Life as a Knowledge Manager

An Ideal Meeting (5 E’s of a Meeting)

1. Efficient (Time Bound)
2. Effective (Goal Achievement)
3. Educational
4. Entertaining (Not Dull)
5. Enriching (Feeling a part of the team)

Meeting Minutes: Minutes also known as protocols, are the instant written record of a meeting or hearing.

They should contain:

1. Where and when a meeting took place;
2. Attendees, i.e. the names of the participants;
3. Subject;
4. Minutes of the previous meeting;
5. Items on the agenda: the discussion held, the motions made, the resolutions carried (Proposer; Seconder; the results of the vote);
6. Any Other Business (AOB);
7. Date of the next meeting.

Whenever I speak about Priorities, I describe it as a Cold War for “A Beautiful Mind”. Almost everyone I know is overwhelmed with work and most of them are unable to decide on their priorities.

I receive over 400 email messages each day (with virtually no Spam, so they are all legitimate). Currently I am a member of two departments; Product Management and the Network Team. I also work on at least 10+ projects under direct management supervision. Each day I attend at least 2 meetings (in-person/conference calls) and I have multiple walk-in corridor one-to-one conversations each time I walk to/from my desk.

In such a varied environment, one of the most difficult choices is to prioritize work and make sure you deliver your work on time without loosing focus of your other priorities.

How do I prioritize my work?

1. I make a list of all tasks and activities which I need to accomplish.
2. I divide my work into these three categories 1) Must-Do 2) Should-Do 3) Nice-to-Do
3. I give the highest preference/score to requests from the senior management and my direct reports.
4. If an email is sent on a “High Importance” notification I give it my attention.
5. If I am mentioned in the “To”, I give it my attention. If I am mentioned in the “cc” or “bcc” field I partially assume the person is trying to keep me in the loop.
6. I identify the areas in a task for which I am accountable for. This way I take ownership of the allocated task and prioritize accordingly.
7. If I am allocated an “Action Item” in a meeting, I choose to complete it before the next meeting. I also make it a point to browse through the agenda and revise the previous “Meeting Minutes” before I join a meeting.
8. I consider the real world limitations on execution of a work plan.
9. If my current skill set is inadequate for the task allocated to me I will discuss it upfront with the management and try to find an alternative replacement for the task.
10. If I am stuck in a complicated scenario I run down the “Prisoners Dilemma” model for Game Theory to identify the best available option which will allow me to prioritize my work.
11. I do not waste excessive time on low-priority tasks.
12. At the end of each day and the end of each week I try to reconcile with my daily & weekly scheduled tasks and I reorganize them according to meet the needs. Tasks may move to a higher priority as a deadline draws near.

To accomplish any task raw data needs to be filtered so that it becomes information; Information needs to be transformed so that it becomes knowledge. This complex environment of work prioritization involves structuring of data into relevant information by scanning, selecting and justifying data into useful knowledge.

With the idea that there should be a measure to control the work, I use Outlook’s “Calendar” and “Task” options to constantly remind me of meetings and incomplete tasks. I try to answer any questions/emails in a real-time fashion.

These twelve areas are a starter kit to appropriate prioritization in a complex organization. Work prioritization cannot be an afterthought; it is a project which must be resourced.

Everyday we have over 2500 calls triaged over the phone.

Triage is defined as: The process by which projects or activities are prioritized to determine which should be attempted first, second, etc. (it is also known as “Sorting of Grapes”)

The Triage Team (for a call center) needs:

1 To ask appropriate questions to the client
2 To evaluate the call and classify the same into the appropriate queue

When the Triage Team assigns a call to a member of our company, the member needs a clear understanding of what the client is expecting from them so that they can provide a faster and appropriate response.

In our current situation we get calls from clients on:

1. Regular Support Requests
2. Departmental Phone Transfers
3. Areas which need immediate attention
4. Uncertain areas

Out of all these 4 situations we are able to handle the first three with appropriate procedures. However “Uncertain areas” are difficult to control due to the fact that they have random occurrences and do not have the correct triage policy set.

