Notes on "Weaving the Intranet into Staff Operating Practices" (Greg Comfort, Ngai Tahu)

Greg is working at Ngai Tahu, but is talking about the work he has done in the past 5 years at other organizations.

Some big ideas:
- the web site is transitioning from a web site ("a place to dump stuff") to a clever web site ("part of the way we work").
- we make big assumptions about staff. Eg, one staff member at a firm didn't know that you could copy and paste a URL from a Web page to an email.
- ... eg, many non-IT people don't have the big screens that IT professionals do
- get away from your desk and see how people use the intranet in their work
- watch your headlines ... and the way that systems co-opt language and enforce their way of things on you
- manage who sees your private stuff ... be wary of complex systems that allow multi-location publishing based on business rules
- getting staff involved ...
- ... (a) force them to use it -- put things there they have to use to get their work done
- ... (b) give staff something they might actually want to see .. eg, profiles about staff
- ... (c) set up a photo gallery to let people share their photos
- ... (d) let go of the control a bit ... let people do things
- ... (e) show what people are searching for on the Intranet
- avoid the big launch ... it will kill you every time.
- ... managers believe that "our staff are highly receptive and just love to hear new ideas from management" ... most often, no.