Leveraging Capabilities to become a Learning Organisation

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Sharpening the Winning Edge: Leveraging Knowledge to Become A Learning Organization ASHWANI

BHARDWAJ G RAVITEJA ASHWANI TYAGI AARUNI FAUZDAR

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Agenda

What are Learning Organizations? Culture of Learning Vs Learning to

build Culture How does “knowledge” help ? Survey`s Findings. CASE STUDY ROADMAP CONCLUSUON

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A Learning Organization

“Organization where people continually expand their capacity to create the result they trully desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how learn together” –Peter Senge

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The Learning Organization

Encourages Continuous Learning Promotes Access to Learning Maximizes Information Sharing Increases Flexible Access to Training Works Efficiently Using Interactive

Relationships Sees the Big Picture Shares a Common Vision

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Tacit versus Explicit Knowledge

Characteristic Tacit Explicit

Nature Personal, context specific Can be codified and explicated

Formalization Difficult to formalize, record, encode, or articulate Can be codified and transmitted in a systematic and formal language

Development process Trial and error encountered in practice Explication of tacit understanding and interpretation of information

Location People’s mind Documents, databases, web pages, e-mails, charts, etc.

Conversion process Converted to explicit through externalization that is often driven by metaphors and analogy

Converted back to tacit through understanding and absorption

IT support Hard to manage, share, or support with IT Well supported by existing IT

Medium needed Needs a rich communication medium Can be transferred through conventional electronic channel

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Why people do not share what they know?Causes Cultural Rewards

Knowledge hoarding is considered a source of job security

Fear of not getting credit and suspicion

Loss of ownership of expertise

Fear of making mistakes

Lack of comprehension of value of possessed knowledge

Lack of knowledge sharing mechanisms

Lack of time to share insights, knowledge, “war stories” and experiences

Unwillingness to use existing technology to share knowledge

Solutions

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The Self-Design Strategy

Laying the Foundation

AcquiringKnowledge

Diagnosing

Designing

Implementingand

Assessing

Valuing

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Organization Learning: An Integrative Framework

OrganizationCharacteristics

StructureInformation SystemsHR PracticesCultureLeadership

OrganizationLearning Processes

DiscoveryInventionProductionGeneralization

OrganizationKnowledge

TacitExplicit

CompetitiveStrategy

OrganizationPerformance

Knowledge ManagementOrganization Learning

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Stage 1

Getting

Started

Stage 2

Explore and

Experiment

Stage 3

Pilots and KM

Initiatives

Stage 4

Expand and

Support

Stage 5

Institutionalize KM

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KM Benefits

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Shift from Instructor-Led Training to eLearning

(IDC, 2001)

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KM: Dimensions

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Individual Dimension

Give individuals the time to learn. See the distribution of work from the lens of development and

learning. Do not ask simply, Who can get the job done? Ask Who can get the job done and learn along the way?

Assess performance with a view to learning and development too – Ask both What has the individual done? and What has the individual learned? Give weight to both in any formal or informal assessment.

Select and develop for competencies that support a learning organization – active listening, mentoring, coaching, etc, and focus management and leadership development accordingly.

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Give managers the time to function as learning coaches.

Create incentives and rewards for individual learning.

Create incentives and rewards for managers as learning coaches.

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• Support diversity of viewpoints (challenge the accepted wisdom – inform strategy with debate). • Encourage dialogue as a standard for group conversations and deliberations. • Focus on building a learning culture within teams, especially the executive team.

TEAM DIMENSION

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Get senior executives to embrace the ideal of a learning organization.

See learning as connected to the strategic future of the organization: Where do we have to be in five years and how do we have to develop people now to get there?

Ask What does the organization need to know that it does not know? What are its areas of crucial ignorance? Note, these areas of ignorance could include itself. It is unwise to assume that organization is self-aware.

See such processes as strategic planning, environment scanning, foresighting, and organizational culture assessment as learning processes. Distribute the knowledge across the organization so that individuals and teams can learn about the organization

TEAM DIMENSION

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Review the organizational culture particularly with a view to describing its learning capacity, focusing on individuals, groups, and the organization itself – an organizational learning diagnostic. Share it across the organization so that individuals and teams can learn.

Focus on the learning culture of the executive team. Develop executives to exemplify the desired learning culture. Give executives the time to learn. Reward executives who learn and who promote learning. Prepare a strategy for building the learning organization and

see its implementation as an exercise in change leadership and organizational learning.

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Key Learning

All types of cultures can be leveraged for learning

Stage in the organizational life determines culture and learning

Doing cultures succeed in the short run

Learning cultures last in the long run

Learning is yet to be a ‘structured’ as a business driver

Business case for learning is yet to be powerfully built by L&D / HR

Bandwagon mindset dilutes the case for serious learning programs

Learning and Doing feed on each other.