To reduce the number of “uncertain” client call domains we defined a process for Smart Triage:

1. Educate various departments
2. Gather a list of questions from the support techs and other departments
3. Prepare a database of appropriate questions needed to be asked by the triage team before transferring the call to the support techs.
4. Ask intelligent questions to the customers.
5. Direct calls to the right person so that the “First Call Resolution” goal is met.

Technology Used:

A Wiki for maintaining an updated record of questions to ask for each category of call.

This now brings us to the next project of:

1. Defining processes to keep the questions updated in the Wiki
2. Assign owners for various department related questions
3. Keep updating and recording trends in client call response quality.

This process will allow us to control the quality of calls and respond to the clients needs in a more efficient fashion.

We are a 600 employee company with at least 15-25 members being out of office at any given business day due to reasons beyond control like:

1. Out for work
2. Personal Days
3. Vacation
4. Maternity Leave
5. Sick Days
6. Jury Duty
7. Military Obligations

There are multiple instances when other team members have some work with a person who is out of office (on that very day). We have set appropriate policies for employees who are out of office. They need to:

1. Fill out an out of office form and submit it to the HR after approval from their Team Leads
2. Update their Email with an Auto-Responder (Vacation Message)
3. Set the External and Internal Greeting in the Phone System describing the out of office message
4. Send an email to a predefined out of office designated email address which notifies the team leads.

What we realized is that our method of communication was only a two way communication where-in the employee taking an out of office leave is communicating it only to the HR and the Team Lead. The problem lies when a colleague of the out of office employee tries to contact the employee. This is what happens:

1. The caller remains uncertain whether the out of office colleague is out on a break for coffee or is out of office
2. There is wastage of time and effort due to the fact that the caller assumes that the other employee will respond to the callers needs in a timely fashion (which is not going to be the case)

To eliminate this confusion we have:

1. Designed an module on our intranet website “Helpdesk” which will allow all employees to see a list of employees out of office.
2. The HR team has access to add/modify this list daily (hence keeping this list updated all the time)
3. We run periodic reports to check whether the data on the Helpdesk matches with our Payroll system (thus keeping both the systems integrated together)

With appropriate planning and policy definitions we have been able to educate all our company members the new policies and are able to save employee time by displaying them who is In-Office and who is Out-of-Office.

Many of us consider Web Technology as the biggest advancement in Innovation. Collaborative effort is encouraged by use of Web Application tools like Email, Forum, Blog and Wiki.

In our company we have support solutions/articles on Forum, Emails and Network Folders. Lately it was becoming more and more difficult to manage information due to the fact that data was located at multiple locations and the most updated copy of data was difficult to find. We needed a centralized location where the accessibility and availability of information/documents was quick, easy and up-to-date.

As a Knowledge Manager, I concluded Wiki was the most logical and technologically feasible solution for an organization of our size.

Forum
You can post questions and you get responses. People come to a forum to communicate, exchange thoughts, etc. However it is not a true form of Knowledge Repository. You would have to search through multiple forum threads to find the answer you are looking for.

Emails
They are not reliable due to the fact that 1) you would always have multiple emails 2) finding the last updated information through the email is not always easy

Network Shared Folders
We have Multiple Copies of the documents on the Network. It’s difficult to determine which one is accurate. Many folders are not backed up daily.

Wiki

1. Wiki offers a collaborative environment to maintain data.
2. A controlled environment can be set-up to provide group based read and edit rights.
3. Wiki is easy to learn and manage.
4. The Wiki software keeps track of every edit made and it’s a simple process to revert back to a previous version of an article.
5. Wiki can allow a user defined structure of data management

I tested various Wiki softwares and websites including:

1. MediaWiki
2. DokuWiki
3. Wikispaces

MediaWiki (Official supporter of the Wikipedia Project) came out as the best available Open Source Wiki software. We quickly drew our task force members to lay down policies to:

1. Define Wiki Advantages over other mediums of communication
2. Define Wiki policy to be a single source of information and slowly transition on submerging the Forum.
3. Defining policy on keeping the Wiki constantly updated.

