The Nature of Knowledge Work

The Nature of Knowledge Work
Keith D. Swenson
VP R&D, Fujitsu America
Tech Committee Chairman, WfMC
April 15, 2010

Knowledge Workers Why do they need special treatment?

What does a knowledge worker look like?

Maybe…

(Few expect a Knowledge Workers to look like this) People who “figure out” what they need to do.

People who weigh many factors and determine courses of action

People whose actions are based on many sources of information.

People who gather clues follow up, and discover things.

People who set the rules or think outside the box

People who face uncertain situations and courses that are not fixed.

Knowledge Work  Everywhere
Rescue work
Complex Insurance or Bank Transaction
Police / Legal Investigation
Financial Audit
Coordinating a meeting
Exception, such as a Billing Dispute
Medical Treatment
Help desk
Management of a start-up company
Hiring Talent
Executive Management

Qualities of knowledge work
Non-Repeated
No two financial audits lead to the same results or action plans
No two news stories are gathered from the same places
No two company mergers are identical

Non-Repeated
Unpredictable
The course of a legal case can take many unexpected turns
Crime investigation is a classic example of unexpected events
Executives need to weigh many conflicting factors to lead their organization

Non-Repeated
Unpredictable
Emergent
A doctor runs a test on a patient
leading to a treatment plan
which is monitored & additional tests
which leads to modified treatment
which is monitored ….

Non-Repeated
Unpredictable
Emergent
Robustness in the face of variable conditions
High velocity, and highly reliable organizations run on knowledge work

Industrial Revolution
Define exact process
Run 1000’s times
Initial investment spread over many identical copies
Mass Production 1800 1900 2000 2010

Assembly Line
Henry Ford
Mass Production 1800 1900 2000 2010

Frederick Winslow Taylor
Time and Motion Studies
Apply mass production techniques to office work
Routine Work 1800 1900 2000 2010

Taiichi Ohno
Mass customization
Excess production is waste
Lean & Pull-Based
Responsive to Change
Just-in-Time Kanban Mass Production 1800 1900 2000 2010

A knowledge worker is “someone who knows more about his or her job than anyone else in the organization.” - Peter F Drucker
Knowledge worker jobs
are unique
Knowledge Work 1800 1900 2000 2010

Mass Production Routine Work Knowledge Work Just-in-Time Kanban Predictable Unpredictable Office Work Manufacturing

Knowledge is different from all other resources. It makes itself constantly obsolete, so that today's advanced knowledge is tomorrow's ignorance.
Knowledge Work And the knowledge that matters is subject to rapid and abrupt change … - Peter F Drucker Knowledge worker jobs change

From 28% to 50% of all workers are Knowledge Workers
This number is growing
The most highly paid segment
Knowledge work is the key area of growth in the economy.
Tom Davenport
Harvard Business Review
Knowledge Work

System to system Processes Routine Human Processes Knowledge Worker Processes Value $ $$ $$$ More Predictable Less Predictable Routine Work Knowledge Work 2010  2020+ 1990  2000+ 2000  2010+ Business Process Spectrum Easier to Implement Harder to Implement

Within organizations, knowledge workers tend to be closely aligned with the organization's growth prospects.
Knowledge workers in management roles come up with new strategies.
Knowledge workers in R&D and engineering create new products.
Knowledge workers in marketing package products and services in ways that appeal to customers.
Without knowledge workers there would be no new products and services and no growth. -Tom Davenport

BPM is a Mature Market
BPM is
Making a precise definition of the work to be done
Investing a lot in set up
Recoup investment by running process thousands of times.

BPM is Mass Production!
It only works if the process is predictable .
 .
Routine Work

New Approach Needed
BPM is based on the idea that you can:
Predict and define a fixed process
Implement an automated process
ROI comes from scaling up, repeatability
To handle knowledge work, a fundamentally different approach is needed. We call that:
Adaptive Case Management

Scientific Management vs. Lean
Taylorism – Scientific Management
Mass production ideas applied to market place
Large initial cost to developing processes
ROI only after many identical, repeated
Decreases an organization ability to respond
Separation of “brains” from the “brawn”
Classical BPM is based on these principles
Lean and Agile Processes
Process is not center! Case data instead!
No process is carved in stone at any time
Like TPS, tap the worker for improvement
Like Kanban, holistic view on production, instead of isolated processes.
Adaptive Case Management follows this
Process Data Data Process

Modeling Created ahead of time by specialist crafted to automatically respond to many situations. Created when needed, by the person doing the work. Manually adjusted for changing situations. For Routine Work For Knowledge Work

Creative and innovative forms of business processes cannot be predefined or "flowcharted" in advance.
They are "organic".
That is to say, they represent "emergent processes" that change not only their state, but also their structure as they are born, and then grow and evolve.
Process definition is an intrinsic part of the process itself, and this happens continually throughout the life of the process.
Peter Fingar, 2007

“ Knowledge worker productivity is the biggest of the 21st century management challenges . In the developed countries it is their first survival requirement.
In no other way can the developed countries hope to maintain themselves, let alone to maintain their leadership and their standards of living.” - Peter F Drucker

Mastering the Unpredictable The new book on how Adaptive Case Management will revolutionize the way that knowledge workers get things done. http://www.MasteringTheUnpredictable.com This was an excerpt from the book:

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The Nature of Knowledge Work

by Keith Swenson on Apr 20, 2010

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