031 This month’s tip:

Revisit your assumptions.

Peter Drucker once observed that the problem with Total Quality Management was that it encouraged you to do perfectly things you shouldn't be doing at all. His advice was that managers should pause for reflection at least once a year, to ask themselves an important question: "If we weren't already doing this, would it still seem like a good idea?"

"Best practice" is an overused phrase in KM circles, held high, sometimes, like a kind of Grail. On consideration, it's hard to imagine there could be any such thing, given that technology, culture and business contexts are constantly changing.

How long can any practice hold the position of best, before a better practice comes along? So remember the words of Kenneth Burke, and understand that every way of seeing is a way of not seeing. Don't get tied down by outdated assumptions.

 

March 2006 - Volume 4, Issue 3

Building to Scale

When building an information delivery system in the virtual world, whether general-purpose website or formal knowledge repository, there's always a terrible temptation. The raw materials are so cheap, the tools are so powerful and the apparent opportunity to do good is so vast. It's very hard to know where to stop.

However, the real success of on-line information systems is not a function of their feature set. It's instead determined by the quality of their content, and the currency of their information. Regular web surfers are a pretty savvy bunch. It doesn't take them long to spot out-of-date press releases, or recognize that the "upcoming event" page lists content from last Spring. That can absolutely blow your credibility, so the key is not to build something that's more than you can manage.

Imagine the people you're trying to serve, and consider the top ten things they're likely to want from you. If you can deliver even four of them, and do it well, you're much better off than trying to do it all. If you find that over time, you can deliver the top four requirements in a crisp, efficient and consistent fashion, then it might time to add something new.

Don't let the enthusiasm of your initial release lead you to a place where you don't have time for enhancement because you're too busy trying to keep all the balls in the air. Build to scale, and remember that less is more.

Deep Smarts

Companies today have a priceless distributed resource, although it's one they may neither recognize nor understand. It's the knowledge held by their best employees, and manifests itself in the quality we often think of as good judgment -- the ability to put together the right people, with the right information, and make positive things happen. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap call it "deep smarts." It's not the kind of thing that can be codified and loaded to a knowledge repository; transferring it person-to-person takes time.

There's a paradox here. People simultaneously understand that re-inventing the wheel is inefficient, and yet also know that learning by doing is a very effective way to develop expertise. We've developed systems and training styles that rely on PowerPoint slides, and case studies and project reports, and thereby may be depriving people of the very experience they need to develop deep smarts of their own.

There are some techniques that work, and they're the techniques used in traditional mentor-protege programs: Guided Problem Solving, Experimentation and Observation, for example. These old-fashioned, systematic techniques do deliver results, but appear to be out of step with the pace of organizational change.

It's a tough nut. Companies are spending millions of dollars on formal training programs in the belief that they don't have the time to take a guided experience route. Unfortunately, that road not taken may be the only way for firms to retain their organizational smarts, as their senior people walk out the door.

Free Knowledge at Knowledge Street

Over the years, our personal labors in the trenches of Knowledge Management have convinced us that success in KM is heavily dependent on the human factor. Programs that consider folks as people first, and "users" second, always outperform those that do not. (And did you ever consider it odd that IT people and dope peddlers refer to their customers in the same way?)
 
Over the last few months, we've been exploring the significance of the human factor in some detail, drilling down into examples of KM initiatives that are placing human activity in the foreground. We're now pleased to announce the addition of a new section at our website, wherein we will publish a series of Knowledge Street reports.

There are two now available. One examines something called ikonnect, a mechanism for facilitated knowledge sharing at Bovis Lend Lease, an international project management and construction services firm. The second reports on the role of Knowledge Advisors at Hewlett-Packard. Each report provides some background on the company, and an overview of the target program. We hope our readers find them interesting and useful.

The Millennials Are Coming!

It seems we're once again facing one of those demographic thresholds, as the "Millennial Generation" enters the workforce. These are people born after 1982, a.k.a. Generation Y, a.k.a, the Echo Boomers. As the Baby Boomers begin to retire, there are some 80 million Millennials ready to take their place. Or are they?

A study by two professors at Emory University predicts that the times may be a-changing. The Millennials are considered less alienated than their parents, less likely to grab the spotlight and more likely to prefer teamwork. They want clear instructions, a structured work environment and a chance to do some good in the world. They're more ethnically diverse than any preceding generation, and less likely to equate leadership ability with gender. They've grown up with packed social calendars, scheduled play dates and barely any free time. They're used to being told what to do, have traditional values and favor rules over rebellion. They are the most watched-over generation ever, protected and pampered and expecting a future of positive feedback and group support. And they are the most wired human beings who have ever lived, constantly on line and in touch.

Dr. Kimiz Dalkir, an old colleague of the Knowledge Street partners, has written about the implications of the boomers' retirement, and the different behavioral profile of the next generation may put a new spin on this problem. The Emory study suggests that mentoring programs may be the best way to transfer knowledge to the next generation, but it's not clear whether companies are ready to step up to the challenge. So as the Millennials enter the job market, they may be in for some very rude awakenings.

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