The votes are in. Now comes the hard part: governing.
Democracy was on the table this week, and the votes are now in. The yard signs are coming down and, thankfully, the campaign emails have stopped.
I voted early last week. (I’m not telling you how. This newsletter has exactly three candidates: Communications, IT, and HR, and I’m endorsing all of them.)
Regardless of the outcome, all the talk about representation, trust, and who gets to decide on behalf of the many, got me thinking about my own work: advising companies on their corporate intranets.
Over the years, I’ve consulted with some of the largest and most successful companies in the world. Many are remarkably advanced in how they run their business, yet behind when it comes to their digital communications infrastructure.
So when a customer asks where to start, my answer these days is the same . . . DEMOCRACY.
When it comes to intranets, democracy comes into play in two ways. Both are equally important.
Democracy #1: Access for everyone
The first is access. A democracy only works when everyone eligible can actually take part. Election Day is a reminder of how much effort goes into making that true.
The same principle applies to employee communications. Too often, organizations design their intranet around employees who sit at desks and have company email addresses. Frontline, non-desk employees are left to trickle-down communications, posters in break rooms, and snail mail.
There are more than 3 billion of them worldwide, and they sustain the global economy. They’re on manufacturing floors, in hospitals, in stores and hotels, and behind the wheel. In many organizations, they are effectively disenfranchised from the communications and information they need to do their work.
The proliferation of mobile technology in the 2010s changed what’s possible. Nearly two decades after the smartphone, failing to consider non-desk employees when designing a digital communications infrastructure is no longer acceptable.
The same goes for AI: If frontline employees aren’t part of the conversation, the tools and solutions being built will be for everyone but them.
A communications platform should reach every employee. Like the right to vote, access to information shouldn’t depend on where you work, or whether you sit at a desk at all.
Democracy #2: Equal representation
The second is equal representation: who has a voice in how an organization’s communications infrastructure is built and run. No single function should own it alone.
For years, intranet decisions were made by IT. That made sense, since intranets require security, infrastructure, and support. But with no one focused on the content, many companies ended up with sprawl: duplicated pages, conflicting policies, and no clear owner of what’s true. AI is the ultimate poll watcher and will expose this, instantly and to everyone, by pulling answers from every system at once.
Communications is now rightly at the table. But replacing one owner with another doesn’t solve the underlying problem. HR, Operations, Legal, Safety, Finance, as well as regional and site leaders all own content that employees depend on. They are a company’s constituents, and each has distinct needs and pain points. A successful intranet depends on all of them being heard and involved.
Campaigning is easy. Governing is hard.
Anyone who’s launched an intranet knows the feeling. The launch is the campaign: the teasers, the swag, the big reveal. Then comes the day after, when someone has to actually run the thing. Who keeps the content current? Who resolves the conflicts? Who’s accountable?
That’s where both democracies matter most. Access gets every employee through the door. Representation keeps what’s inside worth coming back to.
The best intranets aren’t dictated. They’re orchestrated: Communications convenes, the business contributes, IT keeps it secure and scalable, and everyone has a stake.
Elections end. Governing doesn’t.
