Search This Blog

Friday, November 18, 2016

KM Opps, Realities & Challenges #KMWorld

KMWlogo_Stacked_Session Title and Description: KM Opps, Realities & Challenges

New opportunities, new realities, and some old challenges.

Forces transforming “knowledge” and “knowledge sharing” include globalization, the information tsunami, on-demand expectations, flexible talent models, and cognitive technologies. This is the new reality of business and the enterprise, but the strategic choices we make to deliver knowledge at the point of need are not so different and represent new opportunities to familiar challenges.  Jooste discusses cognitive  technology, how millennials are remaking organizations and may be KM’s best new hope, “reinventing failure,” stopping knowledge from walking out the door, brain science and future scenarios for KM – disruption, design thinking, indifference or

Forces transforming “knowledge” and “knowledge sharing” include globalization, the information tsunami, on-demand expectations, flexible talent models, and cognitive technologies. This is the new reality of business and the enterprise, but the strategic choices we make to deliver knowledge at the point of need are not so different and represent new opportunities to familiar challenges.  Jooste discusses cognitive  technology, how millennials are remaking organizations and may be KM’s best new hope, “reinventing failure,” stopping knowledge from walking out the door, brain science and future scenarios for KM – disruption, design thinking, indifference or appification?

Speakers: Adriaan Jooste, CKO, Deloitte Advisory

[These are my notes from the KMWorld 2016 Conference. I’m publishing them as soon as possible after the end of a session, so they may contain the occasional typographical or grammatical error. Please excuse those. To the extent I’ve made any editorial comments, I’ve shown those in brackets.]

NOTES:

  • Experience.  “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”
  • Knowledge Management Waves and Tsunamis. KM has gone through waves — moving through one industry to another. However, now we face a tsunami in the workplace:
    • The sheer amount of information leads to cognitive overload. Cognitive overload leads us to narrowed focus, which hampers creativity.
    • Rob Cross reports that for the average worker, requests to collaborate have gone up by 80%. (This is taken from a recent Rob Cross podcast.)
    • Email is growing worse; it is not going away
    • We suffer from inefficient processes.
  • KM Disruption. How have we handled disruption? How are we handling current and potential disruptive forces?
    • moving from storytelling to books
    • moving from books to computers
    • moving from computers to websites
    • incorporating AI
    • distributing content managers around the world
    • sharing knowledge globally across international organizations
    • search — no one in the room believes that their enterprise search is within 30% as good as Google
    • mobile and tablets — only a handful of people in the room believe that their organizations have good mobile apps
    • analytics and Big Data —  no one in the room has incorporated analytics or big data in their KM efforts
    • blockchain — one or two attendees in the room are investigating this but no one in the room is using blockchain for KM.
    • flexible talent models — working with colleagues who are not always employees
    • virtual reality or augmented reality — why can’t your KM system be like Pokemon Go?
    • cognitive computing
  • Most promising Cognitive Technologies. Deloitte is working on several innovative programs using the new technologies listed below. In fact, Deloitte has won awards for using these innovative tools in one of the most conservative aspects of their business: audit. For more information on this, see the Deloitte MOOC on cognitive technologies.
    • Natural language processing
    • Computer vision
    • Machine Learning
    • Text Mining
    • Robotics
    • Speech Recognition
    • Sensing and Shaping
  • The impact of Cognitive Computing on KM. Cognitive computing will disrupt business and we will see its impact on knowledge management. Don’t be misled into believing that this is an “edge” technology. It is here and it is being used to powerful effect by market leaders.
  • Globalization. Deloitte’s clients want access to standardized services globally but they still value local creativity and responsiveness to their local context.
  • Millennials are our best hope for KM.
    • Their natural bent is toward sharing
    • They want work-life balance
    • They tend not to stay in one place long. So Deloitte focuses increases speed to competency. And then, when they move on, Deloitte has a program that treats them as “colleagues for life.”
      • Deloitte has built “Deloitte University” to train their employees — particularly their millennials.
    • They like rewards and recognition — they particularly want recognition for work well done.
    • They care about doing well by doing good.
    • They like having the latest technology.
  • KM Success depends on Behavior Change. KM has many of the same characteristics as lifestyle choices (e.g., exercising, sleeping, eating properly, etc.). You need to make the change, and hten make a commitment to sustain that change and to work continually on improving your outcomes. Success requires information, support, and feedback. Therefore, use what we know about brain science to improve the rate of behavior change.  For example, if you receive positive feedback when someone uses content you have contributed, then your brain gets a little opioid hit. This encourages you to contribute more.
  • KM and Innovation. KM should support innovation. But it isn’t just about enabling innovation more, it is really about increasing the rate of adoption of innovation.
  • KM Lessons learned at Deloitte.
    • Governance is fundamental to good KM.
    • Your KM program must be tailored to your organization’s context.
    • Invest in a formal knowledge management approach
    • Continually make the business case — daily
    • KM is an evolutionary process
    • Point solutions are a double-edged sword
    • Technology is not a panacea for KM ills
  • Moving your organization from a negative to a positive view of KM.
    • KM is “the thing that must not be named.” — if you have any KM, it is hidden within a quality or other program (e.g., six sigma, project management, etc.)
    • Active resistance — These people do not think KM is useful. These active resisters can be extremely effective missionaries once they are won over. So focus on them. And, in the process, you will learn the most and sharpen your game.
    • Passive resistance
    • Indifference
    • Benevolent neglect
    • Active support
    • Essential to organizational success and survival — this the optimum
  • Optimistic Future of KM.
    • no email
    • no website — just use apps
    • designing thinking builds knowledge into every step of every process your people do
  • The Three Pilot Rule
    • do one easy pilot so you have a quick win
    • do a tough pilot so you learn
    • do a pilot that will make senior leadership pay attention and then sign the checks you need

