Thoughts on the lack of Intranet participation
I have been trying to list some of the issues around the subject of participation on the Intranet. Here is my draft outline of symptoms, backgrounds and possible solutions. Have anything to add or restructure? Please comment.
Some symptoms:
- Let’s do some real work ok?
- I am too busy for “that”!
- I do not feel confident enough to participate.
- I have enough information coming towards me already.
What’s behind these reactions:
- Knowledge is power: a knowledge transfer makes me end up in a worse situation than before. I will not share anything if I am not obliged to do so by my superior or/and recognized in my annual review and compensation. Related: What does my boss think of me spending time on “that”?
- What do I have to contribute to such a tool? What would be the value? I do not see that (not understanding the concept; needs training).
- Technical barriers for contributing: needs training on working with the tools
- Some people are just not interested in working on the Intranet. They come to do the work they are supposed to and that’s it.
- People do not like the thought of their input being read and commented upon by anyone. Feel their thoughts are private and not for everybody to read. Who knows what will be the result in future?
Possible solutions:
- Management should start signaling that it is generally accepted to spend time providing relevant and constructive input in the social software systems.
- Acknowledgment of management of the value of the new tools to the company (e.g. actually using all collective intelligence; reducing search time for information / people; more engagement; flow of idea’s/innovation).
- The company should make sure that sharing of information or participating in social network environments is part of KPI’s and the reward system. Some S.M.A.R.T. measures should be developed for that, but I am sure that is not the real problem.
- Increase the weight on team results in reward systems relative to the individual result if you want people to share more and collaborate better.
- Employees should be made aware of the value of the new tools and of their particular contributions.
- Employees should be supported in working with the tools (how to do “this”?).
- Employees should be provided with suitable equipment (e.g. RSS readers) .
What’s behind all of this? Just me “shaping my thoughts”!
Related: my other Enterprise 2.0 articles
Technorati tags: Social Software, Enterpriseweb2.0, Enterprise2.0, Web 2.0, Intranet, Participation
Add to del.icio.us 
Comment [2] | 
posted Feb 6, 09:26 pm on Feb 06, 2008 |
category: Enterprise 2.0
/ Intranet