Building smarter organizations KM@KSU Webinars #smartorg @dynamicadaptatn Gordon Vala-Webb February 2013.

Building smarter organizations

KM@KSU Webinars

#smartorg@dynamicadaptatn

Gordon Vala-Webb

February 2013

www.Dynamic Adaptation.com

Our agenda

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Our agenda

1. Introductions

2.Why we need smarter organizations

3.What has been the response so far

4.Why are our organizations dumb?

5.What we can do about it

6.If we get it right

7.Questions

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Introductions

1Slide 4


Introductions

Who are you?

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Who is me?

Advice / teachingDynamic Adaptation

Previously KM Director:• PwC Canada• Gov’t agency

Global lead (design / value) PwC social network

15 years in public sector

No profit :(Non-profit

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Why we need smarter organizations (Drucker, Dilbert and Debs)

2Slide 7


Drucker

“Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done”

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The Dilbert index . . . most workers could not care less about their work

71%Of American workers are

"not engaged" or "actively disengaged“

in their work

Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/150383/majority-american-workers-not-engaged-jobs.aspx

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www.Dynamic Adaptation.com Slide 10

Sickness absence, presenteeism and labour turnover costs the UK economy yearly

What would Debs think?

£26bnSource: UK Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jul/15/happiness-work-why-counts


A comparisonLarge

organizations

?

?

?

?

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Sheep

Slow

Follow the flock

Not fun

Can’t fly


Meanwhile the “new” world puts new demands on our organizations

New world

Complex

Discontinuity

Ambiguous

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Old world

Stable

Repeatable processes

Authoritative knowledge

Adapted from Kent Greenes, “Knowledge Leadership, KMWorld 2011


The pressure is mounting

. . .Global hyper-competition

. . .Power shifting from West to East. . .Slow growth. . .Youth unemployment. . .Public sector fiscal crises

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The result, in the most extreme cases, extinction!

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Image source http://stevedenning.typepad.com/steve_denning/2011/01/is-the-problem-with-capitalism-that-people-try-to-fix-it.html

http://stevedenning.typepad.com/steve_denning/2011/01/is-the-problem-with-capitalism-that-people-try-to-fix-it.html

http://stevedenning.typepad.com/steve_denning/2011/01/is-the-problem-with-capitalism-that-people-try-to-fix-it.html


What has been the response so far?

3Slide 15


The response so far . . . Belt tightening

Exhortations “do more with less”Cost control / layoffsBusiness process re-engineeringMergers / acquisitionsOffshoringMore to come:. . . cloud, remote working

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Why are our organizations dumb?

4Slide 17


With each doubling of city population, each inhabitant is, on average, 15 percent wealthier, 15 percent more productive, 15 percent more innovative, and 15 percent more likely to be victimized by violent crime

For cities, bigger is better

Slide 18Source: http://www.pnas.org/content/104/17/7301.full


Larger size: cities versus companies

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Power rules – city versus companiesSource: http://kallokain.blogspot.ca/2012/11/why-cities-live-and-companies-die.html

Cities – get smarter Companies

- don’t or get less smart


In companies with over 1,000 employees, the average productivity of an employee drops by more than ¼ for each order-of-magnitude increase

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For organizations size matters - but not in a good way

Source: http://www.cybaea.net/Blogs/Data/Employee-productivity-as-function-of-number-of-workers-revisited.html


Work has been getting “smarter”

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Source: http://cdn.dupress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-01-at-9.20.13-PM.png?2b7236


And now makes up 41% (and growing) of jobs

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https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Preparing_for_a_new_era_of_knowledge_work_3034?srid=520


Three reasons

1) The Maze-trix

2) Mind the gap

3) Old think

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Big Cheese

2nd Level Cheese

2nd Level Cheese

2nd Level Cheese

Assistant

1) The maze-trix: boundaries increase efficiency within a unit but make co-ordinating across difficult

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1) The maze-trix example: approving a contract change request at an aerospace company

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Source: http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-focused-company.aspx

http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-focused-company.aspx




1) The maze-trix: symptoms

•Exponential growth of decision intersection points

•Unclear reporting lines

•Meeting overload

•Email overload

•Slow information flows

•Lack of “complete picture”

•Decision paralysis

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We need to schedule a meeting

To plan for the meeting

To discuss why we have so many meetings

http://www.zazzle.ca/i_need_to_schedule_a_meetingto_plan_the_meeting_mug-168219332576188320





2) Mind the gap: Bigger = bureaucratic mgmt.= less engaged /high performing staff

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Complexity

% of highly engaged /performing staff

Mgmt& rules

Adapted from: “Netflix Culture” http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664#text-version


