Geting users onboard the Enterprise 2.0 train
Dean from Infovark wrote a very real and truthful story about “the empty wiki problem“. I can really related to everything he said. In a nut shell, Dean discussed a failed Wiki implementation and how to defeat the “empty wiki problem” –
“either decrease the individual effort needed to maintain the system, increase the value that each user gets from the system, or — ideally — do both things at the same time.”
Interesting enough, I had a chat with another Enterprise 2.0 enthusiast last night and he had a similar problem as well. This is my personal point of view on how one can increase adoption of Enterprise 2.0 should work.
1) Quick wins – solve immediate problems or pain points users are experiencing. Make them happy by making their life easier straight away.
2) Integrate the Wiki (or Enterprise 2.0 platform) into the current business processes and reduce any kinds of redundant work. Remember, if it means more work, it means it won’t work. Sharing and knowledge management will always take back seat when it comes to mission critical priorities.
3) Unless its three times better, its not better. I use this simple rule of thumb from a change management article I read previously. Also three times better should be measured according to what the user’s definition of “better” not the skewed understanding of anyone else.
4) Long term strategic benefits – the CEO, CFO, CIO needs to know Enterprise 2.0 will deliver value to their bottom line. May it be tangible or intangible, value should be somewhat measurable and there are abstract ways to do that. Remember, we are in business not in a playground. Anything that doesn’t directly or indirectly make more money or save some money will be canned and make sure stakeholders can see and understand that clearly.
Jo Jordan said,
Sean, Wikis have another value. They are a place to store projects in their early stages. All those flash in the pan ideas that seem great.
Set up a wiki, store, and see if anyone goes back to it.
In short you article begs the questions of what wikis are for. You seem to have set up a unspoken criterion that they should be a quickly written book. Bringing criteria from the past?
Use them to store scraps. Have lots.
They are are also useful for writing long documents. Each section can be broken down to a page so the job becomes manageable and they can be private or public depending on a person’s temperament.
Mess is part of the internet. Personally, I am tired of the debris and trying to clean up my parts – so perhaps that’s IT’s job. Make sure the ‘park’ is available for us to ‘play in the sun’ and also the rubbish bins so we can clean up after each other. And then maybe a lost property section to store stuff that seems abandoned.
Sean Lew said,
I feel that projects is the best place to start using wikis. Reason being, there is a task at hand and in the initial stages of a project there is generally alot of unknowns and Wikis allow people to collaborate and share information efficiently.
Wouldn’t it be great if the content of a book can be found in only one place? I would like to see all the information in the Wiki and not some in the wiki and some in a document and other in a powerpoint pack.
I have personally used wikis to develop a almost 300 page document and it was extremely successful.
Yes, there are rubbish around that needs to be clean and that is an issue organisations have to look into.
All I am saying in this post is how to increase user adoption and some of the stuff non-E2 users think through. Wikis are great but they must be strategically planned and implemented. Can’t just leave it and see what happens. Adoption is key to the success of it.
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