tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26870936023882348862024-03-01T23:16:52.212+11:00Delta KnowledgeA blog about Collaboration Cultures, Social Networks, Agile Knowledge Management and associated methods that help organisations respond intelligently to complex problems.Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-58400897356643921702024-03-01T21:28:00.002+11:002024-03-01T23:16:19.330+11:00Joining the dots: Knowledge Management and Product Ownership<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHM8FJm5nd6QJAEsCDY_-Ds9M0l-jR0gFBGVDR2bUsZMNcPF9498cpuSl8EGDEBhLZ7UEgdYGSXEZvZR-OGhEXkC8gTqVqRHb8BXO_KGPHHDrAJYem5vX1rwAyqACCnm8RkRcL3886n1VxpfFKY9GCNt5-ACOrv-kKx80hLrnLOUuO18JXwP7kSaJIuKX/s1024/Navigating%20a%20sea%20of%20complexity%20chatGPT.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHM8FJm5nd6QJAEsCDY_-Ds9M0l-jR0gFBGVDR2bUsZMNcPF9498cpuSl8EGDEBhLZ7UEgdYGSXEZvZR-OGhEXkC8gTqVqRHb8BXO_KGPHHDrAJYem5vX1rwAyqACCnm8RkRcL3886n1VxpfFKY9GCNt5-ACOrv-kKx80hLrnLOUuO18JXwP7kSaJIuKX/s320/Navigating%20a%20sea%20of%20complexity%20chatGPT.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Recently, I've been reminded of the crucial role the Product Owner plays in designing knowledge-friendly solutions for organizations. Many entering the knowledge management field dream of deploying vast knowledge-bases and collaboration tools to foster sharing and innovation. However, some of my most impactful work has not been in building KM infrastructure but in helping operational projects navigate intangible barriers.<p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Applying the Knowledge Lens</h3><p>Few business analysts and software designers are trained to view their organizations through a knowledge lens. They focus on delivering specific outcomes, often treating feedback and stories as isolated issues rather than part of an integrated, new way of working. This approach can identify key criteria for success but also creates unintended consequences that emerge in practice.</p><p>For instance, in a project for a federal organization aiming to shut down IT infrastructure, my knowledge audit revealed 12 additional users in four divisions reliant on the system for their processes. Had the system been turned off without considering these users, it could have disrupted operations during a national emergency.</p><p>Joining the dots is where knowledge managers excel, involving deep stakeholder engagement beyond interviews and working directly with those the project aims to assist. This is also the essence of a product owner's role in software development, acting as a bridge between end users and the project, managing success criteria, and prioritizing stories to uncover and address risks.</p><p>New knowledge managers may find themselves in product owner roles, which is invaluable for understanding operational complexities and the interconnectedness of processes and people. My own experience as a product owner, following a master's degree, provided a foundation for successful projects, judged not only by executive satisfaction but also by the tangible benefits for end users.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Wayfinding the world that AI can't see</h3><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8yorj2oUeyYR3y8nmf2UnquIM8P9Qwk4vrtyibcjl9QR2wwApuzWCsDFIy9R8zGoAgD_Z3g4pJCZh0pmwV3J3tbE-TErtZ7hD-QpVdab5ENaH4XMqbaWhfpAKYxnhoCMIw8LkwXZMuxf4Iuc-3b3qX1z1SU9_RSe08ETsdXW29KYr6tvsLyDs6I3-N-xo/s876/Blindfolded%20robot.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="873" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8yorj2oUeyYR3y8nmf2UnquIM8P9Qwk4vrtyibcjl9QR2wwApuzWCsDFIy9R8zGoAgD_Z3g4pJCZh0pmwV3J3tbE-TErtZ7hD-QpVdab5ENaH4XMqbaWhfpAKYxnhoCMIw8LkwXZMuxf4Iuc-3b3qX1z1SU9_RSe08ETsdXW29KYr6tvsLyDs6I3-N-xo/s320/Blindfolded%20robot.png" width="319" /></a></div>In the era of generative AI, the importance of humanly connecting knowledge management and product ownership to bridge the gap between action and documentation will only grow. Generative AI's reliance on written information highlights the need for roles that understand the unwritten and unsaid. Whether you're a knowledge manager, product owner, or just working on change, prioritizing the connection between different aspects of the organisation, understanding workers' needs, and grasping the scope and the influence (span) of your projects is critical.<p></p><p></p><p>As generative AI reshapes our work, mastering the art of product ownership becomes a key skill against unintended consequences. Embrace this pivotal role with vigor; prioritize connecting the dots, deeply understand your team's needs, and fully grasp your projects' reach and impact and how negative consequences may emerge from the proposed solutions. It's not just about navigating the future; it's about shaping it to avoid the pitfalls that could compromise your success. Let's not just adapt to the new era; let's lead it with foresight and empathy. Ready, set, innovate!</p>Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0Melbourne VIC, Australia-37.8136276 144.9630576-66.123861436178842 109.80680760000001 -9.5033937638211512 -179.8806924tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-67915298780418329762023-05-16T22:09:00.006+10:002023-05-16T23:00:04.534+10:00PODCAST: The impact of structure on knowledge sharing - Stuart French<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2MBsagNiyl4qJhSv1KrTq7eUIIad1u0yj5G12xO9MKBLXYGScOd2IxIUPD90XlOwunCH9o_OiFbMGmMUavNLPLM-_KRncOtemX2Qe4lWxkOtWmv8i0En3P2Q79yIaUA2Duq-eRAwBWKidVdARbx2yhLF_7YHo5QmbOxGRmHT8bSv9OqwZg98vUto2Kw/s467/Edwin%20K.%20Morris.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="467" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2MBsagNiyl4qJhSv1KrTq7eUIIad1u0yj5G12xO9MKBLXYGScOd2IxIUPD90XlOwunCH9o_OiFbMGmMUavNLPLM-_KRncOtemX2Qe4lWxkOtWmv8i0En3P2Q79yIaUA2Duq-eRAwBWKidVdARbx2yhLF_7YHo5QmbOxGRmHT8bSv9OqwZg98vUto2Kw/s320/Edwin%20K.%20Morris.png" width="320" /></a></div>Last month I got the chance to sit down with Edwin K. Morris from Pioneer Knowledge Service to talk about the Knowledge Management work I do, and how I ended up doing it.<p></p><p>Edwin is one of the nicest blokes I have spoken to in a long time. He is genuinely interested, even though he could probably school me in quite a few KM topics. Our conversation was natural and we shared similar views on a lot of important topics. In short, he is a master interviewer. Disarming, humble, passionate, deeply experienced and willing to challenge an idea to tease out what's underneath.</p><p>At the end we talk briefly about what knowledge and KM is. You will be hearing more about this important topic from me soon. Not because I think I know the answer, but rather because I'm over seeing the damage done when we choose to leave it unanswered.</p><p>In any case, please enjoy this chat about why KM is so important to me, how my approach is a little different to what you may see in corporate KM. I hope you get ideas from some of the things I have done to help keep nurses and doctors safe from AIDS, ships from capsizing at sea, clean water flowing from our taps, and 55,000 volunteer firefighters keep safely saving lives and property for decades to come.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Did I mention how much I love what I do? </b>😍</p>
<iframe class="blubrryplayer" frameborder="0" height="230px" id="blubrryplayer-4" scrolling="yes" src="https://player.blubrry.com/?podcast_id=95593734&modern=1#textcolor-Light&backgroundcolor-2C712E" title="Blubrry Podcast Player" width="100%"></iframe>Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-76951818165259677662023-04-16T01:06:00.024+10:002023-04-16T20:22:14.868+10:00Will A.I. make managing knowledge more or less important?<div class="module" style="border: 1px solid rgb(153, 247, 165); display: inline; float: right; font-size: small; margin: 5px 0px 25px 10px; padding: 12px; width: 29%;">
<h5>TLDR;</h5>
<ol>
<li>AI is suddenly able to master many of your business processes.</li>
<li>How well your company manage your staff's strategic and problem solving capabilities is becoming critical.</li>
<li>Knowledge, not information, is fast becoming your most valuable asset as human staff focus on solution design and exception management.</li>
<li>Managing that knowledge will fast become a major focus of boards and executive teams as they avoid the rigidity of legacy business management solutions.</li>
</ol>
</div><p><i><span style="color: #6b1394; font-family: times; font-size: 14pt;"><b>With AI now able to make decisions for us, we don't need knowledge any more, right? Or people for that matter, right? Right?</b></span></i></p>In <a href="https://hbr.org/2023/03/how-ai-is-helping-companies-redesign-processes" target="_blank">a recent HBR article</a>, Thomas H. Davenport, Matthias Holweg, and Dan Jeavons discuss the important question of how artificial intelligence (AI) is helping companies redesign their processes.<p></p><p>Business scholars and consultants have been encouraging organisations to better deal with change and volatility for decades now. Hauschild, Licht, and Stein captured this well <b><i>“In today’s changing economy, the key to faster, cheaper, and better is to bring the full force of a company’s knowledge to bear on the effort. Knowledge, not land, labor, and capital, is now the lifeblood of a corporation.”</i></b></p><p>Attempts to move away from scientific management and more toward Peter Drucker's Knowledge Economy have been undermined by many leaders clutching to traditional linear forms of control such as Five-year strategic plans and simple, quantitative metrics and KPIs. Drucker knew this and spoke often about the self protecting nature of power structures. Some companies have gone out of business as a result; either slowly over decades like Kodak or suddenly during the recent pandemic. However, many persist, including in the government arena where competition and profitability pressures don't have the same import.</p><p>Suddenly, a potentially larger fluctuation is on our doorstep, and it's set to impact every sector, both private and public. <b>The snowball of Artificial Intelligence.</b> I say suddenly, but of course this has been coming in for decades now. However a few things have changed recently as outlined by Bruce Boyes in his <a href="https://realkm.com/2023/01/23/how-artificial-intelligence-can-support-knowledge-management-in-organizations/" target="_blank">recent RealKM article</a> and the uptake of these new tools has been explosive <a href="https://realkm.com/2023/03/11/in-the-know-ai-and-realkm-chatgpt-as-malevolent-ai-rigour-in-complexity/" target="_blank">despite various warnings</a> and <a href="https://www.techradar.com/news/samsung-workers-leaked-company-secrets-by-using-chatgpt" target="_blank">examples of cyber-security failures</a>.</p><p><br /></p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Focusing on the future of management</h3>
<p>I am interested, not so much in the details and possibilities of tools like chatGPT as I am in how the nature of our management structures will change as trust increases in these AI bots, and automation, design, authoring and analysis get handed over.</p><p>For years, companies have rolled out ERPs, CRMs, Workflow and Risk Management tools in order to build and reinforce the organisations ability to deliver the <u>HOW</u> of their business and secure their key value propositions. But until now, much of that focus has been on the manufacturing and service delivery capability. That is where these tools are aimed. As Davenport puts it, <i><b>"The technologies enabling reengineering in the 90s were primarily transactional and communications-based. They enabled efficient data capture and transfer within and across organizations. AI, on the other hand, enables better, faster, and more automated decisions."</b></i></p><p>So now AI-based automation will transform these primarily human "HOW" tasks:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Software will literally write itself, <b>but</b> who carefully defines the problem it needs to solve?</li><li>Reports will appear at a command, <b>but </b>what exactly are we trying to analyse and understand?</li><li>News articles will be magically written seconds after an event has occurred, <b>but </b>what are the larger strategic implications of publishing that information and if it gets it wrong then will you suffer the same fate as the <a href="https://www.dailyfx.com/news/what-caused-the-silicon-valley-bank-collapse-20230413.html" target="_blank">Silicon Valley Bank</a> just did?</li></ul><div>Davenport et al go on to talk about the use of AI at Shell for plant monitoring. This is where it gets interesting: <i>"As a result of these changes, inspectors and maintenance technicians can now rethink their day-to-day work. They can focus on higher-value activities such as prioritizing projects or, if they’re on site, performing more advanced verification."</i></div><div><br /></div><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieoLqi-JOGx5-Uz7QcfBQHUQqmLHjU7OQRAeKpkMPt8YkdeAduXD9bhxy7k5w_MN89FarT0HEuXdeHTgn5JqP_JCRAljN-kAQC4ABYjqQAo-W4qYblUa-LLA5o0JoRitM6TWK91tDzKDy2Yi3URunXlvKvOEENry08_f9kRZtOHuRkzT1FqQR3fGXzkA/s524/AI%20and%20Knowledge%2001.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="524" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieoLqi-JOGx5-Uz7QcfBQHUQqmLHjU7OQRAeKpkMPt8YkdeAduXD9bhxy7k5w_MN89FarT0HEuXdeHTgn5JqP_JCRAljN-kAQC4ABYjqQAo-W4qYblUa-LLA5o0JoRitM6TWK91tDzKDy2Yi3URunXlvKvOEENry08_f9kRZtOHuRkzT1FqQR3fGXzkA/s320/AI%20and%20Knowledge%2001.JPG" width="320" /></a></p><div>Notice here the way the nature of work has changed. It has gone from process work to knowledge work. But here is the thing: </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>With <b>process work</b> the nexus of control is on monitoring and compliance - you know people are doing a good job because the process is good and you know it is being followed. Think procurement, risk audits, health and safety, etc.</li><li>But with <b>knowledge work</b>, the capability is based on critical thinking, creativity, advanced problem solving, and many, if not most of these are not repetitive, not measurable against a simple benchmark. So how then do you manage the corporate capability for this?</li><li>Finally, <b>with knowledge work, the focus moves from outputs to outcomes</b>. Something a little harder to both define and measure with numbers on a dashboard.</li></ul>FYI, Sean Mallon <a href="https://www.smartdatacollective.com/7-jobs-humans-can-do-better-than-robots-and-ai/" target="_blank">covers these areas in more depth here</a>. Becoming acquainted with them will help you lead change carefully as good AI opportunities and snake-oil salespeople both come knocking on your door. </div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">So how does Knowledge Management help?</h3><div>The discipline of Knowledge Management has been working for over 3 decades to try and bring the same improvements we saw in the industrial age to this sphere of knowledge work. Drucker himself foresaw all of this when he said:</div><div><br /></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px; text-align: center;"><b>“The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of management in the 20th century was the fifty-fold increase in the productivity of the manual worker in manufacturing.<br />The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of knowledge work and knowledge workers.”</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately (with the exception of many startups), as mentioned above, the bulk of the last two decade's CEOs and leaders have failed to do this. By classifying and measuring managers, engineers and designers as glorified factory workers, they have eked out a few extra years profit for their companies, but often at the cost of adaptability, innovation and employee satisfaction. Michael Simmons wrote <a href="https://medium.com/accelerated-intelligence/in-1911-an-influential-expert-revealed-a-forgotten-science-of-how-to-be-50x-more-productive-8828f86eb1c9" target="_blank">an excellent little article</a> about the need to solve this if you want to dive deeper, but the problem is even worse because most MBA programs are still churning out graduates of this old style of command and control combined with legislated finance tools like activity based accounting that restrict what needs to be reported to the government.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the introduction of mainstream AI tools, suddenly the pressure is on. We are going to see more and more roles focusing on these creative, knowledge tasks and competencies mentioned by Sam above. My question is simple:</div><div><br /></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px; text-align: center;"><b>"Is your company as competent at managing your knowledge and intelligence capability as it is managing your current tangible assets and processes?"</b></div><div><br /></div><div>If not? You might have some thinking to do before this giant snowball picks you up and rolls you to the bottom of the hill. </div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h3><div>So, far from replacing KM, I predict the uptake of artificial intelligence will mean that managing the tacit knowledge, soft skills and local specialisations of their workforce will become one of the most important tasks of every board and C-Suite on the planet. Well, at least the ones that want to stay competitive.