Often organizations implement SharePoint for the advertised purpose. Because the IT folks understand its value they adopt; but the rest of the organization needs to understand HOW to implement it so that the tools serve the organization's people and free them of time to allow for creativity and innovation--ultimately improving productivity and employee satisfaction (benefit, employee happiness/retention).
If your SharePoint intranet is designed just as a website to tell visitors that "Kilroy was here!" (org charts, pictures of people, short descriptions of what each organization offers, and a repository where information from "those on high" are transmitting pearls of wisdom--you will continue to see a drop in page views!
I answered a question on a LinkedIn forum and decided my response was worth expanding a bit and sharing as a blog post. The individual on LinkedIn stated that he was the owner of his company's intranet which was based upon SharePoint. He noticed that the page views of the site kept dropping each month and wondered how he could increase page views.
A drop in page views is actually a symptom of a larger problem. Drop rate shows a lack of use/interest by the employees! Start with them! Interview individuals within each division or community of your organization and ask them what (if any) value do they see in the current design/content of the intranet. If they tell you that:
- it "doesn't really add any value;
- doesn't help me "do" my job;
- or help me share/learn information about other divisions within the organization
You will gain valuable insight from those interviews. The next step would be to put a quick tiger team together (one person from each sector of your company--maybe some of those people you interview!) for a day to brainstorm how to make your intranet a place people actually want to go to. An intranet using SharePoint as a foundation offers a lot of opportunity in automation through lists, libraries, workflows and audience targeting.
If you can get the members of that tiger team to commit to ownership of their web content, and allow them freedom (and training) to be in charge of "how do we become more efficient/productive?" they just might surprise you. The power of SharePoint is its ability to present sites that offer rich, interactive and dynamic content, managed by the process owners.
It all boils down to a very simple question. What are you trying to do with this resource? If your circumstances are similar to the LinkedIn individual, that should tell you that the employees aren't really sure what the purpose of your intranet is; and it may seem to them like the intranet is just something else that currently takes from their valuable time.
If you use SharePoint as an enabler in your organization to improve processes, streamline communications, and increase collaboration, you'll find your page views increase and the employees going to their tiger team reps and having conversations like:
"You know, there's this product/service we do every month. Currently it takes us seven steps to complete it (using Excel spreadsheet, or Word/PDF document), it has to be approved by at least three people (printed and hand carried, or individually emailed), the final output is reported and saved in our repository (shared drive), and emailed to all employees. It takes us 5 days from start to finish. Is there anything SharePoint can do to help us shrink this time hurdle and streamline this process?"
As with everything that involves IT and humans in the production of anything, ask yourself; "Is the IT serving the person, or is the person serving the IT?" If your observations point to the latter, its time to sit down and rethink your about your purpose and architect a solution that respects the person first, and puts the IT in a support role!
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
Why Should You Blog? It really matters!
There's an amazing amount of talent, beauty, joy and happiness around us every day. I enjoy being one of those people to actually call out people, situations, and events that depict this wealth! Just today as a matter of fact I shared with a co-worker (who I was not friends with on Facebook) how funny his Facebook status updates were. I encouraged him to start a blog and get signed up on Twitter--connect the two and start making other people happy and find reasons to laugh. He's a riot, he's a musician, a father, he's an all around great guy and he's not bad looking! With that winning combination, there's not reason not to be sharing the random thoughts that cross his grey matter.
My talent is sharing what great people like him have to offer. I love promoting people who make life a little more fun. If its a person who uses uncommon expressions, or gives voice to the thoughts that you typically wouldn't dare utter, or someone who just has a great gift of framing a situation--these are the people who make life fun. I don't think my stuff is stand-up comedy quality but I do enjoy being real. One day a few months ago I was being my usual self when I was introduced to a new worker in our front office. I like to welcome new people and make them feel like someone's interested in "WHO" they are. So I took some time to ask how she was, where she came from, how long she was going to be with us...just a few minutes of chit chat. I have an expression I use when I observe things that aren't going to well. I say, "hey, we really need to get our poop in a group!" On that day, I just happened to use that expression in front of her! She asked what I said and I repeated it...she said, "I like that!" smiled and went back to work. I said goodbye and went back to my office.
