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3 COMMUNICATION WORLD MARCH 2014

from the editor

All aboard

Lets face it: Changing behavior is not easy. When it comes to engag-ing employees on an intranet, this seems to be especially true. Couldit be partly because so much of what we do at work becomes a habit,

even rote? Even as intranets evolve into dynamic social collaboration andcommunity-building tools, many communication professionals have beenfrustrated by how tough it is to get people to use that terrific tool that willmake everyones lives easierand have had their efforts met instead withcontinued reliance on email, general complaints or even plain old apathy. Our authors in this issue explain what is so special about intranets today,but even more important, they offer great ideas on what you can do to

avoid pitfalls and engage your employees in a new way.Id like to build on that great thinking with a few extranuggets of advice.

Make sure your leaders are visible on the intranet. Noth-ing annoys employees more than seeing the managers ofthe organization give themselves a pass.

Illustrate how knowledge sharing will boost profits bypositively affecting productivity. One of the authors inthis issue, Toby Ward, is a preeminent expert on this.Check out his article (The Change You Wish to See)for ideas on how to think about this concept.

Persevere. People need time and constant reminders tomake a change in their behavior. Keep showing them howeasy it is to use this tool, and how much more they can getdone in their day if they use it wisely.

Get your influencers going on the intranet and ask them to be vocal

. Iftheres something really useful, or some fun stuff, people will go there. Asmuch as we are creatures of habit, we are also social creatures who crave aconnection to others and like a laugh or two.

Finally, use it yourself. Honestly, how can we suggest something to othersif we are not committed to it ourselves?

Natasha Nicholson

Executive Editor

People need time and

constant reminders to

make a change in their

behavior.

Natasha Nicholson

tell us whatyou thinkWe value your

feedback on CW

content and

delivery. Send us

an emailtoday, or

take ourreadership

survey.

SALVOPHOTO.C

OM
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Executive Editor

Natasha Nicholson

Senior Editor

Jessica Burnette-Lemon

Creative Director

Sheila Young Tomkowiak

Managing Editors

Sue Khodarahmi,

Amanda Aiello Beck

Production EditorsSue Cavallaro,

Rebecca Kavanagh

Copy EditorsCaroline Cornell,

Alisa Damaso

DesignersAimee Andrion,

Sean Deason

International Advisory Panel

AfricaGail Cameron; Ros Jones;

Mari Lee, ABC

Asia/PacificKaz Amemiya; Sujit

Patil, ABC; Aniisu Verghese

CanadaGraham Machacek;

Tod Maffin; Colleen Lavender

Europe/Middle East Ian Andersen;

Silvia Cambi; Dirk Hinze;

Claudia Vaccarone

Latin America/Caribbean

Ignacio Robledo;

Paulo Soares, ABC

U.S.Michelle Bernhart, ABC;

Sam Harrison; Ruth Kinzey;

Preston Lewis; Jeremy Schultz

Advertising Sales

Frank Netherwood

Manager, Sales and Sponsorship

+1 415.544.4723

mobile +1 415.994.2169

[email protected]

Creative & Digital Production

Services

Grayton Integrated Publishing

+1 313.881.1734

[email protected]

graytonpub.com

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Update Your Contact Information

IABC members can update their

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For changes of contact informa-

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IABC World Headquarters

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iabc.com

Copyright 2014. All rights

reserved. No part of this

publication may be reproduced

without permission from IABC.

This publication is also available

through IABCs website:

iabc.com.

Opinions expressed by authors

do not necessarily reflect the

policies of IABC. IABC reserves

the right to edit letters to

the editor and all submitted

materials. IABC does not take

responsibility for the return of

unsolicited materials.

CWTHE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATORSCWMarch 2014 Vol. 31, No. 3
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Contributors

James Robertson(The Power

of Social) is the

author of the

best-selling books

Essential Intranets:

Inspiring Sites that

Deliver Business Value, Design-

ing Intranets: Creating Sites that

Work,and What Every Intranet

Team Should Know.The founder

and managing director of Step

Two Designs, based in Sydney,

he has helped teams around

the globe deliver successful and

valuable intranets. You can find

him on Twitterand LinkedIn.

Toby Ward(The Change You

Wish to See),

CEO of Prescient

Digital Media, is a

social business

consultant, writer

and speaker, and chair of the

Intranet Global Forum, a semi-

annual conference held in Los

Angeles and New York City,

hosted in association with IABC.

He blogs at IntranetBlog.com,

and you can find him on Twitter.

Caroline Kealey(How to Make

Yourself Invalu-

able) is CEO of

Ingenium Commu-

nications in

Ottawa, and is an

internationally recognized

expert in strategic communica-

tion planning and evaluation.

Hear more from her through the

Results Mapblog, on Twitter

and through LinkedIn.

Colleen Lavender (Bookmark)

is the internal

communications

specialist for SAIT

Polytechnic, a

postsecondary

educational institution with

2,400 employees in Calgary,

Alberta.

Jennifer Barrett(Case in Point)

is the director

of corporate

communication

at Asurion, based

in Nashville,

Tennessee, and leads a team

of professionals responsible

for all global employee

communications.

