2011 MarchDate Archive

Unreasonable Overcommunication

By: David Kay 3 Comments
23 Mar
Tin can replaced with bullhorn

Photo: colindunn via flickr.com. Creative commons, some rights reserved.

Several times over the past six months, I’ve been sitting with KCS program managers who are discouraged and frustrated… really frustrated.  They feel like they’ve been doing everything they can reasonably do to communicate, and people still aren’t getting it.  Managers act surprised when they see project plans that were emailed to them weeks ago, and key stakeholders complain that they don’t know what’s going on, even though they were briefed three times in the last six months.

Honestly, sometimes I feel the same way.  I lead workshops and I’m often excited by how enthusiastic and well-informed a participant is after a few days working on KCS…and then I see them in a meeting four months later talking about the importance of review queues and I think to myself, “what did I do wrong?”

The program manager and I didn’t do anything wrong.  But we didn’t do enough, either.  It’s not enough to communicate—we have to overcommunicate.  Otherwise, the message just won’t get through.

Let me quickly add, this isn’t because people are dumb, or lazy, or not paying attention.  Essentially everyone I’ve ever worked with on a KCS initiative is a good person with good intentions.  It’s just that there’s so much to do.  There’s so much to remember, and so many PowerPoints in our emails.  Our minds slide into familiar, well-trodden paths—of course knowledge publication requires a technical review!  And the point of communication, which is to change beliefs and behavior, just doesn’t happen.

So, what to do?  How do we avoid all this frustration?  Let me suggest that unreasonable overcommunication is the only rational strategy.

  • Expect to have to say things again and again.  Understand that communication is an ongoing process, not an event.  If you expect it, it won’t be so discouraging.
  • Share your experiences with other colleagues doing KCS or other major change management initiatives.  We’re all living the challenge of communication, and it’s great to share best practices—or even just commiserate.  The Consortium for Service Innovation and Technology Services World are great venues for group therapy.
  • Use your communication plan.  If you have messaging activities scheduled every week, it’s just part of the job.
  • Check your calendar.  Do you have lots of 1:1 and small group meetings with stakeholders?  If so, good for you.  If not, it’s time to send some invitations.
  • Don’t assume anyone really gets what you’re saying, deep in their gut, until you hear them say it to someone else with passion and precision.

Here’s the test I use.  If I sit down with someone and they threaten to rip the slide deck out of my hand and present it to me unless I leave them alone, then I’ll know I’ve done my bit for unreasonable overcommunication.

Until then…are you available sometime Thursday for a quick meeting about KCS?

 

The Gamification Of KCS

By: David Kay 4 Comments
8 Mar

In ev’ry job that must be done there is an element of fun
You find the fun and snap! the job’s a game

And ev’ry task you undertake becomes a piece of cake
A lark! A spree! It’s very clear to see…

A Spoonful of Sugar, Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman

Games are becoming more and more part of “real life.”  Not just because more of us are playing more games (although we are:  183 million Americans are “active gamers,” according to Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken).  And it’s not because we’re spending more time playing games (although we are: McGonigal notes that people spend 30 million hours playing one game, World of Warcraft, every day.)  It’s because the techniques of gameplay are being consciously employed to engage people outside of games.

As any teacher knows, asking students to listen passively is a terrible way to communicate information.  Most of us learn by doing and collaborating:  as KCS practitioners say, “knowledge is a byproduct of interaction and experience.”  What better forum for “interaction and experience” than a game?

It’s no accident that the parts of the KCS Workshop that make the biggest impression are the games.  (We call them “exercises,” but they’re really games.  Don’t tell your boss.)  Product managers have used innovation games for years:  I remember a placid group of IT professionals who were so engaged by a game we hosted that they nearly came to blows over which feature to place their last quarter on.

Closer to home, game design is being applied to encourage people to participate in support forums.  (How many “kudos” or “solveds” have you gotten recently?  Are you about to level up to “Trusted Advisor” or “MVP?”)  Games are infiltrating our social networks: have you sent your friend a cow recently?  (FarmVille has over 100 million players.)  Car dashboards are encouraging fuel economy with game-inspired feedback: can you grow a tree by the time you’ve finished your drive?  (Some of these examples came from Jesse Schell’s fabulous presentation at DICE 2010, where he carries these ideas to fascinating extremes.  It’s well worth the 28 minutes to watch.)

The hard part of knowledge management, and KCS in particular, is engaging busy people to do their daily work differently.  Let’s gamify KCS!

  • Tired of boring tests at the end of a training module?  Let’s play a quiz show instead!  DB Kay is working with an innovative client to build just such a game—what else do we have for our wonderful workshop participants, Carol?
  • Do you get KCS certified?  (Yawn).  Or do you really level up?  Can we provide more granular recognition, and badges along the way, to keep people moving forward in the process?  (It’s a big day when you get the 200 citations badge, or the 1000 customer five-star ratings badge, or the “sharpshooter” award for a quarter with a perfect Article Quality Index.)  The creative folks at Cisco IronPort give contributors of quality content a special KCS owl.  To make it more fun, recipients have started dressing their owls to give them their own personalities…for example, here’s a KCS Warrior Owl.  Owl bobblehead?  Cheap.  Enthusiastic participants? Priceless!
  • We read that KCS is a Team Sport.  Can we take that a little more literally, and create teams for cooperative KM play?

I know, we all worry about people “gaming” the system (there’s that word again.)  And the caveats about over-rewarding activity still apply.  But in our experience, it’s apathy that kills, not enthusiasm.

Game on.

ps – four quick announcements, while I have your attention.

  1. I’ll be headlining a webinar on the ROI of KM next Tuesday.
  2. Also next Tuesday, if you’re in the Bay Area, we have a great Third Tuesday with Cordelia Naumann of Cisco IronPort.  She promises to bring an owl.
  3. If you’re coming to TSW in Santa Clara, I’ll be doing a professional development workshop on KCS during the first day.  Hit me up if you want a discounted registration to TSW.
  4. In April, DB Kay will be doing a three day KCS Foundations Workshop, also in the Bay Area.  Operators are standing by.