Recruiting the right people to help “champion” your effort within the organization is critical. SharePoint is a collaborative tool, and the only reason to use it is if others are using it as well. Your champions are your footholds, creating content and encouraging others to use the system. How do you go about identifying and recruiting your champions, and how do you give them the tools they need?
Find technologically savvy people, preferably with some intranet use in their past. Researchers have proven that prior experience with an intranet will cause users to see the new intranet as easier to use, more useful, and to embrace the new system when it launches. Choose senior, well-connected, influential people who can help bring others on board.
If choosing a group of champions to work with, find a group that has been working together for a while, not one that is newly formed. Look for a group that is meritocratic, concerned more with working together to get the job done and less with rank and title.
We like to maintain an adoption org chart of the people our team has met. Along with name, title, and organizational group, we identify them as “champion”, “detractor”, or “neutral” and make notes about our interactions.
Train your champions well and make them your site owners and site collections admins. They will pass what they learn on to others and keep an eye out for usage violations. Equip them with flyers and handouts, which they will eagerly pass along to others.
Before you implement a new SharePoint site, you should ask yourself the following questions:
• Have you thought about who your champions are within your organization?
• Can you identify people or groups who fit the profile described above?
• Do you have a way to record who your champions are, such as an adoption org chart?
• Do you have a plan to enable your champions through training, marketing materials, etc.?
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