Just been watching Paul Miller’s Intranet Garden Video blog January 2010 where he quotes Jeff Jarvis considering the idea that intranet managers are “new e-economy ” workers within the enterprise and deliver disproportionate value to their employers.
Couldn’t agree more (I would say that wouldn’t that) but the danger for me is Intranet Managers start to be seen as the ‘time and motion’ managers similar to the 50’s and 60’s (see “I’m All Right, Jack” – 1959 award winning social comedy). Many of the elements of Frederick Taylor’s work can be seen in way Intranet Managers approach design and usability (not sure what the equivalent would be for the science of shovelling) and will the workplace web in 5 years been seen as virtual ‘Taylorism.’ I start to see danger signs as an increasingly number of services move online with little support or compassion for the behaviour change.Tag: intranetmanagement
To love or to loathe?
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Had a meeting today with one of our Knowledge stakeholders, responsible, among many other things, for their community area on our intranet. She appeared down and upset. Upon asking why she told me the community’s annual conference was held last week. At the conference, a senior director in the community used his speaking slot to verbally attack an area of the community site. He used ‘Amazon’ as an example of what was needed (along with their budget I hope!). Without seeking any guidance or counsel from the community stakeholders he broadcast what he wanted. Recent research of the community (an online poll which nearly 50% of the community responded) didn’t support this view. The comments made also highlighted a known area of weakness which was to be addressed by the community stakeholder when resource allows.
Do we love or loath this man? Personally I love him! Why? At a high profile meeting, in front of the whole community, he mentioned the community intranet site. Although he didn’t do any research or collected evidence he also spoke about a known weakness of the site. I could also applaud him for using Amazon as an example and not the BBC but that’s another matter.
Why love him? His has given us the visibility, platform and audience to address this issue now. He also provides us a path into senior members of the community to gain resource to address the issue. He’s talked the talk in front of his community. Now he needs to walk the walk. The community stakeholder, although upset, has arranged a session for us all to look at the way forward on this. Involving the attacker means he now has input, responsibility and a personal interest in getting something done.
Do you agree we should love him?
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Leave it to the gatekeeper
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Just reading a piece by Linda Stone, who coined the term “continuous partial attention” to describe the state of today’s knowledge workers, regarding “email apnea”: the unconscious suspension of regular and steady breathing when you tackle your email. There are even claims that the relentless cascade of information lowers people’s intelligence. We pay a high price as we struggle to deal with information of limited value. A study by Microsoft found that once their work had been interrupted by email notification, people took, on average, 24 minutes to return to the suspended task. The answer to this? In an ongoing knowledge sharing project for our largest community, a key element is to define and enhance the role of the Knowledge gatekeeper – the head of this ‘sharing/networking/communicating’ community. Its almost Zen-like. We have to let go of the need to know everything completely. Trust your community, and particularly the gatekeeper of a community to filter and flow the right things to you when you need to know them. It really is turning back the clock. We should no-longer feel we need to know and connect to everyone but have faith (a key word) that the community gatekeeper will guide the relevant content as and when its needed. |
What happened to search?
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Search made my Top 10 lists of Intranets Live. My notes on this included:
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Getting the community ready
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This weekend sees the final content loading for one of our new online knowledge communities. Next week the site goes for stakeholder sign-off and then a week of user testing. Training is being organised for the 12 appointed content publishers. Subject to no major issues being reported the area should launch on 7th December. Nearly 20% of the community has been involved in its development, therefore we already have a core group of stakeholders eager to seed the site within the infrastructure of the community. Once the site is bedded into the stream we then look at the physical and social aspects of their knowledge networking and sharing. |
Asking the user creates the mo’ factor
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We are currently working with sub groups of a knowledge community, to get their areas prepared as part of the ongoing development of the community’s new knowledge portal. Its been tougher than anticipated, with a mixture of security and lock down issues, which means some compromise to usability and user centric best practice. What has been really encouraging is the amount of people within the community who are starting to mention the site as an important tool going forward. By good stakeholder and user input prior to the design and build stage we’ve started to create a momentum behind it. Think we are now approaching the finishing line for launch before Xmas. |
Barriers to knowledge sharing
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Mentioned in a previous post the barriers to knowledge within my organisations. In 2008 we undertook a knowledge survey with over a third of the organisation taking part. Survey was a mixture of online polls, face-to-face interviews, anecdotal evidence and telephone interviews. We found there were four main barriers to knowledge sharing. Over the next 4 days I’ll run through these. Looking back over the last 12 months I’m not sure they have changed. Possible barriers to knowledge sharing 1 – Culture Knowledge Sharing not seen as a priority Lack of awareness of the potential role of Knowledge Sharing Not aligned to processes Not essential for daily work Silos and rigid reporting lines To many firm bottlenecks and roadblocks that prevent holistic approaches to knowledge sharing No time invested in creating a passion for knowledge sharing Trust |
Thinking of the people
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HR and people related content on intranets generally feature highly in the most popular pages. Our HR pages are no exception, with over 20,000 visits per month to ???people??? related areas. However, over the past 24 months the attention given to maintaining these areas has not reflected this popularity. The area has suffered from old, duplicate and incomplete content. This area is now being addressed. A project, sponsored by our HR department are now looking at ensuring content will be published within a governed, user centric structure. The approach has two stages. First the ???ticking plaster??? ??? urgently addressing the issues with the current site. Stage two sees the complete redevelopment of HR related areas, bringing content under one structure, improved search, enhanced navigation, new taxonomy/tags and a greater focus on how the user engages with the content. Working with the Intranet team the project milestones will include stakeholder workshops, user research, design briefs, user testing and a full adoption programme to ensure a site that is sustainable moving forward. |
Training to engage
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Just read the Guardian article about the digital divide (actually brought the paper rather than read it online –
For me, the same applies within the workplace. We all talk about engagement and collaboration (well I always do) but we provide little to none training in collaboration or how to use the tools to collaborate.
No-where is there budget or resource to include all our staff within the digital framework. In my disucssion with various online stakeholders many agree that its the basis digital skills that are a hurdle to collaboration within the organisation, and greater resource on training or inclusion in this area will reap greater rewards. Problem is, as the article mentions, is that no resource of funds are available to provide this. No department has the remit, nor I suspect the desire, to deal with the issue. Why don’t I do it? You’re right (now I’ll talking to myself) – its something on the list and one day I’ll get a sponsor. Maybe not today but one day.
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To open up or lock down?
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Two projects we are currently working on emphasis a paradox in the world of knowledge and information. There’s a constant tension between spreading information around and locking it down. In collaboration and knowledge we have a natural inclination towards access – our focus is all about helping others find and access the information that will enable them to be more effective. But controlling access is equally important. Whether for compliance, privacy, or counter-intelligence, restricting access is a critical component of collaboration risk management.
Our current work provide practical insight on both sides of this tension. One side of our role, developing the knowledge communities for both streams, focus on finding channels to share information and knowledge. The other task, equally important in terms of risk and compliance, is how to prevent information leakages.
How information is shared or controlled is a key theme for both communities. So far, we are looking at technological tools to help them control usage. Another card maybe to increase the knowledge of community members (i.e. the stream) to the risk associated with some access. That is a harder nut to crack – and more expensive to implement. |
Mark Tilbury - digital workplace specialist 