Yes, but. This is one of these partial truths where getting the details right really matters. Followers of popular business books will recall the BHAG—the Big Hairy Audacious Goal—proposed by James Collins and Jerry Porras in Built to Last. These goals are long-term, viewed as a long shot by outsiders, but considered possible by insiders. […]
Culture
Metrics Myth Two: Support Leaders Should Have Direct Control Over their Metrics and their Goals
“Men at some time are masters of their fates.” Cassius, to Brutus, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2. It’s almost axiomatic that we should sign up for goals only if we have control over achieving them. In Julius Caesar, Cassius berates Brutus for allowing himself to be treated as an underling; so to, conventional wisdom […]
Support Metrics Myth One: Goals Should be SMART
Metrics always seem to be a favorite topic of conversation. At a recent CSI program team meeting, I was comparing notes with the Consortium’s Melissa Burch about some of the ways that metrics are misused in our industry. Earlier in the year, my Third Tuesday collaborator, Francoise Tourniaire, and I led a talk on how […]
Support Culture, Stress, and Wellness
At last week’s Consortium for Service Innovation Member Summit, we heard a keynote from Dr. Kelly Travers, a physician and neuroscientist. Her topic was “wellness,” and I confess I rolled my eyes a little bit. I was hoping for deep discussions on knowledge and collaboration, and I didn’t especially feel like getting lectured about eating […]
How to Create a Knowledge-Sharing Culture (Part 2 of 2)
…Continued from last week. Get ‘em early. Have you ever noticed that it’s easier to get the new people to follow your processes than to get the veterans to change how they do things? We’ve often seen the most successful KCS practitioners, and the best KCS coaches, are people who join the company after KCS […]
How to Create a Knowledge-Sharing Culture (Part 1 of 2)
Having looked at signs of a bad and a good culture for knowledge-sharing, respectively, it’s time to get to work. How can we make sure we’re setting our knowledge program up for success? I didn’t always think this stuff was important, by the way. I started my work in knowledge management on the technology side, […]
What Does a Good Knowledge Sharing Culture Look Like?
Last week, we examined what a bad knowledge-sharing culture looks like. That’s a pretty easy list for all of us to make, unfortunately; even if we’re blessed not to work in one, we’ve all seen Dilbert or Office Space. The more interesting questions are, “what makes for a good culture, especially as it pertains to […]
What Does a Bad Knowledge-Sharing Culture Look Like?
Over the past ten years, we’ve had the opportunity to visit and work with fifty or sixty companies implementing knowledge management, self-service, and social support. In the process, I’ve come to feel like a bit of a connoisseur of corporate culture—I expect other consultants know exactly what I mean. Shortly after arriving in an office, […]
Hanging Up Your Strategic Framework: Sage Does it Right
In our KCS workshops, we say that the Strategic Framework is the deliverable that’s easiest to push aside…and yet one of the most valuable if done right. The Strategic Framework is a simple way of showing the value of KCS to the company, customers, and employees. Executives set high-level objectives for the organization: “scale the […]
Summer Reading! Lessons Unlearned
Just because a book is full of really great information doesn’t mean it can’t be fun to read. For example, take John Ragsdale’s wonderful first book: Lessons Unlearned: 25 Years in Customer Service. John Ragsdale (@john_ragsdale). Unlike the books I’ve reviewed earlier. I’m not even going to pretend to be objective here: I’m a big […]
