Jinfo: FreePint for Skills Upgrades: Stop the Intranet and PowerPoint Insanity

FreePint for Skills Upgrades: Stop the Intranet and PowerPoint Insanity
Jinfo Blog

12th March 2013

Abstract

If you mention intranets or PowerPoint to colleagues, the most common reaction is a groan. However, both can and both should be an essential part of our information and communications armoury. Robin Neidorf examines two of the most popular FreePint articles on these topics and identifies how such articles can help information professionals to improve their skills, wow their colleagues and support continuous improvement.

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Two observations I humbly submit as near-universal truths:

Almost everyone hates (or at least is deeply frustrated by) their intranet
Almost everyone hates (or at least is deeply bored by) PowerPoint.

Data generated by users sharing FreePint articles suggests that our practical, user-focused content helps you address both of these challenges.

It's hard to even think about taking on a massive project like overhauling the intranet or upgrading the skills of everyone in your organisation with regard to PowerPoint. But it IS possible to take baby steps towards incremental improvements.

You might not have the time or the will to devote to a multi-phased development or training project. But you can send a colleague a few practical tips to nudge things in the right direction.

Intranet Insanity

If the sharing reports are anything to go by, many of you are very ready to do something about your intranets. Contributing editor James Mullan regularly writes practical items (such as the recent Tips for Taming Unwieldy Intranets) that start getting passed around within hours of going live. (You can find out more about James and see a full list of his FreePint articles here.)

Whether you and your department have control over your organisation's intranet, or if you work with another department (your friends in IT, perhaps?) on their implementation, sharing any of the articles in our "intranet management" category will support an environment of continuous (incremental) improvement.

In fact, I'd wager that FreePint articles relating to intranet management - and SharePoint in particular - might be the most-shared of any of our content.

The result: share any item for new learning in five minutes or less. Share a series of articles to make your case, establish mutual knowledge of best practice, and support a larger project in intranet maximisation.

PowerPoint Perversity

I'll be the first to admit that my graphic design skills are (ahem) lacking. I'm as guilty as most speakers of flat, boring presentation slides.

Based on sharing data around a recently published article by Pila Martinez, I'm hardly the only one. Enliven Your Communications with Multimedia isn't just (or even primarily) for PowerPoint users, but when I read it, I thought blushingly of far too many of my own presentations and how much better they could be.

Other FreePint Subscribers clearly felt the same way: a flurry of sharing of this article put it in front of business divisions, communications departments, training divisions and intranet managers. I sent a quick note to one subscriber to learn more about her sharing activity. It turns out that she'd just recently participated in an in-house training on presentation skills and shared the article with the trainer, plus the other participants.

The result: great practical ideas - and free online tools - to put better presentations in our grasp.

More Ad Hoc Learning Tips

Read about more ways to share FreePint articles and gain ad hoc learning on important business information skills:

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