There is no question that your intranet needs fixing. You know it, stakeholders know it, and the rest of the workforce knows it. Yet it can be devilishly difficult to get intranet projects off the ground, with sufficient funding and support to be successful.

The danger is that intranet teams can get stuck in a ‘holding pattern’, waiting for approval to come down from on high, and in the meantime not able to do more than just maintenance. Teams can wait years for a significant intranet project to start, and the intranet suffers as a result.

This article outlines five practical approaches that teams can take to get approval for their projects, recognising that:

• there’s a lot happening in organisations at any given point
• intranet projects may therefore be competing with other initiatives
• budget is tight everywhere
• stakeholders and senior leaders have their own ambitions and drivers
• successful teams engage with internal politics and the personalities of stakeholders

These tips are drawn from two decades of working with intranet teams around the globe, and while they don’t make challenges go away, they do outline approaches that all teams can take, regardless of their current size or roles.

On that basis, the five approaches are:

1. Work out your project’s what and why
2. Work out what you need
3. Don’t ask for too much
4. Look for opportunities to align with
5. Convince your own boss

Each of these is explored in the sections below.

1. Work out your project’s what and why

The starting point for any potential project is to clearly define the scope of what will be improved or delivered, and why it matters. This needs to be more than just ‘redesign the intranet, so it works better for staff’, instead clearly targeting the concrete areas that will be tackled.

For example, the proposed project could be to redesign the intranet homepage, to enhance the HR section, or to deliver more online forms.

There must be a clear purpose and benefits for the chosen activities. These may be relatively small, such as improving the ability of the intranet team to respond to breaking news on the intranet homepage. Or they could be more ambitious, targeting a key point of pain within the business.

Some tips:

• Wherever possible, target tangible and visible issues, which are important to stakeholders and the workforce.
• Consider using the 6×2 methodology to identify areas that can be improved, within current constraints.
• Write up a one-page description of the project (see our article on ‘intranet concepts‘ for real-world examples and guidelines).

Target ‘above the waterline’ #intranet activities that the rest of the organisation cares about

2. Work out what you need

Can your project be done by the current team, without additional funding? Or will additional budget and support be required? If so, how much?

Support and resources can take many forms:

• money, to be spent on outside assistance (vendors, contractors, consultants, experts)
• money, to be spent on internal activities (typically IT-related)
• additional people, to deliver the project
• additional people, to backfill existing team members
• approval to put some activities on hold, to free up team time
• support from other business areas (such as IT, HR, comms)
• endorsement for key decisions that will enable the project to be delivered

This needs to be clearly documented, with any uncertainties or questions resolved before making the request. Mostly importantly, the request must be outlined in a form that makes it easy for the key decision-makers to say ‘yes’.

Before trying to get approval for your #intranet project, work out exactly what you need, in terms of time, money or resources

3. Don’t ask for too much

It’s common for teams to see big intranet problems (which there are!), and therefore to propose a single big project to resolve them.

For a long time, however, we’ve argued against big-bang redesigns: they take too long to get off the ground, and then fail to deliver on all of the hopes that have been piled on them. Intranet teams can get trapped waiting for years for big projects to be approved, and the day may never ultimately come.

The better alternative is to break the big problems and needs down into a series of smaller projects, that are easier to get approval and funding for.

Some tips:

• Aim to create an upwards spiral, with early successes positioning the team for bigger projects in the future.
• Early on, look for projects that will build team credibility and reputation, as much as they resolve an issue.
• Don’t forget to promote early successes, to maximise the impact of even small projects.

Big-bang #intranet projects don’t work –> aim to create an ‘upwards spiral’ of improvements instead

4. Look for opportunities to align with

Organisations are busy places, and major business areas are all pursuing strategic objectives and directions. At any given point, there may be hundreds of projects underway, both large and small.

The best way to get support for intranet projects may therefore be to align with some of these strategies or initiatives. For example, there may be a major push on staff engagement within HR, the move to a new corporate headquarters, or the rollout of a new technology platform.

Projects may also be able to align with overarching business strategies, which will make it easier to articulate benefits and importance.

Some tips:

• Arrange informal meetings with key business areas, to understand what they are working on.
• Once the landscape is better understood, select a few key business areas to target.
• Start by offering assistance, and then work together to define possible activities.
• Have frank conversations about the support and resources needed to deliver improvements, and see how other business areas can help.

Target ‘above the waterline’ #intranet activities that the rest of the organisation cares about

5. Convince your own boss

Regardless of where the intranet team sits within the organisation, it’s the job of their management to provide support and to help fight the team’s battles.

The starting point for any project is therefore to convince your boss that this is the right way to go. Don’t take this support for granted, and don’t skip over this vital first step.

This is not to say that your boss isn’t supportive, but to be your best advocate with higher-level stakeholders, the boss needs to fully understand the project, what’s needed, and why it’s important. Only then can he or she confidently stand in front of the steering committee (or other governance group) and make your case.

Some tips:

• Spend time to understand the objectives and motivations of your manager, including how their own performance and success will be measured.
• Also seek to understand your boss’s boss, to enable decisions to move smoothly up the hierarchy of the organisation.
• Work with your boss to refine the project, and to sharpen the activities, benefits and required resources.
• Provide your boss with the presentations or documents they need, in the format they need it, to make the case to stakeholders.

Have you given your boss what they need to fight for your #intranet project with stakeholders?

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The most important thing for intranets is that they are always moving, steadily addressing issues and delivering new benefits.

By focusing on practical projects that can get sign-off, intranet teams can confidently move their sites forward. Building on each success, teams can foster support for future projects with bigger ambitions.

Onwards and upwards!