Lackluster social intranet? 3 things you’re (probably) not doing

For years, employees have been subjected to the “Godspeed” method of their employers introducing new communication technologies to the workplace. Here’s how it works:

The IT department configures the new technology, subjecting it to rigorous testing to ensure that the bits get to where they’re supposed to go and that the tool works they way it’s supposed to without interfering with other systems. Once they’re sure the technology works right, they issue the following instructions to the workforce: “Godspeed.”

As a result, each employee is left to his own devices to figure out how—or if—he’ll adopt the technology.

I’m not blaming IT, mind you. Instilling a cultural sense of how a new communication tool should be used is not their job. Unfortunately, it’s not anybody else’s job, either, which could explain the slow adoption of social intranets.