We mean this in the nicest way, but you don’t scale.
You’ve put yourself in that process step with the best of intentions.
- You’re going to write the Content Standard by yourself because everyone else is so busy, and it really has to get done quickly.
- You’re going to review knowledge before publication because you want to make sure customers have a really good experience.
- You’re going to encourage people to flag content so you can improve it when you get a chance.
Fortunately, but inconveniently, this knowledge management initiative is about to be come bigger and more powerful than you planned. Trickles of customer-facing knowledge will become torrents. Occasional suggestions will morph into a buzzsaw of continuous improvement. A small core team will turn into everybody.
At that point, you won’t be helping. You’ll just be in the way.
The only way to scale is to engage everybody. Everyone should define processes and measures; everybody should review content with every use; everybody should update and improve content.
It’s tempting to do it all yourself, because aligning the entire organization with your mission is much harder. That is, engaging others is harder until doing it all yourself becomes impossible, at which point the train wreck has happened and it’s too late to engage everyone.
Communicate unreasonably, create the community, and erase your name from every individual step of the process.
ps – as readers of this blog, you’re already in the Inside Crew. So if you’re going to be at Technology Services World (TSW) next week in Santa Clara, or if you’re in the area and just want to stop by, here’s an invitation to join us with our partners Stone Cobra, The Vergis Group, and Kepner-Tregoe at an Inside Crew event near the convention center. Please join us! dbk
A great reminder, and well-timed for me. Thanks!
A great reminder, and well-timed for me. Thanks!
We have done this successfully at Cisco IronPort — but even we are learning even with something as simple as training on the concepts has to fall on the coaches in the regions. A good reminder, thanks.
As the new leader of a 15 person enterprise software technical support team, I’d like to implement KCS and leverage that methodology with my friends on the PS team. We use Salesforce.com. My question is, do we need a formal “knowledge manager” role to support our efforts around implementing KCS, or is it more a matter of using existing resources to implement and then if successful, KCS becomes an extension of normal case management and thus does not require extra management?
As the new leader of a 15 person enterprise software technical support team, I’d like to implement KCS and leverage that methodology with my friends on the PS team. We use Salesforce.com. My question is, do we need a formal “knowledge manager” role to support our efforts around implementing KCS, or is it more a matter of using existing resources to implement and then if successful, KCS becomes an extension of normal case management and thus does not require extra management?
Scott – Great question.
We generally find that under 30-50 people, KCS leadership becomes part of the organization leader’s job. After you’ve hit 50, it seems like you really do need to have a dedicated resource (to work with the managers, work with IT, work with the coaches, improve the processes, and continue to keep it “an extension of normal case management,” as you say.
But in an org with 15 people, as long as you really devote the cycles to it and build up 3 or so coaches who are passionate about it, you shouldn’t need to dedicate a new headcount.
I’d love to hear others’ point of view…
Scott – Great question.
We generally find that under 30-50 people, KCS leadership becomes part of the organization leader’s job. After you’ve hit 50, it seems like you really do need to have a dedicated resource (to work with the managers, work with IT, work with the coaches, improve the processes, and continue to keep it “an extension of normal case management,” as you say.
But in an org with 15 people, as long as you really devote the cycles to it and build up 3 or so coaches who are passionate about it, you shouldn’t need to dedicate a new headcount.
I’d love to hear others’ point of view…