Harold Jarche

Make it relevant

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John Stepper describes his recent experiences in discussing working out loud in Berlin. The recommendations are those many of us are familiar with:

  1. Make it simple. Just changing someone’s home page can make the platform seem much more accessible. And curated suggestions of people, groups, and content relevant to a person’s division and location make the value more apparent.

  2. Start small. Create situations – such as town halls and other events – where people can find material or ask a question and feel the benefits themselves.

  3. Make it safe. Give every team a private online space to make posting seem less risky.

  4. Leverage social influence. Spend more effort on getting influential people, especially senior management, to model the behavior.

  5. Make it relevant. Provide more content and more integration with daily processes so it’s part of the daily work and not yet another thing to do.

The first four are pretty typical of any change initiative: start simple, small, safe & social. I have done this with clients, and these are usually good ways to get going, especially on limited budgets and competing priorities. I would like to focus on the fifth point: relevance. This is what makes a new change initiative become a different way of doing things all the time.

This is where KM, L&D, OD and many other projects break down. It’s also where enterprise software initiatives can fail. They are not relevant to the daily work being done because the change project never really looked at that.

working out loudThink about the term, “working out loud”. It’s what I call narration of work. The primary focus is on work. You don’t work out loud in a classroom because it’s not “work”. You don’t work out loud on stuff that isn’t really work. That’s just practice.

This is why I strongly advocate that work is learning and learning is the work. Working out loud has to be part of the work. Bolting anything on to the workflow just shows what it really is: an impediment to work. As John says, “Even getting people to simply login to a collaboration platform remains a challenge.” If the collaboration system is not also the work system, then it’s just a bolted-on appendage.

To make collaboration, and working out loud, work, the same tools must be used. This is why I am not the most popular person amongst LMS vendors, as I believe the underlying principle of learning management systems is in direct conflict with collaborative and cooperative work. Changing the way that daily work is done, how knowledge is shared, and what gets communicated, are the important things to focus on in improving knowledge work.

The criticism I hear most frequently about any learning or knowledge management project is that it lacks relevance. Maybe before starting the next major initiative, conduct a secret poll and see how many people think it’s relevant.

Friday's Finds 202

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friday2Fridays Finds:

@EskoKilpi – “Theory and practice are starting to catch up with the changes brought about by the loosely coupled, modular nature of creative work.”

@humoratwork – “Tomorrow (noun): A mythical land where 99% of all human productivity, motivation, and achievement is stored.”

@MITSMR – The CEO experience trap

Out of the 501 CEOs we looked at, 19.6% had at least one prior CEO job. Our research found that these prior CEOs performed worse than their peers without such experience. Being a prior CEO was negatively and significantly associated with three-year average post-succession return on assets.

Can Citizens Roll Back Silent Army of Watchers? – via @mgeist

It’s not just that someone might find out things about us that they have no need to know — important though that is — it’s that government and corporations intercept and analyze our data, sorting us into categories for differential treatment. Can you name your threat-risk assessment (TRA) at CSIS or your postal-code-based consumer segment? No. But those classifications can make a big difference to your actual choices and life chances.

 

Learning is the work week

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It’s Learn @ Work week in Canada. A related article in the HuffPo states that, “Simply put, a culture of learning is nothing more than workplace leaders providing opportunities for learning in a supportive environment.” Is that really it?

learning is the workFor me, it’s never “Learn @ Work” week. It’s always, “Learning is the Work” week.

Thinking of learning as something additional to work is plain wrong in a knowledge-based, creative, networked society and economy.

It is not enough for workplace leaders to merely “provide opportunities for learning”. They need to model learning themselves. But it’s not just about those in leadership positions, as networked organizations need everyone to think and learn for themselves.

Organizational resilience is strengthened when those in leadership roles let go of control, because leadership in networks does not come from above, as there is no top. Leadership is an emergent property of a network in balance and not some special property available to only the select few. As networks become the dominant organizational principle, networked learning is essential to do any work of value. A real learning organization requires leadership from everyone – an aggressively intelligent and engaged workforce, understanding that:

Why PKM?

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Have you ever tried to find something you saw recently on the Net but don’t remember where you found it? On Twitter, I mark my favourites and review them every two weeks, with the best becoming Friday’s Finds. I think of it as a short-term memory helper.

twitter favesGo back in time and think about something you researched. Can you find it now? By creating a digital copy, you can retrieve it much more easily. I used the SPATIAL model in my Master’s thesis in 1998. I wrote about it on my blog in 2008 (and then our structures shape us) and was able to find a digital copy. The author even commented on my blog post. In 2012 I used the SPATIAL model to reinforce how important the initial design of an organization is, and gave examples of what happens when you pit a good performer against a bad system.  I was able to share it again, when, in-passing, I was asked if I knew anything about educational ergonomics. I was told that, “this model is ideal for our purposes and I am thrilled to learn of it.”

