Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Function or Technology for KM?

My laptop decide to call a strike as it was subjected to overuse. While Infra team is negotiating a truce with it here I am making the most of this break to reflect.

OK. So let me share with you a disagreement I had recently with my manager. He of the old world and me of the new. I believe in the power of technology and he in traditional conversation for KM. Now it has been more than 3 yrs I've spent in the field of KM and know this much, the world is on a Technology high. Most interactions are happening on various social media platforms then why be in denial. Yes I am still learning about KM as a function but can I do without Technology?

Now look at this I don't have my laptop and I feel almost handicapped today at work. Well that is how employees feel if they are not on technology platforms. If I go and tell them "guys you have to come to closed room so that so and so can talk to you". I guess I will be the only one waiting for the world to turn up there. Yes this is first hand experience and not imagination. Knowledge sharing happens less in closed rooms and more on technology enabled platforms.

In an org of 100 thousand people where at least 40 % employees are from the Digital generation they don't know any other way of interaction. The exchange of gossip, information related to studies and then work all happens on the social media. I will be a fool to deny the presence of hi-tech in the life of the employees and a bigger one if not enabling them with a similar way of interaction. Are we looking at optimum productivity from a technology enabled workforce? Then what is the point in asking them to go back to primitive ways once they are at work. Optimum productivity can be achieved only when familiar conditions are enabled at work too for this generation.

When you sell a technology to the workforce half your game is won when you are selling KM. Won't you agree?

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Men of mere high learning?

I read this nice story...

A matron helped deliver 20 babies a month in a hospital. She herself was a spinster though. Do you think inspite of this she had experienced the pleasure of giving birth to a baby, or the  pleasure of the mother's tender love for a child? This must be happening to Men of mere high learning right?

Everyone knows theory, all kinds of information is available on the world wide web. What gives the edge is the personal experience. That is true knowledge.

Then today I read a post on "What makes a good architect?" on our internal blogs where he stressed that a good architect had to be "scarred war veteran". Though idiomatically expresed, my belief was reinforced. One has to be hands on!

Would we want to be known as Powerpoint Professionals? or someone who says "I was part of the go-live team" and someone who did not drop out in the middle of execution.

As KMers we are change makers. I believe a KMer can be successful only if they have conviction. The conviction will come only by being a user of the systems we design. Be the change ourselves.

When we design systems, methodologies and culture changes if we are not the first users or the change we desire to bring about then we remain like the spinster matron, Men of mere high learning! I am not prejudiced so I add, and women too. 

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Social Media For All

The Confluence 2010 is over!

One successful event was on social media applications. We invited some leaders for a conversation on it. I was quite flabbergasted when one panelist mentioned that some leaders should blog and the others should just play the role of a reader!

It is indeed an autocratic statement. In this world of democracy and freedom of speech who are we to stop people from self expression? Social media is for all and thought leadership is not any single person's prerogative. As long as people have some thing to share by way of experience, thought, idea or more, I would encourage every employee to use social media application of their choice. No KMer should ever put a block on that.

We don't expect disruptive innovations to be shared on a daily basis but do look forward to small innovations in process, ideas etc to do a task better in a day to day work life. Disruptive innovations are rare but small innovations are bountiful.

Go each one of you go ...share what you know...Social media is for all.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Planning starts for the annual Confluence

Tentative Plan 

26th April 2010
The Theme : Social Computing


1.Workshop on Social Computing for Deliveries and Requirements gathering from participants facilitated by Pavan Soni 45 mins 10 to 10.45
2.External speaker to share KM experience from his organization (Awaiting Confirmation from Expert) 46 mins 11 to 11.45
3.Internal Leaders conversation on “Why he is an Enterprise Blogger?”  30 mins 12 to 12.30
4.Walk in Kiosk 2 to 4
a. Be a blogger.
b. Start a Network.
c. Write/ edit Wiki

Sunday, March 7, 2010

The only source of knowledge is experience.

Said Albert Einstein.

If this is true then a knowledge broker needs to focus her energies on how she can get employees to share their experience.

Storytelling emerges as a wonderful media for this. It is very appealing because it can be used at all levels in the organization and any type of industry irrespective of level of education. The free form allows expression of emotions and intuitiveness that a person may have used to take a decision in a particular situation.

While documentation is great way of archiving all that is trasactional, operational it falls short of the ability to capture the emotions. It is not possible to have physical interactions with experts each time  however multimedia can be used effectively to capture the onetime physical storytelling session and then shared with the global workforce.

Podcasts, FM radio, video sharing should be adopted quick by organizations.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Attended CII Workshop

"Evolving an Enterprise 2.0 Strategy for Business Impact" by Dinesh Tantri (26 Feb 2010)

Take aways:

Got a lot of punch lines to inspire people to share knowledge.
KM is about people and technology only an enabler.
Help people build their personal brands.