2. 2
About
Tri-State Generation and Transmission
Association, Inc.
Wholesale electric power supplier owned by 44
electric cooperative across Colorado, Nebraska,
New Mexico and Wyoming.
Headquartered in
Denver, Colo., employs
more than 1,500
people at 37-plus sites.
Employees range from
power-plant operators
to linemen to
knowledge workers.
3. 3
About
Nicole Carlson, Employee Communications
Manager
More than 10 years experience in corporate
communications
Background in journalism, administrative studies
and project management
Served as project manager, intranet owner and
intranet SME
Twitter: @nicjoy
4. 4
Project background
Intranet redesign and platform
change/upgrade
Some departments using
SharePoint 2007
No audit processes for content
or formal ownership + active
management of department
sites
No formal design standards or
content organization
Not all departments represented
6. 6
Project goals
Design site that reflects needs of employees
Involve and engage diverse workforce
Representation of all departments + locations
One platform + updated/modern design
Improved method for displaying and distributing
corporate news
Process automation
Personalized content on the home page that is
generated from enterprise applications
Active management by site owner
7. 7
Project goals
Replace outdated content + improve content
ownership and accountability through publicizing
of content coordinators
Deploy content categorization processes
Analytics and implement reporting schedule
Improve knowledge sharing + reduce silos
Addition of search
Improve employee directory
User-generated content published to home page
+ targeted locations
8. 8
“You don’t know where you’re
going until you know where
you’ve been.”
–English proverb
9. 9
Prepare and assess
Benchmarking + research
Developed business case + strategy
Business need + objectives + project-success
criteria
Analysis of current intranet
Determined intranet owner
Wrote charter + gained approval
Analysis of employee base and culture
Change readiness assessment
10. 10
Prepare and assess
Conducted workshops + focus groups
Sent out surveys + analyzed results
Developed multi-year roadmap
Created communication plan (it’s never too early)
31. 31
Engagement + Adoption
Sneak peek (soft launch)
One week prior to launch
New and old sites simultaneously
Trainings
Began launch communication
33. 33
High-performing project team
Fun
Happy hours
Team-building events
Recognition for job well done
Provide adequate time for group development
Forming, storming, norming, performing
Trusting each other to make decisions
35. 35
Obstacles and challenges
New leadership (CTO and CEO) mid-project
Introducing new concepts to employees
(metadata, content types)
Introducing new platform
Location and differences in job functions of
employees
Many non-computer users
No real previous intranet ownership
Ended early relationship with contractors
36. 36
Obstacles and challenges
Internal resources had limited knowledge of
SharePoint 2013
Unavailability of training team
Project team took on creation of all training
content
Expectations were high for project + project team
based on previous project successes
Budget constraints
38. 38
Celebrate successes
Good support for employee communications
taking on ownership of site
Already established + strong internal
communication platform
Change readiness assessment results
Strong project communication plan
Grid Gurus
Beta + soft launch
41. 41
Key takeaways
Take adequate time for planning
Lessons learned are not just for project end
Don’t be afraid to end relationship with contractors
Empowering users works
Be upfront and honest about expectations
COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE
Take time for fun and recognition
Thank your users + recognize it’s a big change
Don’t reinvent the wheel, but also recognize where
your culture doesn’t fit what others have done