What I do when I am Too Busy to Get Help? I try to take time to learn.
Rebecka Isaksson
KM Expert | Keynote Speaker | Podcast host??| Microsoft MVP (Microsoft 365 Apps & Services)
Digital Transformation & Productivity - PART III
In my second post in this Blog series, I talked about a situation that I think most of us find too familiar: being stuck in the “I don’t know but I don’t have time to learn!â€-dilemma. This week I want to start sharing some of my tips & tricks to breaking that vicious circle. No. 1: Take time to learn.
I know it is a lot easier said than done but in my own experience, there really is only one thing that you should be doing in this situation: Take time to learn! Give yourself some time to think and learn “how†instead of getting a quick fix for a problem, so that next time you might not even get into that cycle.
It's on the Intranet – Go Fish!
Many years ago when I worked for Ericsson Corp HQ, it was a standing joke between employees that everything one could possibly be looking for was “available on the Intranetâ€. To most of us, getting that response to any question about where to find stuff, was like being told to “Go Fish!â€. As this was in the teenage years of the Intranet, as “the†information and collaboration portal, most companies (incl. my previous employer ?) have come light-years from where we were back then by now. But “search†and information/knowledge discoverability is still, to many companies, a real challenge. Not necessarily because our "Intranets" are still deep, black holes but because most of us "don't have time to look".
How often have you found yourself too stressed to even do a search, or look for something methodically? And how often do you do a couple of random, ill-defined searches and when you don't instantly find what you are looking for, you give up and send an e-mail asking for a quick fix? When instead you could be asking for “how to find the answer� I do that myself all the time. But I try to teach myself to do otherwise.
Here’s my simple “Learning How to Fish†method:
I think that it is becoming even more relevant these days, to take time to learn [how to fish], before we go deal with whatever it is we are facing in that moment. With some method applied to all the madness around us (e.g. speed of Transformation/Change) we can make a greater impact while saving ourselves some effort. That to me is “Working Smartâ€.
I can’t teach you how to make time to learn, it’s just something you need to teach yourself but for me personally that means constant “workâ€. I have to pinch myself in the arm a few times a day and remind myself of my own advice… ?
- The first thing I do is search for the information (methodically)
- If I cannot find it myself, I will reach out to my Community (we have ~100 Communities of Practice) and ask for “how to…?â€
- As a last resort I will ping an expert
I try to always follow this order when applying my “Get Helpâ€- method to learn for next time, as a way of “teaching myself to fishâ€, instead of finding a quick answer. In the short term for sure it is almost always faster to jump straight to #3 but that means that next time I have to do the same again, and one day the expert is out and I have no other option than to deal with it myself.
Your thoughts, comments and suggestions are as always highly appreciated and I hope to hear more thoughts from you on this, revised third part in my “Digital Transformation & Productivity†Blog series.
Thanks for continuing to read my posts!
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PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
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Strategic leader in digital transformation projects | Helping organizations realize cost savings and revenue acceleration via continuous process improvement, people management, and technology adoption
8 å¹´Hi Rebecka, What you are rightly promoting here is a Knowledge "seeking" culture. We hear plethora about promoting Knowledge "Sharing", but, i believe, equally important is knowledge "seeking." I have used this concept to design knowledge seeking/sharing in my team: 1. Before you start on a non-trivial initiative, do a peer review: find or ask someone who has done this before. 2. Once done with the initiative, share the lessons learned or insights with relevant people. these small steps have gone a long way to promote collaboration but they have to be ingrained in the organizational processes for them to be sustainable. thanks Rohit
Cloud Solution Strategy Architect
9 å¹´Hi Rebecka, I would offer a precursor to your list: Take the 5 minute training (if available) on the system. Although systems should be intuitive, how often did a little insight result in better, more accurate and faster results.How often have you shown someone a feature/function they were unaware of (right in front of them) , for example a refiner ... I wholeheartedly agree that jumping to number 3 is typical, so your point is well made... "In the short term for sure it is almost always faster to jump straight to #3 but that means that next time I have to do the same again ......" Not jumping is harder because we resort to our comfort level and what's easier. Going directly to number 3 is the lazy action. I think even with best intentions to "learn to fish", we resort to the "jump" due to stress... So perhaps another option before jumping to the lazy step 3, and teaching oneself how to fish is "Breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth... Breathe". :-) And remember, that person behind the number 3, also has their own workload and life; and are you willing to continually sacrifice their time for the sake of your own lack of desire to learn ? As well, the risk of them tiring of answering your questions when they learn due diligence was not very diligent? There is nothing like the great feeling of figuring something out and being self sufficient. (Well there are, but that's another story ;) )