Why do most companies keep recreating the wheel?

January 25, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Wordpress Content Management System

I had an interesting conversation at a presentation yesterday at one of my clients where we were working on performance management improvement. The topic of knowledge sharing came up. Various managers, staff, and field techs keep coming across similar problems and resolutions, yet it doesn’t get shared. I’m curious how other organizations “institutionalize” or “formalize” knowledge sharing beyond the weekly/monthly group meeting. How does this information get stored as part of the organization’s history?

An easy recommendation I’ve making to my clients to immediately start down this path is to just starting using a Content Management System internally like a blog – such as WordPress – to collect, store, and circulate knowledge. Easy to use and set-up and every person within minutes can learn how to add information.

Anyone else have experience with companies using a structured approach to knowledge sharing without spending thousands of dollars on expensive software?

I find in many of my entrepreneurial clients, those in the 50-150 person range, have no formal tool to collect knowledge and share it with other employees, new employees, and customers. Everybody is an isolated silo. Even though three of our staff have faced this same exact issue before, let’s allow the new guy to stumble through it again, recreating the wheel, and making the same mistakes we know will happen.

This sounds so dysfunctional that information is not shared other than the occasional “lunch-n-learn”, staff meetings, or the rare group training (in which we forget 90 percent of what we’ve heard and learned within 48 hours).

I am recommending to all my clients that have a workforce and client base with the following needs that they immediately implement putting wordpress on their website and using it both internally as a knowledge base, and externally, as a marketing engagement tool for clients:

  • Success stories to share with all employees and clients
  • Problems and their resolution
  • Feedback on projects
  • Updates for clients on projects
  • Client understanding of your solutions
  • Case studies
  • Technical Training and Updates
  • Product Information and Updates
  • Project Collaboration
  • Sales Call Reporting – beyond the information in your CRM system
  • Field Tech/Customer Call Reporting – beyond the information in your CRM system
  • Company Newsletter
  • Self-paced on-line training

 

The list is endless when you start including downloads for video, audio, mobile updates from the field off ipads and smartphones. Layer on top of the internal value you get: Imagine the ability to interact real time, improve communications, and engage at a deep level with your existing and potential customers.

There are other more rigorous and expensive solutions. WordPress could be the least expensive (it’s free – and quickest method to implement a knowledge base immediately) You always have the option to scale it up and transfer the content to another system in the future. Your IT professionals can quickly master how to support the software and your staff can be easily trained. You can also outsource the support of your wordpress installation to an expert, for a very low monthly fee (this is my approach).

I can’t think of an easier solution to get a knowledge base up and running within days, and start to see the immediate impact.

I am conducting a research project for companies interested in launching a knowledge base that can be used internally and externally for marketing. I will take the first 10 companies to raise their hand and I’ll walk them step-by-step through the launch and management of their knowledge base using WordPress. I will do this on a complimentary basis to form the foundation for my research project. Shoot me a note if you’re interested in being part of the initial research group.

This new service and direction comes from our observation that one of the greatest challenges in most companies in building high performance teams and organizations is a lack of knowledge sharing among the management team in how to do it. Training is one element of the solution (most managers and executives don’t have equal training), and the other primary failure point is a lack of sharing of specific past experiences and “details”on how to do it.

Barry Deutsch

Filed Under: employee peformance, leadership best practices · Tagged: , ,

Is the Issue of Delayed Gratification Important in Success vs. Failure?

August 13, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Vistage Chair Mark Taylor, put forth the interesting idea that perhaps success or failure is determined by delayed gratification.

Here are a few of the comments Mark made in his blog post:

 

In this six minute TED talk, Joachim de Posada, author of Don’t Eat The Marshmallow Yet!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life, shares a telling experiment on delayed gratification — and how it can predict future success. This must see video of kids trying their hardest not to eat the marshmallow is very funny and teaches an important lesson for leaders, the key difference between success and failure is not merely hard work or superior intelligence, but the ability to delay gratification.

 

Mark took this idea to another level by linking emotional intelligence to delayed gratification.

Would you agree delayed gratification is important to measure? Is it a important behavior trait among your top performers.

Is measuring this possible in an interview?

Are you someone who delays gratification?

My experience of having interviewed with my partner over 250,000 candidates over 25 years and having conducted over 1000 search assignments – is that most top performers in the corporate world want immediate gratification. They have a need to see a project or task completed and want feedback on how the did immediately. They are intensely goal/target focused and have an ability to plow through obstacles, problems, roadblocks to complete projects. Can you be someone who delays gratification, yet be someone who is also execution oriented?

It’s an interesting idea to consider – although I’m not yet convinced this is the core issue of success vs. failure. In roles requiring a high degree of urgency in completion, would this potentially be a negative?

If you’re interested in reading the full article Mark posted, click the link below:

Here is the key difference between success and failure

Barry Deutsch

PS: Mark did a great job of illustrating how you can manage content for your target audience and use it as a tool to engage, promote discussion, brand yourself, and establish your thought leadership. If you’re a speaker, consultant, or sales professional, do you do this with your network on a frequent basis by leveraging social media, such as LinkedIn and Blogging? The additional lesson is that I find this interesting article that Mark wrote, quoted him, linked to his material, gave him full credit, and put my own thoughts around his blog post. This technique of sharing information with your network is called content curation – are you doing this with your most important connections?

Filed Under: culture, employee peformance, hiring top talent · Tagged: , , ,