Michele Hodgesis communica-

tions manager for

Asurions 7,000-

plus customer care

division, and is

responsible for

delivering strategic communi-

cation through all levels of the

business.

Christy Robertsis the supply

chain communica-

tions specialist at

Asurion. She has

more than 10 years

of experience in

internal communication and

marketing.

Phil Douglis, ABC, IABC Fellow

(Photocritique),

directs The Douglis

Visual Workshops,

which has been

training communi-

cators in visual

literacy for more

than four decades. Douglis is a

widely known workshop leader

and columnist on editorial

photography for organizations.

He offers one-on-one tutorial

workshops, held in Phoenix,

Arizona, in digital imaging and

photographic communication.

For registration information,

email [email protected] can

also take a look at his galleries

of expressive digital

photography.
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inboxiabc news &events

Communication Worlds

digital transition

Last May, CommunicationWorld officially went digital.After 30 years as a bimonthly

print publication, moving CW to amonthly online-only format was abig change. While weve heard frompeople who miss the print version,the new format is proving to bepopular. As the anniversary of CWstransition approaches, heres a look athow the digital version has evolved.

Readership

The level of engagement with CWas a digital magazine has been high.In 2013, there were about 269,000

page views of the digital web edition,and more than 13,000 new visitors,averaging 88 visitors per day, from114 countries around the world.The majority of readers are from theU.S. and Canada (at 48 percent and31 percent, respectively), followedby Australia, the U.K., New Zea-land, France, Slovenia, South Africa,Mexico and the Philippines; the fig-ures track with IABCs membershipnumbers in these countries. An aver-age of 3,200 people read each issueof CW,and readers spend an averageof 6:47 minutes per visit. Accordingto a third-quarter 2013 study from


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Zmags, digital magazine readers spendan average of 4:09 minutes per visit,putting CWabove the average.

The most popular issues in 2013:

Trust from the Top Down:HowBuilding Trust Can Have a PositiveImpact on Your Organizations Bot-tom Line (June)

Step It Up:How to Make Your WayUp the Career Ladder (July)

Balancing Act:Managing ChangeTakes a Steady Hand (September)

Break Through:Turn Your ContentMarketing Efforts Inside Out byPutting Your Customer Front and

Center (November)

All A-Twitter:The Perils of SocialMedia (August)

The most popular articles in 2013:

How to Improve Your Odds forSuccessful Change Management,by Brad Messinger and Jill Havely(September)

Your Future. Your Choice,byNeil Griffiths, ABC, and DeborahHinton (July)

Make Communication YourBusiness,by James Shaffer, IABCFellow (September)

The Growing Pains of EmployeeCommunicators,by Lee Smith(July)

6 Tips for Crafting a Social MediaContent Strategy,by Arnie Kuenn(June)

The most popular columns in 2013:

Business Writing Is Like a RoadTrip(from August Words atWork, by Lynda McDaniel)

All the News that Fits(aboutbrand newsrooms, from July TechTalk, by Shel Holtz, ABC, IABCFellow)

The Rhino in the Room(about aGold Quill Award-winning projectfrom Chicagos Brookfield Zoo,

cwby the numbersMayDecember 2013

PEOPLE

13,000new CWdigital visitors

VIEWS

269,000page views

TIME

6:47average minutes

per visit

REACH

114countries

let us knowwhat you thinkWe want to hear your ideas

about what youd like to

see in future issues of CW,

and what you think of the

digital magazine so far.

Take this short readership

surveyso that we can make

sure were meeting your

needs. You can also send

your thoughts to us at

[email protected].
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from July Case in Point, by SimonEdelman)

Keep It Growing(about a GoldQuill Award-winning project froma South African nonprofit, from

September Case in Point, by MariLee, ABC)

B-rollIts Alive!(from Septem-ber Visually Speaking, by SuzanneScardino Salvo, IABC Fellow)

Change Your Perspective(fromJune Photocritique, by Philip N.Douglis, ABC, IABC Fellow)

World Conference:

Change the way you think

Bring your passion for being a bettercommunicator to Toronto, 811 June,for the IABC World Conference. Withseven educational tracks and more than60 breakout sessions, plus five generalsessions, World Conference offeringscan help you reach the next stage ofyour career. Explore new ideas on:

Career building.

Crisis communication.

Research and measurement.

Strategic leadership and business.

Marketing and advertising.

Reputation and brand.

Employee engagement.

For more information and to register,go towc.iabc.com.

Gold Quill Awards:

Last chance to enterIts time to show off the hard workyouve put into your communicationprograms over the past year. Be recog-nized as a master communicator for

your achievements by the worlds pre-mier communication awards program,the Gold Quill Awards.

The final deadline for entries is 10March. Go to the Gold Quill Awardswebsiteto enter your work for the rec-ognition it deserves.

