Case Study

 
The following is typical of the kinds of challenges we have been asked to help our clients solve. This is a description of the experience of one division of a large, multinational corporation. This group is located in Dublin, Ireland, but their experience mirrors that of many others we have worked with throughout the world.

"Here in Dublin we have the job of resolving technical issues in 12 different languages. Native speakers are the best, of course, so we have 12 teams, each from different countries and cultures. We had spent several years attempting to create a common knowledge base, with the goal being that everyone contributes knowledge, and uses the knowledge from the other teams, as well as their own, to solve the problems our customers called in.
We had purchased what seemed to be the best technology on the market for this application. The investment for the tools and training was significant, but we felt the savings in productivity and levels of service made the investment worthwhile. In fact, our feeling is we have to create some kind of common knowledge base to remain competitive in the future. So our commitment to this project was very high.
The problem was that after several years, after a huge investment in time and money, and any number of adjustments to the project, we were going nowhere. Virtually no one was actively contributing to the knowledge base, which meant it still wasn't usable, so of course, no one was searching it for even the solutions that were available.
Everyone had the right tools, the training to use it, and seemed to understand the need to make it work. We had used outside consultants to help, and still nothing changed. Managers had tried any number of incentives to motivate their teams. Why weren't they using it, and why weren't we getting the benefits we had expected?"

The following information is used to show the Results possible from focusing on the underlying Beliefs, instead of the usual focus on behaviors, processes, and systems. It is not designed to be an exhaustive study, but rather is intended to share our basic findings, and what happened as we applied the principles we are sharing with you in this book.

The Essential Beliefs are core principles, used to open our minds and give us a quick guide to uncovering root causes of problems. They are not nice, neat slots in which everything fits perfectly. They don't eliminate the need to think and analyze. With a little practice, though, it is amazing how quickly you can come to useful decisions about where the real problems lie and how to attack them.

Desired Result: Individuals share personal knowledge & skills with team through a common data base.

Current Beliefs In Conflict With Results: "Management says this is what they want, but if I do it they will end up penalizing me in some way."

Current Results: Individuals hoard knowledge and resist sharing what they see as their unique value.

Belief Needed: I Trust Others - Essential Belief #1

Desired Result:Capture data in the workflow (while still on call)

Current Beliefs In Conflict With Results: There is less risk in not doing it than in doing it wrong since It is a new process that I don't do well.

Current Results:They try to capture knowledge after call ends, but there is always a new call so data capture never happens.

Belief Needed: Mistakes Are Okay - Essential Belief #2

Desired Result:Managers are aligned with principles of knowledge sharing.

Current Beliefs In Conflict With Results:Even though middle managers have serious reservations about the project, in public they verbally support it.

Current Results:Managers are daily doing things that are quietly (often unknowingly) sabotaging success of the project.

Belief Needed: Honesty Is Indispensable - Essential Belief #3

This company spent several years attempting to move this project ahead, with little success. After just a few months of focusing on the underlying Beliefs, we had successfully moved this group ahead of the rest of the company, in number of solutions created, participation in the project, and use of the knowledge base. In a post evaluation, the company looked at several measurements with the following Results:

*After applying these principles, customer satisfaction surveys went up by as much as 12%, when the knowledge base was used compared to when it was not.

*During a one year period, starting from just before our involvement, they tracked the following Results:

*Tracking reuse of solutions created by individuals who had left the team (to see how this was changing the affects of attrition) revealed some remarkable numbers, with just two examples given below:

*Looking at sharing of knowledge between teams, a major objective of the project, the company found the following, using the French team as an example:

In the last measurement, this means they went from virtually zero sharing of knowledge, to other teams reusing the French team's solutions 945 times, while the French team used its own solutions 623 times! This is a remarkable shift in Results.

In this particular case, it was clear there were several Beliefs held by this group that were in direct conflict with the objectives of their knowledge sharing project. In this book we are not going to spend time on the details of the change process. However, over many years of working with the Belief Cycle, many organizations, and thousands of individuals, we have created a change management process that will lead you through identifying the specific areas you need to focus on. The process then guides you through specific steps to more easily manage the required changes.