GEEKing out on employee experiences at LinkedIn

[00:00:01.820] – Laurel Dzneladze 

We’re all the people who are working on the projects. There’s no executive who’s in this group telling us what we should or shouldn’t be doing. This was all donated time. This was 10% of each of our time that we were all donating to pulling these parts and pieces together, bringing data forward that they couldn’t do before, whether it was just, Hey, look at these eight change projects happening for every single person at the company at the same time. There just wasn’t that information available. And so I think from that perspective, people started seeing the value in just having this knowledge and having this expertise together. 

[00:00:43.730] – Nancy Goebel 

Laurel Zetelenadza is a digital workplace leader with a rich career in digital platforms, change management, employee upskilling, and a number of other rich skillsets in the digital workplace arena. Laurel’s held leadership positions at Johnson Controls, Whole Foods, Arm, and Microsoft before landing at LinkedIn three years ago. During our chat, we discussed The GEEK, which is actually an acronym, as a key strategic change leadership tool for transforming the employee experience at LinkedIn. In our conversation, Laurel also talked about how her previous roles prepared her for her current position at LinkedIn, including her tenure as a customer success manager at LinkedIn. We talked about her career trajectory, her professional development activities through Stage Laurel, and we also talked about AI and what it means for digital workplace practitioners around us. Join me now for what turned out to be a wonderful and fascinating conversation with Laurel Dzneladze as we explore the world of digital workplace leadership and career development. 

[00:02:06.800] – Nancy Goebel 

This is Nancy Goebel, your host and DWG’s Chief Executive. As always, Digital Workplace Impact is brought to you by Digital Workplace Group. Happy listening. Laurel, welcome, welcome to the studio. I’m so glad to have a chance to catch up with you. 

[00:02:24.480] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Thank you. I’m very happy to be here and to be a part of this amazing podcast and the Digital Workplace Group. Thank you for inviting me. 

[00:02:34.560] – Nancy Goebel 

Oh, it’s such a pleasure. Of course, I have to start by saying we met quite a few years ago, in fact, during your Johnson Control days. I have followed your career very closely, and you’ve since gone on to other practitioner roles, whether it was at Whole Foods or Arm. I remember you made a right-hand turn, and I was really I’m surprised when you announced that you were moving on to Microsoft and you became a Customer Success Manager there. And nowadays, you work at LinkedIn, and you’re a Digital Platforms and Change Management Leader. And I just felt like it would be a really interesting time to bring you into the studio to share a little bit about your career, some of your learnings, what’s happening in our industry, industry now. I know that you’re somebody who’s very active in sharing your thinking, active in the speaker circuit and what have you. And so I thought, gee, why not bring you into the studio for a chat? 

[00:03:45.490] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Thank you. It’s very humbling when you’re in your career and you’re exploring new things to do and trying to stay on top of the digital space. It is incredibly challenging to see the forest through the trees. So just hearing that you’ve even been following me just warms my heart. 

[00:04:09.490] – Nancy Goebel 

And others will be warmed equally as they learn more about you. So let’s jump in. My first question for you has to do with the fact that you have had a really rich career, and I think it would be really interesting to hear your thoughts on how your previous roles have have prepared you for your current role at LinkedIn. 

[00:04:34.240] – Laurel Dzneladze 

If we back the train up all the way to when I started at Johnson Controls, at that time, I was looking at, and what I used to always say back then, back in the day, was that I like to be in roles where I was bridging the gap between communications or the business and IT. And ultimately, that translated into how are we connecting people to technology And how can we, in this day and age, put people at the center of how we work and the way that they interact with technology and the workplace and all of the, I would say, building blocks to what employee experience has become. And I know when you were just talking about some of my history there and being on the practitioner side, when I joined Microsoft, I didn’t think of it as that big of a pivot at that time. I thought, hey, this is a really cool opportunity for me to work with lots of companies that are trying to figure out this thing called digital workplace or digital transformation, however you want to label it. And I thought, this is this is really great because I’ll be able to go work for Microsoft and then hear the stories and work with Microsoft customers that are faced with the same challenges I’ve been faced with, whether it was at Johnson Controls or Whole Foods or even at LinkedIn today. 

