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Ask HN: How to Encourage Information Sharing?

My client has a deeply ingrained culture of information hoarding and strict job definitions, and it's holding them back from being able to scale their operation. The work isn't difficult or complex but completing it takes forever due to all the hand-offs and errors caused by a lack of up-to-date documentation. I can't grow the team because their culture makes it really difficult for new people to come up to speed. They don't even follow the docs that they have, and they certainly don't update them when they notice errors or omissions. In some cases, I've witnessed them performing a task that is documented on a Wiki page (last updated: 2016!), but they skip some steps, perform others differently from the doc, and do things not covered in the doc at all. When I asked why they don't update the docs, they respond with claims of "it's not my doc" or "it's owned by Team X" so they can't change it. They rarely describe the solution for bug fixes in the Jira ticket and instead just declare it fixed and pass it to QA so the knowledge stays with the person that fixed the bug. They've even refused to share their screen during live debugging sessions and instead just loosely describe what they're doing in words. How can I foster a culture of information sharing?

walterbell 4y ago
What were the causative factors for the existing culture?
- jkjdowindnaweuh 4y ago
  I don't know yet. I'm planning to have conversations with the management team but it's a sensitive topic so I need to plan the discussions carefully.
  - inphovore 4y ago
    I suspect your problem is behavioral not information. These “sensitive” clients may be your hassle. My prior comment was speculative sauce inspired by a decade of tough management decisions. In practicality, you should provide the best service you can for them and not take their failures to heart. Avoid “sensitive” clients unless that is your specialization.
EddieDante 4y ago
Why is fixing their culture your problem? Instead of trying to change the client, why not get a better client? Are you getting paid enough for this? Are there no better avenues for your altruistic impulses?
- jkjdowindnaweuh 4y ago
  That's a good question - the client engaged us to help them find ways to complete the work faster. There are several changes we've identified (parallelisation, re-sequencing tasks, batching etc) but the parallelisation is hindered by the knowledge silos. Work often funnels through a few key people that don't document what they do, so adding more people/teams would only exacerbate the contention on those key people.
inphovore 4y ago
There is so much here touched upon one can only speculate in terms of experiential humanity… * natural human tendency for us to become curmudgeons * you may be involved in a conspiracy Curmudgeons Consider yourself, how do you feel during first week of a new job? Like you can do anything and your eager to go out of your way to make it all perfect? Or the last week of a job you respect, when you wanted to make sure you’ve left nothing hanging? And the long interim in between? The daily grind, the now familiarity, comfort zone dividing what is expected and responsible for you, and how not to get caught up in “extra work”. Psychologically unlocking this human capacity for change may require reshuffling the org, or a incentive level redirect of priorities. Conspiracy Worth mentioning (about humans). What causes conspiracy? Job security and haters to name a few. Solution? Reshuffle the org as appropriate.
- jkjdowindnaweuh 4y ago
  > The daily grind, the now familiarity, comfort zone dividing what is expected and responsible for you, and how not to get caught up in “extra work”. This might be close to the mark along with the need to feel indispensable. Many of the key staff are lifers.
- jkjdowindnaweuh 4y ago
  > reshuffling the org, or an incentive level redirect of priorities. This is the conversation I need to have with the management team - to ask them to clearly state that they value knowledge sharing, and to demonstrate that through incentives (reviews, bonuses, raises, promotions etc). I'm always wary of incentive-driven changes though - never underestimate people's creativity when it comes to gaming management metrics.

walterbell 4y ago

What were the causative factors for the existing culture?

jkjdowindnaweuh 4y ago
I don't know yet. I'm planning to have conversations with the management team but it's a sensitive topic so I need to plan the discussions carefully.
- inphovore 4y ago
  I suspect your problem is behavioral not information. These “sensitive” clients may be your hassle. My prior comment was speculative sauce inspired by a decade of tough management decisions. In practicality, you should provide the best service you can for them and not take their failures to heart. Avoid “sensitive” clients unless that is your specialization.

EddieDante 4y ago

Why is fixing their culture your problem? Instead of trying to change the client, why not get a better client? Are you getting paid enough for this? Are there no better avenues for your altruistic impulses?

jkjdowindnaweuh 4y ago
That's a good question - the client engaged us to help them find ways to complete the work faster. There are several changes we've identified (parallelisation, re-sequencing tasks, batching etc) but the parallelisation is hindered by the knowledge silos. Work often funnels through a few key people that don't document what they do, so adding more people/teams would only exacerbate the contention on those key people.

inphovore 4y ago

There is so much here touched upon one can only speculate in terms of experiential humanity… * natural human tendency for us to become curmudgeons * you may be involved in a conspiracy Curmudgeons Consider yourself, how do you feel during first week of a new job? Like you can do anything and your eager to go out of your way to make it all perfect? Or the last week of a job you respect, when you wanted to make sure you’ve left nothing hanging? And the long interim in between? The daily grind, the now familiarity, comfort zone dividing what is expected and responsible for you, and how not to get caught up in “extra work”. Psychologically unlocking this human capacity for change may require reshuffling the org, or a incentive level redirect of priorities. Conspiracy Worth mentioning (about humans). What causes conspiracy? Job security and haters to name a few. Solution? Reshuffle the org as appropriate.

jkjdowindnaweuh 4y ago
> The daily grind, the now familiarity, comfort zone dividing what is expected and responsible for you, and how not to get caught up in “extra work”. This might be close to the mark along with the need to feel indispensable. Many of the key staff are lifers.
jkjdowindnaweuh 4y ago
> reshuffling the org, or an incentive level redirect of priorities. This is the conversation I need to have with the management team - to ask them to clearly state that they value knowledge sharing, and to demonstrate that through incentives (reviews, bonuses, raises, promotions etc). I'm always wary of incentive-driven changes though - never underestimate people's creativity when it comes to gaming management metrics.