New Ways for Collaborating & Learning in Organizations Hala Annabi Brazil Executive Seminar c Annabi 2012.
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c Annabi 2012
New Ways for Collaborating & Learning in Organizations
Hala AnnabiBrazil Executive Seminar
c Annabi 2012
Agenda
Introduction
Organizations Today
Organizational Learning
Collaboration Systems
Case Study: Parson Brinckerhoff
Background
BS in Bus/MISMBA
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Jordan
Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology
Professional Experience
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Academic
Consultant
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Making the Best of this Session
Ask questions
Provide opinions
Challenge one another
Stay focused on task
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New Ways for Collaborating & Learning in Organizations
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Organizations Today
How do organizations look today? What are their benefits?What are their challenges?
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Distributed/Virtual Organizations
Organizations whose members and resources may be geographically dispersed but function as a coherent unit though the use of information
and communication technology
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Virtual/Distributed Organizations
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What are the benefits of distributed organizations?
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Distributed Organizations: Drivers and Benefits
Changing employee values• Telecommuting• Quick restructuring of groups
Need for cost reduction• Lower Labor and operating costs• Ability to exploit time-zone differences to allow work to proceed around the
clock• Closer to raw materials
Globalization• Presence in Global markets• Closer to markets and suppliers
Need for specific expertise• Access to larger pool of experts
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What are the challenges facing distributed organizations?
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Distributed Organizations: Challenges
Lack of a common organizational setting
Difficulty to interpret
Lack of knowledge about other members
Members may not know who the experts are
Languages and cultural differences
Negative effect on organizational learning and knowledge management
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The challenges facing distributed organizations negatively affect Organizational Learning
But…. Organizational learning is a CORE competency for business
success
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BUT…What’s Organizational Learning?
Why do we care about it?
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Organizational Learning
What do we mean by learning in Organizations?
Who learns in organizations?
What is being Learned?
When does learning take place?
How does learning occur?
Why is organizational learning important?
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Organizational Learning Organizational learning is the process by which an organization integrates the knowledge of individual members into its rules, procedures, norms and culture.
Knowledge-base view: the firm as the means to integrate individual members’ knowledge into the firm’s activities and products
Learning is a core competency!
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Who is learning?Individual
Group
Organization
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What is being learned?
Rules and standard operating procedures
Decisions reached
Cognitive and behavioral changes
Innovation
Organizational knowledge
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When does learning take place?
Slack in resources (Cyert & March, 1963; Duncan & Weiss, 1979)
Stress or tension (Cangelosi & Dill, 1965; M. C. Fiol & Lyles, 1985)
Error or mismatch of expectations (Argyris & Schön, 1978; Levitt & March, 1988)
Innovation (Annabi, 2005)
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What results does learning yield?
Improved performance
• better adaptation and alignment to the environment (Cyert & March, 1963; Duncan & Weiss, 1979; M. C. Fiol & Lyles, 1985; Levitt & March, 1988)
• reduction of stress (Cangelosi & Dill, 1965)
• better range of action strategies of potential behaviors (Argyris & Schön, 1978; Huber, 1991)
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Does all Learning Lead to Improvement?
Ineffective behaviors
Espoused theories vs. theories in use
Liability
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Individual process
Group process
Organizational process
How does learning take place?
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Why Organizational Learning? Adapting to the environment
Avoiding stability traps and Rethinking means and ends
Experimenting
Correcting for error
Innovating
Realizing human potential for learning in the service of organizational purposes
Creating organizational settings as contexts for human development
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Summary- Organizational Learning
What does Organizational Learning mean?
• Organization learning is the process by which an organization integrates the knowledge of individual members into its rules, procedures, norms and culture.
Who is learning?
• Individuals, groups, and organizations
What is being learned?
• Rules, procedures, practices, shared understanding, norms, and culture
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Summary- Organizational Learning
When does learning take place?
• Should be continuous; a way of being
What results does learning yield?
• New ways of thinking and practicing
How does learning take place?
• Process of interaction, sharing knowledge between individuals, groups, and organization
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If Learning is about Integration…
Distributed Organizations face challenges coordinating and integrating knowledge sources due to difficulties in:
• Identifying sources of knowledge• Connecting disparate sources of knowledge• Protecting against knowledge loss• Applying knowledge towards business ends
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How do you facilitate organizational learning in Distributed Organizations?
Identifying sources of knowledgeConnecting disparate sources of knowledgeProtecting against knowledge lossApplying knowledge towards business ends
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Businesses Turn to Information Technology
To connect and integrate the distributed organization business use Collaboration Systems..
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Collaboration Systems at Work
What are they?How do they help traditional and nontraditional distributed organizations overcome the challenges?
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What is a Collaboration System?
applications that enable the sharing and flow of information between different members of the distributed organization to support collaboration within and across businesses.
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Collaboration Systems include:
Content management systems
Workflow management systems
Groupware systems
Peer-to-peer systems
Knowledge management systems
Social media
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Use of Collaboration Systems
Identify uses from your readings or experience that address the following
• Identifying sources of knowledge• Connecting disparate sources of knowledge• Protecting against knowledge loss• Applying knowledge towards business ends
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Examples of Uses of Collaboration Systems
• SelectMinds – DeloitteIdentifying sources of knowledge
• Beehive – IBM
Connecting disparate sources of knowledge
• Intelpedia – IntelProtecting
against knowledge loss
• Wikicentral –IBM patent policy
Applying knowledge
towards business ends
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Are collaboration systems really helpful?