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p>Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0Melbourne VIC, Australia-37.8136276 144.9630576-66.123861436178842 109.80680760000001 -9.5033937638211512 -179.8806924tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-13598702967712458792022-09-13T13:52:00.003+10:002022-09-14T10:14:20.294+10:00"KM is the last thing on my mind!"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXSATPgUEWjjQJPotZi4RG1N8-BVx4P2dRG3IPeF899r9hxoZ0giu5mFkySfejcdPU6Hus25Cxvlp9SK_NASsyyQM6-j996cJA2XWYRk1U-3fyOO_Cxqp5YLp6Hhr9nOtGqmGpijIq7ja5U31RuMVpbMYvnW6x8kvcwlFkrW6FlpOI2LX4IKSe9DODA/s800/museum%20fire.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img align="right" alt="People watch as flames engulf the 200-year-old National Museum of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018. According to its website, the museum has thousands of items related to the history of Brazil and other countries. The museum is part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. (Photo: AP)" border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="800" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXSATPgUEWjjQJPotZi4RG1N8-BVx4P2dRG3IPeF899r9hxoZ0giu5mFkySfejcdPU6Hus25Cxvlp9SK_NASsyyQM6-j996cJA2XWYRk1U-3fyOO_Cxqp5YLp6Hhr9nOtGqmGpijIq7ja5U31RuMVpbMYvnW6x8kvcwlFkrW6FlpOI2LX4IKSe9DODA/w320-h179/museum%20fire.jpg" title="People watch as flames engulf the 200-year-old National Museum of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018. According to its website, the museum has thousands of items related to the history of Brazil and other countries. The museum is part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. (Photo: AP)" width="320" /></a></div>Often people who talk about the need for KM focus on the sexy stuff. The way it increases your organisation's ability to innovate, respond to change and spread efficiency gains across your regions. These <a href="http://www.nickmilton.com/2022/09/9-arguments-for-knowledge-management.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=linkedin" target="_blank">often appear in your business case</a>.<p></p><p>But I think one of the main reasons you MUST be thinking of KM, at least monthly, is the downside of not getting it right.</p><p>A loss of knowledge doesn't just impact what your teams know. It cascades, impacting your ability to create value from your tangible assets. <b><u>In other words, loss of knowledge usually equates to a loss in capability.</u></b> Some of it immediate, like how a legal order must be responded to, or what time your trucks are allowed to enter a customer premise. Some knowledge loss has a delayed effect, such as the ability to respond to a large, infrequent flood safely, or correctly deploy management resources in an oil spill event at sea. Often the loss of capability can go unnoticed in these cases for years until the emergency arises. Finally there are the knowledge extinction events, where a whole function disappears overnight.</p><h4 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">"The biggest supporters of KM work are those that have paid the price of reconstructing lost knowledge. It is expensive."</span></h4><p>In effect, a large part of KM is managing this risk as it changes over time.</p><p>In one organisation I worked in, an entire team left simultaneously. From four to zero in a month, taking with it all the working knowledge. The incoming team had to reconstruct that knowledge from the thousands of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and MS Project files. Technically everything was written down (most of it anyway) but that was of little use to the new staff who didn't know what questions to ask, or where to look for the answers.</p><p>In another role, a large IT system was being shutdown as a new system replaced it. Unbeknownst to the IT team, there were several users in another part of the business that only used that system in times of special response. I see similar problems happen when underlying datasets are changed without first gaining the knowledge of what reports are based off it.</p><p>Of course a lack of KM results in a thousand pin-pricks of lost efficiency, but it is these large loss events that can cost more than an entire KM program in a single day.</p><p><b><i>The bottom line is this:</i> The more your organisational tempo and culture focuses on day to day operations and emergencies, the more a dedicated focus and investment to make KM a priority is required. The cost of doing this is minimal compared to the price you will pay when critical knowledge is lost for good, and trust me, your customers won't care how much you saved instead of protecting your ability to serve them.</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-31179580107931384772022-08-06T22:58:00.004+10:002022-08-06T23:18:37.382+10:00Why are some teams not creative?<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script><p></p><div style="float: right; text-align: right;"><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewpaulson/5998309360" title="Muscovy Duck Family"><img alt="Muscovy Duck Family" height="104" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/6024/5998309360_d4a2083c50.jpg" width="154" /></a></div>A few years ago (only 2018 but it feels like a decade ago after COVID) I had an opportunity as part of the Creative Melbourne conference to sit down and have a wonderful chat with a diverse panel of thinkers from HR, Org development, Learning and Knowledge Management backgrounds.<p></p><p></p><p>One of the topics we discussed briefly is why some teams are so radically creative and yet others aren't. This short 5 minute excerpt has us touching on recruitment, diversity, psychology, cultural barriers....and ducks. </p><p>What do you think? Is a team simply the sum of it's parts, or can you build a team culture that over-rides the baser instincts of its members to encourage a more creative response to setbacks and problems? Let me know in the comments.</p><p>Enjoy. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyFNDyKZGy4mTV4tG_gPEh_oo3MjOS6G2gKKKHYgTIUotB6tw2N5DrxPmcqXr5XVRN_FSX-uNjsBjl0gf4FHw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-75968282841507063302022-07-31T11:49:00.003+10:002022-08-01T09:30:21.155+10:00Leadership, Fear and “Not happening here” syndrome<p> The power of a leader to shape and limit the capability of an organisation has fascinated me since I did my masters thesis.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IcYCdqusfKSi2-yJtc-2Xy5ytTSnqBwJyeEs-rpqxT2wrePt4ELucz9ufe75cANZVZybCwStJEyVCOeltGdMt0YgcuPFD6z6XyiwLCgSYyXjbfbqWclpMA9ZVv_m3RZPF_a7-mowJuNuWMbjWiwlZP6xOBVuDkW9qKfwGSw-LvgzEYYrPNrFCSpiKg/s977/Problems%20-%20Zig%20Ziglar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Quote You cannot solve a problem until you acknowledge that you have one and accept responsibility for solving it. - Zig Ziglar" border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="977" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IcYCdqusfKSi2-yJtc-2Xy5ytTSnqBwJyeEs-rpqxT2wrePt4ELucz9ufe75cANZVZybCwStJEyVCOeltGdMt0YgcuPFD6z6XyiwLCgSYyXjbfbqWclpMA9ZVv_m3RZPF_a7-mowJuNuWMbjWiwlZP6xOBVuDkW9qKfwGSw-LvgzEYYrPNrFCSpiKg/w640-h358/Problems%20-%20Zig%20Ziglar.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>I have always tried to shy away from the “Great enemy” theory. I suspect there really are incredibly few Hitlers in this world. Most people, especially leaders are trying to do good and truly desire a better world. Leading is hard.</div><div><br /></div><div>But if that is true then how can good leaders preside over organisations where so many people report terrible experiences? My answer is “Little foxes” - small mindsets, viewpoints and behaviours that subtly communicate limiting cultural norms to others that are then amplified and reinforced through networks. As a leader I am considering some of my own little foxes this weekend after news that <a href="http://www.jameslovelock.org/" target="_blank">the great James Lovelock</a> passed away yesterday aged 103 (if you use a microwave oven or care about the hole in the Ozone layer then you may wish to share a little prayer of thanks for his amazing life and the amazing Gaia theory).</div><div><br /><hr style="background-color: #dddddd; border-width: 0px; color: #dddddd; height: 2px; width: 60%;" /></div><h3 style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><i>For the leader it’s a tiny bit of narrative control “Let’s focus on the positive and keep everybody’s hopes up”, but for every person present it sends a clarion call that this place is not safe for innovation and improvement.</i></span></h3><div><hr style="background-color: #dddddd; border-width: 0px; color: #dddddd; height: 2px; width: 60%;" /><br /></div><div>From early childhood we all learned to “read between the lines”; to learn what is apparently acceptable (or not) whenever we see people's language not matching reality. One terrible example of this is when sports clubs exhibit normally distressing (and sometimes illegal) behaviours during initiation rituals. New players don’t speak up because a coach who would normally be calling the police is sitting with a beer in hand saying “just don’t tell me the details” or worse “it’s just boys having fun, we have all gone through this, it’s what makes a team bond.” These indicators of "special exceptions" create a situation where "we don't talk about it when it happens like this".</div><div><br /></div><div>One amazing example from the Knowledge space is when a leader simply denies that a problem exists in their organisation. For the leader it’s a tiny bit of narrative control “Let’s focus on the positive and keep everybody’s hopes up”, but for every person present it sends a clarion call that this place is not safe for innovation and improvement. To offer a fix for something is to risk making an enemy of the person who declared the issue null and void, and who would risk their voice, influence or career just to possibly make a 2% efficiency improvement?</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are a leader in your organisation, thank you for all you do and for the great visionary things you have achieved for your customers, stakeholders and employees. If you have read this far, please understand that you also have the potential to greatly limit what your people are capable of through the little things done and not done. And whether you see it or not, the vast sum of improvement comes from the thousands of individual efforts done in the shadow of your visionary projects and changes. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4uOTpSC-ut_mqlSB8j2Jyn0HpwnJvhwljIn4_Icp1DroMwFDuDqSu8Ebo9GfIXcmyfTQiK2SkOAvWsu9QhDW3ik9XlU4MCUUyr53uETajjaGDw92vrCRFEPNHCZhyvRkf3bFWZE_VYGX4ZdHaJRNCCq580AqToIyV1KYAJAhm24lyB4l0mLyBFdZGKA/s474/James%20Lovelock.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="James Lovelock" border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="474" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4uOTpSC-ut_mqlSB8j2Jyn0HpwnJvhwljIn4_Icp1DroMwFDuDqSu8Ebo9GfIXcmyfTQiK2SkOAvWsu9QhDW3ik9XlU4MCUUyr53uETajjaGDw92vrCRFEPNHCZhyvRkf3bFWZE_VYGX4ZdHaJRNCCq580AqToIyV1KYAJAhm24lyB4l0mLyBFdZGKA/w200-h113/James%20Lovelock.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Take a few minutes this weekend to have a think about what problems you are saying DON’T exist, despite your people trying to ever so gingerly point them out. Lean into vulnerability and lead in the little things so you can build an open, learning culture in your organisation. None of us want general decay to eventually rule our legacy. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>Vale, James Ephraim Lovelock 1919-2022. May we honour you by acknowledging the problems and acting on the insights you have left behind.<br /></i></div>Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-66686819290870426532022-07-20T12:43:00.012+10:002022-07-22T10:13:24.771+10:00Avoiding the curse of Anti-expertise<p>Dinosaurs. </p><p>Everywhere.</p><p>Surrounded by them.</p><p>Many of them retiring, but some people become dinosaurs long before retirement age and others are in their 80s and 90s and still learning all the time with minds as open as a ten year old's in a game of lasertag.</p><p>My friend, Arthur Shelly's fantastic Organisational Zoo metaphor uses a Triceratops card to describe this mindset. But there is more going on here than just becoming a grumpy old employee, set in their ways. Many of these people are deeply talented and knowledgeable. They hold great skillsets and broad expertise in their field. Some may even be called experts and be known as "thought-leaders".</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhZ6_patdgwQ1W9ET9NWJGPTYN7P-lzmpwf0UanHfV38YRNTr4bosSYitMztAV99RXuvCjsEtBhHNbghrzeApI8qJldLMp5OQu-Pn6IlRQUnsBpXc8CiFU_ZLSFwTDXeLkA4q4PV7gh53nwrVmL4uGbgso9o4jg82Bk3uApsITx3VBSRFt_-yMp-zxCYw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Org Zoo cards showing Triceratops" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="1920" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhZ6_patdgwQ1W9ET9NWJGPTYN7P-lzmpwf0UanHfV38YRNTr4bosSYitMztAV99RXuvCjsEtBhHNbghrzeApI8qJldLMp5OQu-Pn6IlRQUnsBpXc8CiFU_ZLSFwTDXeLkA4q4PV7gh53nwrVmL4uGbgso9o4jg82Bk3uApsITx3VBSRFt_-yMp-zxCYw=w640-h174" width="640" /></a></div><br />I call this condition "Anti-expertise". I'm not talking about <a href="https://www.asia-pacific-solidarity.net/news/2021-08-26/anti-expertise-anti-science-attitude-undermining-indonesias-pandemic-response.html" target="_blank">the political position</a> that all experts can't be trusted. I call it Anti-expertise because it most often afflicts those that hold considerable expertise and experience. In fact, most people experience it is a consequence of the <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-heuristic-2795235" target="_blank">cognitive heuristics</a> that are used to develop their expertise in the first place. One example is that of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing" target="_blank">satisficing</a>; a decision-making strategy in which the first option that satisfies certain criteria is selected, even if other, better options may exist.<p></p><p>Expertise is <u>way more</u> than a set of skills. It is more than holding certified competencies. Expertise doesn't just know what to do, but also what NOT to do and what to do when things don't work. It speaks to the way things operate and change, how a person makes quick sense of a scenario and then know how to act right, to create value or positive outcomes, not just follow steps or a plan. But the same filters that sort the chaff from the wheat of experiential data seem to naturally go into overdrive with time. Those heuristics, or rules of thumb, calcify into a form of selective blindness. Conclusions are reached before the full nature of this current event are fully understood. Before the one key difference pokes it's head from behind a tree. And it seems to effect us all in various degrees across the different parts of our lives. Have a read of Gary Klein's book <a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/Streetlights-and-Shadows-Searching-for-the-Keys-to-Adaptive-Decision-Making-Audiobook/B08PNZBL7H" target="_blank">Streetlights and Shadows</a> if this is a new concept to you or you want to learn more about how experts make better decisions.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">So what can we do about it? </h3><p>Can Anti-expertise be avoided in our organisations and personally?</p><p>Well there is the obvious approach of embedding checks and triggers in our operating processes to ensure review of data before key decision points (although this can cause other problems, see Gary's book above). In the Emergency Services, we do this well in our control centers. Various people are assigned to Intelligence, Planning, Communications, etc, and their procedures force a re-reckoning every 12 hours.</p><p>But personally, there is a powerful shortcut I have found. I call it "perpetual apprenticing".</p><p>As a knowledge manager who manages expertise across large groups of people, I am particularly prone to Anti-expertise myself. I have things I know work and patterns I recognise as causes of certain negative behaviours. I could easily lean on these too much and make assumptions instead of asking questions and running experiments. Years ago I discovered that if I kept myself in the Novice stage of some new skill I was developing, this kept my mind open and intellectually humble, and it leaked into the other areas as well; even those I had been an expert in for years.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Staying in the creative end of it</h3><p>So the trick for me has been to continually learn a new talent. Whether it is learning to juggle, play the tin whistle, circular breath on the didgeridoo, paint watercolour, fight fires, learn to play Go, to code or sketch architecture. It really doesn't matter. The bit that seems to inoculate against Anti-expertise is the practice of striving to do something <b>you cannot do well yet</b>. </p><p>In 2008 I tried my hand at water colour painting. I picked up a few skills and really enjoyed it. But by 2014 I realised I needed to understand perspective and sketching better for my paintings to improve. So I tried sketching in ink. No pencil, no erasing. Over the last eight years this has become an enjoyable past-time but for me to get the benefits I want, I have to either continually challenge myself or move to a new skill, and sketching seems to have a boundless plain of new challenges within it. You can see one of my original sketches below with my latest one finished yesterday for comparison. There were many styles, steps, books and sketches to master in-between.</p><p>
