A Shoemaker's Advice on SharePoint Training: It's Not Just About the Tools

By Dux Raymond Sy (@meetdux) Jan 27, 2010 Comments

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SharePoint empowerment includes instilling proper discipline. Being able to define a process and use SharePoint to support it allows users to reap the technology's promise of streamlining work, increasing productivity and improving business efficiency.

Teaching how to define business processes is equally as important as it is developing a SharePoint solution to support them. You wouldn’t want your organization to end up being the SharePoint cobblers’ children, would you?

On How Not to Make Custom Shoes

Once upon a time, there was a store that sold various goods to the townsfolk. Clothing, shoes, food, home appliances and anything any family would need. It employed a lot of people and business was doing very well.

One day, the owner noticed that there was a high demand for their custom made shoes. The store had a single custom shoemaker who would make these specialized shoes. Customers would wait all day just to have their measurements taken and have their shoes made exactly for them. In some cases, customers would lose patience in waiting in line and just leave the store.

To address the problem, the owner decided to train all the other employees on making custom shoes. Abruptly, he asked the expert shoemaker to teach the other employees on how to use the shoe-making tools. The shoemaker initially hesitated but carried on his employers’ demands.

The next day, the owner was excited and confident that he could serve customers better now. As soon as the store opened, customers came in wanting to have their custom shoes made. The newly trained shoemakers were ready to get started. After two hours, the owner noticed that lines were getting longer (though not as bad as before) in the custom shoes section.

He hovered over the shoemakers to see if there were any problems. “Do I measure the foot width or cut the leather first?” asked a rookie shoemaker to another. “How would I know which laces would work best for tap dancing shoes?” quipped another.“Does the customer have to pay for the shoes if they’re not happy?” asked the third amateur shoemaker.

It's Not Just About the Tools

“Disaster!” exclaimed the store owner. He rushed to see the senior shoemaker and asked him why he didn’t teach the others well. The expert shoemaker was defensive and replied: “I did what you told me to do! I taught everyone how to use a mallet, hatchet, plane, brace, caliper, scissors and a square.”

“Then why is this place a mess? Why aren’t the customers getting their custom shoes made as fast as I hoped they would?” questioned the store owner.

“You see, it takes more than using these tools to make a custom shoe, Mr. Storeowner.” said the shoemaker, continuing: “Learning how to use shoemaking tools is important, however, learning the process of making a shoe is as critical. It takes asking the customer the right questions, drawing it out on a piece of paper, going through the decision making and validation process in deciding which tools should be used in the right order based on the customers’ needs. These steps are necessary to be successful in making the right shoe for the customer.”

As the shoemaker was about to storm out of the room, he asks the store owner: “Have you ever seen someone become a master shoemaker overnight?”

Is Business Process Analysis Part of Your SharePoint Training Plan?

In a lot of organizations, role-based (end user, power user, server administrator) SharePoint training is a key component of their adoption strategy. This is a great thing! However, as a result of technology-focused SharePoint training, individuals can spend too much time with the whiz-bang coolness of SharePoint tools and not be able to effectively deliver a solution to address their business needs because proper business process analysis didn’t happen.