[00:06:01.230] – Laurel Dzneladze 

And I really think that communicators as a whole would benefit from the experience of not only working in sales, but there is so much you can learn from and apply the skills of empathy and just communication to the role of a CSM and the way that adoption and change management works. And I think it’s been those skill sets that I gained there have been instrumental in my role here at LinkedIn, LinkedIn, I sometimes say I’m CSMing LinkedIn from the inside. So there’s a lot of like herding cats and trying to figure out why there’s certain behaviors that exist within the company and why we use technology in this way and how does that apply to communications as well as any of the other things that are happening internally in the company. And really really having that skill set of understanding, adoption and change management and how technology, how I. T. Thinks about their workspaces was all stuff that I really gained at scale in working at Microsoft And of course, my IT experience of working at the other jobs were helpful, too. But I think it was a it was a really great role for me to take at the point in my career where I just wanted to absorb as much knowledge as I possibly could from different companies And then as well from Microsoft in terms of how Microsoft thought about stuff. 

[00:07:35.100] – Laurel Dzneladze 

And then when I joined LinkedIn, one of the first aha moments I had was like, do I have this perspective or did Microsoft teach me to have this perspective about this thing? And it took me a little while after joining LinkedIn to be like, I’m pretty sure Microsoft convinced me to think this way, and it’s not actually my idea. And that’s okay, right? Because that’s Microsoft is really good at that. And I and I think it was beneficial for me in my career now and in my career at Microsoft. But it also helps me understand how that human brain works as we think through what is making me use this technology or what is making me communicate in this way through these channels. And so all of my jobs have really helped me get to where I am today. And I think whatever I do next, wherever I go next, this role will also be instrumental in that. 

[00:08:34.450] – Nancy Goebel 

And drawing out those learnings as you go along is so important, especially because our industry is a fast moving one. And to survive to thrive, if not to thrive, you really have to take stock of what you’re learning as you go along and really aspire to be a lifelong learner in that journey to stay not just relevant, but compelling rolling as a professional who is leading change, especially in and around the technology arena. And so am I right in thinking that you’re fast approaching your three-year anniversary at LinkedIn? 

[00:09:16.830] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Yes. In some ways, it feels like time has flown, in other ways, not so much. But yeah, I’ll be coming up on three years in a couple of months. 

[00:09:27.020] – Nancy Goebel 

Wow. And so what would you say you’re most proud of from your tenure so far? And tell us a little bit about why you’re thinking that way. 

[00:09:38.850] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Yeah. Well, this will be no surprise if anyone from LinkedIn listens in on this. But the way the company culture works is that there’s a lot of this scrappy startup mentality, even though we’re over 20,000 people, where we’re thinking about, how can we do cool stuff and build it and see what happens? And because of that, there’s a lot of pockets of great things happening that are very disconnected from other great things that are happening. And when I joined the company, I approached it with, I guess, maybe what would be a standard way of approaching digital transformation, which is get executive buy in, get the leaders to tell people what they’re going to do. Also very change management, structured of like, hey, We need to align. We need to drive strategy. We need to top down, articulate what needs to happen and bring everybody on board. That really did not work here. It just didn’t. And when I really thought about where can I have the most influence and where can I have the most control? It was really at the project level. So when I looked across the organization, I thought, there’s a huge gap with knowledge, with change and with program management and how all of these things are structured across the company. 

[00:11:05.490] – Laurel Dzneladze 

They exist in pockets. Nobody’s really talking to one another. So I formed this group, which is now called The GEEK. It’s the generating effective and efficient knowledge group. We love having fun names here at LinkedIn, and it’s a knowledge management function that’s cross-functional. It’s one of the first real groups that was cross-functionally formed at the company. Our role is really to look at the best practices and standards for how knowledge is created, stored, and maintained within LinkedIn. And we have visibility into various projects that are happening across the company from a technology change standpoint, from moving knowledge from one knowledge base to another or streamlining them together. And I mean, this encompasses sales and finance and H. R. And comms and just everyone that’s there. And there’s so much energy that’s brought to this group because people can really see the impact that this group is having across the board. And I think people get really energized about the idea that now we have insight into projects that we didn’t have before. And we’re able to connect the dots in ways that are only going to help the company become more productive and efficient. And from a communications perspective, it helps inform where we’re communicating, where we’re storing our knowledge, whether it’s like, do we put an FAQ in SharePoint or do we need to save it in ServiceNow? 

