Far Wise in Knowledge Management

Are you working out loud?

The first time I heard about "Working out loud" (WOL) was at the Social Now event in 2015. I found it interesting, as I felt that I was doing some WOL already, but for the rest I didn't promote it in the organization. At that time, I thought there were more urgent issues, but if I continue using social tools and write about what I was doing, maybe I would stimulate others to do the same. It was an indirect "promotion"; had I been manager, I would have called it "lead by example". I'm not sure if I stimulated anybody this way, but I found it worked for me. I had an internal blog that got reactions and I wrote on the status line what I was working on ("micro blogging"). Sometimes I would get a reaction, someone from my network offering help. However, I noticed that WOL takes time, even just a small status update. The more busy the work, the less I worked out loud. I'm sure WOL advocates will tell me I am wrong (that it saves time instead) and that I was applying it in the wrong way, or not at all.

Lately I've seen more interest in WOL, so I decided to find more information, to see how I could better benefit from it. Because I do believe it is useful, in the same way as I think knowledge sharing is useful. Working out loud is not a new method, it was first coined in 2010 by Bryce Williams. John Stepper made it into a movement, by writing this book and giving this TED talk. A lot of information on WOL can be found on this site. From a description (in Dutch), I see that my understanding of working out loud was not far off. It is telling what you work on, to your co-workers in the organization. Call it a method or a mindset (I prefer the latter). Social tools support WOL, but it can be done face-to-face as well. Some of the advantages are amongst others: more transparent collaboration, workplace awareness, knowledge sharing and generation of ideas.

Bosch is a company that applies working out loud. It uses WOL Circles, which is a new concept to me. A circle is a peer support group of 4-5 people. Here is a guide to start with your own WOL circle. WOL is all about observable work and narrating your work (see fundamentals) and can help for examples projects on the progress - where it replaces email updates.

Start with these three questions:

1. What am I trying to accomplish?
2. Who can help me?
3. How can I contribute to people to deepen our relationship?

 It's interesting to read about a relatively simple habit that can have such impact. It's an essential skill, I read (in Dutch). There are many sources online, I tried to link to a few. Last year there was an international WOL week,  I don't know if it will be repeated this year. No need however to wait till the next WOL week, start working out loud now!

Too much focus

Focus is a good thing, I learned through many articles. We need focus, in order not to be distracted, make better choices and for being successful. When I read about focus, I get the impression that one can't have enough of it and I certainly don't master the skill. Clearly one of the most valued skills nowadays, trying to be more focused, is high on my list.

A few days ago however, I read that one can have too much focus. Did you fail to see the gorilla? The first time I saw this video, at a conference, I was one of few people in the room who saw it. (Maybe because I get distracted easily) In a Dutch article, I read that we overvalue concentration and research shows that it drains energy. Energy we would use for thinking. It explains why it's so hard to continu working on the same task. Plus, focus makes us too selective which inhibits creativity. Our view becomes narrow, like a laser beam, which is why we fail to see the gorilla.

The article refers to a book by Srini Pillay, which I haven't read. I was able to find an article by the same author "Your brain can only take so much focus".

The secret, as always, is in finding the balance between focus and unfocus. Switch between focusing for a while and unfocusing. The latter can be done by performing low-key activities like knitting, gardening, casual reading. Let your mind wander and it will boost creativity and re-energize your brain. And some advice: build those "unfocus" moments into your daily (busy, focused) schedule.

 

 

About silos and breaking them down (or not)

Years ago, I attended a workshop "How to present yourself in an elevator pitch" (or so, not the exact title). As I wanted to introduce myself in a knowledge management context and not everybody is familiar with knowledge management, I used an example with organizational silos. Most people recognize the presence of silos in their organizations and know that (usually) communication or exchange between the silos is not ideal. So I used this example in my elevator pitch to explain what knowledge management can do. I don't recall if I used "down organizational silos" (I probably did), but I shouldn't do so, apparently, according to this article, breaking down silos is a myth.

It's an interesting article as it goes against the general thought to eliminate organizational silos. On the contrary, the author argues that silos have important benefits, but we need to connect them effectively.  Silos as functional groups are effective, but the issue is that in most organizations silos are disconnected. As a result, information travels too slowly. Instead of a hierarchical organization, we need to think in networks or clusters. Not a matrix but informal links.

The platforms of connections described in the article, are like (small) communities. In the knowledge management area, communities are known to be successful in sharing of information and knowledge, answering questions and helping newcomers up to speed (to mention a few functions). Whatever it is called, network, cluster, community, those informal groups of employees that find each other on a certain topic or issue, help spreading information faster. If they don't form in a natural way, they need to be organized. In the past at BlackBerry, I helped to set up some of these groups. An example was a group ("Tiger team") around one of the most important telecom providers (for example, AT&T, Verizon, Bell) and share information after a large software update, to find out what issues there are and who can help to solve them. I remember at the start, people said they didn't need this, but soon were surprised about what they heard from others. The people who needed to know or had to act were on the call, so it turned out to be an efficient way of sharing information.

