Wikis, “Opt-in Culture” Contribute to a Healthy Organization
This is from Bill Arconati of Atlassian, makers of the Confluence wiki that’s used by more than 7,000 organizations around the world. Bill’s article looks at the opt-in culture in organizations with wikis, and the benefits for people, projects, and productivity. – Stewart
One of the great things about working in a company that has fully adopted the wiki way of working is that it fosters what I call an opt-in culture. In an opt-in culture, employees contribute to conversations where they gain the most satisfaction and have the largest impact. They look beyond their tiny fiefdoms and seek out situations where they can add value and offer their expertise.
In opt-in cultures, employees are more engaged and more productive leading the overall organization to greater success. One could debate whether a successful wiki breeds an opt-in culture or an opt-in culture breeds a successful wiki. But one thing is certain…you can’t have one without the other.
The Problem with an Email Culture
Perhaps the best way to understand and appreciate an opt-in culture is by contrasting it to an opt-OUT culture like email. Have you ever left work at the end of the day and thought to yourself, “All I did today was respond to emails?” In email-based companies you frequently spend your days knocking down emails like a bad game of Whac-A-Mole.
The main problem with email is that you have little control over what lands in your inbox. Most emails are either (i) people asking you to do something or (ii) conversations between two or three people (frequently executives) with a dozen innocent bystanders in the cc line. The only way to shut out the noise in an email culture is to opt-out and say “Take me off this thread!”
Even if you successfully filter out mail you don’t want, there’s little you can do about the email you’re NOT receiving. Important management decisions are made every day on your corporate email server without the input of your company’s most interested and qualified employees. For example, I’m in marketing but I’ve worked in product development and corporate finance in past roles. I’d like to think I have something to offer to conversations about product development and financial analysis even though they’re technically outside of my designated role. But in an email culture, I wouldn’t be cc’d on those emails and hence not part of the conversation simply because I’m a marketing guy. Much of the knowledge and experience that I bring to the organization would be completely wasted in an email-based culture.
What is an Opt-In Culture?
In an opt-in culture, employees seek out the conversations they should and want be a part of. Opt-in cultures are transparent and open so that employees can discover and contribute to all of the conversations happening at any given point in time. In turn employees seek out the conversations where they have the greatest interest and the most to offer. Everyone is trusted to act with the best intentions and every decision benefits from all the passion and knowledge each of your employees has to offer.
To use myself as an example, I can participate in product development decisions (even as a marketing guy) at Atlassian because we have an opt-in culture. I take part in the Confluence product development conversations because those conversations are open to all employees on our internal Confluence wiki. When UI performance improvements are discussed, I contribute to those conversations (a) because I care about the product’s success and (b) because I have some relevant experience to offer.
How do Wikis foster an opt-in-culture?
Simply setting up an enterprise wiki may not morph your company into an opt-in culture overnight. However, wikis certainly make it possible for such a culture to evolve given the right set of capabilities. Consider these four things when evaluating a wiki project for your organization:
- Communities of interest – deploy a wiki that lets you create a separate space for every area of interest. For example, our internal Confluence wiki has a Confluence Development Space where I can find conversations about Confluence’s upcoming 3.0 launch.
- Comments and Discussions – deploy a wiki where conversations can naturally evolve out of content. For example, every page inside of Confluence has a comments section where users can have threaded discussions directly in the page.
- Subscriptions – deploy a wiki where users can opt-in to conversations happening in the wiki either by subscribing via email or via RSS. With email and RSS notifications, users can actually monitor and participate in conversations happening all across the company.
- Openness – Consider a wiki where openness is the default. For example, Confluence automatically assumes all users can view, edit and comment on a page unless page restrictions are explicitly set. At Atlassian I can view and edit almost every page in the wiki except for some of those super-secret finance and legal pages.
Summary
Deploying an enterprise-wide wiki is a long-term investment in employee productivity and company success. While you can install a wiki in a matter of minutes, it may take months or even years for an opt-in culture to evolve. The payoff, however, is enormous and well worth the wait.