[00:12:39.310] – Laurel Dzneladze 

There’s so many different options and choices and how eventually does that influence things like AI and GAI that are top of mind for everyone these days. So I think that is probably one of my greatest accomplishments was just forming this cross-functional group that is now influencing projects at scale across the company. 

[00:13:01.020] – Nancy Goebel 

Well, that sounds like a very exciting milestone within your tenure at LinkedIn. And what were some of the things that you did to bring others along? Because that’s part of the change curve, introducing a whole new framework and way of going about driving progress. 

[00:13:22.530] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Yeah. So I teamed up to start with a friend of mine in HR operations And she and I were experiencing some of the same frustrations in each of our own little worlds. And we thought, well, if we’re not getting what we want from a technology standpoint, we’ll focus on the content. And it actually wasn’t that difficult to bring people into a space where we were like, hey, we’re we’re trying a brand new approach here. And we went through this phase of like, all right, let’s really understand what’s going on. And people wanted to contribute because they saw the value in having a cross-functional group. And I think we’re all the people who are working on the projects. So there’s no executive who’s in this group telling us what we should or shouldn’t be doing. And this was all donated time. So this was 10 % of each of our time that we were all donating to pulling these parts and pieces together. And then now, as it’s evolved and really become part of the company, we started bringing in our stakeholders, our management chains and other stakeholders into it. And they in turn saw that we were bringing data forward that they couldn’t do before, whether it was just, hey, look at these eight change projects happening for every single person at the company at the same time. 

[00:14:51.500] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Or it was like, hey, did you know that there’s this much data being stored in SharePoint and this much data being stored in ServiceNow. There just wasn’t that information available. And so I think from that perspective, people started seeing the value in just having this knowledge and having this expertise together. And even today, I was just on a meeting earlier today with the GEEK. And there were two new people that wanted to join. And so I think when you are doing cool stuff that can be seen across the business, people want to be a part of it. And so we haven’t really struggled with bringing people in where we are taking it to the next level is how do we get it to be more formal than just a bunch of friends getting together trying to solve the world or LinkedIn’s knowledge problems. 

[00:15:46.280] – Nancy Goebel 

And so do you have a vision for how that might manifest itself, whether it’s at a strategic level, a measurement level, anything that you can preview for us in terms of the 2024 agenda for the GEEK? 

[00:16:04.320] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Yeah. I think there’s so many soapboxes I could get on with that question. I think what’s really bubbling up now, and some companies have this structure, where you have a centralized business transformation or digital transformation or employee experience organization. And And they have these centralized teams that work like it’s PMO or it’s change or it’s culture and comms, it’s workplace, all of these that cover across the organization to give that view that you just don’t get when you’re looking at what’s the sales tech, what’s the finance tech, what’s the comms tech? And I think that eventually we’ll get to that place where we can have, even if it’s not a formal organization, but we can have the change practitioners that are working in each of the organizations be more connected or the PMs or the knowledge strategists that we’re in a space where we’re connected to one another and we’re informing the work across the board. I think that will probably be the next phase for us. And I think really getting to a place where we can have quarterly reportouts with leadership and with people who are working on the projects so that they understand why this is important and why in order to take LinkedIn from a digital transformation perspective, why it’s important to do this to get us to the next level. 

[00:17:42.260] – Laurel Dzneladze 

So that’s what I see happening, hopefully. 

[00:17:45.400] – Nancy Goebel 

Well, it sounds like a very noble and cool body of work. And I hope that in a year’s time, we can find some way to check back in to see how things are progressing missing. But in the meantime, I know that there are a number of different things that have your care and attention nowadays. And you did mention GAI and AI very briefly. And so I wonder if you can share a little bit about what’s happening in that arena. And let me just give you a little bit of a backdrop to say that when we’re in conversation with our members, there’s a little bit of a sense that there’s one foot on the gas pedal and one foot on the brakes with this space. So people’s curiosity levels are very high. There are lots of proofs of concept. Of course, Microsoft Copilot has had their review program out there for a number of months And there’s a level of nervousness about what does this all mean for not only digital workplace teams, but for organizations at large. And people are trying to find their feet. And so we’ve published some very recent research that looks at things like the value, meaning the opportunities, and then the risk elements to help people feel like they can create safe hands to help their organizations navigate a way forward. 

