Sleep Blogging

(This is number two in a series that I'll call Why Blog?)

My friend Tim Miller coined the term Sleep Working.  Or at least I heard it first from him.  When you wake up in the morning and you realize that you've been turning over a problem in your mind in your sleep, you're sleep working.  It doesn't even have to be a problem, though it often is, as on occasion I've woke up with what turns out to be a be a good idea.  Mostly though they tend to be problems and it isn't a very good feeling.  Thankfully either I'm having less problems or I'm learning to control it.  Sleep working is one of the dangers of being an entrepreneur that nobody tells you about before you quit your real job.

Lately I've noticed a variation that I'll call Sleep Blogging.  I wake up and realize that a story has been running through my head.  Today it was about how CEO blogging can be used as another form of communications to the company.  One of my board members is Brad Feld and he's been blogging since May of 04.  Almost from the beginning he used his blog to speak not just to all entrepreneurs, but specifically to the CEOs in his portfolio.  In effect, he'd say something like "I really like how this company runs their board meetings" and if you were that company I guess you felt good and if you thought you weren't that company, you'd try to get better.  (Assuming you've made the connection between good board meetings and board members who get the information they need.) 

I've believe that blogging can be a very different and useful form of communications, because it allows a guy like Brad to put out an idea without it sounding like a command.  I get insight into how he thinks, what he cares about and then I can take it (or leave it) to make my business better.  It's very different from getting a call from him saying "Gold, you need to do a better job of running your board meetings." 

This morning while sleep blogging I realized that this can work for me too.  There are people at my company who read my blog, and I can use it as a way to float ideas and help people better understand what I hope we can accomplish together.  It is in addition to, not a substitute for direct conversations, but I think that it is just one more method of improving communications which is one of the top battles for any entrepreneur or CEO.  We can all be better at communications.