You all know I would rather talk about the people side of KM but I have had a few people asking me about my experiences with Sharepoint recently.
In particular people are looking for recommendations on resources and tips on configuring Sharepoint (not server and database administration). So here are a few I have found handy that I have stored in my Delicious bookmarks.
In our organisation September means strategy time. I find myself in the unusual position of working in Australia for a US company that operates on a Nov-Oct financial calendar on a period (4 weeks, 13 periods a year) basis.
So I am discussing with people the best way to go about developing a knowledge strategy. There are a few key things learnt from previous experience which I thought might be good to share. I’ll add more as they come to mind. Feel free to contribute.
Knowledge Strategy Tips and Tricks
Use the strategy model your organisation uses
Show alignment with strategic objectives, don’t measure against them.
Balance above and below the line (new v’s renew)
Maturity model measures may be better than classic financial performance.
Show how you will support other peoples activities
Look for relatives; can you kill two birds with one stone
Clearly separate strategic objectives from tactical initiatives but show the relationships.
Depending on your environment, show bias: Every other strategy in the business is going to be concentrating on financial performance and customer intimacy. You need to balance this with the knowledge aspect. You may need to be loud to be heard above the hubbub.
Engage with your stakeholders, don’t just do it on your own.
Measure different things to the rest of the organisation. Everyone else is measuring profit and budgets. Provide some diversity.
Embed as much as you can in the overall business strategy instead of having a separate knowledge strategy.
Include initiatives that other areas are running that support knowledge management principles and objectives (e.g. HR may be running the Mentoring Program)
Mention things you are going to stop doing (not just about doing new things -stop, start, continue)
I had the opportunity to catch up with Ross Dawson whilst I have been in Sydney this week.
This was the first time Ross and I had met face-to-face so we took the opportunity to discover each others background and current activities.
The conversation worked it’s way around to the recent work Ross has done in publishing Implementing Enterprise 2.0.
I provided a perspective of the Enterprise 2.0 concept and some deeper elements that should be surfaced.
So my view was based on a theme of Business Change and Improvement as opposed to specifically Enterprise 2.0.
For me it’s deeper. It’s about teaching the business to be a surfer. To be able to paddle out and wait for the right wave to catch and get ahead. Social media is just the current wave. The business needs to look at it’s change readiness and at the value proposition for change, not just change for change sake and certainly not to just keep up with the Joneses.
I’ll save my opinions about Enterprise 2.0 being about the tail wagging the dog for another occasion.
A big week has just come to an end before an even bigger week commences.
As some of you would know the KM Australia conference was held in Sydney (Luna Park) this week. I was asked by Patrick Lambe to assist in facilitating a session around the KM Cards and some new Culture Cards. About a month ago I was asked to fill in a gap they had on the last session of the last day. This turned into a double session giving flight to the design of an interactive session on problem solving.
So the plan was to attend the pre-conference Dave Snowden workshop, help out Patrick with his session, catch up with KM comrades, meet some new kmers, take in some intresting presentations and then round off the conference with an energetic finale.
As with the best laid plans of mice and men there is always the unknown ready to jump all over it.
A couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to attend our organisation’s strategic planning worksop. This was the top 40 leaders in the business coming together to review our strategic direction and plan for the foressable future.
Fortunately the planning session was also in Sydney, and just across the harbour from Luna Park (I could see it out the window from where we were at Pier One). Unfortuately I would not be able to attend most of the conference and only made the pre-conference workshop and the afternoon of the last day. Apologies to Patrick (Still trying to work out how to make it up to him. Any tips from readers?).
Needless to say the strategic planning sessions were challenging, enjoyable (except for the part where I was told to shutup) and draining. We did well to come off the back of this and give (by most accounts – post by Dave Snowden, tweets #kmaus09) and enjoyable and energetic session to finish off the conference. The jury is still out on the use of the cow horn to signal the end of activities in the exercise. Big thanks to Sarah for logistics and the facilitators for wearing the costumes and kepping people on track (Sarah, Darren, Lance, Michelle and Matt).
So now a few things to tie up the week (blog post, slides up on slideshare etc..) and then it’s off to Singapore to present at the KM Singapore conference.
From what I understand it is a way of tracking a conversation and continuously adding to the thread but also allowing the history to be enriched and taken in many different directions.
I am immediately imagining the application of such a tool in a community or network environment where a single topic could be covered conquering time and space.
We’ll wait to see what Google Wave will actually deliver, but I am looking forward to this one.
I have just returned to a drenched Brisbane from a couple of days in Melbourne.
Whilst in Melbourne I participated in the KM Roundtable and late this afternoon I shared how we are approaching our current Intranet Project.
One of the things I wanted to communicate was the way we have defined some guiding principles that help all project members approach problems, make decisions and design solutions. I thought I’d share them here with a wider audience.
Change driven
We are focusing on the organisational change and letting the technology take care of itself. The tech parts are easy, change is hard.
User Centred Design
Speaks for itself. Presenting content in a user perspective, not a content owner perspective.
Decentralised Content Management
Empower, entrust and support.
Iterative
Make sure you deliver stage 2 and 3. Make stage 1 easy/small.
Don’t let the ball drop
Don’t sit back, watch others fail and then blame them.
Communicate what you are doing
Let people know what you are working on, even when not asked.
Share your deliverables
Let other people see what you have achieved. They may leverage it in other work.
Exemplify the technology
Use the technology to run your project. Learn by doing. Eat your own dog food. Demonstrate the possibilities.
Participate. Speak Up
There are no passengers. Get involved and value add.
Sustainable
Design with the future and diversity in mind. Make things available for reuse.
I had an interesting conversation with a colleague at work last week and a particular observation Howardmade rang true with me and I have to share.
We were discussing some ideas he had around providing some specialist consulting services and he was recounting some of his previous experiences as a client to consulting services and he talked about the difference between a contractor and consultant.
He talked about his experience where the company he was working for had shortlisted three candidates on a particular bid. One of the candidates had been ruled out through due diligence activities. The remaining two operated at completely different levels. Company A went with the approach of hosting the client to a number of functions continuously questioning staff about what they thought would be a suitable solution.
Comany B used their own knowledge and expertise to put together a solution that the client was not capable of realising within their own space.
Howard said the difference is a contractor will implement your ideas whereas a consultant can give you new ideas.
What has been your experience with consultants and contractors? What did they end up actually being?
I have beena big fan of the TED talks for soime time now and continually keep coming back for more. These days I download the videos and put them on my PSP for bus travel viewing.
I hadn’t really wondered if there was anything else out there until I saw an ad on the ABC for a new initiative they were involved with. Fora.tv.
Fora has tapped into a large number of events and speeches providing a wide range of formats and topics. I feel it complements TED well.
I was asked to provide some words from a knowledge manager about what I do.
It is quite late so I just started making notes instead of drafting full paragraphs.
It seems to have ended up as the following rant. Does this make sense to you?
The Knowledge Manager
I listen to people every day.
I listen to the things they are doing and how they are doing them.
I listen to the questions they ask and the requests they make.
I hear they want a website.
I hear they want a database.
I hear they want more resources in the library.
I listen and I hear.
I ask questions.
I ask what they are trying to achieve.
I find the assumptions they make and I coach them to uncover them for themselves.
I guide and I shepherd.
I nudge and I steer.
I help people to realise the knowledge they have at their disposal.
I assist them to find it and use it.
I encourage people to share without request or recognition.
I ask them to think of who else can benefit from what they know.
This is my job as a Knowledge Manager.
To help people find what they need.
To realise what they have and have not.
To take what we know and use it to solve problems, make decisions, improve and innovate.
This is what I do.