</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><b>2014</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnFq8Q8HpKjgAx2fCIxuSyPX7xWmAM-DDyAlEfI2ylhMtKujxET9W_4Muf-HDZDiqI2sjroztjXhg3pnRN8al8D9KMhS-X6XsxJRgIf1tm_ghIokPIGAZuzhiqIKp6hA5ScVSHhPoYCz-JRe9U9Dgzt2thH_AAiMRIXya-Jm3aYBNZMwdw-B8NgDR_vA/s1199/Sketch%20-%20Ross's%20Beach,%20Raymond%20Is%202009.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="890" data-original-width="1199" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnFq8Q8HpKjgAx2fCIxuSyPX7xWmAM-DDyAlEfI2ylhMtKujxET9W_4Muf-HDZDiqI2sjroztjXhg3pnRN8al8D9KMhS-X6XsxJRgIf1tm_ghIokPIGAZuzhiqIKp6hA5ScVSHhPoYCz-JRe9U9Dgzt2thH_AAiMRIXya-Jm3aYBNZMwdw-B8NgDR_vA/s320/Sketch%20-%20Ross's%20Beach,%20Raymond%20Is%202009.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> <b>2022</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7-_na5L2sZrc4sfe7vhTYGg4Q2mqR0GqEmQh5BVDVvYRnmE6-DDMgkNubjRdyZMyQi-eZnz7pKJylF4ubCndV_OSEw-mxNi74HjulDPY9IzMnUSTgtfWOndsN_qxlFUTuJmHE-6f_GPX5dJ3tWCnzFQTl4r3lxUuqXSVHA8k29-iu0crZde8MJ8wZ8w/s890/Roene%20Clock.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="890" data-original-width="624" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7-_na5L2sZrc4sfe7vhTYGg4Q2mqR0GqEmQh5BVDVvYRnmE6-DDMgkNubjRdyZMyQi-eZnz7pKJylF4ubCndV_OSEw-mxNi74HjulDPY9IzMnUSTgtfWOndsN_qxlFUTuJmHE-6f_GPX5dJ3tWCnzFQTl4r3lxUuqXSVHA8k29-iu0crZde8MJ8wZ8w/s320/Roene%20Clock.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">So here are my two questions for you?</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>How are you detecting when anti-expertise is impacting you?</li><li>Secondly, what might you choose to apprentice in to break your mind open again and move yourself from a Triceratops to an Owl?</li></ul><p></p><p> Good luck, and may you still be building new expertise way into your old age!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-90120479925446824492022-07-05T09:50:00.001+10:002022-07-05T09:50:32.824+10:00What do I mean when I say "Knowledge"<h3 style="text-align: left;"> I define Knowledge and KM as so:</h3><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2kjuPndC3en1QWjpJSAWWChAscxtjoAlKAKxEi3XBiyaB8578PBmfx6LxIZvk_RA-4xuPQQ6T1-663euNKsjxNYoX5eKxgQtbiAz9ZTGetVImhWPQvpKy26WahlTAGqled0FzStrN_wqvwtIAnTa8ilvuDToaSlKlSqRIWf73MEgu3vCOsqlM6A9N9w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="definition of knowledge" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="80%" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2kjuPndC3en1QWjpJSAWWChAscxtjoAlKAKxEi3XBiyaB8578PBmfx6LxIZvk_RA-4xuPQQ6T1-663euNKsjxNYoX5eKxgQtbiAz9ZTGetVImhWPQvpKy26WahlTAGqled0FzStrN_wqvwtIAnTa8ilvuDToaSlKlSqRIWf73MEgu3vCOsqlM6A9N9w=w484-h275" width="484" /></a></div><br />In other words, knowledge is about making good decisions based on evidence, and knowledge management is half about building that capability and half about improving the quality and access to good evidence.<p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Why is that important? </h3><div>Well, there are many different aspects of KM and many have a strong focus on the explicit side of things. They believe "Unless you write things down they will be lost". But while knowledge may be captured as information, it usually loses it's depth, context and impact. It's like comparing the French Riviera to a painting of the beach in Nice. It might be a lovely painting, even stir some emotion, but it can never encapsulate everything that is the French Riviera. Knowledge is the same way, and in the end, an outcomes focus means it is useful to look at knowledge not in terms of what it is, but in what it can do. It is evidenced by good decisions. Decisions that make sense, that consider multiple factors, viewpoints and evidence sources. Some of that is access to good information, but when you study experts in the field, they seldom stand with a fire hose in one hand and an instruction manual in the other. When push comes to shove, whether it's a ditch digger or a corporate accountant, most people act from knowledge not information. </div><div><br /></div><div>If we want to manage knowledge, we must manage around the lived experience of knowledge workers, not the imagined world of written processes and procedures followed everyday to the letter.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-6949765131268324042020-10-02T23:46:00.000+10:002020-10-02T23:46:00.392+10:00Making the intangible visible.<p>I recently had the opportunity to present some of my work at CFA to the Melbourne PowerBI Users Group.</p>
<p>This turned out to be a great night with over 70 people attending. You can watch the video below and I encourage you to check out the excellent Q&A session that took place in the second half.</p>
<p>If you have ever done work of this nature before, or even just wanted your boss to respect the value of the technical experts in your organisation, you will know that part of the difficulty comes in trying to measure and place value on that expertise. It's not that they don't value them, but faced with many stark financial and operational metrics, this intangible value is harder to quantify and so gets left out in strategy and planning talks. This project seeks to visualise those intangible assets (50,000+ of them in fact) so agency management can make more informed decisions about where to invest their valuable time and budget.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kiwzfYmyv6I" width="560"></iframe></div><p>If you have any questions about this exciting work, or the Knowledge Asset Management work we are doing, please don't hesitate to reach out for a chat. Especially if you are in the emergency sector or defence forces.</p>
Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-16141490479076982842020-09-29T22:25:00.004+10:002020-10-01T12:11:46.646+10:00Helping non-KM Managers understand how Knowledge is a key part of their success<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have supported RealKM Magazine for a while now and love the content and research they bring to the KM conversation around the globe.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Much of it is powerful and detailed work, often based on research or case studies and I was honoured last week to have them pick up a concept I have been using for over a decade now to explain why KM is so important for the non-KM Managers I work with. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://realkm.com/2020/09/24/knowledge-value-framework-for-executives/" target="_blank">You can read the article here</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TyALGlops3ifY2RCf7yFi5c7aIVJhFZxtOToK0NH1m5EY4xhb6PYOE8_zSAUUUxzHQMJmEi5tg_0XPjhxPhB1MSmCX9rCafLa5AUFntsrbFvL4UJry4Dp47QCWrRFozvpNZ5rtY1D8f2/s972/What+is+Knowledge+-+Stu+French+-+CFA+2008.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="972" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TyALGlops3ifY2RCf7yFi5c7aIVJhFZxtOToK0NH1m5EY4xhb6PYOE8_zSAUUUxzHQMJmEi5tg_0XPjhxPhB1MSmCX9rCafLa5AUFntsrbFvL4UJry4Dp47QCWrRFozvpNZ5rtY1D8f2/w420-h310/What+is+Knowledge+-+Stu+French+-+CFA+2008.PNG" width="420" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have found that executives need to realise results come from teams of people making good decisions based on 1) the knowledge and experience they bring, but also 2) their access to data and information to make sense of the problems they are trying to solve. Many of them get that but seem to believe some sort of magical thinking just makes the results pop into existence! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This thinking pervades way too much of what counts as management these days, and I have had to find ways to break down that myth. It’s not their fault, you see. I lectured MBA level KM for several years and had to spend the first three weeks of each course undoing the student's indoctrinated beliefs that people are simply little robots operating in a budget-motivated power-economy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Today I saw this ad appear on Linked In (Names removed to protect the guilty). What exactly is this trying to say? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9p68urTRjAWj20qwiJgbXrv4MaZ_4ztSVaoctqP4HX7XzV3d2MFOpE5zYBAy81KsyxnP81SLIoIhweTsdpS0si-zvQcFuN9R4m0oUjXxe1O6SiJghGqC2OzhkYxFpQK-vLY1bosgZt2vJ/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="474" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9p68urTRjAWj20qwiJgbXrv4MaZ_4ztSVaoctqP4HX7XzV3d2MFOpE5zYBAy81KsyxnP81SLIoIhweTsdpS0si-zvQcFuN9R4m0oUjXxe1O6SiJghGqC2OzhkYxFpQK-vLY1bosgZt2vJ/" width="313" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>More importantly, WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE? You know? The ones who actually make the decisions? Are they supposed to simply sign the printed decision reports that come out of the magical AI thinking machine? And who is doing any learning here?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Don't get me wrong. I love data analytics and any techniques that can extend the level of insight our decision makes have. Our state is currently run by a Premier that I have very little respect for, yet his dogged insistence on responding to COVID based on research, data and modelling has really impressed me very much. Humans are very bad at understanding things that are really big, really small, very fast or very slow. Data helps us visualise past our natural limits. But that does not lead to decisions unless our decision makers have the capability (both as individuals and teams) to process this in the context of their environment (and in fire-fighting that also means the emotions and stress of the moment) to create high-value outcomes. We need both information and knowledge, and explaining knowledge this way seems to help people get a grip on that.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Knowledge is way more that just stuff we remember (in our trade we call that implicit knowledge). It is the sum of who we are as both individuals and teams based on what we can actually do! More than that it only exists if we have the courage to do it. I like the saying "We don't hold tacit knowledge, we are made of it!", and so I describe knowledge in organisations like this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-size: 15px;">"Knowledge is the capability of an individual or team to process new information and data</span></div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><div style="text-align: center;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">then</strong><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 15px;"> make decisions and take actions that create value."</span></div></span><br /></div>I have been asked why the word "capability" and not "ability". It's a good question and the difference is really important. An ability is something you can do. It could be equated with a skill or competency. A capability seems something less at first "Little Johnny has the capability to be so much more, he just doesn't try hard enough". However in the context of knowledge, the word capability indicates that the person or team is capable of creating a positive outcome, even when they don't have the skills or resources immediately available. It indicates resilience and the ability to create new knowledge on the fly, either through experimentation, communication with experts or access to new information. Knowledge is definitely the greater capability not just the simple things a person is currently trained for.<div><br /></div><div>How do you explain the part knowledge plays in helping your organisation achieve it's goals?<p></p></div>Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com16 Mount Dandenong Tourist Rd, Tremont VIC 3785, Australia-37.8893347 145.3204842-37.943524272873958 145.25181964921876 -37.83514512712604 145.38914875078126tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-26807301369871839812019-01-29T14:26:00.001+11:002019-01-29T14:31:42.291+11:00"When the only KM tool you have is a hammer..."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">The biggest problem I have seem with KM isn't any particular approach, or system, but rather the idea that one approach is seen as a panacea across the breadth of corporate experience that we call knowledge.</span></div>
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Dr. Randhir Pushpa recently wrote a blog post about the role KM plays in <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/journey-from-art-science-leveraging-knowledge-charting-pushpa/" target="_blank">the journey from art to science</a>. It's a good article and includes a few useful tips and links. However it seems to suggest to me that the desired outcome is always to guide and develop every business process toward the science end of his scale.</div>
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This Journey turns up frequently in management discussions.</div>
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<li>Roger Martin, in his book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Design-Business-Thinking-Competitive-Advantage/dp/1422177807" target="_blank">The Design of Business</a>" calls it "The knowledge funnel",</li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Snowden" target="_blank">Dave Snowden</a> uses his Cynefin model to describe the dynamics of these domains, and <a href="https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making" target="_blank">how leadership should make decisions based on them</a>.</li>
<li>Paul Hobcraft uses this to <a href="https://paul4innovating.com/2014/06/19/the-use-of-the-cynefin-model-for-innovation/" target="_blank">describe the cycle of innovation</a>, the key takeaway being that each domain benefits most from a specific type of practice.</li>
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<b>But there are times when the journey from complex/emergent practice </b><i>(so called "Art")</i><b> to highly ordered/systematized process </b><i>("Science")</i><b> should find equilibrium based on local context.</b></div>
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What do I mean by that? Well, some processes (i.e. making french fries) should be hard system. ie: all the benefits of efficiency and standardization. In this case quality is seen as uniformity. However others (i.e. aspects of management consulting) may need to stay highly flexible at the more creative/emergent end of the spectrum because a customized and highly contextual solution is seen as high quality. Others will settle in the middle, complicated area where the maintenance of a body of expertise is desired. Efficiency and effectiveness is blended and short-term economic value is always balanced by the medium term requirement to be adaptable to changing market forces.<br />
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If you are interested, the <a href="http://www.creativemelbourne.com.au/" target="_blank">Creative Melbourne event</a> on next month explores this journey in a radically hands-on way by bringing people from various industries together to co-create solutions to large community problems.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">The new <a href="https://www.iso.org/standard/68683.html" target="_blank">ISO 30401 standard</a> makes this point by insisting we examine our organisational and stakeholder contexts first, <u>before</u> jumping to solutions, systems and process change. What is important to note is that all parts of the journey can be shared and stored as corporate memory, we just use different techniques. People who think we should "Write all knowledge down" may get a shock when they view the access rates of their online knowledge-bases. The question is "How do we connect people with knowledge" and then the concepts of collecting and capturing become useful tools rather than the soul objective of KM. This has a secondary benefit of creating a demand for knowledge, meaning the knowledge holders aren't just recording what they know in the lame hope it might be used someday, but are actually helping people and the knowledge gets recorded in the process. (FYI <a href="https://www.thekcsacademy.net/kcs/" target="_blank">Knowledge Centered Support</a> does this really well).</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Essentially, by insisting we take a double loop learning approach to KM, we should also be open to other parts of the organisation needing to be that way too, to achieve their best outcomes.</span></div>
Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-63446942548557824542018-11-08T10:55:00.001+11:002018-11-08T10:55:26.012+11:00Interview with Arthur Shelley about the new ISO KM Standard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/yicnxUgelQ5EX240TomJoKHfaVy4HecE5vgNdHFI0ksKSSWT6cVbbm8saOzhDpgM2lFj4Fuz00wkk3p0tYXSCUgNhsLMSuKvaYgdGOa2Y3TcsVPIXgRg2h79ZRaOIaR3irtXEu5UPpH2WUdMyMjJscSbOKwNbgJLKofG58bcakUFrg-LuB_wrE5-PD2xj41XF6xutQ9dtTudrwOb_duIELeTCSTdcfdjgRuRhs8-thVL8Om75mMLzlcKJl83VTCzj18cC1S7oxwQZ06UeQUe3TGgMI-YeKA7MGd3rqs2SrvlVAzlmwWXp0HdYciwVA16E3q8-_-XMR_WjAuNXqz7fD066FYjDLVd--c7rM1jUA8AieYXHmhZGheQvcnAd_Jv3ARYgWkon0qx0jF-T1UR2nIxAYg_WsNNdlEG-Z5IICRSIEeQ5K9nM24_B33eEiOwFNRAUWYmi6nR2uHOoPUWPfNlmvNSHaVnpEhrx2SUZJvjkKhNN2MrOgYLA418ap4B0ZF6MshH99GiF7-nqfJnjMlg3eORR0MG49MbyD4G4VNAjZGHZkP6-r_9gHPLyyyzStjJJVsO5yV_I4GJHM4G8ougyjtS07o9Nv_5gN1NVff3mZ2LHNksx_GySxaESPUJ7UWqDDUi4vp-J7TZh7o5t2pw-9mz1wmH1ypZFb3MQZfL5Ep_69S45mMOlVZ5sRckUkvLh392YP2j30P02peG9GwPpTEw7mxNaOyz2w=w1024-h853-no" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Filing cabinet" border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1024" height="265" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/yicnxUgelQ5EX240TomJoKHfaVy4HecE5vgNdHFI0ksKSSWT6cVbbm8saOzhDpgM2lFj4Fuz00wkk3p0tYXSCUgNhsLMSuKvaYgdGOa2Y3TcsVPIXgRg2h79ZRaOIaR3irtXEu5UPpH2WUdMyMjJscSbOKwNbgJLKofG58bcakUFrg-LuB_wrE5-PD2xj41XF6xutQ9dtTudrwOb_duIELeTCSTdcfdjgRuRhs8-thVL8Om75mMLzlcKJl83VTCzj18cC1S7oxwQZ06UeQUe3TGgMI-YeKA7MGd3rqs2SrvlVAzlmwWXp0HdYciwVA16E3q8-_-XMR_WjAuNXqz7fD066FYjDLVd--c7rM1jUA8AieYXHmhZGheQvcnAd_Jv3ARYgWkon0qx0jF-T1UR2nIxAYg_WsNNdlEG-Z5IICRSIEeQ5K9nM24_B33eEiOwFNRAUWYmi6nR2uHOoPUWPfNlmvNSHaVnpEhrx2SUZJvjkKhNN2MrOgYLA418ap4B0ZF6MshH99GiF7-nqfJnjMlg3eORR0MG49MbyD4G4VNAjZGHZkP6-r_9gHPLyyyzStjJJVsO5yV_I4GJHM4G8ougyjtS07o9Nv_5gN1NVff3mZ2LHNksx_GySxaESPUJ7UWqDDUi4vp-J7TZh7o5t2pw-9mz1wmH1ypZFb3MQZfL5Ep_69S45mMOlVZ5sRckUkvLh392YP2j30P02peG9GwPpTEw7mxNaOyz2w=w1024-h853-no" title="Filing cabinet" width="320" /></a></div>
Well, after several years of hard work by an international committee the new ISO-30401:2018 Knowledge Management Systems standard is upon us (<a href="https://www.iso.org/standard/68683.html" target="_blank">you can preview and purchase it here</a>). For us Down Under this replaces the old Australian KM standard AS-5037:2005 but also builds on some of the lessons we gained from it.<br />
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As with most new things, change can be hard. That is also true of standards and just like the arrival of ISO-9001 before it, the new KM Standard <a href="http://realkm.com/2018/03/23/km-standard-controversy-lessons-from-the-environment-sector-in-regard-to-open-inclusive-participatory-processes/" target="_blank">has some doubters and naysayers</a>; some saying it’s too late, others <a href="http://realkm.com/go/knowledge-management-iso-30401-something-rotten-in-the-state-of-denmark/" target="_blank">questioning the non-collaborative ISO authoring process</a> and of course the ones standing on either side of the road yelling it goes too far, or doesn’t go far enough, etc, etc.<br />
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RealKM’s <a href="https://realkm.com/2018/11/01/new-iso-304012018-knowledge-management-standard-now-available/" target="_blank">article last week</a> gives some of the details but I wanted to find out from one of the authors just what the standard is all about so I interviewed Dr Arthur Shelley to get his take as the Australian ISO representative on the committee. You can see the interview below.<br />
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One of the things that has always struck me about KM is the difference between the simplicity of most of the concepts when compared with how long it takes the average manager to understand them. Maybe it’s because we all think. So thinking about thinking is unnatural as a fish pouring themselves a cup of water. Whatever it is, there is an obvious gap between those who practice KM and those never exposed to it. </div>
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When I asked Arthur about the benefits of ISO-30401, he pointed out the power of a single international standard to address this inequality by providing a measurable foundation for knowledge work in organisations, even when you don’t have internal advocates. For those of you that have ever tried to excite policy change in a government department, this is great news and an important contributor to winning over the committees and lawyers that stand in your way. For those that know what <span style="-en-paragraph: true;">factors are</span> needed for success but have trouble convincing management that all them need to be in place, this standard helps you get support for the less obvious ones, helping you avoid the <span style="font-style: italic;">“You don’t need some show of support from us young lady, just install the software and I’m sure they will all use it.”</span></div>
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I hope you enjoy this short chat with Arthur. It was recorded in the middle of a thunder storm with massive hail falling right outside, so apologies for the audio quality. </div>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9_nALxrKCK0/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9_nALxrKCK0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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If you would like to have a chat yourself with Arthur then you will have a golden opportunity next week at the <a href="http://www.auskm.org/" target="_blank">AusKM Conference</a> in Melbourne, Australia. <a href="https://www.stickytickets.com.au/71359" target="_blank">Click here for tickets</a> and the chance to discuss your projects and goals with some of the top KM people in the world as we are hosting the Global Network for the first time. An opportunity not to be missed.<br />
<br />Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-69354629282362655822018-04-13T09:03:00.001+10:002018-04-13T09:55:39.869+10:00The Difference and Danger of Information versus Knowledge Management - a cautionary tale<br />
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Let me tell you a quick story. Recently at my uncle's funeral I had a fascinating conversation with an old farmer who's son was following in his footsteps on a property up near the Murray River.</div>
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He was talking about all the technology now used in farming, like scientific assessment of water tables and salinity, satellite and drone based land surveys, computer controlled water allocation and measurement leading to fantastic efficiency, as well as crop and nitrate selection algorithms to ensure maximum harvest and cattle health. These are all the benefits of the technology world we find ourselves in, and around the corner, AI is going to take another step forward in terms of predicting larger agricultural and business problems before they occur so farmers can reduce the chance of loss due to bad weather, lack of water or over investment in certain income streams.</div>
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But after waxing lyrical about all the new innovations in farming, he laughed how his son had just lost nearly $200,000 worth of hay sheds in 5 fires over a two week period. It turns out that the young farmer had not dried the hay sufficiently before bailing it and the residual moisture, when stacked in large sheds had caused spontaneous combustion and the lost of considerable stock and assets. But how did this happen? Surely this knowledge is 101 for somebody working on the land?<br />
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Knowledge Lost</h3>
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Not many people outside KM are aware that for nearly 1400 years, the recipe for making cement (Roman cement) was lost. In fact we still haven't found it. The reinvention of Portland cement has led to our modern construction industry, but Roman cement lasts 2,000 years (so far) yet our "Portland" cement is lucky to last 200. So what happened? How can this be? How can such foundational knowledge be lost to the entire human race? Well, whatever the reason, if we can forget how to make cement, then we can definitely forget less important skills and techniques and that is what happened to this farmers son, but before we start pointing fingers, lets consider the technological change over the past 30 years and especially one important aspect of those changes that effects all of us in whatever industry we are working in.</div>
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I am sure when I say "Hay bales" to you, unless you are a farmer, you will probably have a picture in your mind of the small rectangle bales that you can still buy at the pet store to feed your rabbit. About 3 feet long, you can easily carry one on your knee by holding the two pieces of baling twine that hold it together. These were the bales that I grew up with as a child on a dairy farm and making them involved cutting the long summer grass, turning it with a tractorised rake several times over 3-4 days so it properly dried before baling and storage in hay sheds. I have done this many times. I remember the large gatherings of people and trucks to cart in the hay from the paddocks followed by lots of shared food afterwards. I learned every part of this process, sitting for hours on the tractor either mowing or raking, but there was one bit that was always a mystery to me. "When was the hay dry enough to bale." This was determined by the weather and the amount of moisture in the grass before it was cut and I know WHAT I had to do, I even knew HOW to rake the hay, but knowing WHEN? My father would pick it up, bend it, feel it, listen to it and once I even saw him bite some before he would pronounce "OK, it's ready. We bale it tomorrow". This drying was critical due to the chance of fire mentioned above, and I have seen two sheds burn down over the years including one of my uncles who, from memory, had hurried a baling to avoid the coming rains.</div>
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Last week I had the chance to ask my dad how he first learned to do this given all the variables involved and the high cost of getting it wrong. He said he had been taught it by an old farmer and a lot of it was based on the feel and sound as the hay is twisted. I asked him to describe what "ready" hay was like and he said "well it kinda just feels dry, you know?" This is a common reply from masters. They can no more describe the tacit knowledge involved in this complex task than you can describe how you actually manage to maintain balance while riding a bike. You just have to do it to know how and more importantly you have to know the importance of doing it so you take the time to get it right.</div>
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So what happened to our young farmer? Did his dad not pass on this knowledge? Well the answer is no, but the reason he didn't is what holds the great lesson in this for all of us. You see about 25 years ago a new invention came out. The Round Bale. I am sure you have seen them standing about 6-7 feet in diameter in the middle of fields. Sometimes they are covered in blue plastic or placed in long rows along a fence. They are far easier and more efficient to transport and distribute to cattle. They don't need sheds and can be left in the paddocks, and importantly for this tale, they don't need to wait for several days of drying because they usually don't get stacked where the overheating problem arises. <b>Apparently the knowledge of drying hay was now obsolete and didn't need to be passed on.</b> I am sure your organisation has many areas like this where a procedures (or the reasoning behind them) are not passed on or kept current because the processes have changed? In fact some information managers, lawyers and even knowledge managers will tell you that the forgetting is both efficient and crucial for protecting the company legally, saving computer storage space and allowing unlearning to occur in the evolutionary process. All this is true, but is there a down side, and what is the cost of this lost "Why" knowledge?</div>
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OK, so fast forward 20 years and a brand new technology comes out. <b>Rectangle</b> bales! Only these ones are the size of a VW Beetle. They have all the advantages of a round bale PLUS the stacking ability of the old rectangle bales. What could possibly go wrong? Well if you are following the story, you have probably already guessed. For all the information, and databases, and software, and research, and instruction manuals available to him, our young farmer had lost the ability to know exactly when his hay was dry enough to bale, and the resulting financial loss of both a season's hay, and the huge sheds that hold it were considerable; not to mention the impact on stock this coming winter when either silage will be short or hay will have to be purchased and trucked in. Not cheap.<br />
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Would you give your teenage son the keys to your Ferrari?</h3>
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There is no doubt the growing power of digital technologies to both automate, provide insights and consider correlations of large datasets from multiple sources is leading to levels of business efficiency never heard of before. In my own work, a recent project in one division saw a 208% increase in throughput, while reducing workload by 70% and reducing time-to proficiency for new staff from nearly 10 weeks down to just 8 days. In my fathers time, these sort of gains would have been unheard of, especially in just a 3 month period.</div>
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However...</h3>
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Implementing advanced digitisation and automation strategies in your company without co-developing the knowledge and expertise to manage them, is akin to handing your teenage son the keys to your beloved Ferrari. Not only will all that amazing technology fail to make him safer on the road, the levels of power involved will dramatically increase the risk of catastrophic failure and considerable financial loss.</span></b></div>
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Don't make the same mistake as this young farmer. If you have implemented IT projects that don't deliver on results, new software that fixes one problem and causes three new ones, or high staff turnover in the complicated operational areas of your business, then may I suggest that throwing more money and technology at the problem is not going to fix it. Whether you are running a single automation project, or digitising your entire business, please, just talk to a Knowledge Management professional today and get your foundations laid right. You won't regret it.</div>
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* <i>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
Image <a href="http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19979" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL dct:creator" title="View profile" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#">Michael Trolove</a> used under CC. <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/agriculture-caucasian-people-grain-1822450/" target="_blank">Picture of farmer</a> under CC.</span></i></div>
Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-76691600410615218162018-04-08T23:34:00.002+10:002018-04-09T00:12:02.730+10:00The pros and cons of considering frameworks and models<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggQZK0Q9pwhKcujuc8wuSd39HhdniIrTNijsPuAwQrJr502bO3CkTvCk2Fy6eCNPCN3gw8z-iwVbx6KMaO4rxj-CR8L-EPJvyNlLGoFev1H-cgoPxvmdEJP1vScWWwIUm7no9DkZLIPjMj/s1600/Business+Model+Life+Cycle.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggQZK0Q9pwhKcujuc8wuSd39HhdniIrTNijsPuAwQrJr502bO3CkTvCk2Fy6eCNPCN3gw8z-iwVbx6KMaO4rxj-CR8L-EPJvyNlLGoFev1H-cgoPxvmdEJP1vScWWwIUm7no9DkZLIPjMj/s320/Business+Model+Life+Cycle.png" /></a><br />
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For a while now I have watched students and business associates try to pluck models (sometimes from thin air) and apply them to whatever problem they were trying to solve.</div>
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Recently <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6384967990231863296" target="_blank">a friend of mine tried to combine two quite different models</a> to see if he could find some insight in to his next steps. This post is a few of my thoughts about the practice of thinking about and applying models and frameworks, as well as some feedback from Brad on these two specific models.</div>
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Lets start with a warning:</h3>
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In their recent book "<a href="http://www.cleverworkarounds.com/2016/07/12/my-new-book-about-teddies-and-fetishes-is-out/">The Heretics Guide to Management</a>", Paul Culmsee and Kailash Awati warn us that just as children cling to Teddy Bears to sooth their fears of the unknown, so can we all cling to various business models, strategic plans and operational budgets like they will solve all our fears if we are just faithful to them. Sometimes they are useful and give insight, but once the underlying assumptions no longer hold true, clinging to them becomes a fetish - one we often want to defend at all costs. I want to mention this up front because the danger of dabbling in new models, assumptions and ideas about how your world works is that you actually think you find a silver bullet thereby closing down your future creative possibilities while simultaneously giving yourself false confidence in a complex situation just because your new map tells you which direction to go.</div>
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Using models to kick-start our creativity</h3>