ORDo collaboration systems do
more harm than good?
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Break
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Parson Brinkerhoff Practice Area Networks (PANs)
Part IPB History and Structure
PANs History and StructureKnowledge Exchange at PB
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History and Structure of PB
• 125 Year Old Firm Barclay Parsons & Klapp• Over 12,000 Employees in over 200 Offices in 72
countries• Accelerated Growth in the 90’sProject-Based
Entrepreneurial Business Model• Growth Through Project wins and Acquisition
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Geographic Distribution: North America
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Geographic Distribution: Europe
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Geographic Distribution: Middle East
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Geographic Distribution: Asia
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Geographic Distribution: Australia/New Zealand
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PB Growth Prompted the Growth of Practice Area Networks
Practice Area Networks are an example of Communities of Practice
What are Communities of Practice?What are their Benefits?What are their challenges?
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Communities of Practice (CoP)
“groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and want to deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis" (Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder, 2002)
CoP add value for organizations, primarily by connecting isolated and distributed pockets of expertise in knowledge
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• Practice Area Network = PAN• PANs Created in 1994• Leadership: Voluntary• Membership: Voluntary
History and Structure of PB Communities of Practice
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Benefits and Limitations of CoP/PAN
Facilitate knowledge exchange between individuals by connecting isolated and distributed pockets of expertise
Minimize the possibility of knowledge loss due to employee attrition
Limitation of CoP: not considered in relation to business objectives and knowledge stays within single CoP’s
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Knowledge Exchange at PB
PAN Requestor
PAN Coordinator
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Knowledge Exchange at PB
Broadcast Request to PAN Members Around the Globe
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Knowledge Exchange at PB
Responses Routed through Coordinator to Requestor
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There were instances of…
Contributions to Business Objectives
• Human Resources • Knowledge exchange across PANs• Knowledge repository • Global integration• Increase efficiency• Business development• Innovation • Disseminate cutting edge knowledge
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PART IHow to Harness the Power of CoPs for Business Objectives?
CoPs have been used to help manage knowledge in organizations…
• Focus on knowledge exchange between individuals • Knowledge resides within single CoP- not across• Limited integration
Issues
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How to Best Harness the PANs for Business Objectives?
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How to Best Harness the PANs for Business Objectives?
Align PANs to business strategy
Create Proper alignments between the PANs
Design each PAN to fit its specific objectives and disciplinary nature
Empower PANs
Prepare and empower PAN leadership
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Align PANs with Organizational Strategy• Determine where PANs reside within organizational
structure• Determine the role/roles of the PANs in contributing to
strategy• Communicate the roles of PANs • Provide management support
Business Development• Land Use Resource Center 1999• Facilitators
– PAN Initiative– Support
Leadership
Blogs on
Strategy
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Create Proper Alignments between the PANs
• Align PANs - related objectives and focus• Facilitate interactions across PANs- creative
collaborations
Knowledge Exchange across PANs & HR:• Transfer from IT PAN to CADD PAN to Project
Administration PAN• Facilitator– Alignment with CIO– Collaboration between PANS– OPP support
Internal social network, blogs and RSS Feed
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PAN Informal Collaboration
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Design PANs for Specific Objectives and Disciplinary Nature
• Diverse expertise and activities within PB• Design to fit various roles
Global Integration• Interdisciplinary and far reaching topics
(e.g. Environmental Planning)• Transferring advanced practice around the
globe• Facilitators– Supportive culture– Individual willingness mashups
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Empower PANs• Create supportive structure– Resources– Reward Systems– Authority and capabilities– Flexible tools
Increased Efficiency • Create a central processing for software
purchases• Facilitators– Collaboration with corporate – Initiative of PAN leadership– Supportive culture
RSS FeedRecognition System
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Prepare and Empower PAN Leadership• Articulate the Role of PAN leadership• Time allocation• Training and support
Innovation: PB CommentSense • Created New tool• Facilitators– Initiative– Awareness of PAN members’ needs– OPP support
Wiki
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How do you Align the uses of CS to Business Objectives Consistently?
Take Away
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The Learning Organization
• Move from organizational learning to the learning organization
• A system approach• Align all organizational learning and
knowledge management efforts to business strategy
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How to Harness the Power of CoP’s for Business Objectives?
Align CoPs to organizational strategy
Design each CoP to fit its specific objectives and disciplinary nature
Create Proper alignments between the CoPs
Empower CoPs
Prepare and empower CoPs leadership
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Questions and Discussion
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Additional Readings• The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the
Learning Organization. By Senge, Peter M., Doubleday/Currency, 1990.
• Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. By Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William Snyder, Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
• Grant, R.M. “Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm,” Strategic Management Journal (17), Winter Special Issue, 1996, pp. 109-122
• 15 Free Enterprise Collaboration Tools• http://www.cio.com/article/598122/15_Free_Enterpri
se_Collaboration_Tools?page=1#slideshow
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