Are You a SharePoint Shepherd?
Recently, I coordinated a meeting where I had one client visit another to tell her SharePoint story (from design through implementation, the good and the bad, lessons learned etc.). This is a very powerful experience as users new to SharePoint get to hear the “real” stories around effort, success and challenges and, most importantly, get to hear validation for the value of proper design. Anyway, as I was sitting there, I heard my client make reference to her responsibilities to “shepherd ” her users. It turns out that she doesn’t stop at sending out SharePoint cheat sheets or doing one hour lunch-and-learns. She stays in constant contact with her users, guiding and reminding them of the value of the framework they defined. I found this very interesting… I’ve talked to folks about identifying the proper resources for SharePoint success… Technical Administrators or Site Administrators or Content Owners… but SharePoint Shepherd? Wow!
So, what does a SharePoint Shepherd do? He/She:
· Manages training… not just static content but highly personalized, repeating one-on-few sessions
· Regularly meets with SharePoint users to assist, guide, validate, teach, and grow
· Enforces data quality; not just on metadata completeness but on the content itself… “is this document really good enough to be in our portal?”
· Is the voice of the people to senior management and is the voice of senior management to the people… the connector!
· Runs regular test searches to validate both the quality of results and the strength of the security model… proactively!
· Corals those that are excited about the capabilities that SharePoint offers and heightens participation
· Works hard to break down the walls of indifference for staff that don’t see the value or don’t wish to participate
· All this and much more!
I’ve always stated that no one “owns” SharePoint. Responsibilities are highly distributed and, given its capabilities, SharePoint forces the mixture of technology and business (or, more accurately, technology and culture). Maybe I’m wrong… maybe the success of SharePoint CAN be influenced by a single resource. Perhaps there is a legion of SharePoint Shepherds out there, working hard under relative obscurity, to quietly influence SharePoint’s growth and success… focused not on stability and scalability but on quality and completeness. That would be cool! I know one and am proud of her. For those others out there, the SharePoint community thanks you.