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It is actually this set of possible steps that neuroscientist Beau Lotto points out as being the way we can increase our creativity and not just solving novel problems but increasing our ability to understand them in the first place. In <a href="http://bigthink.com/videos/beau-lotto-creativity-is-another-form-of-logic">this recent video on BigThink</a>, he discusses how our brains evolved to avoid one thing: uncertainty, and so it is only capable of making small logical steps in order to avoid highly stressful cognitive dissonance. So when we see people finding creative, almost genius solutions to problems, we assume they are just really smart, but actually it is the range of "adjacent possibles" being much larger due to the broader, more complex and nuanced assumptions that they hold. Have a quick watch. I'll wait here 'til you get back.</div>
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The message is simple </h3>
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<a href="https://image-store.slidesharecdn.com/a2c428ec-9833-461e-a418-0add2a4d5c07-original.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://image-store.slidesharecdn.com/a2c428ec-9833-461e-a418-0add2a4d5c07-original.jpeg" width="240" /></a>Stop looking for silver bullets and start challenging your assumptions (all of them) while exposing yourself to as many different ways of viewing and thinking about the world as possible. Give your mind the raw materials for the creativity to happen.</div>
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Sometimes it is the process of questioning and comparing that leads to the answer, not the model itself. In the medical field it is called "praxis" as real-world data is compared with theoretical models, leading to action, more learning and hopefully the refinement of models or even a new addition to the scientific literature.<br />
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<i>(As a side note, I should add an extra component from Matthew Walkers research in to how the brain consolidates these ideas during REM sleep. In his book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Why-We-Sleep-Science-Dreams-ebook/dp/B06Y649387">Why We Sleep</a>", he presents some incredible evidence for the importance of a full 8-hours to integrate your hard won insights not just into tacit memory, but also to draw the long-bow connections that deep insights arrive from in the days that follow. Whether you are interested in knowledge, innovation & creativity, or just think you don't need that much sleep, I cannot recommend this book highly enough)</i>.</div>
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Following Brad's adventures</h3>
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We don't need to be totally academic about it, but switching between theory and practice can lead to key insights as Gary Klein reveals in his new book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-What-Others-Dont-Remarkable/dp/1480592803">Seeing what others don't</a>". <br />
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A good friend of mine, Brad Adriannse, recently posted his thoughts doing exactly this by wondering about the intersection of two models as part of his "self-unlimited" journey. Brad's scribbles are shown on the left and his <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6384967990231863296">post and initial thoughts are here</a>.<br />
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This is interesting for several reasons. Firstly, his approach is less about bending the facts to suit a model and more about using the models as a set of lenses he can look at his situation through to see if anything becomes clearer (expanding his set of adjacent possibles). Secondly, he combined two, quite different models with a clear expectation that a combinatory insight may evolve. Finally, he didn't go build some new thing by himself. Instead, he started a conversation about similarities, differences and how the various intersections may be of benefit. Nice approach.</div>
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So lets talk about these two models - Is Brad on to something?</h3>
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The two models he is considering are the <a href="http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/the-ooda-loop-cynefin/">Cynefin framework</a> and John Boyd's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop">OODA Loop</a>.</div>
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It turns out <a href="http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/the-ooda-loop-cynefin/">Dave Snowden</a> (the inventor of Cynefin) discussed this in his blog in 2012 and I liked <a href="http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/the-ooda-loop-cynefin/">his thoughts</a> on the two because of the way he saw a different sort of OODA Loop being required depending on which Cynefin quadrant you are in. This is classic Cynefin - that is, find out what sort of problem you have before deciding what approach you take to solve it. My only problem with his argument, was that it only seemed to show one side of the interaction between the two. Let me explain.</div>
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Cynefin is a framework. It describes the different ontological spaces that a problem can be categorised as, therefore what is their nature and how are they best approached. <br />
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OODA is a procedural method invented by John Boyd to assess Dogfights in the Vietnam war. Standing for Observe, Orientate, Decide & Act, it overcomes both inaction and misreading of facts in highly fluid situations and has been applied in many different contexts, not the least of which being business and more specifically, management.</div>
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I should note that Brad disagrees with me here, saying that OODA is a Tao, rather than a procedure, but my point remain: One (Cynefin) categorises phase-space. The other (OODA) categorises a series of events over time. </div>
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<a href="https://cognitive-edge.com/uploads/blog/Screen_Shot_2012-11-11_at_05.56.50.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://cognitive-edge.com/uploads/blog/Screen_Shot_2012-11-11_at_05.56.50.png" width="315" /></a>Given this, I think there should be two (or more) interactions.<br />
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Firstly, with OODA as the time-based boss, I see Cynefin fitting in as a sixth sub-category in the "Orientate" phase. This not only helps understand more about the observation, but has two extra advantages. 1) It lends itself to not only informing the decision, but more importantly, in how the decision should be approached. And 2) it allows for reassessment of the Cynefin quadrant during each cycle instead of assuming that the problem is fixed in one space only <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">(something that I thing Dave missed in his original post but Joseph Bradley tells me was worked out shortly thereafter)</span>.<br />
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This is especially important if you are trying to apply this to Roger Martin's "Knowledge Funnel" method where you are actively trying to move from problem to solution through the Complex (R & D), Complicated (Design & Delivery) and Simply (Operations) spaces.<br />
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The second linkage would therefore be the link from OODA to inform Cynefin. This would allow people already using OODA to refine it by placing an iterative operational model around the problem space in terms of Cynefin. However, I think more importantly, it would provide a clear, (and hopefully corporately endorsed) approach to dealing with the central Disorder space. Dave only touches on this in terms of a non-deliberate entry into Chaos (via the middle yellow arrow through Disorder), but by triggering a Cynefin review whenever a project or market moves into an unknown space I see real promise for challenging and valuable conversations to be spawned as a part of normal corporate process (an hopefully well before the consequent problems from inappropriate approaches arise to threaten the budget, or the entire project itself).</div>
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Summing up</h3>
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So it seems Brad might be on to something and could help us The bottom line is Brad is applying these models in an attempt to separate what is complex and what is complicated and therefore how you should approach each. Well done! You should give it a try too.<br />
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I hope many more see how helpful this approach can be - even for truly wicked problems - without falling in to the Teddy Bear trap of course. To be creative, we have to unlearn millions of years of evolution. Creativity asks us to do that which is hardest: to question our assumptions, to doubt what we believe to be true. But Beau Lotto is right when he says it is actually the only way for us to reinvent ourselves for our changing reality.</div>
Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-45051579778820177052018-03-30T12:54:00.002+11:002018-04-03T17:19:10.565+10:00"Can general critical thinking skills be useful?" Why is this even a question???<br />
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<span style="-en-paragraph: true;">Today, the wonderful Lynne Kelly <a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/why-schools-should-not-teach-general-critical-thinking-skills" target="_blank">posted an article by Carl Hendrick</a> about why we should not be teaching critical thinking skills in schools. In this article Carl puts forward the idea that specialist knowledge, that is your expertise in one domain, is not transferable to another. </span></div>
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<span style="-en-paragraph: true;">In fact he claims that people who excel in one domain may not do any better in the new domain than an average newcomer. Measured by standardised tests I presume? Well </span>I partially agree with his findings and yet disagree with his conclusion; but let me come back to that. In sharing my thoughts with Lynne about the article I quickly realised it was a prime example of somebody working from an inadequate definition of knowledge and so I turned my response in to this blog post so this example could be shared more widely.</div>
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Choosing the right knowledge lens</h2>
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The problem here is that Carl is using a faulty definition of knowledge. As a knowledge manager I run into this thinking all the time. Based on the computer metaphor, (a prevalent view of the brain in today's schools and universities) <span style="-en-paragraph: true;">knowledge </span>is simply "information" which is transferred and held in the mind like memory on a hard drive. Therefore, it tells us, we should see deep expertise, like that held by air-traffic controller, as a series of remembered skills, techniques and methods. It is a simple concept, easy to explain and rings true to our industrial-age "teacher-student" experiences of learning. Thus its popularity. </div>
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<span style="-en-paragraph: true;">From this model it is a small step to think that knowledge of this sort could be easily transferred to different contexts and even different people. In fact one might be tempted to think more general types of knowledge or skill could be re-applied in many different contexts. Not only that but educators, seeking to have the greatest impact in the shortest amount of time and effort, would naturally seek out these general concepts; just as they do in more specific areas such as maths, science and language.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: large;"><i>We don't hold tacit knowledge,<br />we are made up of it.</i></span></span></div>
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There is just one small problem with this "Knowledge is an object that is held and transferred" view; neuroscience doesn't back it up. Any first year brain science student can tell you that memories aren't stored in a specific part of the brain. There is no RAM or hard drive. The brain does have the ability to remember facts and figures, but it does so in a funny almost fuzzy way. Just ask any judge or lawyer about the legal mechanisms in place to overcome witnesses inability to clearly recall facts. </div>
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Knowledge managers call this type of memory implicit knowledge. We define it as knowledge that can easily be written down or made explicit, but knowledge goes further than that. Much of our expertise is held as what we call tacit knowledge; so called because of its most familiar form: muscle memory. Even those who are brilliant at remembering and recalling implicit knowledge actually master tacit techniques such as memory pegs, sensory and geographical tags, humour, surprise, emotion and narrative to do the heavy mental lifting. </div>
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This tacit knowledge is not information based as we know it, but is instead the emergent aggregate of the billions of neuronal firings learned through untold numbers of interactions with the world around us. We don't hold tacit knowledge, we are made up of it. It is who we are and learning something new we are becoming someone new. This is the messy and complex truth of what knowledge actually is, and while it is harder to apply in a classroom or training context it also doesn't break down like the simple computer metaphor of the brain does when pressed with evidence.</div>
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So what is wrong with the common definitions of knowledge?</h2>
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Attainment of knowledge now becomes exposed as an individual's ability to process information against previous experience in order to make effective decisions and take actions that build value for the individual or their group. </div>
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The common definitions of knowledge<b>*</b> being "an asset you capture, store, transfer and apply and build value" lead people to terrible conclusions, like:</div>
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<li><span style="font-size: 11pt;">"Just get her to write down what she does",</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 11pt;">"We need manage our knowledge, what software should we use to do it?", or</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 11pt;">"It doesn't matter if our development team quits, we can just hire new programmers with the same skills", or worse </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 11pt;">"So today is your last day and you've really helped us over the last 5 years. I have 45 minutes before my next meeting, so can you tell me everything you do and I'll make sure somebody keeps an eye on it." (Yes, I really did hear that said to a deep marketing expert who had helped build and maintain most of the operational and sales support systems in the company.)</span></li>
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Think about maths tests. A question asking the student to write down the formula for gravity is testing recall of implicit knowledge. But a question asking the student to solve the time for a rocket to travel to the moon taking gravity in to account is testing for deep tacit knowledge. (Once you understand this you will never cram for a test again!)</div>
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If you are still a little confused by the difference, it can be enlightening to consider what happens when they are lacking. Inadequate information tends to degrade how efficiently we get something done. But inadequate knowledge degrades effectiveness. Without knowledge we may drive perfectly obeying all the speed limit signs, but end up on the wrong side of the city. </div>
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So can knowledge actually be transferred?</h2>
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So returning to our air-traffic controllers, their deep knowledge is very much of the tacit variety. Sure there are plenty of lists: aircraft types, runway numbers and landing priority procedures that they must remember. There may even be critical thinking processes that they call upon to resolve the various conflicts that occur in their role. But when pressed to recall these, in study after study, deep expert's struggle to do so. Yet by placing them in fully simulated situations, they can recall immense detail in order to solve the highly contextual problem at hand. But context is the key and expecting this type of knowledge to somehow assist in another domain is non-trivial, just as Carl suggests.</div>
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<u>However</u>, because Carl is speaking from the computer metaphor of the brain, he wrongly goes on to conclude that all knowledge is specific and there are no general cognitive skills that can assist. Even worse, he seems to suggest that they use up valuable storage space which will be needed for domain specific knowledge later in their lives. If we accept his assumption that all General rules are "implicit" knowledge, then we might be tempted to agree with him. However we have all experienced people that have walked into a brand new situation and yet very quickly achieved a level of apparent mastery with no prior experience in that domain. So what is going on here?</div>
