About 12 months ago, I started writing a blog on the council's intranet, called ‘The Loop'. I had resisted such a move for a long time, thinking staff and members would not be that interested in the life of a chief executive. I was wrong. It went down a storm, with people stopping me all the time in the corridors of the town hall saying they read it and felt it had opened up a different, more human angle to internal communications. The most difficult thing was what to write in it. I started off very dry, very formal and stuffed-shirty, with a key corporate message every other line. Then I started to get into it, and changed tack. I included photos and wrote about some everyday life issues – for example, my youngest daughter starting secondary school, and taking my mum to the mayor's ball. My pictures on the blog went down a storm, and soon the weekly blog received the most hits of any feature on our intranet. The corporate messages were still there – but they were woven in a bit more subtly. Just like subliminal advertising! Every Sunday afternoon, I would sit hunched over the computer at home, wondering what to write and – more importantly – what not to write. I have an English degree, and I really love writing, but writer's block would descend on me every week when it came to writing about what had happened the week before. Then things took on a new dimension. In October, an anonymous video appeared on video-sharing website, YouTube. The face was blacked out and there was a very vindictive and personal attack on me, quoting extracts from the blog. When the image was reversed, it turned out to be an opposition party political activist – not a councillor, but the local MP's agent. When he was unmasked, I got an apology and the video was removed. The local media came down firmly on my side, which was good. After this, I thought long and hard about whether to carry on with blogging. While I pondered, I asked my management team to contribute a guest blog each week, and they all said they found it challenging and yet rewarding to write. Some staff have opened up their worlds to the whole council too, and found the same. It has really helped us build one team – one council. In the end, I decided to carry on with it, because staff really welcome openness and honestly and a direct link into the world of the chief executive. I have been bowled over by the positive feedback I have had. The best compliment has to be, ‘I just didn't realise that you are actually a normal person'. Donna Hall is chief executive at Chorley DC
