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“We're here to protect democracy, not practice it.” It's a saying often associated with military culture; and unfortunately, some intranet team members have adopted this same attitude when it comes to working with others in the team.

Intranets are often used to improve internal communication and collaboration, so it stands to reason that those charged with intranet governance would put that theory into practice themselves. But sadly, for a variety of reasons, the ideals promoted by the system don't always transfer over to the team managing it. Instead, some intranet team members see fit to embrace a counterproductive, military-like ethos: “We're here to encourage collaboration, not exercise it.”

Managing an intranet's team members and their various roles, however, is just as important as managing its content. Rather than putting blinders on, it would do team members a lot of good if everyone involved in the management of the system had a better understanding of their colleagues' role -- and even to step into their shoes for a while.

Implementing a job rotation program -- where qualified and willing intranet team members are moved through different intranet roles (either temporarily or permanently) -- can have positive effects on both the intranet governing body and the system itself:

Increases Empathy Toward Colleagues

Far too many people live in a me, me, me world. Put them in a competitive corporate setting and this attitude can be amplified tenfold: “Drop what you're doing, I need it yesterday”, “I don't want to hear any excuses, just get it done”, “Your job doesn't seem that difficult, so why is it taking so long for you to do this?” They pull up a cozy chair at the center of the universe and can't see beyond their own immediate needs.

These selfish attitudes are brought forth by a lack of empathy toward another person's situation, and a lack of awareness of what others in the intranet team do. This will eventually cause resentment and passive aggressive behavior within the various intranet teams. If team members were given the chance to walk a mile in their colleagues' shoes, they will gain a better understanding and appreciation for other's unique challenges.

Encourages Knowledge Sharing

Technology-based knowledge sharing only works if the organization already has a culture of human-based knowledge sharing. But there are many factors that prevent employees from sharing what they know with others: Job security, personal gain, competition or rivalries with others, treating knowledge as a form of power, fear of not being recognized, fear of accountability, adopting loner attitudes, and thinking that they will be wasting their time by helping others.

People can become very territorial about their jobs, refusing to allow others to enter into their private cocoon. Their first instinct is to keep everyone at an arm's length and not divulge too much information. This gives them a sense of security and importance. An unfortunate byproduct of this behavior is that team members will end up creating pockets of knowledge. The intranet then turns into a contest of who knows what.

But when intranet team members are broken out of their cocoons and enter into new roles with other intranet team members that they have never worked with, knowledge sharing will occur naturally as a function of their new role. A job rotation program can break down protectionism attitudes and help team members realize that every intranet job is “a job”, not “my job”.

Expands Skill Set and Creates Backups

How many times have you encountered situations where not only is a single intranet team member responsible for a given job, but a single intranet team member is the only person who actually understands how to do that job?

If your intranet is of any importance to your day-to-day operation, leaving a vital role in the hands of a single person doesn't make much sense. That person might decide to transfer to another department or leave the company entirely. You will then be left with a big hole that can't be filled quickly. Some poor soul will have take over the vacated position and learn the job on the fly -- in a production environment. This can lead to mistakes that will adversely affect the system and productivity of the user community.

An intranet job rotation program creates talent backups. There will be others who have experience in the vacated role and will understand what needs to be done to keep the system running properly. There won't be any delays or service interruptions caused by intranet team members having to overcome a learning curve since it would have been overcome during the job rotation period. Depending on what the particular situation may be, the replacement person can take over the role permanently or fill the gap temporarily while another permanent person is brought up to speed.

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