Culture must fit learning objectives, else it can hinder

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Culture of Learning Vs Learning for Culture

Organizations are usually caught between

the two : You need a supportive culture to encourage

learning

You need a learning orientation to create a culture

Successful leaders find a way to break this vicious

cycle

Learning is useless without doing. Doing well is impossible without effective learning

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Stimulate Learning

Horizon award scheme- Increase of prize money

Encouraging young executives to pursue certified course in project management by reducing eligibility from 7 to 5 years.

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Shared Vision evolves

Shared visions

Personal 1

Personal 3

Personal 2

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CASE STUDY

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TATA STEEL

“Tata Steel enters the new millennium with the confidence of learning and knowledge based organization…..”

Head Knowledge Management, Tata Steel.

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Stakeholders in KM at TATA Steel

Senior Management Officers Employees (Supervisors & Workmen) Customers Suppliers Experts (In & outside company)

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Knowledge Transfer at TATA Steel

Opportunity of knowledge transfer Day-to-day operation Learning from failure Published Papers by employees (National and

International publications) Task Force/Consultant/Technical Groups Engineering Project Knowledge Sharing across the value chain. Knowledge generated through Suggestions,

Small Group Activity, etc.

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Knowledge Transfer at TATA Steel

Instruments of Knowledge Transfer Knowledge Contribution by an individual Ask Author Ask Expert Knowledge Usage Communities of Practice Content Management Involving shop-floor employees in KM

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AWARDS & ACCOLADES

TATA STEEL- Winner of MAKE ASIA 2003 AWARD

TATA STEEL- Winner of MAKE ASIA 2004 Award

TATA STEEL- Winner of the first Indian MAKE Award, 2005

TATA STEEL- Ranked as no.1 in 2006,Indian MAKE Survey

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ROAD MAP FOR NTPC

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NTPC’s Knowledge Management imperatives are derived from its Strategic Objectives and HR vision of becoming a “Learning Organization”

Why Knowledge Management for NTPC

Strategic Objectives Knowledge Management Imperatives

Plan and expeditiously implement power

projects


projects

Operate power stations economically

and efficiently


and efficiently

Diversify and grow into new areas


Improve engineering and project construction lead time past knowledge and experience

Improve engineering and project construction lead time past knowledge and experience

Reduce operations and maintenance costs and improve work practices by sharing ideas

Reduce operations and maintenance costs and improve work practices by sharing ideas

Capture external knowledge and leverage experiential knowledge for commercial purposes

Capture external knowledge and leverage experiential knowledge for commercial purposes

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NTPC has accumulated a VAST KNOWLEDGE BASE across all its value chain elements…

CollectionPower

GenerationNew Capacity

CreationEngineering Planning

• Government liaison

• Strategy Formulation

• Annual plans• New business

development

• Feasibility reports• Plant configuration

design System engineering

• Quality control• Technical

evaluation of vendors

• Project planning• Project execution• Project

commissioning

• Operations and dispatch

• Maintenance • Procurement• Inventory

management

• Billing and collection

• Tariff setting and filing

• Explicit and tacit stakeholder requirements

• Regulatory requirements

• Cost engineering for feasibility reports

• Product specifications

• Detailed engineering civil plans, mechanical, electrical, C&I

• Quality tests and clearance points for QA

• Package wise project execution activities

• Activity dependence- serial vs parallel

• Timelines for each activity; key milestones

• Testing and schedules

• Commissioning schedules

• Operating and Maintenance procedures

• Troubleshooting

• Regulatory guidelines

• Customer requirements

Key Business Processes and Activities

Residing Knowledge Base in NTPC(examples)

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Present Set-up in NTPC Online: i) KM portal on CC Intranet ii) Engineer’s Forum iii) ERP KM Implementation in progress iv) IPON Launched

Team Events like NOCET, PC, QC, Business minds

In-House journals like Horizon, Power Scan Reports: Project completion Reports, Case

studies Mentoring & Reverse Mentoring, Technical and

managerial training.

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Characteristics to be Adopted

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Characteristics Description

Exhibits top-level commitment to learning

Ensures that resources and facilities for self-development will be available to employees – including resources outside of formal classroom training, such as coaching, mentoring, feedback and counseling.