 

 

Progress in development of a knowledge management standard

I knew there was a group working on an ISO Knowledge management standard, but lost track of when it will be ready for publication. When searching for something different, I came across this post by Ron Young, announcing that the KM standard (BS ISO 30401) is ready for public consultation. That is good news!

I dug a bit further and found a publication timeline on the BSI site. The start for collecting public comments is December 7, 2017 and finishing February 2nd, 2018. The final publication will happen beginning of 2019. I assume the version ready for public comments will be posted on the same BSI site.

Blockchain opportunities for Knowledge Management?

I don't have the answer to the question above, what are (business) opportunities for blockchain in the context of knowledge management, but I was wondering if blockchain technology could potentially be an advantage to knowledge management. I was reading a summary  (in Dutch) of a "Blockchain in Education" event in Groningen (the Netherlands), because I was interested in learning what people think could be a use for blockchain in the education and training field. Some examples are, fraude prevention with certificates and titles (is your PhD title earned?), reputation management, proof of life-long learning. However, it's too early now to provide results, because most projects are in pilot (proof of concept) phase (at most).  This summary article triggered me to ask myself the 'blockchain in KM' question. [Note: I don't want to explain here what is blockchain, there are many pages and videos that give a good explanation of the technology]

 I worked in the insurance area before and in that area the opportunities (or threads, depending on how you look at opportunity) are more obvious to me than in Knowledge Management. Maybe because I organized sessions for insurance companies to tell them what is blockchain and help them understand what is coming (and hopefully prepare them or stimulate them to take action), so I had more time and opportunity to think about the applications of blockchain in Insurance. Smart contracts, claim handling, fraude prevention are among the opportunities. 

In general, blockchain technology will be beneficial in situations of exchange (transactions) of value goods between people or organizations where there is not a trust relation. If there is trust, there are other (easier) ways to make agreements and blockchain is just not the best choice. Most knowledge management initiatives are internal, within the company, where there will be trust. Knowledge exchange between companies might encounter trust issues, so blockchain might help here. However, how often is this needed? How many companies exchange knowledge, maybe in the form of patents or collaboration for innovative products? Not many, I think.

This IBM article describes the integration of blockchain in business processes, information and data transfer, with an example with six organizations involved. This shows the possibility when information is exchanged between companies (so in a non-trust situation). I don't know what it would look like when we talk about humans who are experts and have the knowledge in their heads. For now, I don't see many advantage in blockchain in KM, but let's wait for some examples.

Email as KM Tool

The question if email is a KM tool goes around in my mind for some time. I'm sure other people have discussed it before, although a quick search wasn't very helpful (I found one useful article, which I will come back to below). Maybe email is not an intended tool, as in planned to be used for KM, which is why I didn't find many results. Look for a list of KM tools and email won't be in it.

I think it is a tool that contains knowledge though, more perhaps than many other systems. An unintended (if that's an existing word) KM tool. Email is for many people an archive, a task list (or reminder of the 'things to do'), as we learned when we studied information overload and the role of email (in the past).

I'm quoting from a Hiver blogpost, titled "Email and Knowledge Management: The Possibilities":

"For a Knowledge management strategy to succeed, it must tap into knowledge where its created, and in the process of its creation. That is what makes email extremely important for any Knowledge management plan. For a lot of us, our mail inboxes are the most important go-to source of information at work."

Email inbox capacity is nowadays so large, we can keep any email stored in it. Search will help us finding the right message back, there is no need in making folders as most of us did in the past. It's our personal archive.

Knowing this, we can't ignore email and its content. Especially if someone is leaving the company, be aware that his/her working history is basically in the mailbox. Even more than in documents (or other systems). Make email part of the KM plan, as the earlier mentioned blogpost suggests. It's where knowledge gets created and stored.

Tomatoes and time management

What have time management and tomatoes to do with each other? Not much, unless you talk about the pomodoro. This type of tomato is the name of a time management method, the "Pomodoro technique". It's a very simple method and I've applied it many times, based on what I read on the website and the app I installed on my smartphone. Simple, but very helpful!

Principle

The Pomodoro Technique is developed by Francesco Cirillo. A timer, a cooking timer shaped as a pomodoro, is used for timing a 25 minute working period (a 'pomodoro') followed by a 5 minute break. Then the next pomodoro starts. After 4 pomodori, a longer break can be taken. So, select a task you want to work on, set your timer and work on the task for 25 minutes. Then take a break of 5 minutes before continuing you next pomodoro.

I found that 25 minutes is a good stretch of time to work concentrated. However, I took my breaks a bit longer, especially later in the day. Five minutes to make coffee, go to the washroom, read email (of whatever I wanted to do), appeared too short for me.

I think this method can be used in addition to organizing methods like GTD (Getting Things Done). GTD helps to structure and prioritize tasks, Pomodoro techniques helps in performing tasks, to focus and avoid distraction.