How to Set Up Good Governance for Your Collaborative Platform

Setting up good governance makes it possible to establish a clear and precise framework within an ecosystem of tools that already exist. But it is just as essential to be able to adapt to the specific needs of each group at local level. So how do you put good governance in place? Here is our practical advice.

       

From Global Governance to Local Governance

Deploying an enterprise social network involves a change in working habits that affects the whole organisation. This is why good governance, setting a clear and precise framework, is essential: through a charter, for example, explaining to every employee how to use the ESN.

That framework must not be set in stone, however. The organisation also has to be able to adapt to local specificities, because every need is unique. In this context, we can define two types of governance, global governance and local governance: the first gives the general direction, the trajectory, while the second sets out the rules more concretely in relation to the nature of the group, by determining for example:

• the group's purpose,
• its mission,
• how to use the tools made available,
• and how to keep the group active day to day.

Identifying the Right Stakeholders

Local governance can be supported by the “project leaders”, those driving forces who act as internal relays for the rollout of an enterprise social network and who are able to stimulate each group’s participation on a day-to-day basis.

Read also: Successfully launching a group on an enterprise social network

Setting up this local, agile governance must give project leaders a certain amount of latitude: it is perfectly possible, for example, to allow file hosting within a working group, because it is justified, even if the organisation gives different guidelines.

The aim here is to put in place iterative governance. Its purpose is clearly not to block creation or hold back initiative. It is intended to establish a fairly broad roadmap, to be completed and enriched later on by gathering feedback from users in the field. In other words, global governance cannot anticipate everything.

Adapting to the Nature of Working Groups

The enterprise social network works according to the logic of working groups. But every group is different: some are project groups, while others bring together a community of experts, across the organisation. When a group is created, the project leader’s role is therefore to set out the general operating rules, but also the rules specific to the nature of the group.

Read also: The different types of group on an enterprise social network

As with global governance, the rules set out at local level are meant to make participation easier and to stimulate it. From the outset, then, certain questions need to be answered, for example:

• Who are the members of the group, and can new ones be welcomed in?
• What are the interactions with the other tools used in the company, and how are these different interactions set up?
• What are the operating rules in terms of content curation, for expert communities in particular?
• Who, for example, is going to organise the curation work (publishing and moderating) of content? There is a real editorial logic in these mutual-help communities, which is less present in project groups. This inevitably calls for specific rules.

Of course, as the group takes up the ESN, these rules can evolve, so as to help the group reach the objectives it has been set.

Accelerating Digital Transformation

Deploying an enterprise social network happens over the long term. It can take a year, or even two or three years, depending on the size of the company. Putting governance in place, from both a global and a local point of view, makes this deployment time easier and faster. By answering as many questions as possible upfront, by refining the rules in an agile way as users get to grips with the tool, and by staying attentive to the specific features of each group, the company saves time and avoids the phase of questioning, doubt and hesitation.

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