In How a Blog Held Off the Most Powerful Union in America, author Paul Levy, former president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, provides a detailed look at how unions use corporate campaigns and how one health center used social media to neutralize such tactics. He talked to Healthcare Finance News about his book.
Q: Please give us a brief description of your book, and share with us what you think is its most important take away for readers.
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A: This book describes how social media was used to neutralize a well-funded and pervasive corporate campaign by the Service Employees International Union against Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. SEIU engaged in a multi-year strategy to discredit the hospital and undermine the normal democratic union organizing process. Facing overwhelming resources on the part of the union, the hospital was able to expose the elements of the corporate campaign and render it ineffective.
Q: In your book you write, "Sunshine is the best transparency." How much do you think being transparent in your blog impacted the union's campaign, and does a blog offer a vehicle for a kind of transparency leaders can't achieve through more traditional communications?
A: A blog enables the author to bypass the filters that exist in the established media outlets (i.e, reporters and editors) by reaching out directly to readers in a timely and interesting fashion. The author can make a persuasive case directly to the public. But, the blog has to be credible. It has to be honest, open, and highly principled and not engage in ad hominem attacks.
Q: It seems to me that blogs are relatively personality driven. How much of the success of your blog do you think is due to your own personality? If a facility leader wanted to communicate through a blog, but didn't have an engaging personality, what advice would you offer?
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A: It is important that the blog have the "voice" of one person. If it comes across as a product of the corporate PR department, it will not be effective. People reading my blog posts knew that I wrote them and would stand by them personally. I'm not sure this has to do with a specific personality so much as dedicating the time and effort to producing a blog that reflects whatever personality you have.
Q: Is there something about your book that I haven't asked you that you would like to add that you think is important for readers to know?
A: As I note in the introduction, this is not an anti-union book. It is a book that shows that organizations with principles can fight off organizations whose purpose is to undermine those principles.