Knowledge

Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Wisdom Tacit/ Intuitive Knowledge Explicit Knowledge Information Data Fragmented Integrated Insights Information Hierarchy of Knowledge


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Good Practices Nurturing Business Values Developing the Systems Creating Common Mindsets Competitor benchmarking Groupware/ intranet Search engine Balanced scorecard Metrics Team-based rewards Contractual obligations Selection criteria for recruiting Competencies Virtual teams Communities of practice Knowledge coordinators Broad vision Bussiness community X-functional teamworking Knowledge champions Role models - Gurus Coaching mentoring Encourage Experimentation Personal legacy Action learning Interdependancy - we’re all in it together Reciprocity- receive by giving New language No jargon True stories Metaphors Identification- this is for me Values- this is worthwhile Beliefs - this’ll work for me Soft rewards Learning by trying Tolerate mistakes Retain “reject pool” Recognise successes Real-time feedback Honest feedback Gut feel index Three Elements of Knowledge Culture


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) High Commitment Non-Routine Work Routine Work Low Commitment Inner - Driven Outer - Driven Reward - Driven Sustenance - Driven Elite guard Sergeant major Mercenary Conscript Four Kinds of Employee Groups


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Excellence driven Achievement driven Rules, processes, systems driven driven Entitlement/ ascription driven Barbarians Innovators Enthusiasts Bureaucrats Aristocrats Maharajas Pioneering Growth Maturity Decline Decay Organisational performance Organisational life cycles Cultures and Mindsets in Different Stages of Organisational Evolution


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) The Manager Administers Is a copy Maintains Focuses on systems and structure Relies on control Has a short range view Asks how and when Has his eye always on the bottom line Imitates Accepts status quo Is the classic good soldier Does things right The Leader Innovates Is an original Develops Focuses on people Inspires trust Has a long range perspective Asks what and why Has his eye on the horizon Originates Challenges it Is his/ her own person Does the right thing Difference between Managers and Leaders


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Benefits for the learner Ideas: a sounding board Expertise: high level, just - in - time consultancy Creativity: a risk free environment Advancement: skills development Sensitivity: understanding paradoxes and diversity Confidence: venturing outside the comfort zone


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Benefits for the mentor Enhanced intuition: understand subconscious processes Deeper insights: personal mastery Laboratory experimentation: testing ideas Self learning: by listening and empathy Self knowledge: physician heal thyself Personal legacy: what do I want to be remembered for?


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Sharing knowledge implies increasing knowledge: because ideas generate more ideas - thereby increasing knowledge Way to increase knowledge is going to the right person and asking the right questions Meetings without agenda help to bring out things in people Organisations are also born, mature, decline and die like individuals Organisations should be more like spider plants wherein the mother plants give rise to healthy baby plants plants I.e. creating very good umbilical cords Nurturing Innovative Knowledge sharing


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) To share knowledge one has to understand people Recognising people leads to: Creating a responsibility in them to share Creating a pressure to role model Encourage communication between individuals Listening is the most important in communicationas it implies: Respect for the other Internalise and produce new knowledge


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Personal mastery is about converting tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge (concepts) or tacit to tacit (by working together) Knowledge should create more knowledge Create a web page for each employee (recognition too!) The problems we face cannot be resolved at the same level of thinking as that which gave rise to them - Albert Einstein To share knowledge create: Yellow pages for employees - Who knows? - and designate some authentic knowledgeable stars as ‘Gurus’- so people can refer to them in times of need Databases of specifics of what the organisation knows Use search engines to hunt for knowledge Create a pool of ideas which did not work and document them too! - they may be useful at another time!


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Chrysler created a “Book of engineering knowledge” - one of the finest pieces of documentation of engineering knowledge Good ideas were captured everyday It is a dynamic book It provides recognition for individuals Have X-functional teams working on areas, projects, subjects about which one knows nothing to have a common mental model/s


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) There are three layers of knowledge culture: Behaviour Values Systems Allignment between the three is a must “The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well meaning reasonableness” Progressive organisations are already talking about “Talent” management Best initiatives are the ones which come upwards from the bottom


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Remember, in a war situation Take your enemy by surprise Different soldiers need different triggers I.e. understand the drivers of different types of people Will the line managers buy the “Knowledge Management” initiatives Major reasons for failed projects: Too much reliance on technology/ technologists They were not looked at from the individuals’l angle Sustaining something is very difficult! Relying on IT beyond a point does’nt work Top down initiatives don’t work


Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) : Best Practices in knowledge creation and exchange: What’s working, What’s not (contd…) Leadership issues must be addressed - Fish starts rotting from the head! Culture of the organisation must be addressed Knowledge management is a subset of change management


Against Knowledge management : Against Knowledge management We can only improve the efficiency/ effectiveness of the knowledge worker We can’t put together knowledge which exists in several people Knowledge and market change too fast Knowledge management systems do a lousy job of containing tacit knowledge Knowledge cannot be managed Knowledge cannot be limited by IT Inturnship, Mentoring and Job rotation are the only ones which really work Know what’s important!


