KM & Culture

http://nzkm.sites.totallydigital.co.nz/mainsite/CultureAndKm.html

This is a good one. Has the gist of what transpired in one of the KM gatherings in New Zealand. Revolves around KM & Culture and has the excerpts of what 3 KMers who matter, said. Spurs me to sort of summarize this in my own way: (The case study in this link is excellent and that is what gives me pointers for the write up below)

KM & Culture: What are the things that need to be taken care of if KM has to be ingrained and embedded in the culture of an organization? What are the specific characteristics that need to be displayed? When can you say that the org. has what it takes for a KM culture? Let's look at it from three perspectives: People practices, hard-core processes, technology. From another angle - Share/Use is what is mentioned in the case study.

1. Knowledge Sharing: People will have to come forward to share what they know and not hoard it. This can be extrapolated into Mentoring and Coaching.

2. Listening Skills: People will have to believe that they can learn from others and therefore be ready to listen well.

3. External outlook: People will have to believe that they can approach people from unrelated areas because they will not be biased and will think outside the box and might have a completely fresh perspective to the whole thing. Analogies have taught us a lot. Unrelated areas will force us to 'analogize'. This will lead to innovation.

4.Networking: People will have to believe that networking and getting in touch with people who matter will help improve their awareness and knowledge.

5. Team-Work and Collaboration and Brainstorming: People will have to believe that everyone is valuable and everyone can bring their bit to the table. They will have to realize that each person has her core competencies and that when it is all put together, the concept of synergy kicks in and this will make a difference to the team. They will have to realize that this will result in an exponential growth of knowledge and in innovation.

6. Documentation and Writing: People will have to believe that documentation and writing will help them. They have to realize that it brings out all their thoughts, helps them consolidate them, sort them and learn more in the process. The power of the written word cannot be underestimated.

7. Continuous Learning: A thirst for learning in individuals is a very important component for any 'KM' culture. This will have to be prevalent across the organization irrespective of seniority, age, experience, clout etc.

8. Learning from the past: Employees will have to be ready to learn from the past mistakes as well as successes. The NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome would have to be chucked out of the window!

9. Learning from customers/suppliers/partners: It ought to be believed and very firmly at that, that knowledge is not generated just from within the organization but from outside as well. Maybe more from the outside. Most importantly, teams should be ready to learn from the customers and partners.

10. Meetings/Discussions: The organizational culture should be one with regular and effective meetings/discussions/brainstorming sessions etc. The meetings, of course, have to be taken seriously, and should be looked at as occasions to generate ideas and exchange views and thoughts. Action items should be spelt clearly and championed till closure.

11. Introspection/Reflection: For a perfect KM culture, the org. should be one where introspection and reflection is encouraged and celebrated. It should be an org. where thinking is considered to be very important for doing! Action-oriented as well as 'thinking' employees should co-exist harmoniously.

The No-Nos: What are the no-nos that would 'damage' the 'KM' culture (even if all the above were to be present)

1. Money: If people in an organization are always running after the greenbacks, it is obviously a culture where higher purposes aren't valued. New ideas don't matter. Improvement is not as important as pushing people to deliver a product and get the revenue into the org. kitty. Knowledge sharing is nothing that helps get money - esp. in the short term as it is an abstract concept that is not understood by many.

2. Respect: This might sound ridiculous, but can be true. If employees in an organization don't respect (other) people, believe that they are the best and rarely respect others for the value they bring to the table and generally go around finding fault in people rather than appreciate their good qualities, something like KM would never take off. Or for that matter, if managers view employees as nothing but means to achieve the end as in the point above, and there is no fundamental respect for people and their needs, knowledge sharing and collaboration will seem like a lofty and unreachable goal.

3. Unreflecting: This point again ties with point #1. KM is a no-go if the entire organization is always chasing the money and wants to get as many projects as possible. It is a no-go if it is always thnking about delivering to the customer and doesn't care to stop in its tracks to take time off to think, ponder and reflect about its vision, way of working, problems, its employees' needs et al.

4. Sharing and Caring: If there is no belief in fundamental human values like caring and sharing in the organization, the only aspect the employees would be looking at is the WIFM - What's in it for me? - factor.

5. NIH syndrome: The Not Invented Here syndrome is also another major road-block that prevents people from reusing knowledge that comes from outside. As an organization, there needs to be an attitude of acceptance of knowledge from external sources.

6. Knowledge is power: When the employees in the organization believe that their knowledge is their power, and what earns them their bread and butter, we have a challenge that is very difficult for KM to surmount. The organization needs to 'protect' such people, tell them that their job is to mentor others and help them do so. At the same time, the org. ought to help them upgrade their knowledge through training etc. Such people of course need to be recognized more for their mentoring rather than their knowledge per se! This is what would encourage people to share their knowledge knowing that they are recognized not for their knowledge per se but for their organizational orientation and mentoring - their leadership!

7. Internal competition: In many an org. the top management abides by the philosophy of competition and encourages and establishes an environment of competition rather than collaboration. This can only foil the purpose of initiatives like KM. Competitive environments will not make collaboration possible as everyone would want to beat the others. Sharing will be a no-no and cross-leveraging will rarely happen unless the need is critical. The big picture will be lost altogether. I don't really suggest that there be absolutely no competition, but there needs to be a fine balance. Easier said than done. A challenge for the HR and the management at all levels.

Thanks to arthur.shelley@cadburyschweppes.com.au for some tips that I added to my original article.