The Real Test of Value

Here is a video on making a difference from the Simple Truths of Service series, courtesy of Paul McDowall (Canadian School of Public Service).

It reminds me of how back in the early KM days, there were two of us who used to churn out this monthly KM bulletin. We called them “KM Bullets” to impress on staff how short and quick reading them would be. The KM Bullets would have a KM quote of the week, a recommended book to take to bed and a review of a KM article. We would send them via email to all staff as at that time, hardly anyone visited the Intranet.

We began to wonder if staff actually read these bulletins. When we asked around, it seemed like no one seemed particularly interested in them and so, we stopped them after almost a year. Much to our surprise, we got emails from some of our colleagues based at our various client sites asking why we had stopped issuing them. It turned out they had been reformatting our KM Bullets and sending them out to their respective client organizations. We made a difference to some folks and were not even aware of it. Maybe I should have formed a queue like Johnny to hand out those KM Bullets. That would have given me immediate feedback.

It also says I suppose that even though a service does not receive positive feedback it does not mean that it is not viewed positively. Sometimes, the test is to just take it away and see if anyone notices smile Err… did anyone miss me these last 2 weeks?

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