Are you ever asked for help on a subject? A hot topic in our region is shale gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing. I knew nothing about it but decided to read what I could. Over the past year, I collected articles on the subject and saved them to Diigo, a social bookmarking service. I was recently asked by a friend if I knew of any resources on the subject. I only had to send him one link. I did this for myself, but was able to easily share with others.

Have you ever had to write a briefing note, white paper, or give a presentation to your colleagues? The posts on my blog are often the raw material for my professional writing. I now write blog posts as preparation for presentations. This helps me get my ideas together, in a more manageable format than a full-length paper. By making these public, I often find out about related resources, recommended by readers. I did this recently on the topic of institutional memory, with this series of blog posts that became a three-hour live presentation:

Lilia Efimova, the original inspiration for my PKM practices, has said that the main problem with personal knowledge management is that we need to take time now, in order to invest in the future. This is hard to see in advance. With a searchable knowledge base of thousands of blog posts and social bookmarks, all curated by me, I can see the value of PKM every day. It’s much more difficult when you start with a blank slate. That’s why a regular, disciplined process is the best way to start. As Jane Hart shows, if you take 10 minutes a day to learn something new, that’s about 50 hours after one year.

Barriers to Knowledge Work

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If sense-making is a key part of knowledge work and is also essential for both innovation and creativity, does the average workplace help or hinder sense-making? I noted before that seeking works best with a playful attitude, exploring new possibilities in diverse networks with many connections in order to enhance serendipity. Sense-making, the most difficult aspect, requires a willingness to try new things, empowering through learning. Sharing is necessary in almost all work contexts today and it is through sharing that we can inspire and be inspired.

Barriers to seeking playfully

Jobs:

Jobs are designed around work that can be copied and workers who can be replaced, but anything that can be reduced to a flowchart will be automated. Relying on the job as society’s main wealth-sharing mechanism is a major mistake in the network era, but one that politicians and many others continue to make. We are entering a post-job economy.

Project Management:

Executives may believe that they want insights and innovations but are most receptive to new ideas that fit with existing practices and maintain predictability [e.g. project plans]. Business organizations treat disruptive insights and innovation with suspicion. – Gary Klein in Seeing What Others Don’t

Barriers to empowered learning

Designated learning & development specialists:

Staff who carry out day-to-day duties—and whose productivity you’re looking to improve—should ultimately be the source for defining what knowledge they need and what knowledge they know is valuable to others. – BloombergBusinessWeek

Training as a separate activity

As work becomes more networked and complex, the social aspects of knowledge sharing and collaboration are becoming more important. Learning amongst ourselves is getting to be the real work in many organizations. – The New Challenge for Learning Professionals: (PDF)

Barriers to inspiration through sharing

Individual performance measurement:

Performance appraisals are like academic grades and keep the focus on the individual. In the collaborative, social enterprise this is counter-productive. There is no place for this practice in doing net work. In today’s enterprise, work is learning and learning is the work, and it has to be done cooperatively.

Enterprise software:

When it comes to knowledge, and learning, only open systems are effective. All closed systems will fail over time, especially if discovery and innovation are happening outside that system.

Doing the right thing

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Here is a letter I wrote to the local newspaper, which was published today. I think it has broader application, so I’ve posted it, with additional links and photos.

Doing the right thing

It’s easy to do things right. Today, machines and software can be designed to do things right. But in complex, human relationships, it’s better, and more difficult, to do the right thing. Even with modern technology, machines cannot be programmed, nor laws written, to ensure that we always do the right thing.

Town Council and the Tantramar Planning Commission did things right by enforcing by-laws and revoking the patio licence for the Black Duck Coffee House this week. However, they did not do the right thing.Sarah and Al by DeeSquaredSarah & Al, BDCH owners: Photo by DeeSquared

The right thing would have been subtle and nuanced. It would have considered that the owners, in less than one year, have purchased their coffee cups from a local potter, bought only local produce, hired a stone mason, as well as carpenters, labourers, and baristas, all the while injecting money into the local economy. The right thing would have been to understand the influence that one small café has had in bringing together people and attracting many others from out of town. The right thing would have been to see that the Black Duck Coffee House is a signal of potential economic growth for Sackville, bringing new people and new ideas to a town in desperate need of them. The right thing would have been a human, not a mechanical response. The right thing would have involved many conversations.