Webinar: Study links

culture of trust to employee

social media useFindings from the Social WorkplaceTrust Study are now available oniabc.com. The study, conducted byHuman 1.0 in partnership withIABC, the Great Place to Work Insti-tute and the Society for New Com-munications Research, reveals acorrelation between workplace trustand the use of social media. Researchers Ed Moran and FranoisGossieaux presented the studys find-ings in a webinar that is free to IABCmembers. Access the on-demandrecording of their presentation here.

Member Month

promotion: Application fee

waived in MarchMarch is a great time to encourage yourfriends and colleagues to join IABC.For all new members who join duringMarch, well waive the US$40 applica-tion fee. For more details about the MemberMonth promotion, go to iabc.com.(This promotion is for new or lapsedmembers only, and does not affect activerenewing members or students.)

mark your calendarCommunicating Change:

The Vital Role of the

Business Communicator

4 March22 April

Online workshop (six mod-

ules, one hour per week)

Intranet Global Forum 2014

67 March

Los Angeles

Strategic Corporate

Communication Leadership

Summit

1011 April

Washington, D.C.

2014 World Conference

811 June

Toronto

For more information

about these events and to

register, visitiabc.com.
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bookmarkreviewed by colleen lavender

W

hen the topic of em-ployee engagementcomes up, all headsswivel toward the

communicators in the room. How willyou make employees more engaged?Were often expected to do the heavylifting through better storytelling andsnazzier tools. But engagement is not entirelyup to communication practitioners.John Smythe, in his new book, TheVelvet Revolution at Work: The Rise ofEmployee Engagement, the Fall of Com-mand and Control,posits that engage-ment must come from leadership. An organizational engagement andcommunication consultant, Smythedefines engagement as more thanemployees who go the extra mile andwillingly give discretionary effort tosupport the company. He believespeople engage themselves when theyare invited to contribute to everyday

operational decisions as well as to bigissues such as tough budgets, layoffs orbattling a hostile takeover. In other words, engagement happenswhen employees are given deliberateand organized opportunities to have asay in decisions that affect them.

Ill admit, The Velvet Revolutiontookme on a bit of a roller-coaster ride. Ifound it simultaneously comforting

it didnt blame the internal communi-cation function for not doing enoughto foster engagementand disheart-ening. If your leadership team is acommand-and-control hierarchy, withlittle chance of decision making spill-ing down the org chart, is there hope? Good news. Even if leadership atthe top is not about to share decision-

You say youwant a revolutionEngagement is a two-way streetgive people the opportunityto contribute, and they will

aboutthe bookThe Velvet

Revolution at

Work: The Rise

of Employee

Engagement,

the Fall of

Command

and Control

by John Smythe;

Gower Publish-

ing Ltd., 2013;

291 pages


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making power, Smythe contends thereis still plenty of room for engagedworkers at the local level. If a unitmanager regularly seeks input on deci-sions that will affect an employeesexperience at work, engagement will

flourish.The book is a how-to guide for orga-

nizations ready to embark on engage-ment. The second of three sections isdedicated to outlining the design ofwhat Smythe calls interventionsthemoments when employees are invitedto challenge and contribute. Casestudies reinforce the process, provid-ing evidence of intervention successes.Smythe cautions against interveningonly once. If it is done only to getinput at one particular moment intime, he suggests leadership be fullytransparent about that, or engagementcould backslide. I feel the titles comparison of therise of employee engagement to thenonviolent cultural changes in 1989Czechoslovakia is a stretch. We canhope there is a global shift toward

more engagement, but this changedoesnt spring from demonstrationsin the cafeteria or a swell of NormaRae-esque rallying from the employeeranks. Smythe himself notes that whileengagement requires a bottom-up

contribution, the responsibility forsetting the stage for input lies firmly atthe top.

The bottom line: If there is appe-tite within your organization fortruly involving employees in decisionmaking, jump in and put in play theconcrete tools Smythe shares. If yourorganization isnt there yet, advocatefor employee involvement, controlthe areas you can and create commu-nication channels that up the engage-ment ante.

about the reviewerColleen Lavender is the internal com-

munications specialist for SAIT Poly-

technic, a postsecondary educational

institution with 2,400 employees in

Calgary, Alberta.

hear for yourselfIn this CW Radio podcast,

author John Smythe talks

with CWExecutive Editor

Natasha Nicholson about

the ideas behind The Velvet

Revolution at Work.
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social intranets building connections

The power of socialWhat social media features can do to boost productivity,

engagement, knowledge management and customer service

by James Robertson


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Social and collaboration toolsare becoming an integral partof modern intranets. When itcomes to redesigning or rede-

veloping sites, planners now take forgranted that some elements of social

functionality will be included in theirnew intranets. A growing number oforganizations are even moving to truesocial intranets, which bake socialcapabilities into the core of their sites. Employees have always talkedamong themselves and workedtogether in teams or business units.Social tools now have the potentialto supercharge these discussions andconnect people in new ways. Going far beyond blogs and wikis,these tools provide rich support forproject work, wide-ranging conver-sations and online problem solving.People can like and follow newsand use an activity stream to keeptrack of whats happening across theorganization. Social and collaboration tools are,however, just a means to an end. Thereally interesting conversation is about

how these tools can directly benefitboth employees and the organizationas a whole. Those real business bene-fits include:

Bettering productivity.

