This past year+ has been exciting because of all the new, cutting edge stuff we’ve been doing with client intranets and portals. In the spring, I once again presented my three-day Melcrum workshop Intranets with Impact. The May version had a new section in it about embedding governance into your platform.
Next month, in fabulous New Orleans, I’ll bring a narrower look at this topic to the IABC Southern Region Conference.
Have you ever had an executive ask you why a particular piece of old, inaccurate content is still on the intranet? Or, how about the new employee who is following a 10-year-old policy they found languishing on your portal? Better still, why did that site get built where it is looking completely differently than all the others?
Governing your intranet or portal well is super easy to talk about. I facilitate groups all the time who get excited about their governance model, plan all the policies, roles, measurement and guidelines. Some go on to use their effort effectively. For others, it’s just talk.
If only someone would remind us to do the governance things we need to do. How about a something reminding you? That’s right, get your platform to do the heavy reminding work. For example:
- Reminders of policy and guidelines for those who create new sites and pages
- Reminders of policy and code of conduct for those using social tools
- Workflow to ensure that approvals and reviews occur as required
- Counsel about which templates to use in certain scenarios
These are all examples of ways to make your platform do some of the governance work for you. Take the first example. Some organizations leave the doors flung open to all users to create with abandon. New sites, new pages, new widgets. Even with some planning this can get out of control quickly. Others restrict such creation to a handful of gatekeepers. The best find a happy in between – sound, but not too constrictive policies and a code of conduct that governs behavior with clear, understandable examples.
How can you ensure both the experienced and the newbies continue to respect policy, code and guidelines? Â Imagine if I press create to create a new site and the system queries me (see the image):
“Have you reviewed the portal policy, specifically the sections on moderation and ownership?”
“Have you reviewed the guidelines for the type of site you are creating?”
“Have you checked out the owner community to learn about what others are doing, your owner responsibilities and what you can do to ensure a great user experience?”
This box pops up when I try to create a new site. It gives me links to important governance content.
The most vexing problem with intranets is keeping them fresh and up to date. What if the intranet itself sent a content owner an email when the content needed to be reviewed? It might specify a deadline that if missed would result in the content no longer being visible to users. Until it’s reviewed and updated, it can’t be used. Again, very doable in most platforms today.
The more savvy also incorporate document record management (DRM). This ensures that when a document should in fact be destroyed or archived, it actually happens in compliance with your DRM policy. So, those old, out-dated policies? Probably need to archive them for a period of time, but you do not want the old ones showing up in search results.
I am always surprised how many people just haven’t even thought about asking their IT team about embedded governance. Most communicators don’t know how their platform can help. So, where to start?
- Make a list of the triggers or steps in your governance process – things people working on the intranet (owners, authors, publishers) do everyday (creating, editing, deleting, approving)
- Work with IT to uncover where the platform can help you
I’m excited to teach a whole new group of people how to think this through next month in New Orleans. It’s one hour for us to brainstorm the right questions to ask and approaches to take when everyone gets back to the ranch. Hope to see you there.
[Personal note on the IABC Southern Region Conference: Best overall value and a manageable size for networking. Get yourself there if you can!]
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