[00:19:19.130] – Nancy Goebel 

And so as someone who, A, came from the land of Microsoft, and B, are actively working in the enterprise digital workplace arena, it would be really interesting just to get your perspective on what’s happening in and around the whole AI arena for LinkedIn and any other reflections you’d like to share from a wider industry standpoint. 

[00:19:46.250] – Laurel Dzneladze 

So AI, it definitely is a big question. And I think not speaking to the AI work that is happening on LinkedIn.com and on the platform, there’s definitely a huge focus for us and thinking about how we can incorporate AI into LinkedIn.com. Pivoting to internal AI and GAI, I think I never want to downplay the value of Copilot or the influence of Copilot in the workplace and in the future of how we think about work. Even when I was at Gartner last year in their digital workplace conference, they were talking a lot about like digital adoption programs. And I think a lot of that is going to manifest in a way that it’s through some GAI or through some copilot assistant type application. The other thing I just like also want to say is And I think a lot of this is like we need to calm down a little bit. Marketing for Copilot is great. Microsoft is doing a fantastic job of putting Copilot everywhere and marking that to every organization everywhere. And for a lot of organizations, it’s still going to be out of their grasp. Because it’s not necessarily cheap. 

[00:21:12.310] – Laurel Dzneladze 

It’s a little bit scary. There’s a lot of things that come with ethical concerns or or content and how content is shared within a Copilot and GAI. So I think there’s a lot of stuff that’s just not really accessible. But like AI, it has always been around. So when people come ask me, how are you using AI? And I’m like, I mean, every time Teams and I type in somebody’s name, that’s Lisa. And it pops up the Lisa I most talk to, like that’s AI. So from that perspective, I’m like, we all just need to calm down. AI has been here for a long time. It has been fueling everything we do in personal and work life. I think when we look at it tactically in terms of how is it influencing little things I do in my job, I was in a meeting earlier this week, and it was the starting point of me recording every single meeting that I join. And the reason I’m doing that is because we have the meeting recap within Teams that allows us to… It basically takes the notes for me. I’m a remote worker, so I’m sometimes easily distracted by my adorable dog that lives next to me. 

[00:22:27.600] – Laurel Dzneladze 

And so sometimes I’m not always paying attention. I do my best. But I found that the ability for the Copilot and that meeting recap to not only tell me what’s happened in the meeting, but help me plan for my next meeting, assign tasks, know who said what, understand where we need to go as a result of the conversations from this meeting is so, so helpful. And it really is an assistant when you think about it in that way. And so I think there’s all things like that that people will start doing in order to better help them know what happened in the meeting and report out and work forward. A lot of the project managing type stuff, it does for you and can help in that assisting way. When we look at how does GAI manifest across our portal ecosystem, we’re looking at how do we incorporate it to help with ticketing, whether it’s for for IT or for HR. How can it be more self-service? How can you ask questions and have it better answer them in a way that maybe it hasn’t happened before? I think even just looking at how Copilot can help create PowerPoint presentations, the first time I experienced that, I was like, there’s at least three years at the start of my career that probably were spent just creating PowerPoints and modifying pictures and moving things around. 

[00:24:02.470] – Laurel Dzneladze 

And it really eliminates that first step. And even just brainstorming, right? When you learn how to talk to Copilot in a way that helps generate ideas, right? And in a tone of voice that maybe you want to have it generated in. That can also help. There’s times I’ve been stuck. People ask me to do something and I’m staring at a blank word doc. It helps me jumpstart in how I pull a framework for how to display this information for this ask. I think those things can be really helpful in just streamlining how we connect all of our work together. But none of that’s really going to work if your knowledge is everywhere all at once. I think when we look at communications in the way that communicators are using technologies, the best thing we can do is put it in places where it’s discoverable, where it’s searchable and where it’s shareable. And that is the only way these systems are going to be able to say, hey, here’s a document or here’s a resource or here’s a statement that I found within the ecosystem. So I think that’s another part as we move forward, just thinking about how can this content be indexed and be surfaced to employees and used by employees. 