Commitment from the top of the organization sends signals to employees that organization highly values learning

Fosters continuous learning, unlearning and relearning

Organization allows staff to question current and past assumptions, unlearn outdated techniques and relearn latest processes and systems

Leaders do not “cling” to old techniques

Practices workplace democracy

Organization allows employees to proactively identify problems and take steps to solve them

Leaders recognize that leadership does not involve monopolization, but rather liberation

Undertakes environmental monitoring

Organization studies customers, suppliers, competitors, government policies, technology producers and economic conditions to assess their implications on the organization’s current and future business

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Characteristics Description

Utilises Information technology as an enabling tool

Utilizes user-friendly information systems to capture, store and share knowledge throughout the organization

Encourages team learning

Groups of employees share knowledge, skills and experiences with each other

Team environments stimulate new perspectives and innovations

Translates training and learning into practice

Managers monitor effectiveness of training and learning by assessing employee’s degree of application of new techniques and methods

Ties rewards to performance

Organization measures individual or team performance and rewards them accordingly based upon performance through the reward schemes presented below :-

- Bonuses

- Promotion

- Profit sharing schemes

- Rewards for development of special skills

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CONCLUSION

“the journey of miles start with the advancement of a step”

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Thank you for your kind participation.

ANY QUERIES PLEASE…

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To fulfill its objective of becoming a “Learning organisation”, we are developing an integrated Knowledge Management System

NTPC’s Knowledge Management System would focus on three critical aspects

NTPC Knowledge

Management System

External Knowledge

Internal Knowledge

Collaborative Tools

Description

•Subscription/membership to domain specific industry reports

•Subscription/membership to domain specific technology journals

•Capturing trends in the external environment (international and national)

•Capturing and assimilating explicit and tacit knowledge residing within NTPC

•Making the captured knowledge available to employees for re-use

•Updating internal knowledge•Chat•Message boards•Polls

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The Knowledge Management System would be driven by the KM process

Knowledge Management

Process

Knowledge Management

Process

Knowledge Update - Affinity groups and users contribute to

knowledge database

Access knowledge

Upload knowledge on the network; create knowledge

catalogues

Identify and assimilate knowledge elements for each

category and submit

Domain Leaders and Affinity Group

User Affinity Groups

User

Categorise knowledge• Approach, Tools, Templates,

Guiding Principles, Best Practices etc.

Identify knowledge domains in NTPC

Identify domain leaders for each domain

Identify affinity group members

What knowledge does NTPC have?

Who will lead the knowledge domain?

Who will actively structure and contribute to the knowledge base?

InitialDecisions

Initiate the Internal KM process

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KM process steps will comprise assimilation of knowledge from various locations and uploading on the KM intranet for dissemination

CKO

Domain Leaders

Affinity Groups

(at plants)

Employees (at plants)

IT Deptt. /Core Team

(at CC)

Identify and appoint domain

leaders

Identify and appoint affinity groups at each

plant

Seek and Assimilate knowledge in the

respective domains

Submit knowledge capture documents to affinity groups in their

respective locations

Set up company wide intranet and KM

applicationStructure the database

Upload documents on the intranet

Users download knowledge

documents at all locations

Electronically submit captured knowledge to

domain leaders

Capture knowledge

from all locations

Classify knowledge, create categories – Location wise

– Type of knowledge

Submit documents for uploading the

knowledge intranet

1

2

3

4

5

6 7 8

9

10

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Case Examples: Global Utility companies are becoming learning organisations by adopting Knowledge Management Systems

Global Utility Company KM Initiative Benefits

Set up an enterprise wide integrated document management system across geographies

British Petroleum

• Improved access to drawings and engineering information resulting in reduced engineering lead-times

Set up an enterprise wide KM system to become a learning organisation

Set up a KM system in the drilling and refining businesses across geographies

Implemented a KM system to manage documents and drawings across various oilfields

• Improved information sharing across 20,000 users

• Efficient decision making processes

• Sharing maintenance best practices across refineries

• Reduced costs by $ 2 bn over the last 7 years

• Reduced cycle time by 12% - 20%

• Improved productivity through efficient re-use of knowledge

• Timely sharing of information across geographies

Case Study: KM in Utility Companies

Source: A.T. Kearney Research

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The Knowledge Management System would provide several benefits to the organisation

Develop NTPC into a learning organisation by creating a culture of knowledge sharing

Build an environment of trust and openness Prevent “re-inventing the wheel” – reduce employee effort to seek

knowledge and experience Improve efficiency – employees spend more time in analysing rather than

in searching for information Reduce leadtime in business processes and day-to-day activities Reduce cost through sharing of ideas and best practices across plants Capitalise on external knowledge for identifying revenue enhancement

opportunities for NTPC

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Q&A

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04/07/23 LEADING INNOVATION

The knowledge management process

Store

Clients

E&Y teams

Provide Infrastructure

Learn

Acquire

Input

AddValu

e

Deploy

Demonstrate Value

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Present Status of NTPC

ERP implementation – In Progress Idea Portal of NTPC(IPON) Launched. Presently Knowledge acquisition and creation

phase is going on. Engineer’s Forum implemented.

