Discovering The Job Aid Box!

I was talking with a friend at work when she revealed to me that she had a “Job Aid Box.” See the photo.  The box contains her hard-to-remember-(work related)-notes-to-herself.

There are so many things I love about this discovery.  This colleague is an excellent performer.  Most of her Job Aids are brief notes containing useful bits of knowledge; who is the one person in the company who handles XYZ transactions, where is the place to go for tracking ABC.  All of these pieces of knowledge were verified through experience, outside the official knowledge management tools in place.  Her “Job Aids” were brief and targeted to her specific needs.  I also loved that the Aids were placed in a physical box.  It’s not a tech-strategy, but I see similarities between placing your hard to remember Job Aids in a box and placing notes in your PDA.  They are different boxes, but still functioning as storage mechanisms. The very tangible nature of the box reminded me of Rossett’s statement, “[Job Aids] relieve individuals of responsibility for storing information in long term memory.”  Outsourcing of memory in a way….

Self directed learning displayed in the workplace, without the aid of technology and formal learning = brilliant little piece of learning for me.

Not too sure about the play-doh bits though!