Share

The post KM Opps, Realities & Challenges #KMWorld appeared first on Above and Beyond KM.



from Above and Beyond KM http://ift.tt/2fntFQn
via IFTTT

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Be Agile Not Fragile #KMWorld

KMWlogo_Stacked_Session Description: To be agile in knowledge management, and to innovate, Garfield suggests the following principles: identify three key business objectives, focus more on helping people use processes effectively, improve decisions, actions, and learning, connect people to each other so they can help each other at the time of need, implement, improve, and iterate. To avoid being fragile, steer clear of these traps: maturity models, best practices, metrics for the sake of metrics, certification, tool rollout and adoption, personality tests, corporate speak and more! Sure to spark an interesting discussion so don’t miss this session.

Speaker: Stan Garfield, Knowledge Manager, Author Implementing a Successful KM Programme; Founder, SIKM Leaders Community

[These are my notes from the KMWorld 2016 Conference. I’m publishing them as soon as possible after the end of a session, so they may contain the occasional typographical or grammatical error. Please excuse those. To the extent I’ve made any editorial comments, I’ve shown those in brackets.]

NOTES:

  • Fragile things typically are:
    • Large
    • Overly optimized — they are too smart for their own good; they are obsessed with standardization and efficiency
      • this works if everything goes according to plan
      • BUT things rarely go exactly according to plan — Randomness is the Rule (not the exception) — in the face of random errors or problems, the fragile system cannot cope with the variability
    • Brittle — they don’t have the innate ability to fend off stress
  • Fragilistas:  these are people who try to eliminate volatility.
    • Helicopter parents try to make life as safe as possible for their children but in the process they deprive their children of the ability to learn how to cope with variability and randomness.
  • How to avoid becoming a Fragilista? Avoid these behaviors
    • Maturity models and benchmarking: it’s good to learn from others but don’t try to conform to a rigid model.
      • Seth Godin: “Benchmarking against the universe actually encourages us to be mediocre, to be average, to just do what everyone else is doing.”
    • Best Practices suggest that the ideal has been achieved. Rather it’s better to look for (and then adapt for your context) “proven practices” that fit your environment.
    • Metrics for the sake of metrics — avoid tracking every random thing. Make sure there is a business reason for tracking something.
    • Certification — taking a one-week class in KM is not enough to be a KM expert. Focus on learning not on certification.
    • Tool Rollout and Adoption — don’t fixate on rolling out tools and then “driving” adoption. The better approach is to start with understanding the needs of the organization rather than finding a use for the tool you have purchased.
    • Personality Tests — each person is unique, not an oversimplified archetype. Why do we need this categorization? What is the practical use?
    • Corporate Speak — don’t use buzzwords, insider jargon, or corporate lingo. Refuse to use them —  use words and expressions that are widely understood if your intent is to communicate clearly.
    • Do as I say, not as I do — you must practice what you preach.  Your senior management must lead by example. (And the KM team must lead by example too.) People will closely observe the actions of leaders and mimic them. Therefore, model the desired behaviors.
    • Secrecy — don’t give lip service to transparency while continuing to operate in a closed manner. Communicate frequently, truthfully, and openly.
    • Mediocracy — man organizations have leaders have little (if any) talent and skill who nevertheless are dominant and highly influential. Leaders should serve their people and  treat them with respect.
  • Unfragile behaviors
    • people can’t find information
    • People are reluctant to ask for help in public
    • organizations want to push information out
  • How to Move from fragile to agile?
    • Make content easy to find
      • let users tag content to indicate “I reused this document” or “I found this document helpful”
      • figure out what documents are most important to your organization and force those to the top of the search results
    • Assist people when they ask for help
      • make it easy to figure out where to ask a question
      • train people to ask questions in community spaces
    • Use the power of pull
      • don’t force content on others
      • make your content/tool so attractive that people are eager to opt in
  • What would a “self-healing” KM system look like? (Question from Christian de Nef)
    • Simplicity
    • Mobility — easy to switch from one platform to another
    • Knowledge systems that do not rely on technology

Share

The post Be Agile Not Fragile #KMWorld appeared first on Above and Beyond KM.



from Above and Beyond KM http://ift.tt/2g3g0iD
via IFTTT