Making KM projects work

Making KM Projects Work David Gurteen Gurteen Knowledge HKKMS Knowledge Management Conference Hong 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
What are the business problems we are trying to solve?
How do we ensure support from senior management and how do we sustain that support?
How do we engage the people in our organization?
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 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 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 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 approval Get business approval from the project sponsor

Two essentials
Get support from the sponsor for the resources you need
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 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

www.gurteen.com David GURTEEN Gurteen Knowledge Fleet, United Kingdom Tel: +44 7774 178 650 Email: david.gurteen@gurteen.com

Making KM projects work

by David Gurteen on Mar 31, 2010

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