Mundane reality intrusion
This is a request for inspiration. I need some fairly urgent help.
Can’t remember quite how this one landed in my lap, but I've somehow been roped in to giving a speech next week at the Conference Board of Canada’s ‘Corporate Communication & Technology Conference’, on the subject of 'Strategic Intranet Planning - Transforming Workplace Interaction'.
I sat down at the weekend and completely disassembled my brain, only to discover that, as feared, the sum total of my knowledge on intranet strategy is roughly equal to the square root of bugger all.
Not good. “Still, never mind,” I thought. “A little Google research and I should be fine...” I figured I could pull some inspiration, background info, and supporting stats from a few hours of strategic Googling. Then build the pitch through bricolage, blending found content with personal anecdotes and experiences of working with our own (very good) corporate intranet.
This was before the very far from mundane intrusion of jagged-edged reality on Tuesday night, that has kept me away from the office and mostly offline for the last couple of days.
In case you’ve not seen the latest update on BlogSprogs: six week old Ruairi was admitted to the paediatric ward on Tuesday night with a very high fever. Turns out he has an E.Coli infection in his blood and urinary tract. So we’ve hit the pause button on most of the non-essential components of our daily lives.
And yet I still have a job. I still have clients to serve and commitments to keep. This conference is one of the latter, but I find myself singularly ill-prepared to speak to the subject. I could pull out, but as I’m also moderating the session and I was doing it as kind of a favour in the first place, I’d feel bad.
So now I’m turning to you, my blogbrothers and sisters, for insight, direction, counsel and assistance in building this thing. I can’t think of a better group of people than the savvy, connected collection of NetHeads I know through this blog and other ways.
Here’s the description of the session in the conference brochure:
An intranet is an essential component in any business, but it is also one of the most costly and complex. Individual components that make up the intranet may be well managed and supported by a dedicated staff; however, the intranet as a whole often does not provide adequate support to the individual knowledge workers who depend upon it.
This session will reveal best practices through practical case studies that will help you develop, implement, and measure intranet communication, the impact on your corporate culture, and connectivity. Senior communication executives will discuss:
- Creating a meaningful intranet strategy.
- Building knowledge across the organization
- Interacting and responding to employee needs.
Indeed.
I think I know a fair amount about corporate communications. I’ve worked with and in some pretty funky corporate intranets. I even spent 6 or so years working in the knowledge management business before I became a flack. So I’ve started to pull together a bit of an outline on this, but I could really use any help or advice anyone out there cares to offer.
Here’s some sample questions to get you going:
1. What are the 5 most important components of a successful intranet?
2. The top 5 pitfalls?
3. The top 5 benefits?
4. How do you get people to participate; contribute; use the darn thing?
5. What will the next wave of intranet deployment look like?
Some insights into these questions or any other ideas and suggestions you care to share would be very, very gratefully received. Anything that helps me build a good strong pitch in very little time.
If you were in the audience for this thing – what would you like to learn?
All suggestions will be rewarded with a hearty grin, the warm glow you'll get from such selfless and charitable assistance, and a large amount of your favourite liquid beverage (or other suitable treat) next time you're in Toronto.
Post comments here, or by email, to: michaelocc@sympatico.ca
And thank you all in advance. Apologies for the intrusion.
/m
This is a request for inspiration. I need some fairly urgent help.
Can’t remember quite how this one landed in my lap, but I've somehow been roped in to giving a speech next week at the Conference Board of Canada’s ‘Corporate Communication & Technology Conference’, on the subject of 'Strategic Intranet Planning - Transforming Workplace Interaction'.
I sat down at the weekend and completely disassembled my brain, only to discover that, as feared, the sum total of my knowledge on intranet strategy is roughly equal to the square root of bugger all.
Not good. “Still, never mind,” I thought. “A little Google research and I should be fine...” I figured I could pull some inspiration, background info, and supporting stats from a few hours of strategic Googling. Then build the pitch through bricolage, blending found content with personal anecdotes and experiences of working with our own (very good) corporate intranet.
This was before the very far from mundane intrusion of jagged-edged reality on Tuesday night, that has kept me away from the office and mostly offline for the last couple of days.
In case you’ve not seen the latest update on BlogSprogs: six week old Ruairi was admitted to the paediatric ward on Tuesday night with a very high fever. Turns out he has an E.Coli infection in his blood and urinary tract. So we’ve hit the pause button on most of the non-essential components of our daily lives.
And yet I still have a job. I still have clients to serve and commitments to keep. This conference is one of the latter, but I find myself singularly ill-prepared to speak to the subject. I could pull out, but as I’m also moderating the session and I was doing it as kind of a favour in the first place, I’d feel bad.
So now I’m turning to you, my blogbrothers and sisters, for insight, direction, counsel and assistance in building this thing. I can’t think of a better group of people than the savvy, connected collection of NetHeads I know through this blog and other ways.
Here’s the description of the session in the conference brochure:
An intranet is an essential component in any business, but it is also one of the most costly and complex. Individual components that make up the intranet may be well managed and supported by a dedicated staff; however, the intranet as a whole often does not provide adequate support to the individual knowledge workers who depend upon it.
This session will reveal best practices through practical case studies that will help you develop, implement, and measure intranet communication, the impact on your corporate culture, and connectivity. Senior communication executives will discuss:
- Creating a meaningful intranet strategy.
- Building knowledge across the organization
- Interacting and responding to employee needs.
Indeed.
I think I know a fair amount about corporate communications. I’ve worked with and in some pretty funky corporate intranets. I even spent 6 or so years working in the knowledge management business before I became a flack. So I’ve started to pull together a bit of an outline on this, but I could really use any help or advice anyone out there cares to offer.
Here’s some sample questions to get you going:
1. What are the 5 most important components of a successful intranet?
2. The top 5 pitfalls?
3. The top 5 benefits?
4. How do you get people to participate; contribute; use the darn thing?
5. What will the next wave of intranet deployment look like?
Some insights into these questions or any other ideas and suggestions you care to share would be very, very gratefully received. Anything that helps me build a good strong pitch in very little time.
If you were in the audience for this thing – what would you like to learn?
All suggestions will be rewarded with a hearty grin, the warm glow you'll get from such selfless and charitable assistance, and a large amount of your favourite liquid beverage (or other suitable treat) next time you're in Toronto.
Post comments here, or by email, to: michaelocc@sympatico.ca
And thank you all in advance. Apologies for the intrusion.
/m