I ask our public servants and those who represent us to try to do the right thing. It may be difficult, complex, multi-faceted, and even fuzzy. But doing the right thing is something only people can do.

black duck coffee house doorNote: After all the positive feedback from the community [above], the coffee house will re-open on 30 September, after some renovations.

Seeing What Others Don’t – Review

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Following Gary Klein on his search to find out how insight happens is a pleasurable, even mind-blowing experience. In Seeing What Others Don’t, Klein begins with an open mind and decides that he needs to stay out of the laboratory of puzzle-solving, described in the chapter on how not to search for insights. His perspective is based on what has been my professional practice for almost two decades: performance improvement. Klein says that PI is a combination of reducing errors & uncertainty PLUS increasing insights. Too often in organizations, management only focuses on reducing errors. Klein cites the overemphasis on practices like Six Sigma over the past 30 years as being detrimental to overall innovation; “Six Sigma shouldn’t be abandoned, it needs to be corralled.”

performance improvement klein

In examining 120 cases, Klein found that there are three main paths that insight can follow. [My overview lacks the depth of Klein’s explanations, so please read the book if you really want to understand this.] Klein’s Triple Path Model neatly describes the phenomena of gaining insights. I find the connection path the most interesting because I think it can be enhanced through practices like personal knowledge mastery. Also interesting is that gaining insight is about changing one’s stories. We have stories that we use to explain why we do things. These can be good anchors that give us the right perspective on a situation or they can weigh us down and stop us from gaining insight. For example, the prevailing theory of miasma stopped researchers from seeing that cholera was waterborne or that yellow fever was mosquito borne. It was when some people paid attention to the contradictions, that they gained insight. Once you have insight, that’s it. Klein quotes the author Hilary Mantel; “Insight cannot be taken back. You cannot return to the moment you were in before.” Which of course can make those with new insights seem like such a bother to the status quo.

triple path model kleinKlein has some advice on how “to strengthen the up arrow”, or improve insight. He sees stories as a strong way of sharing insight. Loosening the filters through which information and knowledge pass in the organization is another suggestion. I’d call that democracy. He also says that organizations need to increase their willpower to act on insight. This takes a shift in the corporate mind-set.

Klein counters some of the contemporary perceptions around insight in the research community.

The heuristics-and-biases community has provided us with a stream of studies showing how our mental habits can be used against us and make us look stupid and irrational. They don’t offer a balanced set of studies of how these habits enable us to make more discoveries.

I see the examples in this book as a collective celebration of our capacity for gaining insights, a corrective to the gloomy picture offered by the heuristics-and-biases community. Insights help us escape the confinements of perfection, which traps us in a compulsion to avoid errors and in a fixation on the original plan or vision.

I strongly recommend Seeing What Others Don’t, which provides new perspectives for a wide range of disciplines and practices. Finally, one of the best features of this book is the Story Index, making each one easy to find, even in the paper copy.

You can read more about the ideas in this book on Gary Klein’s blog posts at Psychology Today [thanks to Kenneth Mikkelsen for the tip].

Working the Past – Review

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Maintaining a useable past takes work. It is as much work as maintaining a useable building, though very different work, using very different tools. The work of this book has been to demonstrate the existence and nature of this work – mundane, daily, and utterly essential to any group that considers it has an identity.

So concludes Charlotte Linde in Working the Past: Narrative and Institutional Memory. This book is based on a study of institutional memory at a US-based insurance company. However, it is written by a researcher who has delved deep into the subject, so it is much more than just an anecdotal study.

There are important patterns both in the ways stories are reproduced and the ways they are changed, and the patterns observed in an insurance company can inform us about the ways in which very different collectivities work their past.

I have become professionally interested in institutional memory, story-telling and decision memory, as well as how these are connected to knowledge management and how knowledge-sharing frameworks can be developed. Institutional memory becomes very important when organizations are going through significant change, such as changing market conditions or major growth.

… we came to MidWest at a time of change … we had a brief opportunity to see the earlier form of organization before the changes … times of change are rich in occasions when the past is invoked. The past is used to reaffirm a sense of identity, to provide a ground from which to assess the effect and meaning of changes, and to provide a basis for critique of changes … And as people talk about change, they tell stories about this past to understand the present and predict the future.

In this book I learned about the importance of “occasions” in sharing institutional memory. “Without the occasion, the story rarely or never gets told”; Linde writes. Later, she concludes; “A story not having a proper occasion on which it can or must be told exists in an archive if it exists at all. An institution not having a range of occasions for telling stories is not likely to be working its past very hard.” My own experience in the military reflects many different occasions, from formal to very relaxed, in which to share stories.

