NU Idea Entry #1 New Processes by Rocky kn

NU 10 – What pisses you off in your office?

Knowledge Management Capabilities

by: Rocky Gabatin

     There is nothing more annoying than people asking you the same questions over and over again. This is very true for managers who have subordinates who do not seem to learn the routines of work. As a person in charge of ensuring smooth day-to-day operations, I could not agree more.

     One of the major programs of our company is a provider of online education (client) that uses virtual classrooms, chat-based or Blackboard-based teaching, and live and asynchronous tutoring to students (customers). One aspect of this program is an online writing laboratory where students submit written assignments for a writing tutor (employee) to review and provide constructive feedback that would help improve the written material.

     Because of the nature of the work, there is an overwhelming amount of work-related questions that simply cannot be addressed one coaching session. Since the breadth of scope, the tutors often fail to realize that answers to previously raised queries can be applied to a wide range of writing assignments. Personally, most of my time is "wasted" on these repeating questions.

     The concept of Knowledge Management (KM) is not new. It has existed ever since—it is simply one of the subtle ways we learn as human beings. With the aid of technology, this concept evolves rapidly, and this is something that our company can surely take advantage of.

     The company has been very weak in fully utilizing cloud technology—despite having an intranet that can function as the knowledge bank.  It is crucial to optimize the knowledge bank so that employees can interact with the system freely. Once the knowledge bank is optimized, the next part of the initiative is to implement a reward system for all employees to ensure that the cycle of maintaining and improving the system continues. In my case, I will meet with my team leaders and instruct them to feature some recurring writing assignment and motivate their tutors to offer differing ways to approach the tutoring session. Because this is already stored in the knowledge base, employees can immediately access the file and guide them whenever they are currently engaged in a tutoring session of the same nature.

     Another approach is to feature a specific writing objective (analysis, argumentation, research, persuasion, narrative, etc.). Relevant information about that writing objective will be pooled together under a specific subsection of the knowledgebase.

     Not only will this lessen the instance of repeating questions, but it also improves the knowledge of employees. Efficiency and effectiveness at its best! <something newer?>