Are there any geeks out there that can recite most of the scenes from Life of Brian? No I didn’t think so...

Most of us North Americans will always liken British humor to Monty Python (or FaultyTowers). Of course Yes Minister and The Office certainly have their fans, but Python continues to be the standard bearer of British humor from our western colonial perches.

Preceding my keynote address (Building sustainable leadership support) at this year’s IBF LIVE 2006 were a couple of actors who did a four minute ditty on intranets in that classic Monty Python-esque chat amongst chaps. There were only polite snickers from the all-European audience, but I thought it was funny... but what do I know? I’m just a slow-witted Canadian (with an American-Irish lineage and influence).

Here’s an outtake (which I imagine is John Cleese and Graham Chapman so I’m going to call them as such):

John C: I didn’t even know you had an intranet?!?

Graham C: Oh god yeah, our intranet is HUUUGE! Yes, in fact, we like to call it an intranet portal.

John C: Ahhh yeah.... right. *deadpan* What’s that then?

Graham C: *pause* What is it?!

John C: Yeah.

Graham C: Well it’s quite complex to explain really... it’s like an intranet, but it’s got more... sort of... you know, stuff.

Graham C: Right. You mean it’s a BIG intranet?!?!

John C: *proudly* Oh you could say that! Yeah, Yeah. And you?

Graham C: Oh yes, yes, we’ve got an intranet as well.

John C: Big?!

Graham C: Enormous!

John C: I should say huge actually... ours is actually GIGANTIC!

Graham C: Well, ours is humongous, really. *deadpan* You can’t really buy a bigger one.

And so on...

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If you’d like to hear this bit and the entire first hour including my entire keynote address (where I also lamely poke fun at Canadians, Americans (my kin! please don’t flame me!), George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Microsoft and techies).

The entire MP3 which includes:

• Two chaps comparing their intranets (00:00 – 4 minutes)
• Conference day overview by IBF LIVE Chair Paul Miller
• Conference notes by Paul Levy
• Keynote speaker introduction by Paul Miller
• Keynote speech by Toby Ward (begins at about 13:30)

Download the entire MP3 here: http://www.mediamemory.co.uk/IBF06Part3TonyWard.mp3  

Intranets are still in their infancy, and they require more involvement from senior management. These are two of the major bang-on conclusions of Jane McConnell’s superb study on intranets ("Intranet Strategies Today & Tomorrow").

“Senior management perception of the intranet is out of sync with reality on the ground,” says Jane, a France-based intranet consultant (who works internationally) and author of the NetJMC Blog blog.  “They are largely unaware of the usefulness of the intranet for employees for their work. 55% of the respondents say that if the intranet were unavailable for 1 to 2 hours, employees would be disturbed in their work, yet only 13% of the respondents say that senior management perceives the intranet to be “business critical.”

No surprise there. The weakest intranets have the lowest level of involvement and active support from senior support. The best intranets have incredible senior management support.

Is it any surprise then that decision-making is an issue for most organisations? “Lack of awareness of the potential role of the intranet” is cited as the top obstacle for decision-making. Of course, there would be no problems with decision-making if there was in fact a senior management champion at the same organizations.

Money begets executive support. The study also found that, intranets lack sufficient funding and resources (though that almost half of the respondents expect their budgets to rise in 2007.

Jane’s study found that “almost 40% of the respondents have or plan to have internal blogs, significantly higher than the current or planned external blogs (around 15%).”

I still find it surprising then that given the current state of the intranet – what I referred to as ‘piss poor” and James Robertson referred to as “sh-te” (at this year’s IBF Live 2006) – that so many managers are obsessed about blogs, wikis and podcasting. They should be concerned about planning and governance and the role of executive management as part of that governance. But hey, blogs are certainly more sexy than governance models!!

Study participants represented 101 organisations headquartered in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific, ranging in size from under 5000 to over 100,000 employees. Nearly 60% of the organisations operate in over 20 countries, and over one third have from 2 to 4 official languages, making the survey population very international.

(LONDON, UK – Appended from “Building Sustainable Sponsorship” keynote address by Toby Ward, IBF LIVE 2006) 

In organizations with successful intranets, the intranet champion is a c-level executive. In other words, a senior executive that reports directly to the CEO. This could be the CIO, the CFO, the COO or perhaps the SVP for communications or human resources.

The greatest barrier to an intranet’s potential is politics. Technology and budget are secondary barriers. The intranet is a political football and you need an executive linebacker on your team.

Unfortunately, most intranets don’t grab the attention of executives. The intranet is left to middle managers in communications and IT with limited budget and power; conflict ensues and the intranet stalls – often for years.

If communications tries to take the leadership helm, other stakeholders are often suspicious of a ‘power play’. The same can be said for IT and HR. If budget allows, everyone respects an experienced and capable mediator. Ultimately, though, breaking this political limbo and ensuring enduring conflict resolution requires senior management support, intervention, and funding.

Tearing down the political barrier often requires an executive with the power to change. Sometimes this support can be coaxed and augmented by a third-party consultant with lots of expertise and no political axe to grind, but an arsenal full of best practices. But the buck stops at the c-level office suite.

Determining which executive makes the best champion in your organization depends on the executive and their power and influence within the ranks. Firstly, your executive champion should understand the value of the intranet and the potential it can deliver. Secondly, your executive champion needs to be involved. Not on a day-to-day basis, but when a decision needs to be made or funding is required. As far as a time commitment, your champion need only attend an occasional meeting (perhaps twice per year).

Often, executives don’t know much about intranets. In fact, most think of the intranet as a cost center. You need to educate them.

Education comes in the form of:

• Best practices and case studies (see Know the leaders and the competition)
• Employee research
• Business case with ROI

Developing a complete business case with all of the above will convince just about any executive of the need for a high value intranet. Most understand that it takes money to make money – and they want you to “show me the money.”

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