While any company’s institutional memory should be what Linde refers to as an open canon, or one that has new stories added over time, there is still a place for an official version of certain stories. An example is the first authorized history of MidWest, published in 1955 and still printed for internal use. Linde at first wondered if the book was more for show than use.

I began to wonder whether the book was displayed as a talisman of loyalty or whether it really was read. When I mused on this question to a district manager I had come to know, she assured me that she used it all the time. I asked what she used it for. Her answer was that she “mined it for stories” for speeches, since she had come to the company relatively recently, and that she didn’t know the history “by blood”, that is, she did not come from a MidWest family, and had joined MidWest in the middle of her career.

working the past - lindeThe book is comprehensive in both its treatment of the situation at MidWest and its delving into the foundational concepts of institutional memory. There is a chapter on “paradigmatic narrative”, another on telling one’s story within a textual community, and one dedicated to “noisy silences” or stories that are not told. This book is for those who want to dig deep into what institutional memory is about and the many ways it can be supported. While written more for sociologists, there is much here for any large organization and those working in knowledge management, narrative, or storytelling.

 

 

 

Friday's Finds 201

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friday2Friday’s Finds:

“Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.” — Alfred Adler – via @goonth

@ShawnCallahan: “Our memories evolved to hunt, gather & avoid danger. Now we have great memories for places, faces & emotions. Why stories are memorable.”

Tomorrow’s Products & Companies Will Live Or Die By Their Stories:

As I’ve said before, storytelling is perhaps the most important skill a 21st century business can develop. This is certainly the case with marketing — stories build deep relationships with audiences in ways advertisements don’t and coupons nigh can’t. But it’s also the case with product.

That’s because today people don’t want a drill — or a t-shirt or carton of eggs or television set — they want to know where that drill came from, how it came about, and what the drill-maker is going to do with the money they’re about to pay it.

Not all people, of course, but increasing numbers of them.

Knowledge Management is not mere dissemination:

KM should be conceived less as a purely technical information-based area and more as a communication and behaviour-change area, because putting knowledge to practical use needs a certain degree of behaviour change on both sides. Knowledge producers need to package the product in a way that can be easily applied, [e.g. PKM & Curating] while the users need to be “persuaded” to conceive knowledge as a practical tool that can be applied in their field. In other words, KM should close the gap between the theoretical and conceptual constructs and the practical applications.

WaPo: “Are GMAT scores inversely related to entrepreneurship?” – via @ChrisFinley

A study in the Journal of Business Ethics [$40] makes the surprising finding that high GMAT scores may be correlated to some of the negative traits of American business: lack of ethical orientation, male domination of executive ranks, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism. What’s more, GMAT scores may be inversely correlated with entrepreneurship.

Discerning with whom and when to share

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Nick Milton talks about why knowledge does not get “re-used” very easily. Even if knowledge is captured it is not always used by others and Nick cites several blockers:

  • the knowledge was not to hand when they needed it

  • they had no time to go looking for the knowledge

  • they may not trust the provenance of the knowledge

  • the knowledge did not solve an immediate pain, but was more of a long term benefit (see blog post on why some ideas spread and others don’t).

  • they could get away with doing things the way they had always done, even though the new way was better.

In the PKM framework of Seeking, Sensing & Sharing, the latter may seem easy but it does not always equate to other people finding the knowledge artifacts that you have created while seeking & sense-making. For example, I can quickly find something on my blog in the thousands of posts here, that would take someone else much longer. I have the contextual memory of having created each post. This is why it’s also important to incorporate what I call the discern component of sharing.

Seek > Sense > Share

Since it is easier for me to find something I have created, then I should be open to opportunities to share, in order to optimize knowledge management in my workplace. My knowledge artifacts are almost always more “at hand” to me than to others. This is why PKM practices are so important in organizational knowledge management, but are often overlooked. So far, only humans are good at recognizing all the contextual signals in the workplace, making implicit connections, and then identifying something that might be useful to share.

One example of discernment is in “closing triangles“. This is when one person introduces two unknown associates to each other, thus closing the triangle. Discerning when to do this is also important. It would not make sense to make professional introductions as one person is going on a long vacation or when the other is extremely busy with an unrelated project. Sensing the right time and place to make connections is important in network weaving. It’s the same with sharing knowledge.

Integrating PKM practices with organizational knowledge management can help knowledge to flow better and not remain knowledge stock in some database. This takes time, practice, and a good sense of what others are doing. Discernment, like PKM,  requires mindfulness.