Something has really crystallised for me over the last few months in my discussions with many intranet teams. More often than not, these teams are quietly working away, delivering valuable but unseen improvements to the intranet. This includes implementing a new CMS, cleaning up content, developing taxonomies and adding search functionality.

All of these activities are valuable, and probably necessary. They are also invisible and often unrecognised within the organisation as a whole. Now I’ve talked often about the importance of focusing on tangible and visible improvements, but let me state that more bluntly:

When it comes to improving intranets, if it doesn’t get you kudos, it doesn’t count.

At a time when intranet continue to struggle to get the support and resources they need, I have little patience for intranet teams who choose to labour away on unseen tasks. How can we expect organisations to recognise the value of our work, if we focus on activities that are almost impossible to explain or quantify?

This is not about self-serving promotional activities, or “blowing your own trumpet”. It’s about choosing activities that won’t just benefit the organisation, but will also help the intranet team to deliver further improvements. Or at least, structuring or designing activities in ways that can be more easily promoted. Oh, and then actually promoting the improvements once they are delivered.

Anyway, that’s just my thoughts on a Friday afternoon…