When you manage groups of technical people in computer support there are many out of the normal considerations. One of the largest I've come across is boasting. Tooting your own horn. Publicizing your achievements.  Many technical people don't want to take the time to document their efforts, as they think the work speaks for itself.

One of the larger reasons for transparency in computer support is communication. One of the main ways we accomplish this is through our status report. In the past, the status report was driven from the top down. Managers assembled it and put it together with little input from those actually doing the work. I changed this to encourage each person to develop their own status, which would be assembled weekly. I carved out individual pages on the knowledge base for folks to edit their status reports. 

Massive fail. 

I then transitioned to location based status reports where everyone could work on the status report.

Massive fail.

I know there is value is generating the status from the bottom up. Off the top of my head I can think of these three things:

1. Collaborative knowledge.
2. Personal edification.
3. Deeper understanding.

The steps I need to take now include finding out why people aren't updating the status reports, assigning direct responsibility for updating certain items and setting a deadline. It'll be interesting to see who responds and who doesn't. 

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