranets, it’s about DEX

You can’t predict what happens when you blog.

Expecting that blogging will generate more sales — or more money on Medium — right away would be to simplify the equation and disappoint you.

When you start blogging and start sharing your work on social media, you will learn that it leads to many other experiences and opportunities you would not have expected.

To me, blogging is like planning for lucky circumstances to happen.

In this blog, I have found seven reasons why that seems to be the case for me — and would probably be for you too!

1. I get more speaking engagements

Not long ago, I wrote a blog about why it’s crucial to improve the digital workplace during the Covid-19 outbreak. The blog became quite popular in my LinkedIn network. A couple of days later, someone sent me a message on LinkedIn, as he was looking for a speaker who could give an inspiring talk about working from home. When we had our first call, he told…

The Covid-19 outbreak has turned a lot of things upside down. Including marketing. Commercials about restaurants, travel or the latest movies are just not relevant right now.

Businesses have learned that some of their slogans, messages or commercials. are not relevant or even inappropriare. For instance, KFC’s slogan, “It’s finger lickin’ good” is not really finger lickin’ good these days.

Actually, the Covid-19 outbreak has forced KFC to pull it's latest commercial showing a lot of people licking their fingers while eating at a KFC restaurant.

But the crisis is not only about companies not being able to run ads because they have suddenly become irrelevant or inappropriate. The change to branding and marketing is more fundamental. …

Working in the digital workplace team is not always easy. I can tell from my own experience. It can be hard to convince the top management about the resources they need to invest in proper digital tools — often because it is difficult to show a direct impact on the bottom line.

You will always be competing with things that are more urgent and that have a more direct impact on the bottom-line.

The tragic Covid-19 outbreak, however, has made the digital workplace become one of the most important assets in order to keep your business running.

This is the time where organizations that have invested in consumer-grade technology for everyone will reap the benefits of their investment. Organizations that are offering clunky solutions and maybe only to people at the administration level will now be paying the price. …

In a time like this, we can’t transform anything if we just rely on the same experiences — and data points — that we’ve always had. Or by asking the same questions over and over again.

This is why I want to share four of my favorite approaches to shake things up a little and enable you, or others, to make better decisions in the future.

Decisions that will help you create a workplace, where people thrive.

Here are four of my favorites:

1. Do like Garry Ridge. The CEO of WD-40 has become comfortable saying things like: “I don’t know”, “I don’t understand” or “Let’s find out”. Especially as a manager, this can be challenging. Take a look at the iceberg of ignorance in this article and accept that there is some knowledge outside your office that could lead to better decision making. Maybe it’s not even you who should make the decision! Listen to this 3-minute podcast with Garry where he explains why he thinks “I don’t know” are the three most important words he has learned. …

Co-authored with Anders Martinsen

More than 70 % of all change initiatives fail. You could say, that organizations are brilliant at solving the wrong problems.

Actually, it is possible to have a brilliant career by doing all the wrong things. You just need to solve the problems you are being asked to solve — no questions asked — and you’re the employee of the year.

I know, it sounds a bit too good to be true. But think about it. How many times have you found yourself in a situation where you needed to do something. Right now. It’s not necessary to discuss if it’s the right thing to do, because it has already been agreed at the executive level that it is. …

Co-authored with Anders Martinsen

What exactly is going on with that thing called Employee Advocacy? After having seen one corporate press release too many about a company’s great financial performance shared in my LinkedIn network, I have had enough and need to share my thoughts on this topic!

I don’t understand why there are so many companies who have chosen to engage their employees in sharing tedious press releases. Some organizations even reward good ambassadors with points! Yes, you heard it right. …