There was a really interesting exchange on Paul Levy’s blog last week between an “investments guy” (IG) and Paul.  IG basically said, “Blogging seems kind of self-centered and lame, and a distraction to your employees, patients and Board, who expect you to be running the hospital, not fooling around on the Internet.”  He added that he couldn’t even sign his name on his post, for fear that his colleagues would know he was engaging in such a trivial exercise (or something like that).  Paul’s response was his usual witty and funny commentary, which I won’t bother repeating.

But the exchange raises an interesting issue - is this a worthwhile investment of my time and effort on behalf of the many constituencies of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care?  This is a curious question for me, because I’ve been “blogging” - sort of - pretty much since I got to Harvard Pilgrim.  You see, I’ve been writing an electronic email to Harvard Pilgrim staff since the end of my first week at Harvard Pilgrim in the spring of 1999.  And that Friday email, which happens pretty much every week, has been forwarded by Harvard Pilgrim staff to the folks they do business with in the employer, broker and provider space ever since.  The format is informal, the writing casual and the subject matter all over the place.  I started doing it because the organization was in operational and financial turmoil when I arrived, and I wanted staff to hear from me every week about what we were doing to fix what was broken, and I wanted to give them a tool to communicate from the top of Harvard Pilgrim to their constituents about how we were doing as well.

And based on the feedback I’ve gotten over the past eight years, it’s been enormously successful - maybe the single most important communications vehicle we’ve employed since my arrival.  I visit accounts all the time who still reference these emails, and how helpful they’ve been to them in understanding what we’re up to and how we’re responding to market trends and operational questions.

A CEO blog’s a bit more public, to be sure, but the concept is the same - it’s a voice from the top of the organization that opens up a line of communication to the outside world that wouldn’t otherwise be there.  Whether or not it’s a good thing or a bad thing from the point of view of our key constituents is certainly subject to debate, but my take so far is quite positive.  Brokers, accounts and providers have all told me that they read it, and appreciate it.  And health care is so muddled to begin with, anything any of us can do in leadership positions to shed some light on it is time well spent.

It’s not for everyone.  If you don’t like to write, it doesn’t make much sense to go here.  But if you do, and you serve a broad constituency of customers and vendors, it seems to me like the kind of thing that’s about much more than self-enjoyment.  It’s a way to carry your message and your brand to many of the people whose decisions matter most to you and to your organization.

Posted by Charlie Baker in Harvard Pilgrim