Governance: How to Do It Right

To make sure you get the right balance and gain the full benefits of an intranet or digital workplace, you need a clear strategy and purpose for how well it is managed. By following the direction set by your strategy and principles defining its purpose, the next steps are to develop the governance framework.

Defining the scope of your governance framework creates clarity for people in your organization on what is included or excluded. This is important if your intranet transforms into a digital workplace. As your intranet changes in its size and scope, so your governance framework will need to change to reflect this.

Create confidence that you have a clear purpose for the intranet. Show how it supports your organization’s goals. This will make it easier for you to make the changes needed to the way your intranet is managed and developed. Your organization should be clear about the reasons for these changes. It will then be confident they will improve its effectiveness, and benefit people using the intranet. Sharing your strategy and governance framework with your stakeholders will reassure them why they are supporting you.

You need to define your publishing model. You should design it to provide the right conditions for a consistently good experience. This applies whether people are publishing or accessing information or applications on your intranet.

It may be that you start with one model and then change to another in the future. This will depend on your organization and your intranet’s needs. Here are four examples of publishing models for you to decide which is most likely to meet your requirements:

1. Centralized

2. Decentralized

3. Outsourced

4. Hybrid

Once you have chosen the publishing model that will meet your requirements, you should follow the principles for good governance as you develop a governance framework that includes:

• Scope

• Purpose

• Roles and responsibilities

• Publishing standards

• Publishing support

When developing your governance framework, consider including the different types of content–accredited and collaborative–and applications. You should also factor in how people use the intranet when implementing your framework.

Once you have your scope and purpose outlined, you need to ensure everyone is clear about their responsibilities. Having a hierarchy that links all the roles together and shows their responsibilities creates that clarity. It also helps everyone to understand clearly how their activities affect other people. Making it available on the intranet also gives it transparency and can prevent any confusion or misunderstandings.

Your governance hierarchy should have three levels. Firstly, the strategic level for roles responsible for setting the direction for your intranet. The intranet owner, champion, stakeholder, and a steering group are all roles who can have responsibility for your strategy.

At the hub level, the intranet manager is the conduit in the governance hierarchy between the strategic and operational levels. This role implements the decisions made about strategy, direction, and timing of implementation. Good communication channels and decision-making help everyone to understand what is happening and how they may be affected.

Lastly, at the operational level, you have the intranet team members and the wider publishing community. These roles are responsible for implementing the strategy operationally, with day-to-day activities of publishing, editing, managing, reviewing, updating, and removing content.