Today, that person stopped by to say final good-byes because she was only with us for a short time. She stopped by to tell me thanks for being the one individual who made her change her mind about leaving! You see, she had scheduled an appointment with her supervisor for the next day to get her removed from this temporary duty because she wasn't seeing much joy, and the job environment wasn't very fun. Hers was a fast-paced, thankless, high expectations job! She let me know that after I left, she asked her co-workers who that was that just left--they said that was Mr. Milligan. She told herself that if there were a few more Mr. Milligans in the organization, she just might be able to bear it. She picked up the phone and cancelled the meeting with her boss for the following day.
I shared that with you not to brag on myself, but to let you know that it is very important to take time in your day-to-day interactions with other to smile, to say thanks, to welcome newcomers, to be empathetic and encouraging. You never know when your words and interactions with others will make the difference in another person's life that helps them better cope with a less than optimal situation. No job or boss is perfect, and the tasks we must do to earn a living aren't always fun or fulfilling. It truly is the people in your workplace who matter! Every person has a story--the one that everyone knows....and then "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say. Sometimes, a few minutes of your time is all it takes to help another feel more fully alive, relevant, useful, needed, important and worth giving it one more try before giving up.
When she shared this story with me, I wanted to cry. I felt honored...most people only hear stories about people that "made a difference" when their eulogy is being read! I sailed through the rest of my day and was encouraged myself to keep being who I am!
If this story resonates with you, I'd love to hear about how someone encouraged you or you encouraged someone else.
My talent is sharing what great people like him have to offer. I love promoting people who make life a little more fun. If its a person who uses uncommon expressions, or gives voice to the thoughts that you typically wouldn't dare utter, or someone who just has a great gift of framing a situation--these are the people who make life fun. I don't think my stuff is stand-up comedy quality but I do enjoy being real. One day a few months ago I was being my usual self when I was introduced to a new worker in our front office. I like to welcome new people and make them feel like someone's interested in "WHO" they are. So I took some time to ask how she was, where she came from, how long she was going to be with us...just a few minutes of chit chat. I have an expression I use when I observe things that aren't going to well. I say, "hey, we really need to get our poop in a group!" On that day, I just happened to use that expression in front of her! She asked what I said and I repeated it...she said, "I like that!" smiled and went back to work. I said goodbye and went back to my office.
Today, that person stopped by to say final good-byes because she was only with us for a short time. She stopped by to tell me thanks for being the one individual who made her change her mind about leaving! You see, she had scheduled an appointment with her supervisor for the next day to get her removed from this temporary duty because she wasn't seeing much joy, and the job environment wasn't very fun. Hers was a fast-paced, thankless, high expectations job! She let me know that after I left, she asked her co-workers who that was that just left--they said that was Mr. Milligan. She told herself that if there were a few more Mr. Milligans in the organization, she just might be able to bear it. She picked up the phone and cancelled the meeting with her boss for the following day.I shared that with you not to brag on myself, but to let you know that it is very important to take time in your day-to-day interactions with other to smile, to say thanks, to welcome newcomers, to be empathetic and encouraging. You never know when your words and interactions with others will make the difference in another person's life that helps them better cope with a less than optimal situation. No job or boss is perfect, and the tasks we must do to earn a living aren't always fun or fulfilling. It truly is the people in your workplace who matter! Every person has a story--the one that everyone knows....and then "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say. Sometimes, a few minutes of your time is all it takes to help another feel more fully alive, relevant, useful, needed, important and worth giving it one more try before giving up.
When she shared this story with me, I wanted to cry. I felt honored...most people only hear stories about people that "made a difference" when their eulogy is being read! I sailed through the rest of my day and was encouraged myself to keep being who I am!
If this story resonates with you, I'd love to hear about how someone encouraged you or you encouraged someone else.
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