Question

What are best practices for using Guru for internal comms?

  • 23 November 2022
  • 2 replies
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Hi all - We’ve been using Guru as our KMS, but we will be sunsetting our current internal comms system (open source that has been integrated with Slack) and using Guru for that in the future. Teams update the company on major initiatives and status check-ins, but sometimes the knowledge doesn’t move out of the announcement itself (in effect, sometimes the internal comms system was treated as a knowledge base separate from the one we were using). We are thinking about using Guru announcements to share newsletters and team updates in cards.  I’m hoping fellow Guru users might provide some insight into how they are utilizing Guru for internal comms:

  1. Do most people create a separate internal comms collection and how is that structured? Or are team collections housing those updates?
  2. When teams are providing updates, how are internal comms staff encouraging their teams to make sure that any stable knowledge is added into the announcing team’s collection where the other relevant knowledge already lives?
  3. Does anybody have any insight to share on how they determined what past internal comm updates to keep and bring over to Guru and what they choose to not bring over at all?

TIA!!


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Hello @Lynn Miller! Julia from Guru here. I lead our internal communications team. Let me know what you think of my suggestions below and happy to explore with you further. 

 

  1. Do most people create a separate internal comms collection and how is that structured? Or are team collections housing those updates? Guru has a “Company Knowledge Collection” in which 90% of all-company announcements are housed. All employees have author access to this. There are different boards for team related topics.  If a team is sending a company-wide announcement from a different collection, they have to run it through the comms team. rule of thumb is that an update impacting more than 33% of employees needs to be schedule on a comms calendar. 
  2. When teams are providing updates, how are internal comms staff encouraging their teams to make sure that any stable knowledge is added into the announcing team’s collection where the other relevant knowledge already lives? Guru has a workflow and culture where we encourage one another take information from Slack and add to Guru (including emojis). For example, I respond to Slack with a “add to guru” emoji. We also have the habit of checking guru first (with emoji) which prompts the SME to update knowledge when people search and don’t find what they are looking. Also, before a team can share in comms avenues (enablement sessions, all hands, newsletter) it’s a prerequisite to have verified info in Guru. Does this answer the question @Lynn Miller
  3. Does anybody have any insight to share on how they determined what past internal comm updates to keep and bring over to Guru and what they choose to not bring over at all? Unless it’s a template, I archive comms (which are likely point in time) after one year. 
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Thanks @Julia Soffa. Very helpful! I’m hoping I can elaborate on #2. If an employee is making an important announcement (say like some product feature release), how do you ensure that important knowledge doesn’t just stay on the announcement card, separate from the team’s collection where it would actually be helpful to capture information about that feature. 

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