The best Digital Workplace articles of 2015 – intranets, ESNs, change, and comms
There’s no lack of inspiration for tackling your intranet, and how we work within the digital workplace. Take a look at our top picks from the last twelve months.
Beginner’s guide to information architecture, via UX Booth
A great place to start when wanting to improve your site’s IA and navigation. Many superb resources mentioned.
Crafting the gemeinschaft: the case for grassroots approaches to enterprise community management, by Sharon O’Dea
A network is not a community. Sharon highlights how busy we all are establishing ESNs, and how community management has to go further than tending to the network.
Intranet metrics – Discovery, Satisfaction and Impact [PDF; 800KB], by Martin White
A generous 26 page overview of the options available to intranet managers to assess the performance of an intranet. The report includes descriptions of intranet benchmarking services as well as links to books, reports and research papers.
When to use what in Office 365 [slideshare] by Kanwal Khipple and Richard Harbridge
Although centered on Office 365, this is the best approach we’ve seen so far on the enduring question of how to help organisations choose the right tool for the job.
The value of intranet personalisation, by Samuel Driessen
Reports have shown that personalization can negatively affect satisfaction. Samuel looks at the levels of personalisation different intranet systems might offer, positing that he’s seen the majority of people try personalising their intranet experience.
Should you move your Intranet to the cloud? By Luke Mepham, via Intranetizen
We always like a good metaphor and Luke’s journey by car, taxi & bus helps explain the risks, conveniences, and costs when talking about hosting your intranet externally via the Internet.
The reasons we work, by Shane Parrish via Farnam Street
There are intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, as you know. Farnam Street takes a look at direct and indirect motivations.
HR should be the digital transformation leader because ‘digitalization challenges’ are work culture challenges, by Jane McConnell
Jane’s research into digital maturity means her guidance is backed up by real-life examples.
Lose the language of enforcement, by James Robertson
On the one hand, the intranet team needs to set good governance over the intranet. On the other hand, contributors don’t report to the intranet team, and have other priorities.
How collaboration ended up in IT, and why it may move, by Dion Hinchcliffe
Too many tools, too little integration. Nice image.
When Senior Managers Won’t Collaborate by Heidi K. Gardner
Some hard numbers showing why collaboration really does matter.
Intranet metrics are the intranet strategy you can count, by Chris Tubb and Steve Bynghall
The chaps from Intranet Directions give some frank advice on measuring your intranet success.
The top 6 from ClearBox
And here’s the articles from our own archives that got the best response.
Intranet value lies in employee satisfaction, by Sam Marshall
Although intranets that quantifiably support strategic goals are great, in reality most intranets play a low-key but essential day-to-day role in making employees more productive.
A digital workplace definition, by Sam Marshall
Maybe it’s semantics, but the concepts we discuss need to be understood by our colleagues and wider audiences when we talk about digital transformation. Here we try to bring some clarity based on our digital workplace framework.
How to discover and write intranet use cases, by Wedge
A use case describes the reality of how a person goes about a task. Before you can create an improved process, or match your intranet workflows to people’s needs, you must define the reality and problem. Nice template for you to use.
Hubs, hives, and hangouts; adapting your digital workplace, by Sam Marshall
Hubs, hives, and hangouts; adapting your digital workplaceNot every tool, app, or platform suits everyone all the time. Different people have different ways of working. Are you a hermit? Or are you involved in a dozen teams’ work?
Seven illustrated intranet lessons, by Sam Marshall and Bonzai
What Sam, as an intranet manager and then consultant, has learnt the hard way.
Why Collaboration Works for Others, But Not for You by Sam Marshall
Ever wondered why tools like Yammer, SharePoint or Jive seem to have impressive case studies but fall flat in other organisations? This model shows you why.
We hope to see you sometime this year!
Sam Marshall will speak at Congres Intranet (Utrecht, Netherlands) or you can catch him sooner in the Cisco webinar, ‘Digital workplace strategy 101’ on Wednesday 14th January.
Our next Intranet Success Masterclasses are scheduled for the 7th and 8th of June – two workshops that offer practical guidance on planning your intranet, and on managing your intranet.
All the very best for the year ahead.
Photo credit: Marjan Lazarevski