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That's where the neural model of the brain assists us. At its core, the human mind is an amazing pattern matching machine. It's ability to seemingly scan and compare incoming information with petabytes of stored experiences, images, smells, sounds, facts, situations and contexts seems superhuman, especially in light of the fact that that same brain has trouble remembering to buy milk on the way home from work! But as things are practiced over time, refined, connected with other experiences, they become part of us, who we are, what we value and how we think. You see it isn't the "stuff" we remember that makes us good at something else - Carl is right there - but the very process of learning how to understand and master these new skills do. Not the amount we hold, but the process of learning to hold it. That is one of the reasons I called my business DeltaKnowledge. </div>
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Not so alien after all</h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-2JIp_1Zgb5-sp45ggwA9uqA_S_k8DC_-eWhhi4KI4n2waj6MPqEWzgVIUVSKsZNVh_qQvQ4J8HLaOAESFNZv0U50s4bOIzAmLrJ657OJhX85l0L8PCDY5A4PU6mKiBadqhMhZpzhv6m/s1600/knowledge+quote+ignore.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-2JIp_1Zgb5-sp45ggwA9uqA_S_k8DC_-eWhhi4KI4n2waj6MPqEWzgVIUVSKsZNVh_qQvQ4J8HLaOAESFNZv0U50s4bOIzAmLrJ657OJhX85l0L8PCDY5A4PU6mKiBadqhMhZpzhv6m/s320/knowledge+quote+ignore.JPG" title="The art of knowing is knowing what to ignore - Rumi" width="280" /></a></div>
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But it turns out that we have an innate understanding of knowledge in this form.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
People have been aware of this for centuries. From the use of stories, myths and cavern paintings then later monuments like walking circles and Stonehenge to store and transfer knowledge socially, through to ancient Masters of the game of Go helping Shoguns to plan abstract military strategies and even the nursery rhymes that we use to teach our children complex ideas, values and social constructs. It is all much less about remembering "stuff" and far more about becoming knowledgeable, even wise. And that of course is what we call these people who seem to be able to successfully transfer their knowledge across domains. They are people whose wisdom we covet. We talk about sports people who when asked about making a critical play, they respond "It just felt right". We talk about the General who was asked how he made such an amazing decision in such a novel and complex situation, to which he answered, "lots and lots of good decisions." And when asked how he made lots of good decisions he answered, "lots and lots of bad decisions."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<h2>
So then, should we be teaching our children general critical thinking skills?</h2>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
My answer is an emphatic "YES!".</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
But not with the expectation that they will go and directly apply them like a maths formula, or recount them in a test of memorisation. But rather as a series of stories and examples that they can call on to build their own novel solutions to the problems they will face that possibly don't even exist yet. That is building deep, broadly reusable, tacit knowledge.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="-en-paragraph: true;">Oh, and the next time you find yourself wondering how you or your company will build the knowledge to solve some problem or other, may I suggest you start by first asking yourself "Am I trying to solve this by simply acquiring information? Or am I truly increasing our intellectual capital by building deep experiential knowledge?"</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
= - + - =</div>
<br />
<div>
* <i>Just as a footnote, one other, interesting model which blends these two is called KAM (Knowledge Asset Management). The idea here is to include Tacit, Implicit and Explicit knowledge under the knowledge banner but to stop the damaging assumptions by placing the focus on the "assets" that generate, transfer, store and apply it, rather than the knowledge "asset" itself. Still prone to some misunderstandings, but has the advantage being easy to grasp for non-knowledge practitioners, and does keep the information tools in the supporting role where they belong. Quite powerful in large or highly structured contexts like air, rail, nuclear or mining industries. I am a fan of the way Ron Young brings this understanding to managers and executives. You can learn more about the approach in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk6EPqSriWg">this short video here</a>.</i></div>
</div>
<br />Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-62078492414159775492016-05-03T11:33:00.004+10:002016-05-05T11:13:45.564+10:00Social Collaboration tools in Foreign CulturesBenedikt Sheerer is one of the up and coming young guys in the KM world. I like his fresh approach, eager passion for social collaboration and the places it can take organisations in the Future of Work.<br />
<br />
Based in Germany, recently he visited the Tokyo office of his company as part of the roll out program of their internal social collaboration tools. You can read <a href="http://cogneon.de/2016/05/02/review-of-one-week-social-collaboration-onboarding-in-tokyo" target="_blank">his report about it here</a>.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
Benedikt made three modifications to his usual launch presentation for the Tokyo staff. These were:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>First: We reduced the amount of topics we explained and discussed. This was due to the language barrier (meaning it simply takes longer to get a message through). Moreover, since the Japanese culture is high in context, people need more time to make up their own picture.</li>
<li>Second: We also mitigated those messages that stress the social media possibilities to create short-cuts in the information flows (meaning: changing the role of management).</li>
<li>Third: We focused on longer practice sessions that allowed me to help each participant individually (otherwise reluctant to raise questions in the group).</li>
</ol>
<br />
I really liked these three modifications, especially the mitigation of messages about subversive applications of Social Collaboration tools. A lot of my Asian experience (being based in Australia) is with South East Asia, but the strategy is also applicable to Japan and something Westerners can easily overlook.<br />
<br />
His insight that national and corporate cultures are interwoven is a good one. Possibly thanks to the popularization of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimensions_theory" target="_blank">Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory</a>, many seem to over-simplify culture or think of it as a separate master attribute, rather than the emergent sum of the many individual’s beliefs and behaviors <i><span style="color: #f6b26b;">(see update below)</span></i>. I like <a href="http://www.harald-schirmer.de/" target="_blank">Harald’s</a> advice to Benedikt to get the local people more involved in the process. Not just because it gets them engaged and starting on a learning journey, but because a project like this creates an environment where ideas and understandings can be explored in an iterative way and new applications of Social collaboration tools can be tested (and hopefully measured). This helps us avoid the “It worked there, so it must work here too” problem that many managers fall for.<br />
<br />
Senior Executives are undergoing an interesting time right now. The push for the advantages of the digital workplace is strong and I am seeing support for a lot of fantastic and progressive projects. At the same time, this is more than just process automation. There are long-term cultural and structural norms that are being challenged right now to allow digital (and AI after it) to see it's full potential. Challenges that appear to threaten of the executive's traditional power-base. Some are adapting, distributing knowledge down-to and among the decision makers closest to the problems. Others are centralizing power further through business intelligence tools, deep-analytics and the application of industrial-age thinking to modern knowledge workers.<br />
<br />
Time will only tell what mix of the two styles will influence the successful companies of the future, but I think Social Collaboration tools are here to stay in some form or another. Whether it is corporate cultures or national ones, I think the key skill isn't going to be how to use the software, but rather how tolerant we are about others breaching what we consider to be our social norms.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #f6b26b;">UPDATE: </span></b><i>After a challenge on twitter by <a href="https://twitter.com/epiphanyengine" target="_blank">Stewart MacLeod</a> from State Trustees, I thought I should clarify things for the academics among us. When I refer to culture as the "emergent sum of the many individual’s beliefs and behaviours" I don't mean a simple addition. This concept takes in to account the embedded and embodied impacts of both the environment and artefacts that influence each of the individuals involved, like Org structure, technologies and a plethora of other factors that are both moulded by and in turn mould the evolution of the local sub-culture. For more of my thoughts about culture check out these articles <a href="http://www.deltaknowledge.net/2008/11/enterprise-20-its-effect-on.html" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="http://www.deltaknowledge.net/2009/10/hey-hey-is-harrys-taboo-for-you.html" target="_blank">here</a>. For a really deep treatment of the subject, my <a href="http://www.deltaknowledge.net/2009/05/creating-knowledge-cultures-post-1.html" target="_blank">nine part series</a> on Knowledge Cultures is guaranteed to put you to sleep :) I love Hannerz' quote when talking about culture: </i>"The term 'complex' may in itself be about as intellectually attractive as the word 'messy,' but one of its virtues in this context is precisely its sober insistence that we should think twice before accepting any simple characterization of the cultures in question in terms of a single essence."Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-67227663735872206172016-03-07T18:36:00.002+11:002016-03-07T18:36:50.719+11:00Is corporate politics that bad?<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying_in_the_United_States#/media/File:The_Lobby_of_the_House_of_Commons,_1886_by_Liborio_Prosperi_(%27Lib%27).jpg"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/The_Lobby_of_the_House_of_Commons,_1886_by_Liborio_Prosperi_('Lib').jpg" width="280" /></a></div>
<b>Corporate Politics...<span id="goog_1988563854"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1988563855"></span></b><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #bfd4ff;">"the process and behavior in human interactions involving power and authority"</span></i></div>
I used to hate it. Managers stabbing each other in the back while smiling to their faces, stakeholders with-holding key information, business cases filled with twisted numbers to make their project seem more important.<br />
Of course, if "Knowledge is Power" then Knowledge Management certainly runs in to it's fair share of politics, both at the personal, corporate and <a href="http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/files/54909/11966774055Choucri.pdf/Choucri.pdf" target="_blank">even the international level</a>.<br />
<b>New Eyes</b><br />
I remember the exact moment when I saw a new way of looking at it. I was studying for my Masters degree and we had to read a chapter of a book called "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/871902.Strategic_Organizational_Communication" target="_blank">Strategic Organizational Communication</a>" by Conrad and Poole (I remember the name because of the effect it had on me). After reading the chapter I glanced at the next one and started reading out of personal interest. <br />
Chapter 8 is about power and politics in organisations and the way it holds companies together. It got me thinking: kind of like how ligaments hold the body together. The people are the bones, but the ligaments control how everybody interacts and works together to lift the load. To quote Penn & Teller, I immediately called <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346369/" target="_blank">Bullshit!</a> This wasn't my experience of politics, but I started reading about the different types of political power anyway....until it described mine.<br />
<span style="color: #bfd4ff;"><b>My first reaction was "Hold on! That's not politics! That's just making sure I am effective and stopping people from undoing my hard work!"</b></span> and then in a millisecond it dawned on me. That is what everybody else would say too. I had been political all my career, I just hadn't seen it that way.<br />
So when I see people try to play their games or manipulate circumstances for what appears to be personal gain, I no longer immediately think incompetence or politics. I wonder what the underlying personal, emotional, financial and organisational needs are that they are trying to meet or keep in balance. I'm not saying I'm right, I am sure sometimes people are just covering their tails because they really are incompetent, but I guess that's one of those needs as well - security.<br />
In any case, if you are experiencing political games or push back in your projects, I encourage you to give Conrad and Poole a read. It has served me well and helped me keep my professional diagnostic hat on when dealing with sick or injured organisations, and lets face it, if they didn't have any problems then they wouldn't need me in the first place, right?Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-13279667136065177722016-01-08T17:28:00.002+11:002016-01-08T17:28:51.800+11:00"The operation was a success but the patient died"<h4>
Are you a man or a microbe?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</h4>
You're human right? So you would always choose a surgeon over a microbiologist to fix your medical problem.<br />
<h4>
<b>But would you trust a surgeon that had never been trained in microbiology?</b></h4>
Someone who was brilliant with a scalpel, amazing with an arthroscope, but didn't care about infection control?<br />
Would you be OK with somebody who has a 100% track record of successful knee reconstructions but 20% of his patients get septicemia in the weeks following his operations and the response is always <i><b>"Nobody seems sick when they leave the hospital. I think it's more about personal hygiene and maybe a bit of bad luck."</b></i><br />
<br />
Well that is basically how a lot of managers and consultants work today. While doing brilliant work, they commit basic KM mistakes, often successfully solving the business problem but leaving behind a trail of orphaned knowledge, little to no strategy, incomplete change management and unfinished training that is a recipe for knowledge loss, service degradation, internal conflict and reinventing the wheel. As for learning, they see that as something you did in Uni before we hired you, not an active component of the organisation's collective decision making process.<br />
<h4>
Building the Knowledge Lens</h4>
Your primary task isn't to hire more knowledge managers. It must first be to teach your current managers how to manage with knowledge awareness, just like a surgeon focuses on solving the issue, but always has the threat of infection in mind.<br />
<ul>
<li>Introduce the concept in meetings, asking "what have we learned this week?" and "how can we make that available to our future selves?" </li>
<li>When a problem pops up, ask "who else might have dealt with that before?" or "what is our process for solving problems like that?"</li>
<li>When you find a solution, commend the problem solver(s) then ask how they are going to make that knowledge available to the next one who has the problem and the method that person will use to find it.</li>
<li>If you are sending your people to get an MBA, make sure they do a KM subject and then share what they learn with your team.</li>
<li>Look for KM advocates who "really get it" and create a community of guardians of the company's knowledge.</li>
</ul>
Experienced knowledge managers are brilliant, especially when big changes need to be made. However, never forget the majority of positive change will always come from the people on the front line exhibiting behaviors that put the company's long term prosperity first.<br />
To me, that's a sign of a good leader.<br />
<hr width="80%" />
<br />
<b>Stuart French </b>facilitates the SIRF <a href="http://sirfrt.com.au/kmrt" target="_blank">KM Roundtable</a>, runs the <a href="http://www.latrobe.edu.au/students/subjects/current/buo5isk-mis-and-knowledge-management" target="_blank">MIS & KM online subject for La Trobe University's MBA program</a> and also runs the <a href="http://www.sirfrt.com.au/calendar/event_detail/4603" target="_blank">KM-101 Practical Introduction Course</a> for those wishing to become better managers by understanding the impact of KM on their businesses. If you would like to take the next step in your management journey, Stuart can help you find the best next step for you.
Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-60421035783094500102015-12-23T13:23:00.002+11:002015-12-23T13:26:48.206+11:00Enabling Process Improvements with Business Systems<h3>
Really enabling our workers</h3>
Business Automation is a key deliverable of <a href="https://hbr.org/2015/09/digital-transformation-doesnt-have-to-leave-employees-behind" target="_blank">any digital transformation program</a>.<br />
Many business systems help solve the problem of workers not being able to remember large or complex data-sets. Ie:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>What day do we delivery to Customer X’s area?</li>
<li>Do we follow the usual flour recipe if the pH of the mains water drops by 0.5?</li>
<li>What does Customer Y’s contract say about pricing for multiple purchases?</li>
</ul>
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The problem is, these systems treat workers like robots with two staggering repercussions:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>They can only handle situations that have been described by the system (assuming a good search), and</li>
<li>They tend to lock in and then resist future changes “But we’ve always done it that way”</li>
</ol>
<br />
The answer is to embed not just the information to do the job, but also the <b>WHY </b>in your systems and encourage your staff to sense-make, looking for patterns that can dynamically handle these two situations. For example, if a customer has an exception to the normal pricing model, include the reasoning behind that exception. This will help the worker to be aware for this type of exception for other customers of the same type.<br />
Secondly, include <b>WHO </b>is the domain expert or information source (ie the Sales person who wrote the contract) and encourage communications and questioning to increase quality of service.<br />
Just treating our workers as idiots isn't really enabling them. Not only will it limit their effectiveness, but job satisfaction will drop, they will be less willing to go the extra mile in busy times and staff turnover will increase.<br />
<h3>
Setting a good example</h3>
These issues don't just happen at the customer edge of the business. These sorts of behaviors are seen regularly in the back office teams that implement business system changes. Have you ever seen:<br />
<ul>
<li>Failure to record the assumptions that decisions were based on?</li>
<li>Only recording the result, not the conversation and debate that led to it?</li>
<li>Only recording the main reason for a change?</li>
</ul>
If so, you are not alone. These things always make sense to us in the thick of the change, but the details are all too easily forgotten and before long we are repeat mistakes and cracks appear in the systems that directly effect how we service our customer's needs.<br />
<div>
Next time you find yourself frustrated with an end user not correctly documenting a change or updating a customer contract record, take a quick look in the mirror first to make sure there isn't a log in your own eye.</div>
<h3>
The bottom line</h3>
<div>
<div>
Workers will build mental models of how they think the business works whether you like it or not. Whether you are creating bottlenecks, not fully delegating authority or failing to build communications channels, <a href="http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/2013/09/24/10-ways-youre-making-your-employees-less-productive/" target="_blank">your staff's productivity will suffer</a>.</div>
<div>
By encouraging access to situational knowledge (both via the business system or through communication with the sources) you build a more flexible and accurate model over time. One that can then propagate and self-correct socially within and between teams.<br />
<br />
<i>If you would like to learn more about how KM impacts your productivity and what you can do about it, our KM-101 course gives you both the understanding and the tools to make the most of your organisations collective expertise. <a href="http://www.sirfrt.com.au/calendar/event_detail/4603" target="_blank">Click here to find out more</a>.</i></div>
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Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-4166259148291793872015-11-10T14:38:00.001+11:002015-11-10T14:44:30.680+11:00Do you know that, or is it just something you remembered? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have struggled for a little while with the Tacit/Explicit model of knowledge, feeling it was incomplete. The Cambridge Dictionary defines Tacit Knowledge as <em>"<strong>knowledge that you do not get from books or being taught, but from personal experience</strong>"</em>. This basically rules out the idea of Tacit/Explicit transfer, leading to what <a href="http://chieftech.com.au/post/we-can-and-should-make-tacit-knowledge-explicit-with-collaboration-technologies" target="_blank">James Dellow</a> claims is a choice of either "Perfect knowledge capture or nothing at all".<br />
<br />
<a href="file:///C:/Users/stuart/Dropbox/KM/KM101/Source%20Documents/Introduction%20to%20knowledge_management_book.pdf" target="_blank">Uriarte's book</a> "Introduction to Knowledge Management" from 2008 discussed the concept of implicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge is basically "remembered facts". ie: Internal knowledge that is possible to be written down or made explicit.<br />
<br />
Likewise, the "Internalisation" part of Nonaka's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SECI_model_of_knowledge_dimensions" target="_blank">SECI model</a> turns explicit knowledge in to implicit knowledge but not tacit (as is claimed), which comes from the personal embodiment of decision, behaviour and action. Nonaka has been widely criticised for SECI's many failures in practice and I submit that this confusion between implicit and tacit knowledge may be one reason why.<br />
<br />
This was discussed in a debate at the KM Australia Congress in 2011 which has been blogged about by both <a href="http://knowledgebird.com/tacit-explicit-implicit-whatever-lets-call-the-whole-thing-off/" target="_blank">Aprill Allen</a> and <a href="https://bradhinton.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/the-great-debate-tacit-knowledge-and-collaborative-technologies/" target="_blank">Brad Hinton</a> (I recommend reading both) and one of the reason's I think this is important is captured in David Snowden's comment on Brad's blog where he points out that <em><strong>"(true) tacit knowledge transfer in general takes place through doing – apprentice models come to mind"</strong></em>. In other words understanding the distinction directly effects the types of solutions we implement to transfer knowledge. I would argue that our almost total abandonment of the apprenticeship model has resulted in untold loss of tacit knowledge over the last two decades.<br />
<br />
It seems the Tacit-Implicit-Explicit may also help when drawing a line between IT and KM. Helen Palmer's <a href="https://rhxthinking.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/the-work-of-km-vs-im" target="_blank">excellent treatise</a> on this touches on the Tacit/Explicit divide being one of the key factors. Adding Implicit may allow for a slightly clearer look at the interface between the two, especially when it comes to learning, capturing expertise, following workflows, etc, and possibly, just possibly, opening the way to more formal learning while doing. The computers may be new. The software may be becoming more social. But in evolutionary terms, the last thousand years is nothing and human brains have hardly changed. If we already have an amazing way of transferring tacit knowledge, proven by 1000+ years use in guilds, societies and trades, I would argue it is time to consider both old and new ways of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time.<br />
<br />
If you are interested in this and want to get a grip on it, consider the <a href="http://www.sirfrt.com.au/calendar/event_detail/4603" target="_blank">KM-101 course from KMRt</a> where it is discussed in depth as we look at pragmatic ways to improve knowledge flows in your organisation.<br />
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What do you think? Does the Tacit-Implicit-Explicit model help you explain KM better? Are there situations it doesn't explain? Should we start including Implicit in our conversations with non-KM people so they start to understand the distinction? I would love to hear your thoughts.Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-91807644976965144142015-10-14T12:20:00.001+11:002015-10-15T09:39:21.350+11:00Call for info about KM Tools & Solutions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgodcosKbJDo7AfStNsxZIPzmUND-RbFoevVgJH9Jig9KBzxG_05dIDIYCpzXcp_ZYFz4XOPB0naNmmRtG_ohzRcjxufMYGZ-5Bn9RXYpw2_ToaPY-nZxjuGG52YO0UViG-5x-nBZXXbv_/s1600/brush-218990_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgodcosKbJDo7AfStNsxZIPzmUND-RbFoevVgJH9Jig9KBzxG_05dIDIYCpzXcp_ZYFz4XOPB0naNmmRtG_ohzRcjxufMYGZ-5Bn9RXYpw2_ToaPY-nZxjuGG52YO0UViG-5x-nBZXXbv_/s200/brush-218990_640.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Do you create, maintain, sell, implement, support tools for better KM? If so I want to hear from you.<br />
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As part of the upcoming KM 101 course I am running for the KM Roundtable, the focus is very much on pragmatic learning and understanding what tools are available, what they can and cannot do and which problems they are best suited to solve.<br />
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I have built my own list over the years, and I am aware of both the <a href="https://knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com/Tools+and+Techniques" target="_blank">Knowledge Bucket</a> and the <a href="http://www.kstoolkit.org/KSTools" target="_blank">Knowledge Sharing Toolkit</a>, but this is an area that continually evolves, so if you have or know of solutions that help in these areas, then please <a href="mailto:stuart.french@sirfrt.com.au" target="_blank">email me</a> or give me a call on +61 411 797-781 for a chat.<br />
<br />
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr><td width="50%"><ul>
<li>Knowledge sharing</li>
<li>Collaboration platforms</li>
<li>Project asset management & coordination</li>
<li>Decision making</li>
<li>Workflow tools</li>
<li>Sensemaking</li>
<li>Social network analysis</li>
<li>Intranets</li>
<li>Lessons Learned databases</li>
<li>Learning Management Systems</li>
</ul>
</td><td><ul>
<li>Document Management</li>
<li>Record Management</li>
<li>Knowledge Bases for Customer Support</li>
<li>Enterprise (Federated) Search</li>
<li>Plug-ins for Confluence & SharePoint</li>
<li>Innovation Hubs</li>
<li>Blogging, Podcasting, Publishing</li>
<li>Expertise Location</li>
<li>Competency Frameworks</li>
<li>Dashboards, Analytics & BI</li>
<li>Alternatives to email</li>
</ul>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I will need the following from you please:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Description of the solution</li>
<li>Problems it solves / potential application areas / Usual market (ie: SME, Enterprise, Gov't)</li>
<li>Simple Case Study - if available</li>
<li>Australian distributor / sales point</li>
<li>Rough pricing model</li>
<li>URL for more information</li>
<li>Product information</li>
<ol>
<li>Key selling point</li>
<li>Key features</li>
<li>Extensibility and ability to connect, (ie: federated search, links to external content, etc)</li>
<li>Underlying technology requirements (ie: MS Stack?)</li>
<li>Compliance with the Australian Government Record-keeping Act.</li>
</ol>
</ol>
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If you are trying to get your product, tool or software in front of more eyes, then this is you chance. The course starts late November, so I look forward to hearing from you soon.Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-71293383746737344992015-10-06T11:09:00.002+11:002015-10-06T11:18:45.786+11:00If Bill Gates were to cash out - An example of complexity<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/8011986@N02/15126050353" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="iphone 6 Plus Bill Gates Wallpaper"><img alt="iphone 6 Plus Bill Gates Wallpaper" height="320" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7538/15126050353_c6ea371bcd_n.jpg" width="180" /></a>Understanding the different domains of complexity is such a powerful thing that I am constantly looking for examples I can use to explain it to newcomers.<br />
<br />
In 2011 I wrote what has become <a href="http://www.deltaknowledge.net/2011/06/examples-of-complicated-and-complex-in.html" target="_blank">one of my more popular posts</a> where I described the difference to the warehouse manager of the company I was working for and Frank Connolly touched on <a href="http://think-quick.com.au/small-things-can-make-a-big-difference" target="_blank">the butterfly effect of small changes</a>.<br />
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But as Aprill Allen says, "<a href="http://knowledgebird.com/knowledge-is-not-understanding/" target="_blank">Knowledge is not understanding</a>" and so I am always looking for visceral examples to help connect the dots for people, and here is one to think about:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Imagine if Bill Gates wanted to sell ALL his shares in Microsoft. How much would he get?</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The <b><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">simple </span></b>way would be to take today's share price for <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/msft" target="_blank">MSFT</a> and multiple by the number of shares he is selling.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Now that won't work because you need buyers. A <b><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">complicated </span></b>approach will review the depth and take in to account the diminishing sale price by volume.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But of course, a sale of that many shares would take time and journalists, large funds, banks and a highly networked public will change their buying/selling behavior based on their trusted interactions, news media, advisers, available cash reserves and the general economic climate. A <b><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">complex </span></b>approach would probably involve a number of smaller sales to test the market, or even attempt to build sentiment before the main sale in order to maximize profit.</blockquote>
Just as a side note, Bill Gates is <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/03/us-microsoft-gates-idUSBREA410YS20140503" target="_blank">selling his stock in Microsoft</a>. He seems to be doing it at a predetermined and fixed rate. Perhaps he needs to read this post? :)<br />
