Previous Chapter: Part 7 - The Documents
I think from all the chapters before this one, it’s pretty clear that SharePoint can really help you and your department. The thing is that if you are not already working with a system like this, there will always be people reluctant to use it. Because change is change and some people just don’t know how to deal with that. Especially when you have a very diverse group of people in your department ranging two maybe even three generations, there will be those who see it as a new toy and does who see it as an obstacle. That’s where you as a manager can make the difference. A lot of the work convincing people of the benefits and strengths will feel, and actually be, an internal marketing campaign. Something you might even want to spend some money on, since the benefits will increase exponentially with the number of people using it. Collaboration and communication only works if almost everybody uses it and uses it correctly. You can compare it to the telephone network. What good would it be if you could only reach 50% of your friends through it? The success, just as it will be with SharePoint, lies in the fact that everybody can be reached through it.
Bringing everybody together
So the trick is going to be to bring your entire department together. Not only all of the people but also all of the information. You will have to make sure that SharePoint becomes the one central point your department can always fall back on. A place where people can find information about products, about procedures but also about other people. But again, this will only work is everybody is on board. If one or two important experts are not “connected” to the rest via this central point, the whole system will eventually come apart and start to deteriorate. And this may come as a shock to many of you managers out there, but this also includes you. It might come as a surprise, but managers don’t always have the best reputations when it comes to collaboration. So when everybody including management is working with the system, there is no reason for anyone else not to either.
So how do you get everybody in? Well, you’re the manager, you figure it out. No, actually this should be seen, as mentioned before, as an internal marketing campaign. You want people talking about it, selling it to each other and trying it out. What you don’t want is to force people into working with it. Brute force will not work, sorry.
In large companies, the best thing is to actually get marketing involved to figure out how to position the system within the company and come up with a name, slogan and even a sort of ad campaign in for instance the company newsletter. Key here is however to use people from within the company (not models, sorry again) and make sure every group is represented. Make those people your evangelists and have them sell the product mouth to mouth via info sessions, casual group meetings or even demos.
In companies with smaller resources, the idea will remain the same. You will have to come up with a good name, and have evangelists from every group selling the product to their peers. You might not have the budget to use a marketing department (or agencies) but you can surely find an amateur photographer, videographer or designer in your staff who is willing to help you.
The main idea is to show people this is not just another system and that you are willing to spend some time to get it going.
Your Benefits
We have talked about the direct benefits for you as a manager when it comes to reporting, centralization of information, etc. But wait, there is more. OK, those things are very important to be able to do your job, but think for one second about how much a well communicating team is worth. A team that can find information easily, can contact an expert with the click of a button and can keep on working while you get the immediate results of their work in the form of reports and project statuses?
Whatever type of manager you are, the value of a well oiled team is worth its weight in gold. Yes, there will be investments to make to get the system up and running and calculating the learning curve and the overall adaptation, it might take a year to really see the results. But those results could just make a world of difference. One of the most time-consuming actions people have to do within a department is finding the right information or the right person to talk to. If that lost time is taken care of, and communication between teams rises, the efficiency of your team will sky-rocket.
Another, not to be underestimated benefit is the fact that, because you are also a user on this system, you can keep your finger on the pulse of your department. Sometimes it’s not easy to see when people are struggling or malcontent, but with a central system that everybody works on, it might get a little easier to detect. A decrease in productivity or communication can provide you with just the signal you need to just go and talk to the person to see what’s going on. You won’t have to wait for the annual review to find out that that person might want to do something else than the job he’s doing right now. So with a department that is in essence a community, you can be on the ball at all times.
So, where the initial benefit might have been centralization and reporting for you, now you have gotten your team working together, communicating and in the end, be one of the most efficient teams out there. This will not only improve your end-of-year figures, but also how people perceive you as a manager.
Team building
One platform makes for one team. No man is an island. There are a million of those catch phrases to explain the fact that if everybody within a team or department knows what the other does, what his or her area of expertise is and can talk to each other, a team will become tight and in effect, more efficient.
One of the main problems within a department is internal competition and although you will never be able to eliminate that completely, focusing on everybody’s strengths might reduce that to a point where it is no longer a nuisance, but a contributing factor. The name of the game is team building and that starts with communication.
Nothing is more gratifying for a person or team to know that he or they are the people within the company that people turn to for a particular problem. On the other hand, nothing is more stimulating than seeing another team or person working more efficiently than you (oh, there’s that competition again). For those things to be able to happen, everybody should know each other or at least be able to find information on that team or person. SharePoint provides you with that platform. Using MySites as an internal CV, team sites to monitor or communicate progress, etc. will make SharePoint a platform that everybody can enjoy or push themselves to their best level.
Conclusion
The most important part of the management you will have to do is get everybody working with the system. Once you complete that goal, you will have to remember that you are a part of the community therefore you should also be present on the system. And when everybody, including you, is in the road to an efficient team or department is paved.
From a management perspective, this just could be that golden ticket
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By Ronny Gabriels, Functional Analyst and ex-.net Solution Architect