Rolling Out a New SharePoint Intranet: A Success Story

"Intranets aren't sexy". That's the word according to Amanda Stephenson, RSA's Manager of Communications. (And, it couldn't be more true). Yet, Amanda recently won a Gold Quill Award for rolling out an upgrade of an on-premises version of SharePoint to a cloud-based version. How on earth could she have managed that --- given that this kind of project is pretty much at the bottom of the list of projects that strategic communicators want to lead??

On this episode of The Swear Jar, Amanda shares with Elizabeth and me her inspiring story while highlighting practical and actionable lessons that all communications professional can learn from. Topics we touched upon include:

• How to establish intranet project goals
• How to choose metrics that ensure continued project support 
• How to deal with "change fatigue"
• How to deal with resistance to the roll-out
• How to brand the roll-out so that cuts through the clutter

Episode Index

• Project goals and KPIs 2:00 
• The organization context 7:00
• The roll-out and range of stakeholders 11:00
• Sources of resistance 15:10
• Some items of interest 20:50
• Key do's and don'ts 21:44
• Results 25:50
• Summary 28:55
• The Gold Quill 30:45
• What caught our attention 33:11

ABC Resources Highlighted in this Episode

• Overcoming Resistance
• What's in Your Communications Stack? The Swear Jar Podcast
• IABC World Conference June 28-30
• Worst Company Ever: How to Respond to Online Reviews by Employees
• Employee Change Communications That Work