[00:25:25.870] – Laurel Dzneladze 

And there’s a lot of, I think, training and education that comes along with that that hasn’t been focused on at depth in the way that it’s probably going to be needed to in the future. 

[00:25:36.740] – Nancy Goebel 

I have to say I love and appreciate your clarity, your honesty, your insight and your pragmatism. And that all just came to life in just about four minutes worth doing a little bit of sharing. And I think the way in which you’re thinking about things and breaking them down so that people draw from the familiar. AI has been out there for a while when you’ve been searching for Lisa to the things that you’re doing that are stepping stones to take advantage of these new resources that we have at our fingertips that start to become an extension of the team in a lot of ways. So it’s almost like you’re delegating the synthesis of of meeting notes to another colleague and just saying, run with it and let me know when you have the end product or ditto for the PowerPoint slides. And so I think for those of us who’ve been double-booked and triple-booked in large-scale enterprises. And suddenly, the administrative side of meeting notes and action points and next steps and all of that being handled filled by your AI counterpart really allows for you to free up headspace to think about other things that actually are best served by what you bring to the table. 

[00:27:16.220] – Nancy Goebel 

We’ve talked a little bit about the GEEK. We’ve talked a little bit about the AI landscape, not only in your orbit, but in the organization as it’s coming together. Are there any other big-ticket items that are worth sharing in terms of your priorities for this year? And I guess that could be either at a macro level for your business agenda or more of a micro level for you from more of a professional development from a performance standpoint. 

[00:27:46.130] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Yeah. So I’d say a couple of things there. One of the soap boxes that I frequently get on is around community and community being core to success at a company. And I I think community directly fuels those knowledge bases, thinking about not only what content is being posted in the community, but all the comments and conversations that happen as a result of that. The good stuff is always in the comments on a post. So I think when people are thinking about digital strategy or people are thinking about how do we get people to adopt stuff, missing the value of community within that and creating places for people to come together and share knowledge would be a tragedy. And so for me and for us, I continuously push that idea of creating communities that phone a friend doesn’t really work anymore and that we have to have spaces where people can come together and learn from one another So I would say that’s a big one here. The other professional stuff that also bridges into the… For personally, but also in the workplace, I think there’s a lot of interesting momentum that may come out of this GAI as well as just communities and how we’re connecting together and how we can better relate comms and business change to metrics. 

[00:29:09.760] – Laurel Dzneladze 

And when I say metrics, I mean not just page views or site visits or things like that, but how can we start to tangibly say the way that people engage or the way that we’re communicating is influencing employee voice surveys or influencing the way retention at companies and the way that people view the company and its leadership. And I think there’s going to be tools. And I think even today, there’s ways that we can start to draw more correlation across the business to, Hey, how can we influence certain things from a comms perspective as well as just from a technology perspective in terms of how can we influence the core markers of what we’re deeming as success? And how does that translate to like an employee voice survey. So I think there’s that piece of it. That’s really something that I’m interested in and alongside of that, right? Personally, looking at continuing to learn about change management, of course, and agile change in the ways that I can grow and continue to keep up some of my certifications in that space. Organizational psychology is something that I’m really getting into. A friend of mine from Microsoft, he brought me into this modern collaboration architecture idea. 

[00:30:33.200] – Laurel Dzneladze 

And alongside that is really how we’re thinking about the behaviors that happen at a company. So I’m definitely exploring more ways I can get closer to that and design thinking. So how are we designing products with those behaviors and understandings of human nature at the center of it? 

[00:30:54.300] – Nancy Goebel 

You are one of the highest energy practitioners in our circles. And it’s It’s just wonderful to see how not only you’re taking the time and care to invest in the work that you do, but also yourself. And so those who know you well or follow you, you talk about something called Stage Laurel. So where does that fit into this landscape that you’ve just painted for us? 