Fostering staff engagement.

Enhancing knowledge management.

Improving customer service.

Internal communication teams haveeverything to gain by leading the pushto introduce social and collaborationtools within organizations. Commu-nicators are already responsible forspreading news to all employees, andtheir strong people skills are vital toensuring that these social tools succeed.

Bettering productivityCollaboration tools can take manyforms, ranging from simple capabili-ties (liking and commenting) to richtools that support daily work (projectspaces and communities of practice).

Communicators

are already responsible

for spreading news

to all employees, andtheir strong people

skills are vital to ensur-

ing these social tools

succeed.

see for yourselfThis promotional videofrom Yammer shows how its social collabora-

tion tools can facilitate teamwork across departments and hierarchies.
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The management consultancyMcKinsey & Co. in 2012 studied sev-eral hundred cases of organizationsusing social tools and found a 20 per-cent to 25 percent productivity gainwhen these tools are used to support

interaction among workers.Project spaces are a common start-

ing point for deploying collaborationtools, and for good reason. Projectteams have a clear goal (deliver theirproject) and a concrete need to worktogether. Social and collaboration toolsprovide immediate solutions, whichis why theyve spread widely throughmost organizations. Social tools can also support widerconversations and information shar-ing. These capabilities may be a corepart of the intranet platform or pro-vided by third-party enterprise socialnetworking solutions such as Yammeror Chatter. While the natural focus forthese tools has been knowledge work-ers, experience is proving that frontlineemployees are often the greatest users.

Fostering staff engagementOrganizations are operating in turbu-lent times, buffeted by external shocksand wrestling with near-constant inter-nal changes. To remain effective, theymust rely on an engaged workforce.That means people who are moremotivated and productive, and whohave a clear understanding of the orga-nizations strategy and focus. Whenpeople are engaged, they are also active

contributors to wider organizationaldiscussions and decisions. It is therefore no surprise that staffengagement is a primary focus of cor-porate affairs, internal communica-tion, HR and intranet teams, acrossall sectors. Social tools provide manyopportunities to have an immediateeffect on engagement.

At the simplest level, social tools

can provide employees with a voice.They provide a bottom-up commu-nication channel thatsupplements traditionalcorporate news. Basiccommenting on news

items is a typical start-ing point, which is aneasy way to add value toexisting intranets whileopening the door toricher social tools. Social tools can go farbeyond this, fosteringconversations amongstaff and connectingthem with the broader goals andpurpose of the organization. Thesocial intranet at Common Ground,a nonprofit in New York City thataddresses chronic homelessness, is agood example. Though the staff waspassionate about the organizationspurpose, an internal review revealedthat employees felt disconnected fromone another, with each location feel-ing out of the loop. A social intranetallowed employees to share theirthoughts on news items and their pas-sion for the work they do, creating agreater sense of cohesion.

Social tools can also help senior man-agement connect to staff, whether viaa dedicated CEO blog or by engagingemployees in discussions held on orga-nizational social networking tools suchas Yammer. Employee engagement canbe further improved by strengthening

the organizations social fabric, whichis where online spaces for the localbasketball league or jogging group canbe valuable.

Enhancing knowledgemanagementThere are startling figures relating to theproblems caused by poor knowledgemanagement. Research conducted in

Establishing a social

intranet at Common

Ground helped employees

forge bonds across the non-

profits various locations.


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2007 by Accenture with 1,009 man-agers at companies in the U.S. andU.K. showed that 42 percent said theyaccidentally use the wrong informationat least once per week. The managers,from customer service, finance and

accounting, human resources, infor-mation technology, and sales and mar-keting departments, also said that morethan 50 percent of the information theyobtain has no value to them. On theface of it, these are problems relating topublishing static content (and finding itafterward). Social tools, however, havethe potential to address these issuesin new ways. A key part of knowledge manage-ment is highlighting the expertiseof staff and then helping others findthe right expert when they need one.Social tools provide an efficient wayof connecting staff who have commoninterests and needs.

Communities of practice take thisa step further by creating long-livedspaces that bring together peoplewho work on common topics, eventhough they may be scattered across

the organization. Arup, the global engineering con-sultancy, has long been recognized asa leader in communities of practice.With about 10,000 employees world-wide, Arups challenge has been to

mine the knowledge of its networkof designers and engineers and makethe best ideas quickly accessible byall. Over time, posts on its space haveshifted from Help, Im in trouble!to Im about to do a project on Xwhats the current best thinking? Thisgrowing maturity is the result of astrong corporate culture and sustainedcommunity management. Social tools are also a natural plat-form for generating ideas and solvingproblems. These tools can address real-world issues or drive companywideinnovation. The Cabin Crew forumat British Airways was an early leaderin this arena, using a simple bulletinboard tool as far back as 2008 to fos-ter an active space that solved amaz-ingly diverse problems, from ice cubesthat cant be broken up on a plane toemployee parking at airports.

At the simplest level,

social tools can

provide employees

with a voice.

