When working with the knowledge worker (who gets more specialized as we get deeper into the knowledge age by the way) you are faced with a dilemma as a supervisor or manager. He knows more than you do! In other words, you can’t tell:
- If he’s doing the right thing.
- If he has done the right thing correctly or not.
- If there is a better way for doing the right thing.
- If he is doing the right thing efficiently, or he is just wasting time and/or other resources.
- If he’s answering your questions truthfully, or he’s just feeding you a complicated WRONG answer.
- Learn:
- Ask the customer:
- Benchmark/ set quality standards:
- Hire a supervisor or leader that is knowledgeable:
- All of the above if possible!
Basically, you are blind, and he is leading you by the hand to where ever he wants.
There are a few ideas that you can use to deal with this dilemma:
Consider it a an opportunity to get to know new stuff. Read up and learn. The insight that you gain cannot be substituted by anything.
Generally speaking, the output of the process can be very telling of how effect the process itself is. Keep in mind that if you are speaking to non-paying customers that really doesn't have an incentive to want quality product/service, you might not find what you are looking for unless you ask the right questions.
Find a way to establish transparent quality standards that set a common reference.
Outsource it! If you don’t have a high enough structure, choose one of the employees as a group leader
No comments:
Post a Comment