In the recently published eighth edition of her intranet trend report, Jane McConnell introduces a scorecard and maturity model, which you can use to determine where you stand and what you still need to do to move forward. This is a valuable addition to her annual collection of insights, which is already so indispensable for intranet managers. But how can you get started and what should you pay attention to?
Digital workplace in the connected organization
Last week I published my article here about the intranet trends for 2014 , which emerged from the trend report The Digital Workplace in the Connected Organization – 2014 edition by Jane McConnell . Already the eighth edition, and again packed with valuable insights and therefore worth reading.
Scorecard & Digital Workplace Maturity Scale
What I find most valuable is the introduction of the Digital Workplace Scorecard and the associated Digital Workplace Maturity Scale. There are two reasons why I am so enthusiastic about the Scorecard and the model: the first is the way they help you connect with the management of your organization. The second is more substantive: with the Scorecard and the Maturity Scale, the report offers, in addition to a better substantiated benchmark, handles to determine where you want to go, where you are now and what needs to happen to get there.
Finally being able to really speak the language of your management
The solidity of the Scorecard and Maturity Scale, which McConnell has developed together with the ' Advisory Board ' over the past two years , is very nice. It confirms my belief that you can indeed see the digital work environment as a valuable, (primarily) process-supporting and facilitating business resource. And that you can convince the right people of this with the right arguments. Every time someone manages to make a workable connection between 'theory' about digital applications and 'old' business theory, I get even more enthusiastic.
The trend report in which McConnell introduces her Scorecard and maturity model also shows that (senior) management in the majority of organizations is still one of the, if not the most important obstacle when it comes to innovation. They form the layer of clay through which change only trickles down. While digital support for business processes, knowledge sharing, communication and collaboration offers so clearly added value and every organization can demonstrably benefit from its use.
We must learn to speak their language
I believe (even though it is a bit of a hobbyhorse) that we can also get that clay management layer on board, but that we have to learn to press the right buttons. To speak their language. These types of models offer handles for that, through their structure, through the way in which they make the connection between the new, digital world (which is often still far removed from the managers) and the world they know ('old' business theory and laws).
It is recognizable and therefore reliable for these managers, which means that you will find a willing ear for your ideas much faster. Or, as McConnell himself puts it: “ [To] enable management and practitioners to understand how people and organizational characteristics shape the digital workplace as much or more than technology .” And that shared insight and understanding among management and executives increases the chance that budget, capacity and time can actually be freed up to get started on this.
Determining where you are, where you want to go and how to get there
I know from experience that there are many roads that lead to Rome when it comes to intranet strategy. But the route description is always a puzzle, even if you have already helped several organizations to set their priorities and determine their activities. This is often because there is no clear way to determine where you are now - at least not yet. And it makes it difficult(er) to determine your vision and strategy. After all, if you do not know where you are starting from, it is difficult to determine your course.
That's why I'm excited about this Scorecard and the Maturity Scale. Based on a ' self-assessment ', the Scorecard helps organizations gain insight into where they stand. Moreover, it offers a framework to determine a vision on the role of the digital work environment in your organization: how can it really be of strategic value? To then help you set priorities, to translate the vision into a strategy and action plan to realize your vision.
Structure of the Digital Workplace Scorecard
The digital work environment, McConnell writes, “ is a blend of people, organization and tools .” But of course you can’t make policy on such a high-level definition, let alone determine where you stand and what you need to do to realize your vision. So you have to categorize it further. McConnell did that in the form of three perspectives with nine additional dimensions.
Capabilities, enablers & mindset: the perspectives on your digital work environment
There are three perspectives from which you should view a digital work environment:
Capabilities : where people and tools come together to serve the goals of individual employees, the business and the organization.
Enablers : where the organization and tools come together in structures and processes, thus facilitating change.
Mindset : the values, expectations, and ways of thinking that determine how people and organizations act.
9 dimensions give substance to the perspectives and make scoring possible
But on these three perspectives you can still determine scores with difficulty, so that you still cannot map out where you stand. That is why the three perspectives described above in the Scorecard have been further supplemented: three dimensions have been linked to each of the perspectives. This is how the Scorecard looks like:
Digital Workplace Scorecard (Jane McConnell)
Determining where you stand: scores, importance and priority
Now that you know how the Scorecard is structured, you can get started on determining your position. You assess your digital work environment or intranet (whatever you call it in your organization) based on the nine dimensions. Your digital work environment can achieve a maximum score of 100 on each dimension. These scores allow you to compare the dimensions, although McConnell emphasizes that this does not mean that they are all equally important. Which dimensions are given more importance than others depends on the context of your organization and your vision of the future of your digital work environment.
Furthermore, the dimensions are not ranked by priority. Priorities can be determined after you know how mature your intranet or digital work environment actually is. And, just as importantly, after you have taken into account the impact of your core activities, the context of your organization, your business goals and other criteria.
Once you know how you score, you can also determine (based on those scores) austria mobile phone number list where your organization is in McConnell's maturity model, the 'Digital Workplace Maturity Scale ' . And where you want to be when. In short, you can define your vision and then formulate a strategy to get there - including a roadmap.
The maturity model consists of five levels, which McConnell describes and where I indicate what I experience as the characteristics if you are at this level (or what the risks are):
Level 1: ad hoc, unmanaged
At the first level, there is no such thing as a digital work environment. Often there is an intranet (sometimes not even that), there are digital self-services for employees and there are all kinds of other supporting tools, but they are not viewed in context - let alone managed. The implementation of these kinds of things, in line with the culture in the organization, is very top-down.
Organizations at this level are not very agile and that does not have to be a problem, as long as no unexpected circumstances arise. In the long(er) term, they can therefore only function in a stable, unchanging and predictable market or sector. But, as you know, change is perhaps the only constant in our world. It will therefore not surprise you that I see the future for organizations that remain at this level as bleak.