2) Mind the gap: symptoms

•Increasing bureaucracy and formality•Inefficient internal processes•Decrease in % of high performers• Decrease in % of engaged or highly

engaged staff•Over-engineering•Wait times

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3) Old think versus new think

New think

Integrative culture

Feeling animals

Internal reward

Connected

Brain is plastic

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Old think

Control culture

Thinking animals

External reward

Selfish

Brain is fixed


3) Old think: hierarchy is in our corporate blood

“U.S. corporations are historically imprinted with a hierarchical

model—you develop something at headquarters, you scale it, and

then you diffuse it.”Rakesh Khurana

Harvard Business School

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http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00164?pg=all




3) “Old think”: symptoms

Leadership by command and broadcast

“SMART” performance goals

Monetary rewards

Fault-finding

Low trust levels

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http://c15056394.r94.cf2.rackcdn.com/MITSMR-Deloitte-Social-Business-What-Are-Companies-Really-Doing-Spring-2012.pdf





What we can do about it

5Slide 32


It can be done . . .

“less than 30% of the top banks we studied were able to improve their efficiency while maintaining healthy growth”

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Source: http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/?p=6500

http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/?p=6500




Three approaches

1) Leadership renewal

2) A new organizational bicycle

3) Simplicity

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1) Leadership renewal

Concentration of power equals abuse of power . . Such concentrations are blood clots

in the circulatory system of society. . . The circulation of

wealth, resources, and, especially, ideas, is blocked.

In a healthy system, information flows are

unimpeded by clots of power or the sclerosis of hierarchy.

Philip Slater, The Chrysalis Effect

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1) Leadership renewal: “The fish rots from the head down”

•Reject the “control” culture

•Establish shared goals

•Connect through conversation

•Embrace emergence

•Transparency in decision making

•Build trust

•Learn to use social media

•Authentic selves (Empathy versus egotism)

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“The soft stuff is the hard stuff” Jack Welch


2) A new organizational bicycle

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“A bicycle makes man the most efficient mover on the earth.A computer is a bicycle for our mind.” Wilson Miner


Emailed Knowledge

2) New bicycle

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2) New bicycle: First we kill all the emails

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. . . information, ideas and questions become isolated - they only go to the people who received the message

. . . trying to have a conversation is really hard

. . . it becomes a guessing game when working on a document together (“who made what changes to which version?”)

. . . the information disappears over time so that anyone joining the conversation late has a hard time coming up to speed

With social networking . .With emails . . .

Source: http://www.pwc.com.ar/es_AR/ar/publicaciones-por-industria/assets/transforming-collaboration-with-social-tools.pdf


2) New bicycle: Enhancing knowledge flows

Non-social SocialClosed (one to few) Open (many to many)Push Pull (subscription)Inside OutsideEphemeral PersistentBroadcast User-generated

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“We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.”Marshall McLuhan


2) New bicycle: Flows across boundaries

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Outside

Near-side

Inside


2) New bicycle: Some issues

42

Reputation

Security

Intellectualpropertyleakage

Regulatoryrequirements

Recordsmanagement

Privacy /Confidentiality

Lost productivity

$


3) Simplicity: Not that simple

Manage down the complexity:

•Products

•Processes

•Organizational capabilities

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If we get it right . . .

6Slide 44


If we get it wrong . . . extinction!

“It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent,

but the one most responsive to change.”

Charles Darwin

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Slide 46Source: http://www.slideshare.net/dhinchcliffe/enterprise-20-summit-2012-closing-keynote



“By fully implementing social technologies, companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of interaction workers—high-skill knowledge workers, including managers and professionals—by 20 to 25 percent.” McKinsey Global Institute, July 2012

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Google’s share price

An IBM study of 1,700 worldwide CEOs found that companies who outperform their peers are 30% more likely to identify openness – often characterized by the greater use of social tools – as a key influence on their organization.


Questions?

7Slide 48


Questions? Comments?

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Thank you . . .

Gordon (at)

DynamicAdaptation.com

www.DynamicAdaptation.com

Twitter: @dynamicadaptatn

416-565-3217

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This publication has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only, and does not constitute professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication, and, to the extent permitted by law, Gordon Vala-Webb and Dynamic Adaptation does not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to act, in reliance on the information contained in this publication or for any decision based on it.

© 2013 Gordon Vala-Webb. All rights reserved.

http://www.dynamicadaptation.com/

Building smarter organizations KM@KSU Webinars #smartorg @dynamicadaptatn Gordon Vala-Webb February 2013.

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