Capturing Wisdom

Once I was visiting data center of one of the oldest electricity providers and the bill-printing mechanism was more like a huge press printing some newspaper. I bumped in to a maintenance engineer whose job was to monitor the bulk printing of electricity bills. He was quietly sitting in a corner reading some paperback, when I met him. “So, what exactly are you supposed to do here?” I asked the question once he warmed up over a cup of tea. “I have to just ensure that this printing machine is working all the time”. “Oh, so do you have to stand next to the printer most of the time?” I asked it more as a doubt about his diligence than a query. He was sharp enough to get my drift and quipped, “No, I sit there and generally read something”. “Then how do you know that it is working fine?” He smiled, “Its very simple. I have figured it out over last year, that as long as I hear a peculiar sound from the printer every third minute, all is well”. Out of curiosity, I checked his record with the data center manager and I was told that this fellow was one of the most efficient engineers and his response time to the problem is great!

This reminded me of an incident narrated by a newlywed girl who was doing an apprenticeship under her mother-in-law. The old lady was narrating the recipe of one of her signature items. One of the steps puzzled our young lady. When the young lady asked, “How much time do you heat the contents at this stage?” the old lady simply said, “Well I put the vessel on the stove and go for my bath. I take it down as soon as I come back” This method of time-measurement stumped the young lady!!

If you look around the workplace, you will find quite a few cases where you get stumped by the experts. Over the years, they have devised their own mechanism of achieving results. It is not the stuff strictly written in any manuals but figured out over a period of time. Even if the experts are not secretive about the process they follow, it is extremely difficult to understand the correlation between the process and the results. When a new person tries to take over the process he finds it extremely difficult to follow some of these processes without feeling stupid. Just add the insecurity of the expert to the whole situation and the plot thickens! I have worked in the Outsourcing industry for about two decades now. When I think of all those brilliant professionals, who have made the Indian outsourcing industry work, I wonder - how do they capture the knowledge transition in terms of sound to hear on a cranky old printer or how much time one should take for a bath! My heart goes out for all those gallant IT professionals who not only transition the processes from the experts but also take them to offshore! My dear fellows - take a bow!