Help for the Help Desk: Growing and Sharing Knowledge

(830 total words in this text)
(1105 Reads)  

I recently attempted to order an older cosmetic product from a popular home delivery company through their new web site. Unfortunately, the e*commerce part of their web site could only handle current specials. Only slightly discouraged, I called the helpful service number on the screen and was greeted pleasantly. I explained what I was trying to do, and the rep informed me nicely that she was unable to take their order as well. The only way to order that product was by having a home rep visit me – something I did not want to coordinate in my schedule. I chose instead to not buy the product.

The knowledge to order that product existed only with the field. The lack of knowledge of how to order combined with technology that hindered customer service prevented the sharing of this knowledge, and a good sale with a satisfied customer. Certainly knowledge exchange was happening at this company –

I’d assume there’s some turnover issues in their call center with knowledge of "how bad it is here…" exchanged often if many of the customers are as unhappy as I was – but it was not being managed and it was not productive.

This is Knowledge Management to me. It is the conversion of individual knowledge to organizational benefit in desperate times when we can’t hope to predict what will confront us next. As companies struggle with rapidly changing markets and individuals struggle with information overload, managing the creation, exchange and transformation of knowledge for the business benefit becomes more and more critical.

The groundwork has been laid. Nearly ten years ago, Peter Senge shared his ideas for becoming a learning organization through his landmark book The Fifth Discipline. I see these five disciplines, personal mastery, shared vision, systems thinking, team learning and mental models as core competencies of a company implementing intentional (versus accidental) knowledge management. Add to Peter Senge’s competencies the management of ideas: creation, exchange and evolution. Learning theorists including Howard Gardner and Ned Hermann have written much about the creation of new knowledge. Combining Learning Organization disciplines and creativity techniques creates a more holistic view of Help Desk knowledge management. In addition, knowledge management requires a multi-tier, individual, team and organizational strategy. No place is this more critical than on a Help Desk, where constant learning is a core requirement.

Ikijiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi have suggested that knowledge is both tacit (subjective, experiential) and explicit (objective, documented). Creating an infrastructure for knowledge management means converting knowledge from tacit to explicit and then back to tacit in someone else. In other words, a Help Desk that can capture knowledge created within a person’s experience and share it with others is highly leveraged. Nonaka and Takeuchi document the following cycle: tacit to tacit
tacit to explicit
explicit to explicit
explicit to tacit

This cycle starts on the Help Desk with a call. As I listen to my caller and seek to understand their perspective, and through that, the problem, I am creating new tacit knowledge. As I have success solving the problem, I may record my solution somewhere, say in a little database for my own use in the future. My tacit knowledge became explicit. If my organization has a knowledge base that the Help Desk shares, I can load this new knowledge on the knowledge base for others to use in the future. This knowledge base combines individual explicit knowledge into a shared explicit body of knowledge – explicit to explicit. Finally, accessing this knowledge by another staff member starts the cycle anew when my knowledge, that started tacitly in me, becomes tacit in them as well. How do organizations nurture this cycle and honor both types of knowledge?

Tools are cool, but Knowledge Management at its core depends on desire: a desire to share (tacit to tacit, tacit to explicit), a desire to teach (explicit to explicit) and a desire to receive (tacit to tacit, explicit to tacit). Knowledge Management depends critically on individuals who will chose to be knowledge growers instead of knowledge misers. It cannot be forced by technology, but can be crushed.

Considering creating actions for the following dimensions: What are the mission, vision and values of our Help Desk? (prioritize knowledge acquisition)

What are the dynamics of Knowledge Management in our corporate culture? Personal Creation of New Knowledge (useful to the business goals) Personal Exchange of New Knowledge (tacit to tacit) Team Exchange of New Knowledge (tacit to tacit) Organizational Exchange of New Knowledge (tacit to tacit) Rewards for creation, exchange and transformation of knowledge Ongoing personal development

How often do your people have time to chat about what has happened to them that day? How often do they share their experiences? Technology at the desktop is convenient, but tends to quash personal tacit to tacit communication.

How is the stress level?

Stressed people may not be physiologically able to think creatively, and so cannot create new knowledge. Knowledge management is a complex initiative with many dimensions, which requires an ever-changing, complex plan to improve and grow.

By Lou Russell, President, Russell Martin & Associates