So I'm at Ragan's "Un-Conference" yesterday—some impressions of that event will appear in The Ragan Report soon—and sitting next to this little pink hospital communicator, just as innocent-looking as she could be.
We were discussing something innocuous—workload issues, I think—and she says with a shrug, "I just stopped doing the newsletter."
What did she mean, she "just stopped" doing the newsletter?
She explained that the newsletter had been around for years, but lately the CEO was taking forever to approve it. She kept writing and designing an issue, sending it to the CEO, and getting it back three weeks later with everything out of date. So she'd write and design another issue, send it to him again, wait three weeks again and have to throw it out again. Several consecutive issues never saw the light of day.
"So I just stopped," she said with a another shrug that turned into a smile when I offered my hand to shake.
She's doing a communication survey soon, and she'll find out whether employees miss the newsletter. But she doesn't think they will.
Readers: Have you ever ... just stopped?
Comments (5)
I have. Indirectly and unintentionally. Several years ago, we were publishing several versions of our e-mail newsletter, including a weekly version that went to our international employees. (We're a large retailer with about 5,000 international employees at stores and our head offices.) I was responsible for these.
I took a maternity leave almost two years ago. While I was out, my boss and a couple other co-workers were responsible for my work, including these e-mail newsletters. (The workload was considerable, I admit, because the things I do - including a web-based newsletter - take a lot more time when you don't do them often, which they don't.) When I returned and had waded through all of the e-mail messages that were waiting for me, I asked my boss if he had removed my name from the distro list for the international version. His face turned red and it was immediately obvious that the international newsletter hadn't crossed his mind while I was on leave.
Honestly? Not a single person had commented, so we decided that the newsletter was permanently retired. Frankly, I was absolutely fine with that, because it was like pulling teeth every single week to get some kind of international content.
Posted by Andrea S-R | September 27, 2007 11:04 AM
Posted on September 27, 2007 11:04
I almost did once. A boss was questioning the man-hours that were going into what we all felt was a great-looking, high-quality newsletter. It turns out the boss didn't give a damn how nice the newsletter looked. He only cared about getting the info out and said he'd be fine with a few paragraphs on a plain piece of copy paper. (This was pre-Internet.) I didn't give a damn, but cooler heads prevailed and convinced the jerk that we needed not just a newsletter, but a good one.
Will
Posted by Will Daniel | September 27, 2007 11:22 AM
Posted on September 27, 2007 11:22
What? Only two people? I find that hard to believe ...
Posted by Andrea S-R | October 1, 2007 3:05 PM
Posted on October 1, 2007 15:05
What? Only two people? I find that hard to believe ...
Posted by Andrea S-R | October 1, 2007 3:05 PM
Posted on October 1, 2007 15:05
I think every activity in our arsenal should have a finite life. At the beginning of the year determine what you'll do - and how long you'll do it for. Let everything compete for resources afresh every year - no sacred cows!
This will also help the "customer reference group" that started with a flourish, had four meetings and there have been none for 18 months. Everyone says "yes, we have a reference group" but really you just have a bunch of jaded customers with whom you've broken trust. Far better to invite people to be a part of a group for 12 months and have them commit to 4 meetings or whatever...
[leans over and whispers in a Home Simpson kind of way "Leave them wanting more..."]
Posted by Victor Zalakos | October 1, 2007 5:32 PM
Posted on October 1, 2007 17:32