[00:31:22.380] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Stage Laurel is the version of me that goes to conferences, speaks about similar topics that we’ve spoken about today. And I go out to conferences and I talk about these topics and I connect with people and I learn from other people in the space. And for me, that is one of the core ways that, I’m a remote employee, like I said. So I don’t have those human connections like I used to when I went to the office every single day. And I find that when I go to these conferences, these are the places where I gain some of those connections from people that I admire and that I really learn from. And it also allows me opportunity to hear what’s happening in the space, to learn from some of the other products that might be coming in the space or evolving. And so Stage Laurel is the version of me that does a podcast like this and that goes and flies to Australia to speak at a conference. It’s a really cool way to connect with people and help people as they’re exploring the employee experience digital world. 

[00:32:41.860] – Nancy Goebel 

Well, I have a couple of immediate reactions. One is We are absolutely kindred spirits. When I was growing up in my teens and my tweens, I was painfully shy. So to think, I’m sitting where I’m sitting talking to you, knowing your background. I take heart in the fact that those of us who are on the high scale of introversion can find courage to become ambiverts and look at opportunities to challenge ourselves and think about how we can have breakthrough moments to put that fear aside in the spirit of not only paying it forward, because that’s part of what you’re doing in Stage Laurel, but also to really nurture your connections so that there’s almost a flywheel effect to what you’re doing, because the more you share, the more you’re getting, the more you get, the cycle goes on. So that was the first thing that I wanted to reflect on. But the other is just that this idea that now more than ever, with the amount of change that’s happening and in the speed at which change is happening, we almost need to become shapeshifters because some of the roles that will exist five years from now haven’t even been conceived of yet, not only in the working world at large, but within our discipline as well. 

[00:34:22.980] – Nancy Goebel 

And the brain is a muscle. You have to keep flexing it and exercising it in order to be able to stay relevant and compelling. And I think we always need to be the students of our craft. And so what you’ve just shared is a very vibrant example of that. So I just wanted to share those two thoughts. 

[00:34:46.130] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Thank you for sharing that. I think that’s at the core of the digital workplace group, too, right? Like learning from one another, getting experts together. And I think just we’re at this pace and a place in the world where, it’s more acceptable to to admit that you just don’t know what you’re doing and you need help. And I think that places like the Digital Workplace Group and other conferences are great ways to connect with people and learn from them. And I would say the conversations I have between the presentations are some of the most valuable. And when I’m looking at, how can I offer advice to people in the future? And to your point about the pace at which things are speeding up, you can’t prepare for everything. There’s just no way to do it. And you’re going to have to know and accept the fact that whatever decision you make now, based on all the expert knowledge you could possibly glean from anywhere in the world, could be entirely the wrong thing to do two months from now. And you just have to go with it. And I think being able to work with leadership, being able to work at companies where there’s not this fear and there’s not this designing for the one % of things that might break or people that may mess it up. 

[00:36:12.850] – Laurel Dzneladze 

I think that’s the place where this space can really thrive and staying on top of what’s happening in the ecosystem, but also staying grounded on the values that you have as an individual, as the company has, and being able to guide leaders and practitioners through the changes. I think that’s where people like you and I or people who may be listening in on this podcast can really stay the charge as we move forward through this rapidly changing world, which, by the way, I love. I wouldn’t be here doing this if I didn’t want to be inside the insanity, learning everything I possibly can. It’s a really cool space to be a part of. 

[00:37:00.110] – Nancy Goebel 

Well, I’m definitely a self-proclaimed digital workplace nerd and have been operating in this space for, dare I say, upwards of 25 years. 

[00:37:12.380] – Laurel Dzneladze 

It’s a long time. 

[00:37:13.800] – Nancy Goebel 

It’s been a long time. And so, Laurel, I could talk with you for hours, but I’m conscious that we’re getting close to the end of our time together. And so I just thought it would be interesting to ask you, is there a question that you were hoping I’d ask and I haven’t asked you? 

[00:37:33.390] – Laurel Dzneladze 

I definitely thought. I mean, I get a lot of questions about like, do intranets matter anymore? Like, is that a thing or is the digital workplace a thing anymore? Those are like two questions that come up with me, come up a lot. Like, do you need an intranet with Copilot? Do you need a digital workplace function anymore? Is that an idea that’s gone to the wayside? Those are two questions I get a lot. You want me to answer them, don’t you? I hear you. I see it 

[00:38:15.110] – Nancy Goebel 

You know I was setting you up for that. 