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Of course if you really want to understand the Cynefin framework then Laurel Sutton's <a href="http://www.cre-ativ-cognicion.com.au/2015/08/complex-tools-and-methods-workshop/" target="_blank">one day course</a> is brilliant, and if you are in Europe then <a href="http://cognitive-edge.com/events/category/cynefin-sense-making-courses/" target="_blank">going to the source</a> (David Snowden) is probably even better. If you are a leader wondering how this effects your business I highly recommend David's post <a href="https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making" target="_blank">A Leader's Framework for Decision Making</a>.Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-24174953010647174272015-09-29T09:07:00.000+10:002015-09-29T09:14:32.868+10:00What else can KM can learn from Agile?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In response to my post a few days ago about Agile KM and also to a direct question to him, Stan Garfield kindly wrote <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/agile-fragile-stan-garfield" target="_blank">this blog post</a> in reply.<br />
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It really is a great post (not that I would expect any less from Stan) and I especially loved his reinterpretation of Bill Kaplan's manifesto as follows:<br />
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<ol style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140915160122-2500783-identifying-the-top-3-objectives-for-a-km-program" target="_blank">Identify three key business objectives</a> (rather than use maturity models, bench-marking, and me-too best practices)</li>
<li>Focus more on helping people use processes effectively (rather than on rolling out technology)</li>
<li>Improve decisions, actions, and learning (rather than vague concepts like "increase engagement," "add value," or "drive transformational change")</li>
<li><a href="http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddj598qm_20fnwvc4dt" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Connect people to each other so they can help each other at the time of need</a> (rather than focus on collecting documents or <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-locate-expertise-stan-garfield" target="_blank">updating skills profiles</a>)</li>
<li><a href="http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddj598qm_21wpp22xz" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Implement, improve, and iterate</a> (rather than plan endlessly)</li>
</ol>
If you are new to KM, please do yourself a favor and follow Stan's links. I guarantee it will be worth it for you.
<br />
<br />
I do think there are a few other things we can learn from the Agile Manifesto when it comes to KM and I offer them to you for your consideration (and hopefully feedback). Stan may argue these are encapsulated in his last point, however I know people would simply see "Implement, Improve and Iterate" as a series of small waterfall-style pilots (<a href="http://www.agile42.com/en/blog/2014/09/29/trapped-agile-vs-waterfall/" target="_blank">some call this WAGILE</a>), when in fact, your solution changes the initial problem space. You are not doing KM in a vacuum; your changes may effect something else which in turn can (and will) effect the success and possibly the viability of your well planned improvement.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Remember, “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy”</i></blockquote>
So for clarification I would add:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><a href="http://agileforeveryone.com/2015/04/24/agile-adaptive-business-strategy-with-scrum/" target="_blank">Strategy is about discovering what works</a> by probing and measuring, (rather than assuming the world is linear)</li>
<li>"What works" is measured by whole of business performance, (rather than an individual or local metric)</li>
<li>Working solutions after each iteration (rather than phased rollouts of a large project with no results until the end)</li>
<li>Pilots that are <a href="http://bounds.net.au/node/15" target="_blank">designed to teach you as much when they fail</a> (rather than just when they succeed)</li>
</ol>
<div>
Are you an Agile expert? Can you think of any others?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As knowledge leaders I think we need to have these strategic differences front of mind. This seems to be reflected in Alex Bennet's new book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Leading-Future-Mind-Knowledge-Leadership-ebook/dp/B0140RX122" target="_blank">Leading with the Future in Mind</a> - Knowledge and Emergent Leadership". As leaders we need to be learners first and Alex points towards Experiential Learning as a tradition that points us in the right direction. I also spoke about this in <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kurokaze204/finding-the-right-glove-org-culture-e20" target="_blank">a talk several years ago</a> extending the idea to culture change itself being a form of learning. But I think these ideas put some meat on those bones and I am wondering if it is worth developing these in to a more structured method.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Anybody interested in taking a stroll with me?</div>
Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-17817719214376119482015-09-25T17:44:00.000+10:002015-09-27T22:49:57.110+10:00Surprise! Why don't people share their knowledge?I am reviewing a bunch of KM material at the moment as I develop KMRt's new KM101 course.<br />
<br />
Several people have been very generous to allow me to use their teachings and some of them are papers from my Masters degree program. One of those really struck me as I re-read it today, almost ten years after I first came across it and I wanted to share what today I see as a critical problem with the way some companies found their KM systems.<br />
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Ask most knowledge managers who people don't share, in fact, ask most managers this and you will usually get two answers:<br />
<ol>
<li>They are hoarding their knowledge</li>
<li>They see their knowledge as a type of personal advantage and fear losing that power</li>
</ol>
<div>
It makes sense right? We have probably felt that way ourselves sometimes. But do we act on those feelings? Taken corporately as a culture we see patterns of individualist and collectivist people as described by <a href="http://delarue.net/blog/2010/05/culture-knowledge-sharing/" target="_blank">Keith de la Rue,</a> and maybe there is some wisdom in that.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: bold;">So why don't people share their knowledge?</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: 18.72px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<div>
However, this research by <a href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/olkc/archive/oklc3/id78.pdf" target="_blank">Ardichvilli</a> seems to say that the real barriers to knowledge sharing were far more personal:</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Fear that posting will reveal that they don't know what they should</li>
<li>Did not believe they had earned the right to post on a company-wide system</li>
<li>Fear of possible criticism or ridicule</li>
<li>People were not sure of what they needed to post. Needed more direction on What Where and How.</li>
<li>Fear of letting colleagues down or misleading them</li>
<li>Fear of losing face</li>
<li>Afraid their contribution was inaccurate or incomplete</li>
</ol>
</div>
<h3>
In reading these, your knowledge program's focus changes completely</h3>
It is no longer about prying precious company knowledge from self-focused individuals - <i>an idea that has launched a thousand failed KM projects</i>. Instead it is about enabling people so they feel they can contribute safely and effectively. Arthur Shelley touches on this regularly, including <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Arthur.Shelley/removing-barriers-to-knowledge-flow" target="_blank">in this post </a>where he frames knowledge sharing in terms learning objectives and using conversations that matter to give people that validation they need.<br />
<br />
<i>The beauty of this approach is that it runs alongside people's natural inclination</i> instead of against it. Respondents in the study backed up previous research when they stated their reasons for wanting to share knowledge:<br />
<ol>
<li>The majority of respondents said they saw their knowledge as a public good, belonging not to them individually, but to the whole organization.</li>
<li>They felt this towards</li>
<ul>
<li>Their organization</li>
<li>Their professional association (engineers)</li>
</ul>
<li>Respondents also wanted to assert themselves as experts. </li>
<li>Some felt they were at the stage of their career that they should give something back.</li>
<li>Organisational culture played a part in their feeling of altruism.</li>
</ol>
<div>
So as you review the very underlying principles of your Knowledge projects, ask yourself the question <b><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">"Why don't people share their knowledge?"</span></b> and then do some empirical research to find out why.</div>
</div>
Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2687093602388234886.post-34922124761123670012015-09-23T14:08:00.000+10:002015-09-23T14:41:12.951+10:00Why KM is needed for today's division of cognitive labour"The world is changing."<br />
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We hear it all the time. Articles pointing out the move from the manufacturing economy to the service economy. Reports showing the gradual effects of offshoring. Papers researching the benefits and pains the knowledge economy has heralded in over the last thirty years.<br />
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But some of these underlying changes are not linear at all. They work in an altogether new direction and skew the way we measure the effectiveness of our workers. One example is the division of cognitive labour.<br />
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In his fantastic book <i>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/King-Arthurs-Round-Table-Collaborative/dp/0471237728" target="_blank">King Arthur's Round Table: How Collaborative Conversations Create Smart Organisations</a>"</i>, David Perkins talks about the difference between mowing a castle lawn and designing a new lawnmower. With a small amount of loss for each person added, you can fairly easily divide the lawn up and mow it quickly with more people. However to divide up the task of designing a new lawnmower is a much trickier issue and the more difficult the task is, the lower the efficiency of each worker. This creates a declining return on investment as shown below.<br />
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When you think about this, it makes sense to go for the low hanging fruit first. Many companies have done this successfully; Think of the budget airline business, or low frills online shopping.<br />
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In this model, customers are placed horizontally. There are simple customers and difficult customers that take more mental effort to service. The choice to apply the Pareto principle is logical. Service the 80% of customers with a high ROI and ignore the 20% of customers that require your team to have more knowledge, information or decision making ability to satisfy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUdnJRbkkIobuNrzWATABWcwsEhLLAlg0l-QTnG5FkSakPMruHajZ2TduFhiF0i15AMsDhDaDOzfDFvZU0oqCmlV9z3dLKG1yS_E4sFvXaYm2vGIawRdN-cIafwAdJCJzXSq4Oiy2YEIq/s1600/Evernote+Camera+Roll+20150409+091957.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUdnJRbkkIobuNrzWATABWcwsEhLLAlg0l-QTnG5FkSakPMruHajZ2TduFhiF0i15AMsDhDaDOzfDFvZU0oqCmlV9z3dLKG1yS_E4sFvXaYm2vGIawRdN-cIafwAdJCJzXSq4Oiy2YEIq/s320/Evernote+Camera+Roll+20150409+091957.png" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">It is an attractive idea. Simple, focused and something that would win you votes at a boardroom table.</span><br />
But seductive might be a better term, because as most people who have worked in customer service operations would know, it is based on a faulty premise...that the customers are stacked horizontally.<br />
<br />
In the real world, customers are actually stacked vertically (see below). That is, most customers have a large number of needs that are easily met, and many (sometimes the majority) also have special or unique requirements. These dont happen all the time, but they expect you to meet these needs too. When looked at it this way, you are not rejecting 20% of pesky customers, you are letting down 80% of your customers some of the time.<br />
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Those companies that persist in this way discover that <b>customers start complaining and silently disappearing. Churn rates increase and finally, sales people start discounting to retain business; tacitly recognising that the company cannot actually meet all their customers needs</b>. Thus starts a slippery slope of lost advantage and declining reputation. Of course this won't immediately show on the books as the increased turnover at the lower price will balance out the lower profit margins, but that can only continue for so long.<br />
<br />
So what can be done? Well, that is where Knowledge Management comes in. <b><span style="color: cyan;">By focusing on the needs of your key accounts, good KM programs discover the types and frequencies that these difficulties arise. Next, they provide ways to enable your staff to deal with them in an ad-hoc manner while still retaining control and integration with the rest of the company.</span></b><br />
<br />
In his <a href="http://www.dbisoftware.com/blog/Velocity_for_Executives.php?id=571" target="_blank">recent article</a>, Scott Hayes talks about the lure of the question "what is happening right now", when in fact we should be asking questions about trends and real impact before we start formulating change in our organisations. KM tools like After-action reviews, Knowledge Assessments and Lessons Learned programs seek out these trends and keep the important being over-ridden by the urgent.<br /><br />
Understanding the real impact of complex and medium/long term problems in our business is part of what leadership is about. Good knowledge management isn't just part of the solution to better division of mental labour, it is also a key tool to understanding where the real problems lay in the first place. In fact, I would argue it is a critical tool if you want to keep the harder 60% of your customer base long term.Stuart Frenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05356198905943065166noreply@blogger.com0