A study by the annual Global Intranet & Portal Strategies Survey, published in late 2007. It’s a very interesting and solid report and well worth a read if you’re involved in running a large intranet.
“‘Distribute information” is by far the primary perceived role of the intranet, increasing by 7 points from 2006 up to nearly 60 percent saying “absolutely” in 2007. However, “facilitate collaboration” stagnated at 20 percent and “facilitate productivity” only increased 3 points to 22 percent in 2007.”
This quote interestingly enough goes to the core of why intranets are not taken seriously by senior management. It this word: “information”. So the first step to take is get rid of this word altogether.
Maybe we distribute information so that people can become better informed. But what are these things we want people to become better informed about? And why aren’t these things we want people to become better informed about connected with productivity or collaboration? Are they useless to people as they do their day-to-day jobs?
Are intranets, in essence, giant and growing dumps for non-productive, non-collaborative information? Are these informative things, in fact, anti-collaborative and anti-productive? Has the intranet not yet fulfilled its potential? Is the problem lies solely with the senior management?
“The intranet has not yet fulfilled its potential and the top serious obstacles lie primarily with senior management,” the survey states. According to the survey, here’s what’s holding intranets back:
- Intranet not seen as a priority
- Lack of awareness of the potential role of the intranet
- Lack of ownership at a senior level
- Lack of or insufficient search solution
- Not aligned to processes, not essential for daily work
The “top serious obstacles” do not lie with senior management.
Rather than make the organization more efficient and productive, they lie with the intranet teams themselves who see their intranets as this vague way to “distribute information”.
Senior managers think “‘distribute information” as an uncontrolled, unmanaged, badly organized, out-of-date dump. They think of vanity publishing by units and departments throwing quantities of irrelevant and useless information, at staff that has absolutely no time and no interest in reading it. They see the intranet as a giant, bulging waste of time and the opposite of collaborative and productive spaces. Distributing useless information is how you destroy productivity and collaboration.
Ask these questions to decide whether information is useful:
Will this information improve productivity?
Will it improve collaboration?