Ooh no, we're not ready for it. We have serious business to run.

Implementing open communication in the enterprise is a challenge. And for a good reason. It can impact the way you do business.

There are many arguments that can be thrown on the table against social media initiatives inside the organisation. People can become very creative when thinking of reasons to reject open communication in the organisation.

Most of these risks are based on fear. Command and Control (Top-down) management structures are often also based on fear. (But that seems okay as many countries follow the same strategy with success.)

These risks are serious concerns for decision makers and should therefore be managed carefully.

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The intranet does not have to be fun to make employees happy

This is another article in which I try to create adoption and acceptance for the intranet in the organisation. I will take another angle and look at what motivates employees and what role the intranet can play to create happy employees. I believe we all agree that organisations need happy employees to be successful. It is another way of identifying good content for the intranet.

How employees are motivated

After research on the Internet I learned that there are many theories on how to motivate employees. I definitely do not want to interfere with these discussions, but for this article I selected these four general more or less accepted motivators:

• Money - simply put: employees expect a fair financial compensation for their effort
• Creativity - We are all unique human beings and we all want to put our personality and ideas into our work 
• Recognition - A shoulder tap is in many situations more worth than a financial raise / bonus
• Future - is the job secure, what are the options to grow in the organisation 

Let's apply these to the intranet. 

Money

The reward that is paid and everything else that is related to money: compensation, bonuses, expenses, employee benefits and promotions

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Owning an intranet is not the same as being responsible for it

Two examples that can happen with your intranet:

The HR department keeps all the employee data up to date for their own records, but they defer the responsibility for the 'People Find' to the owner of the intranet.

The IT department has delivered the intranet, it works fine and the roll out was a success. But after that they keep rolling out there own portals and platforms to the business. They see building the intranet only as an item on their work program.

There are some tasks that belong to the owner of the intranet and of course there must be:

• a main budget holder
• a chair of the editorial board
• a chair of the steering committee
• a unit to co-ordinate daily tasks
• a unit dealing with first line support
• a unit to co-ordinate with the IT department

You have noticed that there is no mention of "content" or "processes" in this list. These are items that can't be the responsibility of one unit alone.

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Many web projects end up in a conflict between the 'business units' and IT.

Why is that?

I found the inspiration for this article when I recently joined communexions (a new community for intranet managers). When setting up my profile I was asked:

Who’s right most often? HR, IT or Communications?

I answered this:

The departments that are correct are the ones that best work together. I have seen many bad examples.

- But at the end it are the people who have to do it, not the departments.

- The department that is most right, employs people that best try to understand others and actively try to work together.

- These departments have a culture where sharing (knowledge, ownership and responsibility) is actively promoted.

I tried to give a longer answer but there was no more room available. But this topic intrigues me already for a long time and I can't stop thinking about it.