An interview on CIO Insight comes up with some good nuggets about getting social media buy-in among employees, namingly that you have to:
- have high-level engagement;
- do more than just roll out the tools - listen and act on employee feedback;
- demonstrate the successes; and
- promote the tools on the back of that support and your successes.
But responding involves more than just a virtual pat on the back. It also means listening, adopting the most promising ideas and relaying those decisions to the work force. “Adopting ideas gives people a feeling of validation that they can contribute and knock down barriers,” he says.
This is some good advice for social media, but it goes beyond that. Selling the successes, gaining executive support and garnering and acting on feedback from employees are all things that intranet managers should be doing anyway, but perhaps don't do often enough.
On a lack of selling and shouting about the successes, this might be because of an intranet manager's unwillingness to put their work "out there" for wider review, a personal preference simply to not shout about their work, or even a lack of confidence that they're actually doing good work.
On acting on suggestions of employees, sure, not all suggestions are feasible. In fact many suggestions may not fit with capabilities or strategy. But in closing the loop between employee suggestions and selling successes, it's valuable to listen as much as you can, ask questions as much as you can, and strive to develop a site or functionality that meets the needs of employees (and focus on needs, where clear problems have been identified).
On getting executive support, this is one of the single most important factors for long-term success. Having an executive sponsor who "gets" the value of a well-designed and utilised intranet, is invaluable. But it can be difficult, especially if you're not listening and selling.
Really, this is all part and parcel of the same thing. Listening and identiying how the intranet can help solve business problems and then solving those problems, and then shouting about it, ultimately demonstrates the usefulness of the intranet. In turn this helps you get higher level support. And onwards and upwards the process goes.
Dell's example is great, British Airways is another that immediately springs to mind, along with several other Intranet Innovation Award winners from 2008 (demonstrating the work of intranet teams was also a significant factor in creating the Awards).
Meet needs, solve problems, shout about it, and all the time build up awareness, support and the business case for the intranet.
Read the full Dell-focused article over at CIO Insight. [via Toby Ward (@tobyward)]
