Finding and Spreading "Knacks"

[Wes Bucey]

In Reply to Parent Post by Marc

Any specific ideas, folks?

Any ideas are really dependent on the entire organization ethos. The very fact employees "fear" giving away information which helps them keep or advance in their jobs hints that there is an atmosphere of fear in the organization, probably fed by some anecdotal or empirical evidence where employees who have offered up "knacks" (or ANY helpful suggestions) have not been fairly recognized or rewarded for their contribution and may, in fact, have had the idea copied or stolen by someone else who took credit for it.

One thing we continually harp on in the quality profession is that the top bosses have to be on board for any quality scheme to bear fruit. It appears from the description offered by OP that the rank and file employees don't sense that top manager commitment to the scheme.

Regardless, any specific suggestions are just blind shots without a well-grounded understanding of the prevailing atmosphere at the organization. A middle-level process engineer just doesn't have the power and authority to convince the ground-level troops that they won't get "screwed over." The top bosses HAVE to get involved.

[v9991]

1) mechanism of capturing those observations - learnings (including these elements into daily productivity/output/routine reports; )
2) involvement of management/supervisors for review-assessment
3) very importantly, unbiased rewarding/recognizing(not the supervisors/managers but the people from whom the contributions are captured).

these steps are logical, and easier said than done; inpractical world Its ONLY possible with the
a) direction-orientation to supervisors and managers and
b) follow-through of the management/senior team..(this actually demonstrates the intent and gives positive push )

point is, if anyof the above elements are missing, then the sustainability-all-round-effect could be missing...
and of course then there are exceptions all around...who are self driven..

[Sequence_Barry]

We have worked with a number of manufacturing companies that come down hard on employees that hoard "tribal knowledge." At the end of the day, the knowledge doesn't belong to the employee, it belongs to the organization that issues that employee's paycheck every pay period. We have talked with production managers that rotate employees out of "their" current position for this type of behavior or even let them go when their behavior affected the behavior of others (e.g., performance metric competitions, etc.). The most common defense from the employee is that there wasn't a good way for them to provide feedback on the improvement that they had found so they just didn't. This is frequently a breakdown in the continuous improvement process that must be overcome by both a systems approach as well as a change in corporate philosophy. Both hard sells sometimes.

[Pancho]

As mentioned in another current thread, empowering and encouraging workers to edit QMS documents helps in this knack-capturing pursuit. QMS docs are the natural place to capture this tacit knowledge and make it explicit.

Track contributions and recognize and reward individuals that do make an effort to improve the system. Soon you'll be netting knacks galore.

[Wes Bucey]

In Reply to Parent Post by Sequence_Barry

We have worked with a number of manufacturing companies that come down hard on employees that hoard "tribal knowledge." At the end of the day, the knowledge doesn't belong to the employee, it belongs to the organization that issues that employee's paycheck every pay period. We have talked with production managers that rotate employees out of "their" current position for this type of behavior or even let them go when their behavior affected the behavior of others (e.g., performance metric competitions, etc.). The most common defense from the employee is that there wasn't a good way for them to provide feedback on the improvement that they had found so they just didn't. This is frequently a breakdown in the continuous improvement process that must be overcome by both a systems approach as well as a change in corporate philosophy. Both hard sells sometimes.

I agree the "knack" properly belongs to the organization - it is an essential part of SoPK. However, I fear any organization which "comes down hard on employees that hoard" just doesn't get the point.

Discoveries of hoarded "knacks" should be viewed as opportunities for enlightenment and improvement, not reprimand or punishment. I hope I'm getting the wrong idea of what you mean by "comes down hard on employees that hoard."

A systematic process of recognition and maybe even reward are much better incentives to share knowledge than fear of reprisal if caught "hoarding" (perhaps the employee doesn't even recognize he has found a "better" way - it may be a happy juxtaposition of inadequate training and desire to do a good job!)

Certainly, the perception of whether the act is"hoarding" or merely the unfortunate result of the absence of a consistent method to
recognize valuable improvement which can be replicated by others is one of perception, not fact.

Further, let me call your attention to the time honored mantra of every worker and boss since time immemorial"
"What's in it for me?"

An organization cannot run well on fear alone; reward and recognition play a big role in fostering continual improvement.

Along with recognition and reward, the organization needs an education program to help employees recognize when a deviation from the prescribed practice is value added and when it is not. My colleague in Jaapan, Akio Miura, can rant for hours about time wasting "poka yoke" - time wasters because there is no uniform examination of "ground level" poka yoke to see whether an improvement in one department is merely shifting added burden to another department with no net gain in improvement and sometimes even a net loss.

[Wes Bucey]

Seven years ago, I wrote about "cost improvement programs":

This can be real touchy and fraught with legal complications. My experience and opinion says that best programs are completely transparent. This means a regular list of suggestions is published (names of contributors can be withheld from public.) The action (none, held for consideration, actual action) is communicated on each suggestion. Bookkeeping for each accepted suggestion is also open. If names are withheld, a unique tracking number is assigned to each suggestion. It is important to have a good education program in place on what makes a good, usable suggestion:

1. "add air conditioning to improve working conditions on hot days. Savings will be realized in fewer sick days and increased productivity because employees are not exhausted from heating" versus a throwaway line like
2. "It's too hot!"

[Sequence_Barry]

Wes -

The reprisal responses we have seen have been when employees continue to behave in this fashion even after being "enlightened." I agree that this is an unfortunate workplace environment with much bigger problems than "hoarding of knacks" but these environments do still exist. An environment of shared knowledge and corporate success is certainly much more appropriate but often harder to achieve than one might think. It is an unfortunate but a fact of life that not all companies are well run.

Thanks to all for sharing. This has been a great thread and I have certainly learned a lot.

Barry

[WCHorn]

I found this Quality Digest article relevant to this discussion. Thank everyone for your responses.