Measuring KMMeasures, targets & rewards

David Gurteen

Gurteen Knowledge

Bogota, June 2010

Begin with the end in mind

A talk on measures, targets and rewards

An explanation of the Knowledge Café

A Knowledge Café on the topic

The context

Start with the business issue Measures Targets Rewards

Start with the business issue

The measures will then naturally follow

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

Measure against business outcomes

Business outcomes– Cutting costs; Improving profit– Improving quality– Reducing staff turn over

These can easily be measured Doing KM cannot!

Understanding measuresUnderstanding measures

Understanding KM measures

Two things can be measured

1. Measure the knowledge of an organization– Intellectual capital

2. Measure outcomes of ‘knowledge in action’– Say a KM project

My interest is in outcomes – demonstrating the value of a KM project

Some considerations when measuring things

Beware the word “Measure”

Beware the word “measure”! Other words: performance indicator, metric,

ROI (return on investment) Performance indicator is usually best Measures and metrics imply an exactness

that is usually not achievable Its ok 'to measure' but you don't create 'a

measure‘ but an ‘indicator’

What is the ROI of KM?

Common question There isn’t one – only an ROI on the business

outcomes Distinguish between

– estimating an ROI before a project i.e. justifying the expenditure

– after or during a project i.e. demonstrating value

Its hard to estimate a financial ROI before a project

Why measure?

Could be for one of several purposes– To conform to laws or regulations– To deliver on a promise or agreement– To meet a service level agreement – To justify your existence – To enforce performance– You have been told to– To prove to yourselves you are not wasting time– To provide feedback that facilitates learning

Keep asking the question why!

What are the real objectives and are measurements the best way of achieving them?

Don’t measure for its own sake!

Beware not measuring

Your manager may not have asked for measures But when the going gets tough you had better be

able to justify your existence Your manager’s manager may have different ideas Your manager may change! When cuts have to be made – KM is high on the list!

(KM means Kill Me!)

Plan to measure before you start

You should plan to measure before you start a KM project - not after

What you measure and how you measure will affect how you do things!!

Too often knowledge managers don’t plan to measure up front!

There are multiple stakeholders

Multiple stakeholders will 'measure' you depending on their perspective

Don’t assume– you know what the right measures are. Ask your

stakeholders!– they will measure you by the measures you have

agreed to provide them!

Understand what is important to them You may be measured on their 'gut feel’

Prime stakeholders

The sponsor– Agree & measure what’s in it for them!

Senior management– Agree & measure on business outcomes

Staff– Agree & measure on what's in it for them

Two types of measure

There are two types of measure– you can measure activity

e.g. creating an ideas database

– or you can measure business outcomes e.g. improved innovation

Focus on outcomes not activities

Too often we measure activity rather than outcome

And we try to measure & justify KM projects on activity rather then outcome

Sometimes activity is the only proxy we have but too often we focus on activities at the expense of outcomes

Examples of measure of activity

Number of documents captured in a database Number of times a document is read Number of meetings held Number of active communities of practice Time taken to complete a task

Examples of measure of outcome

Bid to win ratio Increased sales Decreased costs Improved quality Reduced development time Reduced staff turn over Percentage of customers happy with service

according to customer satisfaction survey

Activities v Outcomes

Measuring activity is useful as it can be a good indicator that things are going well

Having 10, 20 or 30 communities of practice is meaningless in terms of business outcome

The real measure is the impact on the business This should relate to the business purpose for which

the communities were created e.g. getting new products to market faster

Some things cannot be measured

Cynefin domains– Simple– Complicated– Complex– Chaotic

You cannot correlate cause & effect in the complex domain

You cannot say this was an outcome of my activity And thus things cannot be directly measured

Measures distort

Measures distort behaviour Have unintended & unimagined side-effects Can be detrimental to the whole! You tend to only get what you measure Measuring one thing implies that others not

being measured are not important

Softer measures

Outcome based measures Activity based measures

Anecdotal stories – Success stories– Focused on outcomes

Surveys and polls– Can provide numbers

Better measures

To provide feedback to facilitate learning

NOT for control or conformance

Must be developed, owned and bought into by the people involved otherwise they will be ‘gamed’

They are personal learning tools!

When a measure becomes an objective it ceases to be a good

measure!

Targets

Do not set targets

Do not set targets

Do not set targets

People are often given ‘targets’ by which they are ‘measured’

A command & control way of trying to force people to change

Targets have similar detrimental effects to rewards e.g. impose an unthinking solution

Rewards and imposed targets will be gamed Targets need to be agreed and bought into

Examples of poor targets

First piece of baggage should arrive in arrival hall within 10 minutes of plane touching down

Patients when booking an appointment should not have to wait more than 48hrs to see their doctor

In-patients in A&E should be seen by someone within 30 minutes of arrival

Beware of gaming of targets

A measure or target that is based on a simple metric such as a number or time interval is probably a bad one as it can be too easily “gamed” – too simple to reflect the complexity - the

multidimensional & contextual aspects– a simple ‘satisfaction survey’ that measures

‘customer perception’ is better

Rewards

Do you believe we need to reward knowledge sharing?

Do not reward

Do not reward people for sharing their knowledge

Alfie Kohn and Dan Pink

Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink

Rewards

Research shows that giving rewards (even praise) actually result in worse performance and destroys 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.