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Knowledge Tools

KWeb (Knowledge Web) Internal sites External sites

CBK (Center for Business Knowledge) Self-serve knowledge environment Assisted research environment Provides knowledge-sharing solutions

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EY Home PageEY Home Page

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Learning Tools

EY Learning Connection (for all employees)

EY Learning Content Repository (for trainers)

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Learning PortalLearning Portal

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THE SURVEY SHOULD COVER THE FOLLOWING ASPECTS. 1. The present status of NTPC as a learning organisation. 2.Whether the organisation stimutates learning. 3. If ,yes, in what sense? How it is effective and what is the improvement or advantage it gives to the organisation to have edge over others. 4. If ,no, then where to attack and what strategy to be adopted. 5. Road map to achieve the target.

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CHALLENGES

Capture and Structure Knowledge

Create Knowledge Sharing Environment and IT Enablers

Disseminate and Apply Knowledge

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NTPC has accumulated a vast knowledgebase across all its value chain elements…

CollectionPower Generation

and DispatchNew Capacity

CreationEngineering Planning

• Government liaison

• Strategy Formulation

• Annual plans• New business

development

• Feasibility reports• Plant configuration

design; package definition

• System engineering • Quality control• Technical evaluation

of vendors

• Project planning• Project execution• Project commissioning

• Operations and dispatch

• Maintenance • Procurement• Inventory

management

• Billing and collection

• Tariff setting and filing

• Explicit and tacit stakeholder requirements

• Regulatory requirements

• Cost engineering for feasibility reports

• Plant Performance specifications

• Product specifications• Detailed engineering

plan of civil, mechanical and electrical

• Quality tests and clearance points for QA

• Package wise project execution activities

• Activity dependence- serial vs parallel

• Timelines for each activity; key milestones

• Testing and schedules• Commissioning

schedules

• Operating and Maintenance procedures

• Troubleshooting

• Regulatory guidelines

• Customer requirements

Key Business Processes and Activities

Residing Knowledge Base in NTPC(examples)

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There are significant challenges for NTPC to effectively manage its accumulated knowledge base

Source: Cross functional interviews with NTPC employees; A.T. Kearney assessment

Disseminate and Apply Knowledge

Create Knowledge Sharing Environment and IT Enablers

Capture and Structure Knowledge

Learning and experiences are not captured and summarized; referring to past documents makes re-use of past experiences cumbersome

Tacit knowledge residing with individuals is not documented• Experiences of addressing various

stakeholders interests (government agencies, NGOs etc.) for project approvals have not been documented

Inadequate communication across functions, levels and geographies inhibits knowledge updation

No formal process for classification and codification of knowledge resulting in difficulties in knowledge retrieval

Past knowledge not adequately used to develop and update methodologies and guidelines for improving work efficiency

Lack of enabling IT systems to enable speedy retrieval of knowledge across levels, functions and geographies

Conversion of past documents from hard formats into soft formats requires significant effort

Inadequate communication across functions inhibits knowledge sharing

No processes to create awareness about the existing knowledge base across functions and geographies

No recognition and rewards for contributions to knowledge management

Knowledge and experience resides with individuals; sharing is relationship based

Project completion reports that capture the learning of each project are not adequately shared across plants

Past documents (proposals, project reports etc.) are stored manually or on local PCs making it difficult for them to be shared across the functions, levels and geographies

Key

Ch

alle

nge

s

Steps in Knowledge Management

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NTPC’s Knowledge Management imperatives are derived from its Strategic Objectives and HR vision of becoming a “Learning Organisation”




projects


projects


and efficiently


and efficiently



Improve engineering and project construction lead time and reduce cost through efficient re-use of past knowledge and experience


Reduce operations and maintenance costs and improve work practices by sharing ideas and best practices across plants


Capture external knowledge of regulatory environment, competitive environment , leverage experiential knowledge for commercial purposes


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NTPC’s Knowledge Management imperatives are derived from its Strategic Objectives and HR vision of becoming a “Learning Organisation”

Knowledge ManagementProcess of creating, structuring and leveraging collective know-

how, experience and wisdom of an organization to improve business performance




projects


projects


and efficiently


and efficiently









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Leveraging Capabilities to become a Learning Organisation

Business

dispatchmaintenance

ey home page

activitiesresiding

leverage experiential

eys knowledge

plantscapture

external web

time telephone