SharePoint isn't an end in itself

I was at a conference this week - Knowledge and Content UK. I learned loads about knowledge management and content stuff, but also I learned an important lesson about SharePoint.

It wasn't really something I didn't know, it's just something that became starkly clear during the other stuff I was learning about KM. And it's all about having a clear vision before you start.

Now, I wasn't in my current organisation when they decided to implement SharePoint. And when I started, I had never heard of it. But as someone joining the project team, I was led to believe that the reason we were doing SharePoint was to have a better document management system and intranet. And also to improve collaboration. And also to improve communication. And also to foster a more open and transparent way of working...

Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't have been aiming for all these things. But what we lacked was a real coherent vision. What exactly were we trying to achieve?

And the reason this came to mind at this conference was because virtually everyone who spoke mentioned SharePoint as one of many tools for achieving their KM strategy. And that's what it is - a tool. It's the KM strategy itself which seeks to change ways of working.

SharePoint is a brilliant tool for people who like to collaborate, and it offers them loads of ways to do it. But you need more than just SharePoint to change a whole organisation's way of working - to make them use a system that is so alien to what they've been used to.

You need a vision for the future.

So I think that's where we went wrong. We missed the point a bit I'm afraid. We gave the organisation a brilliant tool for collaborating, but forgot to make them want to collaborate...