Is KT on Your Radar?
Even though we are coping with a difficult economy, we must not take our eyes off other aspects of maintaining organizational strength. One of these is knowledge transfer. Whether you’re managing people in a large business or running your own smaller firm, identifying, capturing and transferring the knowledge possessed by veteran contributors to emerging workers will become a critical responsibility over time. After all, those who have been around the longest hold many of the keys to your organization’s success.
"Who’s got the time?" you may ask. "I know it’s important, but it will have to wait." You’re right. You could. But will those possessing the knowledge continue to stick around? While you may not have the time to launch a full-scale KT effort, there are small steps that you can integrate into daily activities which will help to set the stage for the future. Here are three that won’t take but a few minutes:
Start talking about it. Simply mentioning knowledge transfer in conversations with colleagues will accomplish two objectives. First, you’ll get it on everyone’s radar. Second, you’ll educate those who are unfamiliar with the concept. It is easy to assume that everyone would consider the importance of the knowledge they possess, but in my experience that is simply not true. On top of this, many of us don’t know what we know. In working with those in the control room of a power plant recently, it was very apparent that they could not recall many of the methods they use for resolving routine mechanical failures. Why? Because many of these issues only happen once or twice per year. Think about all the tasks, major or minor, that your people perform without even thinking about them. What can you do the identify and codify them over time?
Make a list of what you need to know. Grab a pad of paper and a cup of coffee. Find a quiet place away from your office. Write the job title on the top of a piece of paper for each type of position you supervise. Number from one to ten on each sheet. Then brainstorm as much as you can about the skills and techniques they possess. This is not about re-writing job descriptions. This is about identifying the nuances about the job that no one may know except them. Getting stuck on some lists? That probably means you need to know more about what the person who’s in that position knows. What a great opportunity to open up a dialogue about transferring knowledge.
Ask for suggestions. Most people, regardless of their positions, are generally willing to share ideas about how their job can be improved. After all, they think about it more than you do. Simply ask them the following question: "If you were to design a knowledge transfer process for your position, how would you go about doing it and what knowledge would be most important to transfer? Their suggestions will provide a rough sketch of where to begin.
In some cases you’ll get a blank stare initially, so give it time. Chances are most have never been asked that question before. Once you’ve planted the seed, they will come back to you over time with ideas and information. Then build from there.
Transferring knowledge from one generation of workers to another will continue to grow in it’s level of importance over time. After all, knowledge is the lifeblood of any organization. Can’t you make a little time to ensure it keeps pumping?
I’d Like to Order the Perfect Roommate, Please
Gone are the days of nervous anticipation prior to meeting a new college roommate. By the time Millennial students arrive on campus, they’ve read comprehensive profiles of their potential roommates on social networks, made contact by text or chat, and viewed satellite images of their homes on Google Earth.
With help of apps like URoomSurf, RoommateClick and RoomBug, not only can students look up potential roommates, but they can request to be paired up with someone who best match their lifestyle and personality preferences based on their online profiles.
This practice takes the mystery out of the equation for students and their families, but adds a source of strain for colleges and universities into the process. Parents are increasingly demanding rommate changes based on the judgements of the online information they read. Most requests for reassignments are denied by the institutions because colleges feel that getting along with those that are different is a useful life skill that is first acquired by young adults on college campuses.
How Do You Manage for Situational Awareness?
A gentleman in a recent seminar brought up the question in the title. "Tell me more," I asked him. He told me that he’s been disappointed about the number of times in the past year when the people he has hired turned out to be good at doing exactly what they were told. "But when they’re finished," he said, "they just sort of stand around. I tell them to look around for something to do, and they’ll say ‘Like what?’ Then I have to think up something for them to do. They’re always dependent on me." I asked him if this was just about young people. "Oh, no," he said. "Everybody seems to be doing it."
Have you discovered effective ways to increase your employees’ situational awareness in the workplace? Read the rest of the entry and post your ideas on the Generations Blog.
Case Study
I am a manager within a county government. My young employees use the sick days the county provides like vacation days each year until they are all used up. This typically takes place on Mondays, leaving us short-staffed. The older members of my team rarely use their sick days – only calling in when there is a medical emergency, since they feel privileged to have them. My frustration isn’t with these young people going off on three-day weekends. I get irritated with their sense of entitlement. They shouldn’t use sick days because they feel that they are owed them. Can I legally fire these people when I know they are not really sick, but probably just hung over? What are my options?
While I am not in a position to give you a legal opinion, I don’t think that is the avenue you want to pursue anyway. Creating an adversarial relationship with these young people will create turnover and impact productivity. More and more organizations have been moving away from providing a pre-determined number of sick days because of the sense of entitlement you mention. I should add, by the way, that this behavior is not confined to the younger generations. So unless the county’s employees are working under a collective bargaining agreement, those in charge might want to re-think their approach to dealing with sick days. This issue has been discussed widely within the HR community. I would suggest you consult the on-line resources at Workforce.com for some initial ideas on how other organizations have modified their practices.
But what about your specific situation? I would suggest adding this issue to a staff meeting agenda. Without making a big issue of it, you might say something like, "It’s come to my attention that the number of people calling in sick on Mondays is reaching an extraordinary number. As you might imagine, this has a significant impact on Monday operations, besides being unfair to those left with the extra work. I might remind everyone that the county provides sick days for those who are truly sick. They are not to be used as vacation days. (It would help here if you can quote from a county personnel policy.)
You may get some resistance from someone who says, "define sick" or something of that nature. But chances are those involved with this practice are not going to stick their necks out by making a comment like this.
While this will not eliminate the practice, it will probably diminish it considerably. If nothing else, it will spread the absences over the week, reducing the impact on your Monday operations. You will probably have to do this periodically, especially if you see the patterns shifting back to what it is right now.
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