Seeking passionate intranet managers with good sense of humour for ongoing love affairs

“Behind every great intranet you will often find one person whose courage, power and in the end love for their work, has produced stunning results.”

It was April in Paris – that’s how it started. And how appropriate: the most romantic city in the world, and on a beautiful spring evening. But the setting was not a romantic soirée, it was an IBF Member Meeting and after a full day of intranets the group was relaxing on the Arc de Triomphe.

Inspired I think by the passion of the intranet managers in our group, Paul Miller, DWG’s CEO and Chairman, turned to me and said “We need to do a research report on Intranet love affairs”. Now that’s not a research project I ever could have predicted working on! It seemed a bit light-hearted, but it rang a bell for me as containing an important message.

Having managed intranets at T-Mobile and Reuters I recognise how important the quality of passion is in nurturing and selling the intranet. I’ve rarely met an intranet manager who isn’t passionate about the potential of intranets, unless they’re just in the wrong job altogether.

“Intranets are vital to organizational life and will be for many years, perhaps decades, to come and each intranet we admire is part of a love affair. Let’s collect come of those stories!”

I did a double take when Paul first suggested this research theme, the way he describes it is: “Great intranets are created by passionate, energetic and determined people. Behind every great intranet you will often find one person whose courage, power and in the end love for their work, has produced stunning results. Listen to them talk and you can hear in their voices what makes that intranet thrive. Intranets are vital to organizational life and will be for many years, perhaps decades, to come and each intranet we admire is part of a love affair. Let’s collect come of those stories!”

Since then we’ve had a great advocate for intranets, Mark Morrell, come on board to lead the research project. The full paper will be published to members in January 2012 – with some great stories and advice on selling the intranet effectively. We’ll be sharing highlights on our blog and also featuring some of the most passionate intranet managers on IBF Live, including William Amurgis, Christy Season, Martin Risgaard, and Mark Morrell.

As well as celebrating the continuing importance of intranets as a key part of the digital workplace, this is also about celebrating the people who make intranets rock – yes you! Let’s face it, at times it can be a thankless task to try to get everyone on board; get the budget signed off; and so on.

We want to hear about your intranet love affairs – from the quirky to the downright steamy! Tell us about your intranet love affair and we’ll be celebrating your intranet passion on our blog and on IBF Live over the next couple of months.

See what others are saying about their love affairs!

Categorised in: Collaboration, Research reports