Adopt in Waves
The Adopt in Waves phase establishes an understanding of the KCS concepts and practices within a manageable size group, or wave, of knowledge workers. We promote and recognize those knowledge worker behaviors that align with the KCS techniques. Through coaching and recognition, the Solve Loop activities become a habit for the knowledge workers. And, knowledge workers are experiencing the benefit of capturing and reusing the collective experience of the group by integrating the use of the knowledge base into their workflow.
Adopt in Waves activities include:
- Training of the knowledge workers, their managers, and the coaches
- Validation of the foundation elements built in the Plan and Design phase. Particularly the workflow and content standard.
- Evolution of the technology to better support the KCS Practices
- KCS competency development through coaching
- Feedback to the knowledge workers about the impact of their contribution to the knowledge base
As we Adopt in Waves, our focus is on individual and team proficiency in the techniques of the Solve Loop. Our measures for this phase are focused on individual proficiency rather than organizational measures. We want to have a usable content standard that knowledge workers are using to build quality articles for new issues. We want to have known issues in the knowledge base that are findable and usable. We want knowledge workers to search, reuse, modify if appropriate and link articles.
The desired outcomes of Adopt in Waves include building internal referenceability through success stories and knowledge worker enthusiasm about the KCS Practices, as well as the emerging benefits.
Adoption Indicators
See Adoption Indicators in the Indicators of Transformation table.
If the adoption activities are successful, all the traditional transaction-based measures should look great, justifying continuing support for the KCS program.
The key Adoption Indicators reveal how well the team understands and embraces the KCS Solve Loop practices. The baselines for these measures should have been captured in the Plan and Design phase.
Because participants are reusing content successfully, and creating content if it doesn't exist, the Adopt in Waves phase should produce measurable efficiency gains. However, we do not set targets for efficiency improvement. Efficiency targets would distract us from the critical adoption success indicators. Also, it is very hard to predict what the efficiency improvement will be.
Noting positive trends benefits both individuals and the organization as a whole. Improvement in traditional resolution capacity measurements, coupled with the knowledge workers’ growing sense of confidence in supporting a broader range of products, should contribute to the participants’ excitement about their progress and build referenceability.
Success in the adoption activities should enable us to document improvements in cost per transaction that organization executives understand. We should also see improvements in our cultural baselines of collaboration, trust and employee job satisfaction. It is tempting to declare success, but....
If you stop here, the KCS behaviors will atrophy and die. No amount of tee shirts, coffee cups, or certificates can substitute for the inherent motivation of the knowledge worker seeing the impact of their contribution. Knowledge workers get satisfaction from seeing their peers use articles they have created or modified (both need to be recognized). The Build Proficiency phase presents opportunities to amplify that sense of contribution and satisfaction. Seeing improvement in customer success with self-service and driving organizational improvements are both hugely gratifying and motivating to the knowledge worker. It is leadership's responsibility to ensure the reports and dashboards are in place that allow knowledge workers to see the impact of their contribution.
Although self-congratulations are justified, we must make sure that the stakeholders understand the need to maintain forward progress. The Build Proficiency phase not only enables operational improvements for the support organization, it is also where we see improvements in customer success and productivity. The Proficiency phase expands access to the knowledge base by a larger audience, ideally customers. This will create a gradual shift in the nature of the work for the support organization. This is one of the fundamental motivation factors for the knowledge workers to continue doing KCS. It is in the Build Proficiency that the mix of new and known issues begins to shift from mostly known to mostly new. Over time, knowledge workers are working on fewer known issues; much of the known, redundant work is now being handled through self-service. This not only reinforces the KCS behaviors but improves employee morale and job satisfaction.