After proper implementation of the policies:

1. We now have 5 Wiki instances (4 out of 5 use MediaWiki).
2. There is a controlled environment set to edit Wiki; thus maintaining appropriate quality of data
3. The most current information is available on Wiki
4. We are now integrating “Video” uploads on the Wiki allowing employees to upload videos on various services we provide.

I have always believed in optimizing time and work effort to lead a balanced life.

Todd D. Rakoff is Byrne Professor of Administrative Law, Harvard University. His book “A Time for Every Purpose - Law and the Balance of Life” explains the various laws which govern our effective use of time and it explains that the structure of our time for organized efforts is gradually changing.

Here is my work schedule:

• 6.30 AM : E-mail
• 7.00 AM : Write project plan for a process optimization project.
• 8.00 AM : Read news, blogs and watch videos on Health Care; Technology and Government matters.
• 9.00 AM - 6.00 PM :
  • Every day I attend 2 meetings (at least) and define rules for process definition and improvement.
  • I am a developer by heart; I spend an hour coding for our “HelpDesk” using open source (PHP and MySQL). The HelpDesk is a central source for all our internal communication needs.
  • Write and send enterprise e-mail about our monthly Network Maintenance updates; Email Policies; Latest updates on Health Care; Introduction of new projects.
  • Attend communications-project steering committee meeting
  • Define pricing for customized development items and lay down a road map for timely completion of the projects
  • Define knowledge transfer rules for an employee
  • Meet with senior vice president of sales to discuss plans for: Website updates; New ideas on marketing
• 7.00 PM : E-mail
• 8.00 PM : Dinner with family
• 9.00 PM : Update Blog; Write research paper [on Governing Dynamics of Internet (Health Care IT)]
• 10.00 PM : Study Jainism and geological sediments (rock formation)

I am often asked the reason why I am consulted more than my seniors for any advice in Health Care or IT Services. It is not always the expertise which I possess allow me to provide consultation services; it is my nature of sharing knowledge and educating everyone with updated information on the industry.

Sharing knowledge has allowed for an improvised team effort in our organization. We follow a value added approach rather than a incremental approach in knowledge management. We have a meeting every week to discuss the current processes which are followed by individual departments. We have a steering committee to find gaps amongst these departments and the goal of the steering committee is to monitor these gaps. Once a gap is identified the gap is documented and assigned to the team involved in “Gap Addressing”.  After the gap is addressed it is appropriately communicated to the various team managers in the organization, who intern communicate it to their team.

In this fashion, all team managers are aware of any updates in any processes for other departments they interact with. We have a document management system (developed in house known as “HelpDesk”) which allows easy navigation to the meeting minutes and process documents. We send periodic newsletters to our company members - updating them on any new process development or any new projects in hand.

We are developing a process to keep a track of any new project that is undertaken by a member of the company. Currently each department is responsible to keep a record of the projects their team members are involved in.

We are seeing that the Communication Process is making use of the most optimum resources in terms of both member skills and in terms of technology to keep everyone up-to-date. This brings in a sense of “Thought Leadership” amongst the teams and improvises quality of work.

When you manage a software development firm you are often asked which department costs you the most. Varied answers are available debating amongst “Development” and “Sales / Marketing”, but my experience teaches me that it is “Support”.

The people, policies and technology are often quite difficult to manage leading to increased “Support Calls”. The human nature asks for external as well as internal support within an organization.

Support Systems are often categorized by the nature in which they were developed.

Managing support requires:

• People
• Structure
• Ticketing System
• Knowledge Base
• Live Chat
• Documentation

Areas that need proper controlled forces are:

• Monitoring Frequently Asked Questions
• Educating Support Staff on the latest development advancements
• Managing Support Staff Ratings
• Maintaining appropriate backup staff for the areas of expertise
• Periodic Staff Evaluation on performances

Support ticketing trends / reports are measured using three main criterias:

• Average Response Time to address a ticket
• Nature of the support call
• Frequency of the support call

Support systems are formally designed a three tier architecture. The tier three support being the most complex and the tier one support being the comparatively simpler questions.

Any organization either big or small usually needs a support system and a dedicated department to answer the clients questions.