Written by Dick CarlsonI spent time yesterday talking to some folks at a local college, trying to convince them that they should pay me an outrageous amount of money to get their portal site up and running on MOSS. (Not the fuzzy green stuff, but Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server.) Like many organizations, they’d had no trouble installing the software — in fact, they’d had an earlier version three years ago. But the issue was getting the people to use it.
Organizations are all about collaboration tools, these days. The demos show happy employees sharing their IP, working together and easily accessing information across a seamless series of tubes. Everyone is smiling, every document is immediately available, and all their slacks are creased right down the middle.
I’m not sure where these people work, but I’ve never been there. In the real world, actually getting the employees to use collaboration software is by far the most difficult challenge in any roll out. Installation is pretty much a matter of clicking on some wizards, or writing a relatively small check to some guy who logs in remotely to your server. It costs a little more if you actually want someone to ask some questions about how you’re going to use it, but that doesn’t happen very often.
So these folks had some experience with the fact that many SharePoint installations didn’t really end up the way they had hoped. Some groups used them, some groups absolutely refused to, and some groups lost entire days of work when things went wrong. People weren’t always happy about the idea that anyone/anywhere/anytime could look at everything they did. Or that it could be changed, deleted, or “borrowed”. Kind of like having your desk in the hall.
Add to that the fact that early versions of SharePoint (and most of it’s competitors) had frequent issues with access, stability, backups and just plain usability and you can understand why there were issues. If the can of soup you put in your kitchen cabinet vanished one day, and the next day you couldn’t even get the door open — you’d probably start leaving the can out on the counter.
But let’s get back to me and all that money. I told them that the only way I’d found to get people to engage with a community tool was to focus on pain. (Not causing pain, although that might be an option.) I recommend finding a way to eliminate pain for the user.
Here’s an example. If you’re an IT Admin, make a list of the top five calls you get every day. Probably looks something like this:
- How do I reset my password?
- Is my email server up?
- Where is the RAS software?
- How do I reach the helpdesk?
- When is the tech scheduled to arrive?
I recommended that each Sharepoint site at their College just identify the top five issues, and create a dropdown list with links to the appropriate answers. Put the dropdown at the very top of the home page on their site. When a user calls, emails or sends a carrier pigeon — DIRECT THEM TO THE SITE. (Use a friendly URL — “ITHELP” or something, not \\college\datastore\obscure\unknown\confusing\23kks@@3)
Benefits:
- You’ve just eliminated 80% of your calls and emails
- You’ve taught your users that they can get immediate help on Sharepoint
- You’ve taught your techs to put answers on Sharepoint
- You’ve made yourself look like a very smart dude or dudette
But how about the things the college administration wants people to go to the site for — policies, reports, meetings? I probably shot myself in the foot — but I said that was Organizational Development — not something that I could fix with a community tool. (Unless the president said they’d be fired, or offered a bonus of $1000 per visit.)
Once you’ve got people participating in a community, they’ll start coming back. When they need some meeting minutes, or an obscure answer — they’ll go to your node and try a search. If you’ve got meaningful file names and good tags, they’ll probably find what they need. (I’d sure rather do that than play voice-mail tag or wait for you to respond to my email.)
I don’t know if I’ll get the gig — I’m pretty blunt and outspoken, and that puts off some people. But I feel that I owe it to a client that I’m honest about what can and can’t be accomplished with their money.
Think positive thoughts for me.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Dick:
I’m pretty outspoken too. Tends to get me into trouble with clients. But at least we’re honest, yes?
I just answered a similar question yesterday about wikis. I recommended major marketing – real, true marketing.
On top of that, I recommended offering incentives of some sort (giveaways, etc – we’re back to marketing) to people for posting on the wiki.
Finally, I suggested what you suggested – post the answers on the wiki and direct people there. When documents are shared, post them on the wiki and email “I posted this. It’s on the wiki.” instead of emailing the document.
The biggest failure of any collaborative software is lack of commitment on the part of the users. It happens all the time. Partially, it’s time-driven, partially it’s fear, and it’s partially laziness on the part of the users (there’s that honesty again).
There’s nothing you or I can do to fix any of that, I’m afraid.
Oh, in the midst of everything else, I’m PR & Technology Chair for a local charity. I’m trying to get the committee to use a wiki instead of 1000s of emails cluttering my box. My pleas are falling on deaf ears. So it happens to us all.
Thanks for the ideas, Michelle. I agree that being “outspoken” sometimes ends up with clients hearing things they don’t want to hear.
The metaphor I like to use on this one is a shovel. I suggest to my clients that they buy 100 shovels and give one to each employee. Just put them in their offices overnight. The next morning, when they come in, tell them that they’ve been given the shovels because corporate believes that this is the tool that will really help them do their job better.
Even if it’s a really nice shovel, and it’s been installed in their office very professionally, it’s unlikely that the employee is going to want to use it. Not all of them will want a hole in the ground — and many of them will want someone else to dig that hole. Most of them won’t know what to do with the resulting pile of dirt. And there will be questions about what size hole, where to dig, and how deep.
So it’s not the tool, really. They’ve got to let go of that. And the shovel vendor really isn’t responsible for what happens. It’s a wonderful shovel, and — used properly — will dig one heck of a hole. But unless the people involved want a hole, understand why a hole will improve their lives, and commit to digging — that shiny shovel will stay in the corner of their office.
I hope you dig this metaphor.
Great article, Dick. I know exactly what you are talking about as years ago I attempted to get a Wiki-based intranet adopted within the small company I was working for at the time.
Hardly anyone ever used it apart from me. Part of the problem was that it was efffectively in competition from the inhouse groupware (Lotus Notes) and it lost out despite the clumsiness of the email-centric Notes approach. It was a valuable lesson.
Would I be so bold with my own clients as you were? I dunno, maybe not! I do endeavour to help them choose the best way forward, but some clients are hard to help, honestly.
Alfred: Yes, I was in Portland last week (talking to a bunch of meeting planners) about how to use a wiki for their events. I spent a short time talking about setting it up, and a lot of time talking about how to find ways that their clients would engage with it and find value.
And yes, I did hear that my boldness (aka “arrogance”) meant that I didn’t get the bid on that project. While I’m disappointed I didn’t get the cash, I’m glad I don’t have to look forward to spending a lot of time justifying each step and having meetings to “get everyone on board”. Oh, well.
Great tip! It just so happens that our company just finished anouncing the ability to create Community and Team Sites on SharePoint and I was tasked to implement our department community site. I will definitely use your tip.