Arups intranet has enabled the consultancys geographically diverse designers

and engineers to turn to one another for advice.


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Improving customer serviceWhile intranets serve an internal audi-ence (staff), they can also help improvecustomer service. Customer-facingemployees rely heavily on havingthe right information, regardless of

whether they are in government, banksor supermarkets. Increasingly, social and collabora-tion tools are transforming customerservice activities by allowing front-line staff to connect directly with oneanother. These days, frontline employ-ees in many organizations use richsocial tools to work together acrossgeographic boundaries and providepeer support for one another. This istransforming how they deliver cus-tomer service and answer customerquestions.

Social tools dont compete with orreplace existing platforms and prac-tices. Content and news will always

have an important role, but now theyare sitting alongside rich social inter-action. With tools becoming evercheaper and more sophisticated, nowis the time to harness them for realbusiness value.

about the authorJames Robertson is the author of the

best-selling books Essential Intranets:

Inspiring Sites that Deliver Business

Value, Designing Intranets: Creating

Sites that Work,and What Every Intranet

Team Should Know.The founder and

managing director of Step Two

Designs, based in Sydney, he has helped

teams around the globe deliver success-

ful and valuable intranets. You can find

him on Twitter (@s2d_jamesr) and

LinkedIn.


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The change you

wish to seeTo make social business work, you have to change the cultureby Toby Ward

social intranetscreating value

Sometimes you get what youpay for, but money alone is nota panacea.While the use of enterprise

social media continues to grow, thesetools continue to be poorly deployedand adopted, particularly behind thefirewall on the corporate intranet.Executives are not happy, employeesare less than thrilled, and communi-cation and social media managers arefrustrated with internal social media. Tools such as blogs and wikis existin most corporate intranetsprelim-

inary results from Prescient DigitalMedias 2014 Social Business Studypeg 72 percent as having at least onesocial media tool available to some

or all employeesbut the executionand supporting change managementrequired to make them effective islacking or absent. While many organizations havepiloted, tested or attempted a widerrelease of some enterprise social busi-ness tools, most continue to be isolatedand poorly received. All too often,free or vanilla solutionssuch as the


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vanilla resultsor worse, if it is notaccompanied by the requisite changemanagement that all social businessthrusts require. Social business is morethan setting up a corporate page onFacebook.

Using social business tools representsa mental and cultural leap. The suc-cessful integration of social media intothe daily operating lives of employ-ees, namely on the corporate intranet,requires careful assessment, planning,governance and the aforementioned

change management.

Theres got to be a reasonSocial media tools are so simple andinexpensive to deploy that it is incred-ibly easy to be lulled into compla-cencyuntil your initiative begins tofail. Often, failure is the result of a lackof use or adoption by users. Just likethe real-life relationship killer, the big-

gest reason for social intranet failure isapathy. There are two primary reasons forthe low satisfaction levels: generic, freeor open-source solutions with poorfunctionality (such as MediaWiki orbundled tools in platforms like Share-Point 2010), and little or no changemanagement or communication plan-ning. But more important, low satis-faction levels with social intranet toolsare largely due to a lack of user take-up(adoption). Employees need a reason

to use social business tools.

Return on investmentMost organizations dont need to seeor realize a measured return on invest-ment in their social business efforts,but some are seeing real benefits.Sabre, the company that runs mostof the worlds airline flight reserva-tion systems, is an impressive leader

Just like the real-life

relationship killer,

the biggest reason

for social intranetfailure is apathy.

Through employee profiles, blog posts and Q&As, Sabres intranet is

giving the staff access to a bank of corporate knowledge: 60 percent of

questions posted on Sabre Town are answered within one hour.


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in employee networking. With nearly10,000 employees spread around theworld (55 percent work outside of theU.S., where it is headquartered), Sabrehas utilized enterprise social intranettools, with spectacular results.

Recognizing its unique needs asa globally distributed workforce,Sabre embarked on building its ownemployee networking intranet fromscratch. Using a nascent open-sourceweb framework, Ruby on Rails, Sabrecreated an impressive employee net-working platform called Sabre Town.Sabre Town represents the companysneed to forge more meaningful con-nections among its geographicallydiverse employee population. Sabre Town has all the features ofmost social networking sites, including:

Detailed employee profiles.

Photo sharing.

Blogs.

User commenting.

Enterprise question-and-answerfunctionality.

On Sabre Town, users can post aquestion to the entire organization, andthe sites inference or relevance engineautomatically sends the question to the15 most relevant employees, based onwhat theyve entered in their profiles,

blog posts and previous Q&A posts. The results have been impressive:60 percent of questions are answeredwithin one hour, and each questionreceives an average of nine responses.

However, it took Sabre a full year toconvince a majority of employees tojoin and use this internal social net-work, and it required the active supportand participation of Sabres CEO andexecutive team.

Social business tools require carefulthought and planning. Yes, theyre easyto deploy, but theyre not easily adoptedwithout the requisite investment andaccompanying change management.The technology is the easy part. Suc-cessful social business requires morethan a fleeting investment of money,time and process.

about the authorToby Ward, CEO of

Prescient Digital Media,

is a social business

consultant, writer and

speaker, and chair of the

Intranet Global Forum, a

semiannual conference

held in Los Angeles and

New York City, hosted in

association with IABC.


