054 This month’s tip:

Be sure you know what success looks like. 

It seems counterintuitive but it's not unusual for projects to get underway before people have a clear understanding of what they're trying to do. Sometimes the objective appears so self-evident that it doesn't need to be explained. Sometimes talking about objectives seems like a waste of time, especially when time is short. Or it could be culturally-induced: in some organizations, asking a question is a sign of weakness. Without clarity on this point, though, the outcome is pretty predictable. In the end, the team fails to deliver the desired result.

We try to lead people through a simple exercise, asking them to provide a few sentences that can follow as bullet points behind the phrase "This project will be a success if..." It's easy to do, and it doesn't take long. It doesn't guarantee success, of course, but it at least establishes a context within which success can be considered. If the folks involved can't come up with those bullets pretty quickly, that tells you something too. And as long as these success statements are things that can be measured, they give you a clear gauge of whether you hit the target.
 

February 2008 - Volume 6, Issue 2

Power to the People

One reason open communication is so important is the increasing popularity of user-generated content. In the old days, companies had a much greater ability to control their message and spin things in the right direction. That's just not true any more. The on-line world of blogs, wikis and customer feedback forums has evolved into a powerful source of information. Consumers are influenced by the opinions of other consumers, and these opinions really do affect purchase decisions.

Negative opinions are more powerful, too. One bad review or critical comment on a site like Amazon is more powerful than dozens of good reviews. That may be because "a person like me" generally scores the best in studies of trust. Doctors trust other doctors. Accountants trust other accountants. (And of course, Knowledge Managers trust other Knowledge Managers.) eBay has done a great job with this kind of reputation scoring, and Amazon has started using email to solicit customer reviews. NetFlix always wants you to rate the films you've watched, so they can recommend others.

If you have customers who want to help each other, and want to help improve your products, you want to keep them. Those are GOOD customers.

The Virtual World of Work

We like to keep tabs on what friends and former colleagues are up to, and this month we're pleased to report the publication of a book by Ken McLennan. We had the pleasure of working with Ken at DMR, and later at Fujitsu Consulting, where he was a big booster of Knowledge Management in both theory and practice.

Some of that experience inspired Ken to write The Virtual World of Work - How to Gain Competitive Advantage through the Virtual Workplace, which was released in December 2007 by Information Age Publishing. It analyzes the factors behind workplace changes from the 1960s to the present, with an emphasis on enabling technologies, changing attitudes, workforce demographics and general globalization. Over 25 million people in the US work from home now, at least part of the time.

We've often written about this kind of thing in Directions, and our perspective tends to focus on what individual workers can do to keep their balance in this new world order. As Ken's subtitle suggests, he's going a little further, to explore what the virtual workplace means to business and how it can be turned to competitive advantage. A useful area to consider. If you're interested in learning more, you can order a copy through the publisher, or at Amazon.

Got Integrated Communications?

That's a question worth considering these days... In fact, the importance of integrated communications was one of the founding principles of Knowledge Street.

The democratization of the Web has broken through so many barriers that it's virtually impossible to control the way your message travels. That means it's extremely important to be sure the message is the same, wherever it may go. That's why you need integrated communications.

The first integration is between external communications (intended for audiences outside your own organization), and internal communications (to keep the insiders aware and informed). Those internal channels should also be considered in two dimensions: Vertical communications will ensure clear, frequent and bidirectional information flow for management and non-management. Horizontal communications will keep people in different departments or business units aware of what's happening.

If you pull all this together, you'll have a more consistent understanding and a more efficient and productive enterprise. Writing in The Customer Century, Anders Gronstedt had this warning: "Companies that try to have a bite here and a bite there without sitting down for the whole meal are poised to fail."

I Am Spock

Sometime in December, one of Knowledge Street's principals was invited to join a friend's network at a "people search" site called Spock. That was a new one for us, even though we're already engaged with Ryze, LinkedIn and Plaxo, to varying degrees. The invitation came from a person who really “is” a trusted associate, so what the heck! And Spock is unique, in some subtle ways.

Spock is wiki-like, in that it lets any registered user edit the content. If you register, it shows you a list of Web citations related to your name, and lets you claim the ones that are relevant. (Yes, this is my LinkedIn profile; No I am not the leather-fetishist from Munich.) They call it profile aggregation. In addition to this kind of content refinement, Spock lets users add tags to its profiles. Anyone can tag anyone else, but people can also vote on whether those tags are relevant. Once you claim your profile, you can vote inappropriate tags away. It's a kind of personalized search engine optimization concept, driven by the opinions of the community.  The most active users -- those who contribute and vote frequently -- increase their "Spock Power," giving their vote more weight.

It's an interesting combination, and one we're going to play with further. You might want to give it a test drive.

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