[00:38:16.370] – Laurel Dzneladze 

I know you were. I’m a smart cookie sometimes. 

[00:38:20.300] – Nancy Goebel 

I know you are. 

[00:38:22.650] – Laurel Dzneladze 

I would say with the intranet question, LinkedIn has been launching an intranet and ramping the intranet for a little a while now. The way I look at all of the stuff with Copilot and AI is there’s the… How I’ve been explaining it here, right? Is there’s the ability to search or ask for questions, right? And that is like a direct thing that you do when you know what you’re looking for, right? Like, show me my benefits or how can I take better advantage of my benefits? That’s a thing that you know to ask for. And the way that I see an Intranet playing a role in all of this is for the things that you don’t know. I may not know to search for some org change or I may not know to search for some event that’s happening within the company. And it’s the same thing as you have in your mobile device or even in your computer where, yeah, I can go into my phone and I can open the app that I want or I can search for the content that I want. But I’m also getting notifications about stuff. Something is reminding me, oh, you have a bill due. 

[00:39:31.860] – Laurel Dzneladze 

Thanks a lot for that reminder. Or like, hey, here’s a news item you might be interested in or, hey, check your notifications here. And I mean, there’s a lot of conversations we could have about like social media and all and the way that phones grab your attention. But there’s a balance there. And I think that’s the role that the Intranet plays is helping you find information that you didn’t know you needed or you didn’t know to search for. And that maybe because you’re not instructing Copilot or even using enterprise search to find that content, you’re not going to find it. So I think that would be my answer to the intranet question. Yes, still a valuable resource, but not something that I think everyone needs to come to every single day. It’s more there when you need it. When it comes to digital workplace and whether or not that’s still a thing, I mean, it’s evolved over time. I’m sure you’ve seen it called different things, whether it’s digital transformation or digital workplace or employee experience or digital employee experience. I think they’re all evolutions of the same thing. And I think we will continue to see that I don’t think what it’s called may change, but I don’t think the idea of needing to consolidate or have a holistic view of how people, technology, workplaces, culture all come together. 

[00:41:01.460] – Laurel Dzneladze 

I don’t think that’s going to go away. And I think as the workplace continues to change generationally, it’ll be needed more than ever. So I would say both of those things are still relevant. 

[00:41:16.690] – Nancy Goebel 

Yes and yes, from my point of view. And I like to use the metaphor of a house. So for many organizations, the intranet is still the front door. But as this space continues to change, if you think of it as the digital headquarters as a whole, it may be that the intranet at some point will become the side door or a window. And in other cases, sometimes you have to change it out altogether, and a new door comes in. And so I think that’s part of the beauty of our industry. It’s not static, it’s not hygiene. It is a vital part of organizations, just like any other strategic asset when you think about as an entity. And part of the charm for me is that as needs are changing, just like when you own a house, your needs evolve and the kitchen you had 25 years ago is not the style of the kitchen that you have now. And you can change things out to meet specific needs, both form and function. 

[00:42:22.660] – Laurel Dzneladze 

I love that analogy. I feel like house analogies are used a lot in the digital workplace. 

[00:42:28.950] – Nancy Goebel 

Well, I come from family with quite a few engineers and architects. 

[00:42:35.120] – Laurel Dzneladze 

It makes sense now. 

[00:42:36.840] – Nancy Goebel 

It’s an easy metaphor to draw from, exactly. So I think that’s a great place to cap off today’s conversation with the promise that we’ll chat again. 

[00:42:49.320] – Laurel Dzneladze 

I look forward to that, and I appreciate you reaching out to me. This has been a joy to reconnect with you. And as you’ve been following me, I’ve been following you. So it’s been a pleasure. 

[00:43:05.480] – Nancy Goebel 

Digital Workplace Impact is brought to you by the Digital Workplace Group. DWG is a strategic partner covering all aspects of the evolving digital workplace industry, not only through membership, but also benchmarking and boutique consulting services. For more information, visit digitalworkplacegroup.com.