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How and where we work ischanging. A thriving socialintranet can not only keepemployees informed but

also help unlock the knowledge heldby individuals for the benefit of thewhole organization. We asked Guy VanLeemput, online communication andintranet expert at consultancy J. Boyein Brussels, to share his thoughts aboutwhat makes a social intranet great andwhere the medium is headed.

CW: What do you see as the most valu-

able contribution a social intranet can

make to the business?

Guy Van Leemput:One area that I hear

more and more success stories aboutis access to knowledge and expertise.Knowledge within organizations isoften dispersed across departmen-tal silos and different geographies.While some of this expertise may bedocumented in traditional knowledgemanagement systems, most of it willbe tacit knowledge locked inside theheads of employees.

A social intranet can be part of thesolution to unlock this tacit knowledge.It makes the organizations experts eas-ily reachable by others and encouragesthem to share their expertise in online

communities, wikis and discussionforums. The business benefits can bemanyless time wasted looking forinformation, faster and better answersto customer queries, and more ideasfor product innovation.

CW: What can communicators do to

ensure that a social intranet thrives and

is valuable to the business?

social intranets envisioning the future

Be an ambassador

of change. Social

intranets are mainly

about culture

change, much more

than about imple-

menting a newpiece of software.

Guy Van Leemput

Creating thenext-generationintranet

Intranets hold new promise in the social world.Guy Van Leemput explains why


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GVL: Social intranets can be quite achallenge for communication pro-fessionals who are used to produc-ing traditional top-down material. Iwould recommend focusing on threeareas. First, link the objectives of the

social intranet to the overall organiza-tional goals. Social intranets will cre-ate the most value if they support animportant corporate initiative or helpto achieve measurable business objec-tives. Communication professionalsshould work with the key stakehold-ers in their organization to understandhow a social intranet can be relevantfor them, what benefits they expectand how they will help to make it asuccess. Second, be an ambassador of change.Social intranets are mainly about cul-ture change, much more than aboutimplementing a new piece of software.Employees and senior managementalike must be encouraged to embracetwo-way communication with feed-back and content creation by every-one. In some organizations, this willcome more naturally than in othersif employees are afraid to voice theiropinions or if management thinks thatsocial [strategy] is a waste of time, thenthe communication people have someevangelizing to do. Last, benchmark against other orga-nizations. There is no need to reinventthe wheelother organizations havetried social intranets before you. Findopportunities to network with your

peers in similar companies and bench-mark your progress against theirs.

CW: What are the most important

things to keep in mind when develop-

ing a mobile strategy for the intranet?

GVL: The future of intranets ismobiletheres no doubt in my mindabout that. For communication pro-

fessionals, I see two areas of focus. Oneis to identify early-use cases and theirtop tasks. Mobile access to the intranetis not equally urgent for everybodyin the company. A good way to startis to identify a few target groups that

are likely to be early adopters, such assalespeople or repair engineers whospend most of their time on the roador with customers. Find out what arethe top tasks that they need to performduring the day and how the intranetcan help them to do these tasks effi-ciently. This is a great way to buildexperience with mobile and win thesupport of a few influential groupswithin the organization. The other is user experience. Toomany mobile intranets, or mobile web-sites for that matter, still suffer frompoor usability, leading to skepticismand disengagement. Its a delicate bal-ancing actyou need to fine-tune theuser experience for each type of device(smartphone, tablet, laptop) whileat the same time ensure cross-plat-form consistency. There are technicalsolutions for this, such as responsivedesign, but whatever the solution,someone needs to take ownership foroptimizing the user interaction.

CW: What do you see as the next step in

the evolution of the intranet?

GVL: Weve talked about social andmobile, which are probably the twomost important trends. Two addi-

tional ones are integration and search.Portal technologies for intranets havebeen around for many years, withvarying levels of success and adoption.Recently the idea of integrating vari-ous systems into a single entry pointfor the end user has become popularagain, with many organizations tryingto integrate a traditional top-downintranet with a social platform and with

Too many mobile

intranets, or mobile

websites for that

matter, still sufferfrom poor usability,

leading to skepticism

and disengagement.

Its a delicate

balancing act.


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other communication tools. Also, thelayout and attractiveness of this unifiedhome page are receiving renewed atten-tion. Successful intranets often have awell-designed, easy-to-grasp entry pagethat avoids the information overload

pitfall of earlier portals. For years, intranet search has beenan area of high expectations and poordelivery, much to the frustration ofintranet managers and end users alike.But as more and more unstructuredsocial content is created, the impor-tance of a good search engine grows.Luckily, people are beginning to under-stand that it requires effort and dis-cipline among everyone involved to

improve intranet search to an accept-able level of quality. Im convinced thatsearch, or findability, will become apriority in the near future. As a final point, Im a strong believerin the concept of the digital work-

placean integrated set of digital toolsfor employees, combining all of thetrends and capabilities discussed above:traditional content as well as user-gen-erated social interactions, easy to searchand accessible on any platform. Anexercise that I recommend to any com-munication professional is to map howfar your organization has come on thisjourney, and what it will take you to getto the next level.

