The Truth about Enterprise Wikis
Every second day I come across someone waxing profusely about enterprise wikis and how they’re going to change the way knowledge workers interact. I believe in enterprise wikis and I really like wikipedia too. But that doesn’t mean I feel every Fortune 500 needs an enterprise wiki. There are some important truths about enterprise wikis that get ignored often.
The first is that not every knowledge worker wants to collaborate. Putting an edit button on a page doesn’t mean your knowledge workers are going to jump at the opportunity to share their thoughts for free. Enterprise wikis succeed in companies that truly reward collaboration. There aren’t many companies like that.
Secondly, enterprise wikis only work when people feel secure in editing someone else’s work. I can’t imagine many knowledge workers editing their bosses work especially if everyone else is going to see the edits. It just doesn’t happen that frequently. Sure if they’re collaborating on a document and only the two of them have access to the page then maybe. But certainly not otherwise. Before encouraging your knowledge workers to use a wiki, make sure you have a trusted, secure office culture first.
Thirdly, enterprise wikis succeed when they have lots and lots of information on them. I’ve seen this with my company’s own wiki. Until you reach the point of critical mass, knowledge workers won’t bother visiting, publishing or editing. You need to invest in putting stuff up before it can start getting any traction. Interns can actually help here.
And finally, enterprise wikis aren’t successful when they’re approached from an enterprise perspective. The most successful wikis are the ones that target small communities of users within companies that share interests and business problems. So don’t think enterprise-wide, think at the department or the team level first.
Wikis are empowering. And we all love them. The ability to edit a page with a click is powerful. Viewing the history of a page appeals to our voyeuristic sensibilities. And the idea of collaborative, shared knowledge that’s constantly growing and evolving is special. But at the same time, most companies lack the culture to support these concepts. So while I do think wikis will change companies, I feel they’ll change them slowly….one knowledge worker at a time.
