Post on 23-Jan-2018
OHO INTERACTIVE
What is it?
Creating structure and accountability to support the achievement of your content goals.
What is governance, anyway?
OHO INTERACTIVE
How do we get there?
Consistent process
Defined roles & responsibilities
Empowerment via tools, knowledge, and community
What is governance, anyway?
OHO INTERACTIVE
Consistent process
Defined roles & responsibilities
Empowerment via tools, knowledge, and community
How do we get there?
What is governance, anyway?
OHO INTERACTIVE
No, really. How do we get there?
Promote culture change via sustained transparency, open communication, and strong relationships.
What is governance, anyway?
OHO INTERACTIVE
No, really. How do we get there?
Then set realistic and sustainable expectations.
What is governance, anyway?
“The politics of the university are so
intense because the stakes are so low.”
– Wallace Sayre (Sayre’s Law)
85%of U.S. college prospects cite the website as
their top method of seeking information
Source: OHO Interactive research
OHO INTERACTIVEHigher ed is… special
Factors Inhibiting a Strategic Website
Politics
Decentralization
Silos
Lack of nimble decision-making
Lack of accountability
Fear of change
Change is inevitable
Change ain’t easy. But standing still is not an option. If our institutions don’t mature as digital organizations, we risk losing our audience and failing to achieve our goals.
We can’t impose change overnight if we want it to last. By priming our community to understand and accept change, and in the process laying a groundwork for meaningful web governance, we are investing in the long-term viability of our website as a tool for strategic success.
Governance is cool
OHO INTERACTIVE
Change is necessary
If we don’t mature as digital organizations, we risk failure.
Higher ed is... special
OHO INTERACTIVE
But change can’t come overnight
We must prepare our community to understand, accept, and embrace change for the long haul.
Higher ed is... special
OHO INTERACTIVE
Soft power vs. hard power
Education
Relationships
Culture
Community
Roles
Ownership
Workflow
Policies
Accountability
Higher ed is... special
OHO INTERACTIVE
The importance of transparency
Transparency flies in the face of silos, which are endemic to higher ed. Silos seclude people from one another and disconnect people from streams of information. This creates redundancy and inefficiency, inhibits the ability to gain broad buy-in, and makes communication challenging.
But when you strive to foster transparency, the walls fall away. People become humans, not just names on a list. Information becomes common knowledge, not the stuff of legend. Communication and connections become the currency by which things get done.
How can you foster transparency? There are a few simple things you can do that will go a long way toward creating a more open (and more productive) work environment.
Governance is cool
OHO INTERACTIVE
These early conversations may be one-on-one, but they present a great opportunity to begin making one-to-many connections. As you start talking to people, begin connecting them to one another. Informally, at first. (“Oh, you send a newsletter to
Relationship building
OHO INTERACTIVE
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Education & training
Begin building community structures
Show your work
OHO INTERACTIVEShow your work
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Begin building community structures
Education & training
OHO INTERACTIVE
Strategic Plan
Show your work
Map out how web explicitly supports defined priorities
Understand executive priorities
at each level
OHO INTERACTIVE
Project alignment
“Prioritization is especially important when the amount of project requests surpass the resources available to accomplish the work. With this in mind, WEB has made it our goal to use prioritization in order to ensure all aspects of website creation and maintenance, including content, graphic design, and web development, are aligned with strategic institutional initiatives as outlined in Educating Illinois.”
Show your work
OHO INTERACTIVEShow your work
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Begin building community structures
Education & training
OHO INTERACTIVEShow your work
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Begin building community structures
Education & training
OHO INTERACTIVE
Key areas
Show your work
Awareness of brand, style, goals, audience
Content decision-making & planning process/roles
Content quality assurance
Measurement strategy
CMS pain points and workflow effectiveness
OHO INTERACTIVE
Knowledge v. attitude
Show your work
Understands value of web as communication
tool
Sees full value More work to do Great opportunity! Great opportunity!
Sees some value More work to do More work to do Great opportunity!
Does not see full value
Problematic More work to do More work to do
Uninformed Partially informed Well-informed
Understands needs and requirements for web
OHO INTERACTIVEShow your work
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Begin building community structures
Education & training
OHO INTERACTIVE
It is unlikely that you single-handedly can determine what the communications goals, top audiences, and key messages are for your institution, but you can begin to consider the possibilities and create a working draft to guide subsequent
Goals, audience, message
OHO INTERACTIVEShow your work
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Begin building community structures
Education & training
OHO INTERACTIVE
Analyzing the results
Governance solutions
Website issues
(e.g. content training, access to guidelines)
(e.g. inconsistent content quality)
Show your work
OHO INTERACTIVEShow your work
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Begin building community structures
Education & training
OHO INTERACTIVEShow your work
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Begin building community structures
Education & training
OHO INTERACTIVE
How are web responsibilities accounted for in the job descriptions of those for whom the web is a measurable task?
Are the tasks explicitly listed?
Does the individual receive reasonable time allocations to complete them?
Do they get training, professional development, or budget?
Resource audit
Show your work
OHO INTERACTIVE
HR is your friend.
Learn how job descriptions are written
Educate up about the true scope and strategic value of web tasks
Discuss opportunities to sponsor or institutionalize training sessions
Resource audit
Show your work
OHO INTERACTIVEShow your work
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Education & training
Begin building community structures
OHO INTERACTIVE
Training
To sustain long-term web effectiveness, training should be a cultural function and expectation.
Show your work
“One thing I was struck with was watching people interacting while
they were waiting. We are all trying to do more with less these
days; any opportunity to get strength and support from one
another is a bonus.Michelle Tarby, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York
OHO INTERACTIVE
Pre-training
Invite people from across campus to listen to webinars from industry experts, or even invite a local professional or alum in the field to come and speak.
Check if your institution offers free access to Lynda.com online training, and hand-pick relevant modules to promote.
OHO INTERACTIVE
Pre-training
Invite people from across campus to listen to webinars from industry experts, or even invite a local professional or alum in the field to come and speak.
Check if your institution offers free access to Lynda.com online training, and hand-pick relevant modules to promote.
OHO INTERACTIVEShow your work
Identify & map to institutional
objectives
Share your process
Gauge savvy & attitudes toward web
Confirm goals, audiences, and messages
Audit, analyze, test to gauge effectiveness
Examine roles, permissions, and workflow
Gauge support for web tasks
Education & training
Begin building community structures
OHO INTERACTIVE
Relationship building
Show your work
Hey, talk to Blue, she has the same issue that you do.
Oh, thanks!
I have a question... Oh, tell me more...
OHO INTERACTIVE
Maintain regular meetings and active lines of communication
Model effective site governance
Preview upcoming changes and get early buy-in and/or feedback
Share resources & information
Content communities
Show your work
OHO INTERACTIVE
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Content communities
“As a ‘one-man’ team, I wanted the
opportunity to share ideas and ‘talk
shop’ with other web professionals
on campus but, desiring more than
just a community, I also saw an
opportunity to crowdsource
resources and professional
development for all web
professionals on campus.”
Rachel Carden, University of
Alabama
“While we as web professionals can know best practices and try to
add value to our colleagues’ content, we can’t be everywhere at
once. Through thoughtful and intentional governance, we can
add more value to more content.”Nicholas O’Brien, Bates College, Confab Higher Ed 2014