Do not reward

Credit: Alfie Kohn

Do not reward

Rewards punish Rewards rupture relations Rewards ignore reasons Rewards deter risk taking Rewards undermine interest

Loving what you do is a more powerful motivator than any goody including money

Credit: Alfie Kohn

Rewards Punish

Threats & coercion destroy motivation and so do rewards

Rewards are manipulative “Do this and you will get that” is not much different to

“Do this else here is what will happen to you” When people do not get the reward they hoped for

they feel punished The more desirable the reward the more

demoralizing it is to miss out

Credit: Alfie Kohn

Rewards rupture relations

Excellence depends on teamwork Rewards (especially if scarce) destroy

cooperation Incentive driven employees will not ask for

help from their manager when they need it They will conceal problems from their

manager to appear infinitely competent

Credit: Alfie Kohn

Rewards ignore reasons

To solve problems people must understand the causes

They ignore the complexities of the problems Each situation calls for a different response Rewards tend to blindly promote a single

solution

Credit: Alfie Kohn

Rewards deter risk-taking

People are less likely to take risks; to explore possibilities; to play hunches

The No. 1 casualty of rewards is creativity

Credit: Alfie Kohn

Rewards undermine interest

Loving what you do is a more powerful motivator than any goody including money

Rewards are controlling! If people focus on getting a reward they tend

to feel their work is no longer freely chosen and directed by them

If they have to bribe me to do it - it must be something I don’t want to do!

Credit: Alfie Kohn

So how do you encourage people to share their knowledge and work better

together?

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.

We say, "Knowledge Sharing is your job. Do it!"

As a reward you may keep your job.

Intangible Rewards

Opportunities for Personal Development

Recognition

Loving what you do is a more powerful motivator than any goody including money

David Gurteen

We cannot change other people's behavior - only they can do that!

Threats, rewards and praise do not work We don't need to be told what to do. We

need to understand the world better & then we will see what needs to be done for ourselves

So how do we better understand the world?

How do we understand better?

Through being involved and engaged in the world and

through open conversation!

Questions

The Gurteen Knowledge Cafe

Conversational Cafés

A conversational café is a simple process for bringing a group of people together to have open conversations about a topic of mutual interest with a specific business purpose in mind

Examples– World Café– Knowledge Cafés– Gurteen Knowledge & Innovation Cafés

Different forms of Café

Many forms of café adapted to different purposes Gurteen Knowledge Café & World Café

– Learning and engagement Gurteen Innovation Café

– Surfacing issues– Refining issues and problems– Developing responses– Inspiring action & innovation

AARs, peer-assists, retrospects could be considered forms of Café

The birth of the Gurteen Knowledge Cafe

London, Sept 2002

Conversation

The most powerful knowledge sharing and learning tool that we have at our disposal

Business is a conversation

Business is a conversation because the defining work of business is conversation - literally.

And 'knowledge workers' are simply those people whose job consists of having interesting

conversations.

David WeinbergerThe Cluetrain Manifesto

• Conversation is central to all that we do

• Its our job!

Conversation is a learning technology

Conversation is the most powerful learning technology ever invented.

Conversations carry news, create meaning, foster cooperation, and spark innovation.

Encouraging open, honest conversation through work space design, setting ground rules for

conversing productively, and baking conversation into the corporate culture spread intellectual capital,

improve cooperation, and strengthen personal relationships.

Jay Cross, Informal Learning

Jay Cross

Conversation is a meeting of minds

Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits.

When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new

trains of thought.

Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards.

Theodore ZeldinConversation

Theodore in an Oxford Historian

Dialogue

The kind of conversation I’m interested in is one in which you start with a

willingness to emerge a slightly different person.

Theodore ZeldinConversation

Theodore in an Oxford Historian

Principles of Dialogue

Suspend assumptions, do not judge Observe & listen to one another Welcome differences & explore them Allow taboo subjects to be raised safely Listen to your inner voice Slow the discussion Search for the underlying meaning

Dialogue is based on the work of the

physicist David Bohm

Summary

Business is a conversation Conversation is a powerful learning

technology Conversation is creative Understanding is more important than

knowing more Dialogue is the key to quality conversations

Conversation?

What is the role of conversation in business?

How important is it?

How would you encourage more?

The Gurteen Knowledge Café Process

Café Process

Talk + question Small group conversations Whole group conversation in circle Round-robin individual sharing in circle

Key Aspects of Gurteen Knowledge Cafes

Relaxed, non-threatening, open conversation No one is forced to do anything Everyone is equal No table leaders No reporting back Sharing circle: individual summary at end No overall summarization or attempt to reach consensus No capture on flip-charts Outcomes: what people take away in their heads & how they

act on what they have learnt

Knowledge Café Examples

National Audit Office– What should we do with social tools?

Dubai Holdings– Evening on the canals of Amsterdam

StatoilHydro– merger, management training, retirement, transfer of

technical expertise

PortalParnership– A sales tool

Questions

“How do we measure the impact of KM?”

David GURTEEN Gurteen Knowledge Fleet, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 7774 178 650 Email: david.gurteen@gurteen.com

www.gurteen.com

If you would like to receive my free monthly Knowledge Letter that is now in its 11th year

and is distributed to over 17,000 people world-wide then just send me an e-mail.

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Attribution-Share Alike 2.0

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