Intranet Super Nanny
Over recent weeks I’ve been in Adelaide (see my photos) consulting with a large government agency regarding their intranet. It occurred to me that this work, as well as a lot of IA and user experience consulting, is much like being Supernanny; much of your effort is directed towards changing the attitude of the ‘head of the family’.
Within any organisation that has an intranet there is usually someone who has control (although lack of ownership of it is often a major hurdle in delivering a successful intranet). This may be the IT department, or a dedicated intranet team. Combined with senior management these people are like the parents, with staff as the children.
Most of the time Super Nanny (Jo Frost, to be more precise) is involved, the parents are running around like mad idiots, screaming at the children trying to get them to behave. They’re so caught up in the day-to-day madness of it all, they don’t even know where to begin. The children just won’t do what they’re suppose to! But what you see time and time again is that it’s the parents that need workâthe attitude and behaviour adjustment.
Super Nanny has to point out what’s going wrong, often to the discomfort and embarrassment of the parents. She needs to explain that it’s not the kids fault, it’s your fault. You can’t make the kids do what you want (especially whilst quite often acting contrary to your own rules…but that’s a whole other story). You need to work out what the problem is and find ways to solve it.
Do you see the parallels? Staff aren’t misbehaving when they don’t use the intranet. They’re not “breaking the rules” because they are disrespectful or out of control. Often the systems that have been put in place are simply not meeting their needs. Not only are intranets and procedures difficult for staff to use, often they’re completely irrelevant. Is it any wonder they don’t play nicely?
That’s why ‘needs analysis’ is the most crucial task in (re)designing an intranet. When consultants perform intranet needs analysis we aim to understand how staff work, then look at how the intranet is helping, hindering or simply not involved. Then we show this to those strategising, designing and administering the intranet (and related systems) so they too understand exactly what’s going on. This is the “Oh…that’s really what they do?” moment. Like videoing the parents before Super Nanny arrives, this holds a mirror up to themselves as much as anything else and usually illustrates the stark contrast between the reality of work life for staff and the vision acquired by implementers and management.
Many of the key techniques Super Nanny uses take the parents on a journey; from their current perspective through to one of understanding how things actually are and the effects on family life. Unless they tread that path they will not change and things will continue as they were, if not worse. Often the process might be given a name (such as the ‘naughty corner’) but these are age-old techniques which in the back of their minds the parents probably already know. Repackaging it as something new can cut-through like nothing else. Perhaps doing this reduces the dent on their pride? eg this new technique is the answer, so it wasn’t really my fault that I couldn’t solve it before.
Compared to this, the kids are a breeze. Once their environment and the expectations of the ‘powers that be’ are adjusted, they start behaving. They’re just happy that mum and dad are happy. And they’re happy that someone is taking some notice of them (the analogy in the intranet world is that staff are often happy that someone listens to them rather than just prescribing solutions on them without asking what they need).
Now, I’m not a parent (yet) nor am I an intranet manager, so I’m not saying either job is easy. They both require strong people skills and an ability to think outside your own box; what about me might not be right for this family/company? It’s also about being brave enough to admit the brutal truth and then go about making the necessary changes.
And with any luck, like most families Super Nanny visits, organisations wishing to improve their intranet will come out of the process with a renewed relationship with their colleagues and enthusiasm for continued progress. Preferably without the tears.
ps: A great deal of restraint was needed to not use the phrase “unceptable” in this post. Oops, there it is.
About the author
Patrick Kennedy is a user experience strategist and design researcher based in Sydney Australia. He leads research activities that improve the user experience of cross-channel products and services; helping both designers and business decision makers in bringing those products and services to fruition. Read more.
Comments
There are plenty of intranet applications out there. i did like microsoft apps for awhile. What I liked most about MS is their Sharepoint product, though I find HyperOffice a better microsoft sharepoint alternative on many situations.
Ok, but a good intranet is much more than just an application. It’s about facilitating communication and knowledge sharing between employees in a way that makes sense for the organisation.
To continue the super nanny metaphor, if you just take the methods ‘as seen on TV’ and don’t apply them properly or in the wrong situation, you won’t be helping your kids. So, if you take a piece of software that somebody else uses and plonk it into an organisation, the chances are it won’t work.
That said, I’d be interested in hearing why you think HyperOffice is so good.
[...] So what? Well I am a big believer in uncovering useful things in places you’d least expect it. Yep, this is just a TV show, but I think we can all learn a thing or two from Gordon. In a way, this post is the spiritual successor to my earlier post about the Super Nanny. I wonder how many ‘celebrity consultants’ could be role models for the humble IT consultant. [...]
[...] before, be it Gordon Ramsay, Trinny & Susannah, parent craft centres, shopping for furniture or super nanny. I’ve also talked about cross pollination [...]
You’ve made an interesting metaphor there. I am an intranet manager and I can say, well if the parents are running around and disciplining the kids, well that would be a huge relief! The reality in most organisations is the parents just don’t care their kids are running amok – as long as they can tick various boxes (clothing, food, security, school), some parents are too busy trying to pay the rent and outsmart the neighbours.
It’s the intranet manager’s constant battle to get the intranet on the radar to ensure it’s regarded highly so it gets enough budget to sustain the rate of information growth.
Reality is, we’re not dealing with kids and parents. We’re dealing with grown men and women who make their own decisions, regardless of what you tell them. Path of least resistance is the only language that talks my friend. Make my job easier/quicker/more regarded otherwise get in line.
Requirements gathering is crucial, though the reality for most large organisations that the research required to get enough information to impact the day to day operations of every staff is impossible or just not worth it. The key to this all is in interpreting what requirements you can get, analysing culture, strategy, stakeholder management, establish authoring communities, technology and most importantly the vision of the intranet manager. The biggest mistake made by many is they only think one of those components results in a successful intranet. I applaud you for recognising that technology is not the magic bullet.
Hi Tainoc, thanks for the comment.
So what you’re saying is that most ‘parents’ don’t care that their ‘kids’ are running amok, which if we translate the metaphor means management typically don’t care that staff don’t use the intranet? Or do you mean management don’t care about efficiency or quality control?
The former is definitely true, why should management care if staff use the intranet? What they should care about is the latter: efficiency of process and quality of product. The thing is that a good intranet can help achieve those things. So from that point of view, you shouldn’t be trying to get the intranet “on the radar”, you should be trying to show the benefits of improved processes, communication etc. And this might just be brought about by the intranet (but that is quite irrelevant at the end of the day).
I’ve seen this many times, intranet managers and the like, trying to persuade others that the intranet is important and something to be invested in, based purely on some inherent value. But it doesn’t work, the intranet should be transparent and the benefits are what we should be looking at.
And, of course, it’s not a technology issue. Which is why when IT departments are responsible for building a new intranet they typically focus on a piece of software, which is a bad start for the whole endeavour. Businesses need to take ownership and demand useful results, not relinquish control to IT because the solution (likely) involves some software.
[...] or two from Gordon. In a way, this post is the spiritual successor to my earlier post about the Super Nanny. I wonder how many ‘celebrity consultants’ could be role models for the humble IT [...]
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