Improving Organisational competence : Improving Organisational competence Learning is an investment not a cost Communicate, Collaborate, Coordinate


Improving Organisational competence (contd…) : Improving Organisational competence (contd…) Learning points Assault as many senses as possible Combine face to face and virtual/ remote collaboration Top down commitment is a must Make learning a part of the job Reward right behaviour Enrol the understudy’s manager Make 2 hrs a week available to the subordinates Build world class solutions Best if people learn on the job Deploy strategy rapidly Publish retention and not attrition status Grow your assets Become a hiring magnet Have a competitive advantage/ edge


Turning Knowledge Management strategy into practice and results BP AMOCO : Turning Knowledge Management strategy into practice and results BP AMOCO Created web pages of experiences and new procedures/ innovations for drilling work and managed to save several millions of dollars! BUT, Focus on meeting the real business needs Focus on minimising barriers to sharing Do not develop things for their own sake


Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” : Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” Knowledge is born out of Living people/ systems Take “Ownership” - Don’t “Belong” Knowledge resides in the “pathways” networking one another


Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) : Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) What we commonly refer to as knowledge in organisations is at best documented information, partially useful but dead Knowledge is the very process of life: of survival, development and growth; for organisations it represents their “inner journey” Knowledge emerges out of a patterned network of cognitive relationships


Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) : Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) Knowledge pathways Knowledge in an organisation does not exist objectively as a given but emerges out of a patterned network of relationships Knowledge originates in the totality of the system; the knowledge a tree needs to grow is contained in the pathways that connect the tree to the soil, earth and sun Knowledge as a resource lies dormant in an organisation’s story; its culture; and in its ability to self-organise itself into new patterns of thought and action


Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) : Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) Knowledge Architect Knowledge Exploiter Knowledge Catalyst Knowledge Animator N E S W KNOWLEDGE Youthful, competitive - the world of the” hunter” - exploiting knowledge Adult, conserving -the world of the “herder” -consolidating knowledge Mid-life, catalytic -the world of the gardener -transformation through knowledge Mature, co-creative -the world of the steward -knowledge for sustainable development Knowledge Creating Community


Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) : Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) The West: Competing for Knowledge The Western world: First order change - The world of Competitive Strategy Arising out of simple habit formation, without any formulation or re-conceptualisation, involving experiential learning and the development of practical, change skills Solve problems by defining their identity Assume the existence of a singular truth Skills of effective experimentation The North: Consolidating Knowledge The Northern World: Second order change - The world of strategic Intent Assimilating and consolidating new concepts and knowledge, using mental constructs based on a sense of reality Models and formulae to create order and coherence Documentation and replication Focussing on core competencies


Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) : Creating “Living Systems of Learning and Knowledge” (contd…) The East: Knowledge renewal The East: Third order change - The world of Strategic Dynamics Driven by contradiction and paradox, and by anomalies between practice and theory in the first and second orders, and involving learning to work in spaces beyond habitual bondage Inviting divergence Working through complex learning and questioning mental models The South: Knowledge as Value The South: Fourth order change - The World of Co-creative Strategy Involving active and reflective transformations in the evolutionary process of human, organisational and societal processes Creating and adding value through knowledge Creating a community and managing a high-value enterprise


Developing Intellectual Capital at Skandia : Developing Intellectual Capital at Skandia Stretch your brains to “see” Money economy is at its “end” What knowledge has impact on future learning? Measures Efficiency Risk Rejuvenation


Developing Intellectual Capital at Skandia (contd…) : Developing Intellectual Capital at Skandia (contd…) The main components of the new Economy are going to be Human and Structural Capital We destroy more intellectual capital than we create How much Intellectual Capital or Knowledge do you have? Intellectual Capital is a potential - where are you on a scale of 1 - 100? Move from “Head” Office to “Heart” office Measure Market potential rather than Market share Share holder value = Money + Brains (Intellectual Capital)


Developing Intellectual Capital at Skandia (contd…) : Developing Intellectual Capital at Skandia (contd…) Human Capital is the currency of the future Indulge in “Knowledge Care” - nurture it Imagination is more important than Knowledge - can you nourish it? Intellectual Capital is the language of Leadership Use all senses Patterns of relationship is very important Look for shapes of relationships Imagination is maximum at a “Spa” Knowledge exchange takes place at “futurizing.com”


Where’s the “Knowledge” in “Knowledge management” ? : Where’s the “Knowledge” in “Knowledge management” ? How is knowledge generated and diffused? Knowledge is the capacity for effective action Knowledge is expressed only in action Learning is a process that enhances knowledge Teams are battling with “How to Learn” Fear cramps imagination Teams is the fundamental unit of learning


Where’s the “Knowledge” in “Knowledge management” ? (contd…) : Where’s the “Knowledge” in “Knowledge management” ? (contd…) All formal or informal knowledge is generated in teams A team is any group of people who need each other to get something done Work is a process by which people produce value Learning occurs while working Knowledge can’t be managed like a thing Knowledge generation is a deeply human process Technology enables things it does not create them


Where’s the “Knowledge” in “Knowledge management” ? (contd…) : Where’s the “Knowledge” in “Knowledge management” ? (contd…) Knowledge spreads only through interacting in informal settings Networks is about exchange of information Communities of practice is about exchange of knowledge All learners assess/ judge their own learning Aspiration is a continuum Rhythms between teams and communities Infrastructure, values and communities are missing in the “Fifth Discipline”


Where’s the “Knowledge” in “Knowledge management” ? (contd…) : Communities share practices Community logic Give value Get value Have an identity Have meaning Be aware of who you are Be aware of what you are Binding force Where’s the “Knowledge” in “Knowledge management” ? (contd…) Ask for help properly and you will get it