Making KM Projects Work David Gurteen Gurteen Knowledge HKKMS Knowledge Management Conference Hong Kong, 30 March 2010
Making KM Projects Work
David GurteenGurteen
Knowledge
HKKMS Knowledge Management ConferenceHong Kong, 30 March 2010
Begin with the end in mind
To help you manage successful KM projects
To encourage you to think for yourselves and not look for prescriptive solutions
The potential of KM is enormous but many KM projects have failed to live up
to their expectations!
Many KM projects fail!
Nothing wrong with KM, KM tools and techniques– very powerful indeed
The challenges– KM projects are NOT focused on the business– KM projects are tough– KM project leaders are often inexperienced– KM projects poorly conceived– KM projects poorly managed– Lack of support from senior management– Lack of support from employees– Lack of understanding or a misunderstanding of KM– Lack of understanding of organizational complexity– Lack of understanding of human behavior
Four KEY questions to ask yourself
The questions
1. What are the business problems we are trying to solve?
2. How do we ensure support from senior management and how do we sustain that support?
3. How do we engage the people in our organization?
4. How do we think & learn for ourselves?
Some thoughts
Think! There is no substitute for thinking
Think for yourself!
Think for yourself
No substitute for thinking No recipes or prescriptions No simple set of steps You need to think for yourself No one can tell you what to do KM is highly contextual …
Context
In our complex business world context is everything
Things are different– each of you are different– your industry– your organization– your people– history– timing– politics– competition
Don’t do KM!
You don't do KM! You solve business problems and develop business opportunities
You don’t do KM
You solve business problems and develop business opportunities
There are no KM initiatives or strategies– They conceptualise the problem– A project is never just about KM
There are only business projects Use KM thinking & tools to respond to
business issues
Identify the business issuesIdentify the business issues
Identify the business problems, opportunities or risks that need to be responded to
Albert Einstein on problems
If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution,
I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask,
for once I know the proper question,
I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.
We jump far too quickly to a “solution” without really
understanding the problem!
Its better to do the right thing badly than the wrong thing well!
Business issues and outcomes
“People will not share their knowledge” is NOT a business issue
“Implementing a knowledge sharing system” is NOT a business outcome
Business issues and outcomes
“Slowness to market of new products” is a business issue
“Shortening the time to market of new products” is a business outcome
Business outcomes
These are not business outcomes– Doing KM– Improving knowledge sharing– Creating a learning organization– Creating a knowledge driven organization– Setting up communities of practice
These are business outcomes– Cutting costs; Improving profit– Improving quality– Reducing staff turn over
Identify the business issues
Talk to CEO and senior business managers
What keeps them awake at night?
Indentify the stakeholdersIndentify the stakeholders
Identify & understand the needs of the stakeholders
The stakeholders hold the key to success – they can make or break
your KM project
Identify & understand the stakeholders
Sponsor Senior managers Employees affected KM team
Who are the sceptics and opponents?
Develop the responseDevelop the response
Develop the response with the stakeholders
Develop the response
Work with the stakeholders – do not do things to them
Help them develop the response for themselves
They need to own it
Don’t do things to people!
If you have to ask “how do we motivate people” then you are taking the wrong approach!
Motivation is intrinsic!
You cannot motivate people Motivation is inherently intrinsic People have to find it for themselves Attempts to motivate are actually
manipulation and are usually seen as such And have an adverse affect
Do the following instead
listen to people & show them respect help them find their voice & have conversations with them show genuine interest & give them help and support engage with them & trust them give them responsibility & recognition give them opportunities for self fulfilment and personal
development don't try to tell them what to do
We should not deliberately do these things to motivate people - we should do them because we genuinely care about them!
Work with people
An innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them. Alfie Kohn
Do not reward
Do not reward people for sharing their knowledge
Rewards
Research shows that giving rewards (even praise) actually results in worse performance and undermines intrinsic motivation
To the best of my knowledge, no controlled scientific study has ever found a long-term enhancement of the quality of work as a result of any reward system.
Alfie Kohn
Alfie Kohn and Dan Pink
Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink
Do not reward
Rewards punish Rewards rupture relations Rewards ignore reasons Rewards deter risk taking Rewards undermine interest
Credit: Alfie Kohn
• Rewards are gamed
If we don’t reward what do we do?
Alfie Kohn
Pay people well Pay people fairly Then do everything possible to make money
(rewards) off people’s minds
Incentives, bonuses, pay-for-performance-plans and other reward
systems violate this last principle by their very nature!
Bob Buckman
Our approach to KM is far more than stick or carrot.
"Knowledge Sharing is your job. Do it!"
As a reward you may keep your job.
Daniel Pink
Provide opportunities for– Autonomy– Mastery– Purpose
Loving what you do is a more powerful motivator than any
goody including money.Alfie Kohn
Get business approvalGet business approval
Get business approval from the project sponsor
Two essentials
1. Get support from the sponsor for the resources you need
2. Agree what you need to do to demonstrate success and sustain that support
Get business approval
Think as much about the sponsor’s needs as those of the business
Make the business case plus– What does the sponsor want?– What are the benefits to them?
Agree what success means to them– Important to do this at this stage and not later– Do not do an ROI unless you have to
Execute the projectExecute the project
Develop the plan and execute the project
Execute the project
Involve the stakeholders
Pilot the project and adopt iterative prototyping– Learn from small steps
Allow for change and emergence
Use KM tools and methodologies– Learn before, during and after
Some questions to leave you with!
Is my KM activity focused on the business? Have I really understood the problems? Are senior managers bought in? Are employees & other stakeholders bought in? How do I demonstrate value? Am I measuring business outcomes & not just activity? What do I do in place of rewards? Am I really thinking for myself? Am I committed to my own personal learning & development Am I walking the talk? How can I take an active part in the global KM community?
Conversation & Questions
David GURTEEN Gurteen Knowledge Fleet, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 7774 178 650 Email: [email protected]
www.gurteen.com