As more and more

unstructured social

content is created, the

importance of a goodsearch engine grows.


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career advancementstrategies

How tomake yourselfinvaluableFive essential practices for strategic communicators

by Caroline Kealey

If youre not clear on the valueyou bring to your organization asa communication professional,there is no hope that anyone else

will recognize it either. Consider yourvalue proposition carefully, and thenspend some time focusing on thesefive essential practices for strategiccommunicators.

1. Drive alignment. Communica-tors have to be fully aligned with theorganizational or corporate objectives.Too often, we are vulnerable to beingreactive and going off in directionsthat are actually disconnected fromthe organizations mandate and targetoutcomes. And that is a slippery slopeto irrelevance. You need to deliberately

align your function, your decisions,and your investments of time, energyand mentalspace to what-ever the orga-nization hasdetermined tobe its top pri-orities and tar-geted results.

Thats the space that matters, andwhere you need to be in order to makea difference.

2. Adopt a strategic state of mind.Whatever youre doing on a day-to-daybasis needs to focus on the end statei.e., What does success look like? Thisis in contrast to having tactical tunnel

vision andfocusing onlyon the realityof the dailychurn. Beingstrategic, andbringing thatvalue to the

table, means constantly thinking aboutoutcomes. This results-based mind-

set is at the core of being a strategic,valued communicator. Its the escapehatch from being a tactician, stuck asa short-order cook. Consider also theimportance of strategic communicationplanning as a vital core competencyfor our profession: Developing tight,insightful plans that connect businessobjectives to communications leadingto measurable outcomes is critical.

Being strategic,

and bringing that

value to the table,

means constantly

thinking about

outcomes.


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ask the right questionsHere are 10 questions strategic communicators should be asking

top leadership:

1. What does success look like?

2. Why this? Why now?

3. What are the objectives of the project or organization?

4. What are the communication objectives?

5. How can communication help advance the project or corporateobjectives?

6. What are the main risks and opportunities?

7. Thinking back about past communication activities, what worked andwhat didnt? Why?

8. Who are the key audiences, and why are they important?

9. What are the project management parameters (e.g., time, budget andhuman resources)?

10. If we could change just one thing, what should it be?

3. Practice outside-in thinking. Hav-ing the skill and insight to frame anissue or initiative so that it hits thesweet spot of whats relevant to bothyour organization and your audience isa hallmark of a strategic communicator.

Outside-in thinking is the ability to readyour audience or clientsto under-stand what makes them tickand to

act in a man-ner that speaksto their van-tage point. Bybecoming anexpert in publicenvironment

analysis and in wearing the hat of thestakeholders you serve, you become theglue between your organization and its

audiencea go-to internal resourceequipped to consistently add uniquestrategic value to your team.

4.Connect the dots.When clients arerecruiting senior communication tal-

ent, one of themost impor-tant and hard-to-find skillsets theyrelooking for isthe ability to

integrate. Connecting the dots meansyou have the savvy to use big-picturethinking to see that this change man-agement activity is connected to thatemployee video, which in turn might beconnected to an upcoming stakeholder

The ability to ask

meaningful questions

is the centerpiece of

great consultativeskills.


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event. Thinking in a creative, integratedfashionconstantly looking for oppor-tunities that happen at the points ofintersection within your organizationis a highly valuable skill to cultivate andpromote.

5.Ask questions that count.The abilityto ask meaningful questions is the cen-terpiece of great consultative skills. It is

vital to estab-lishing stronginternal clientrelationships,and there isno quicker oreasier way toadd immediate

value than by asking insightful ques-tions that generate clarity and simplifycomplexity. This approach immediatelysets you up in a helpful, constructiveposture, and it is also the most elegantway to defuse a tense situation thatmight otherwise degenerate into con-flict or impasse with an internal client.Asking questions that count instantlyadds value.

The reality is that as communicators,we often work in a sea of chaos. Thereare waves of new demands, changesand requests to deal with that comecrashing in at a relentless pace, and tobe honest, that can be a pretty over-

whelming experience. On the otherhand, theres also something exhilarat-ing about living on the edge and notknowing what comes next.

Either way, the one thing we knowfor sure is this: In communication,there are going to be waves. So wedbetter learn to surf, and enjoy the ride.

about the authorCaroline Kealey is CEO of Ingenium

Communications in Ottawa, and is an

internationally recognized expert in

strategic communication planning and

evaluation. Hear more from her through

the blog at ResultsMap.com, on Twitter

(@carolinekealey) and through LinkedIn.

learn moreFor more thoughts on

strategic communication,

visit the Results Mapblog.
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a winning entryThis program won a

2013 IABC Gold Quill

Award in the digital

communication chan-

nels category. For more

than 40 years, IABCs

Gold Quill Awards

program has evaluated

the work of communi-

cation professionals

around the globe,

recognizing the best

of the best in the

profession.

