How much time do you spend chasing down information that already exists within your organization? Particularly information that has already been provided to others but isn’t readily available.
Example
Sarah, Deb and Bob are assigned to a project which falls under two separate work groups. Sarah and Bob work for the same administrator who assigned them to a project aimed at saving money on computers; Deb is also working on the project but as the IT Standards person.
This means that there is a second line of reporting structure as well, to cover Deb’s administrator and her day-to-day work-group.
We now have at least 5 people involved in this project:
- Sarah, Deb and Bob
- Sarah and Bob’s Administrator
- Deb’s Administrator
That will quickly expand as Sarah and Bob start polling other work-groups to better understand their computing needs. Within the work-groups there will likely be co-workers who have input on this project as well (or could, if they were given the opportunity).
Without a centralized, published and search-able reporting mechanism most of the project communication is likely happening via emails and other silo’d data sharing processes.
This means that when Sarah needs to know what Bob and Deb worked on while she was on vacation she has to request updates from them directly, even if they provided updates to their administrators. If the folks in the development work-group want to know where the project stands because they need to buy some new PCs they also have to contact Deb, Sarah or Bob directly. Depending on the reporting method it is conceivable that even Sarah, Bob and Deb’s respective administrators are not actually getting the same report either.
At the end of the project you end up with piles of information about lessons learned, research, and best practices that are rarely if ever shared because they are all locked away in your individual email, document files or, god-forbid, paper files.
Solutions
Setup an internal collaboration tool (like a blog or wiki) that staff use as their project documentation and reporting structure. These are search-able, linkable, and tag enabled allowing for quick and useful information gathering during the project process and in the future when it is time to renegotiate.
Complement this by using practices that provide a much fuller harvest of the information shared at the meeting which can be easily retained in share-able software formats.
So how many times a week can you relate to this story? Are you prepared to do things differently as a way of removing this inefficiency?
For help making this happen contact Andrew Miller Consulting.
Friday Reflection
Consider what you are doing to share more of what you are doing so that you are connecting with co-workers and supporters. Even if you work as the lone janitor on the night-shift you still have ways of connecting with those you serve; the work you do is an important part of their lives.
Take a moment today to imagine your world where we are all conscious of the connections we have to each other. Now imagine the power of sharing your knowledge throughout that network.
