A number of years ago, I wrote a column for the Oakland Chamber of Commerce on the Tribal Knowledge Paradigm and one of the issues that came up was a particular company’s inability to get orders on time to the customer. I wrote a few of these thoughts at that time (1993) and I have added some recent thinking to the concept to make it relevant to today’s business climate. Interestingly, the issue and my recommendations are still useful. You can read about these in a recent publication of mine that is available on Amazon.com. (see below)
We see variations of this same problem in just about all of our clients since the original advice was offered. Any time a company has grown and, more than likely, newer people have joined the organization, they are not as tuned in to the company business goals and procedures as management might want.
To begin with, you are dealing with a situation where no amount of talking seems to work. Surprisingly, we have a very simple tool to raise this issue to everyone in the company to a top priority and here is how we do it.
It begins with a simple slogan that we have trademarked No Blame.
Here is how it works. You need to fix the problem but it is irrelevant how it became a problem. You don’t need to blame anyone, you just need to fix the problem. And the way we approach this problem is using a very simple measurement tool called a “Yes/No Chart.” We talked about this in an earlier blog but I wanted to re-emphasize it. This is coupled to the “No Blame” because the measurement of a “Yes/No” chart is exactly as it implies: Did something happen: Yes or No? There is no gray area. And there is a key linkage between “No Blame” and “Reporting of Honest Data;” they go hand in hand. We often initiate discussion of the importance of honest data by showing a vignette from “History of the World: Part 2”. As you may recall, Moses (played by Mel Brooks) comes down from the mountain holding 3 tablets, and he speaks to the children of Israel, saying: “I bring you the fifteen — .” Just then, he drops one of the tablets. and exclaims: “Oy!” He then begins again. “I bring you the ten commandments.” So much for the reporting of honest data. You can preview the video here: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I48hr8HhDv0]
It is quite clear, however, that honest data cannot be reported in an organization where blaming is prevalent. All employees learn to hide, avoid, and distort information in order to avoid personal blame and confrontation. When that happens, no measurement tool will be particularly useful, because it will be based on faulty data.
We said earlier that simplicity in measurement is important in the Tribal Knowledge Paradigm. We can’t emphasize this too strongly. Complicated measurement systems are fine for analysts, researchers and academics, but for the average employee who needs to know whether a process or work performance is improving, the measures must be easily understood and unequivocal. They must be simple to make the Tribal Knowledge Paradigm work.
You can read about this book at:
Each of Len’s 4 books is selling for $20 as a soft cover copy.
The Kindle e-book version is available for $1 at the Amazon website.
I have volume discounts available on Createspace.com.
Recent Comments