Based in Nashville, Tennessee,Asurion provides mobile deviceand home electronics protec-tion solutions to millions of

customers worldwide. In 2011, Asurionrealized that its intranet needed an

updateit was operating on an out-dated version of Microsoft SharePoint,and it had limited functionality, no cen-tral governance, little hierarchal organi-zation and cumbersome navigation.Content owners relied on the companys

case in point by jennifer barrett, michele hodges and christy roberts

Taking theintranet to thenext levelUpgrading the platform was just the first step in creating a robust,user-friendly tool for Asurion employees worldwide

A

GOLD QUILL

WINNER


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communication team to post most doc-uments, and news and informationwere rarely updated. Consequently, theAsurion internal communication teamrelied primarily on email and printedmaterials to communicate with thecompanys global workforce of 14,000people. But that meant employeeslacked the tools to find, interact withand learn from one another.

The plan was to develop a newintranet with more intuitive navi-gation, team collaboration sites andeasy search capabilities. It needed tobe a robust, real-time source of newsand information for employees about

the company, its customers and theindustry; allow employees to shareinformation using a variety of media;and organize and consolidate relevantinformation for one-stop access. The first step was to upgrade theintranet platform to the latest versionof SharePoint. That allowed the com-munication team to build the busi-ness case for an improved intranet.

Team members reviewed the capabil-ities of SharePoint against the tech-nical requirements of their proposedplan and were able to customize theproduct to meet their requirements.They also developed key elements thatdirectly addressed the business need tokeep employees engaged and informedabout company happenings by push-ing relevant content to them based ontheir role, location and function. The next step was to launch a betapilot of the new intranet, called Insite.Over the nine-month period from Janu-ary through September 2012, the teamimplemented a steady communication

schedule to promote the intranets func-tionality and educate employees aboutits use. Multiple media channels wereused to engage employees, includingmailers, interactive web tools, emails,intranet messaging, webcasts, live meet-ings and posters, based on the needs ofeach employee population segment. With so many new features on theintranet, the team instituted a com-

Over the nine-

month period, the

team implemented a

steady communicationschedule to promote

the intranets func-

tionality and educate

employees.


29/32


prehensive training program, startingwith group and individual sessionsfor senior leaders and HR teams, andthen a series of in-person training ses-sions and webinars for all employees.Webinars, training videos posted on

Insite, web articles and informationalemails proved especially beneficial foremployees working remotely.

Using its annual employee communi-cation survey as a benchmark, Asurionfollowed up in 2013 with another sur-vey that measured the impact and useof the new intranet. Among the results:

In 2012, 21 percent of employeesranked the intranet as a key sourceof information. In 2013, 82 percentranked Insite as a key source of infor-mation (against a goal of 75 percent).

Previously, only 11 percent ofemployees visited the intranet daily.After Insites debut, 65.3 percent ofemployees visited once a day or more(against a goal of 50 percent).

In 2012, 20 percent of the employeepopulation said they felt they werewell informed about the company.A year later, as a result of Insite, 71percent said they knew more aboutother areas of the company (against

a goal of 60 percent).Employee engagement with the

intranet improved. Previously, allarticles were posted to the intranetby the communication team, butsince Insites launch, 19.6 percent ofarticles posted came from employees(against a goal of 25 percent).

By mid-December 2012, an averageof 5,500 employees were visiting thesite daily. This number continues torise as the team focuses communica-tion and training efforts on Asurionsinternational locations, and the teamcontinues to educate employees on thefunctionality and new features.

about the authorsJennifer Barrett is the direc-

tor of corporate communi-

cation at Asurion, based in

Nashville, Tennessee, and

leads a team of profession-

als responsible for all global

employee communications.

Michele Hodges is commu-

nications manager for Asu-

rions 7,000-plus customer

care division, and is respon-

sible for delivering strategic

communication through all

levels of the business.

Christy Roberts is the sup-

ply chain communications

specialist at Asurion. She

has more than 10 years of

experience in internal com-

munication and marketing.


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photocritiqueby philip n. douglis, abc, iabc fellow

When colortells the storyPlaying up certain colors can give an image deeper meaning

take your best shotEmail photos for possible

use in this column to The

Douglis Visual Workshops

at [email protected].

Color photography shows usthings as they appear to theeye. However, color photog-raphy can also go beyond

simple description to tell a story, draw-

ing on its hues to pull the eye throughan image, creating contrasts and, moreimportant, defining meaning.

Each of the three images presentedhere uses color to communicate thenature of the subject at hand.

Courier, New York CityI created two layers of vivid blue colorto bring order to urban chaos here. A

courier on a bike wears a blue shirtand blue cap, nearly the same hue ason the peeling plywood construc-tion-site wall that makes up the entirebackground. White is important here

as well. I freeze the motion of the cou-rier between the two white vans tocreate maximum tension. The whiteshreds of paper on the wall draw theeye to the white vans, as well as to thewhite shirt of a woman trudging alongthe sidewalk. Neither the courier northe woman acknowledges the otherspresence amidst the tumult of thiscolorful scene.
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