Being the convener for sikm 110816.v6

Being the Convener ―Being a catalyst for sharing hidden know-how‖

August 16, 2011

Kate Pugh

AlignConsulting

www.alignconsultinginc.com

[email protected]

Sharing Hidden Know-How (Jossey-Bass, 2011)

Roberto Evaristo

3M Corporation, Knowledge Management Program Office

[email protected]

[email protected]

(c) 2011 AlignConsulting 1

To get ahead in today’s business world, leaders understand they

must quickly capitalize on the know-how (knowledge) that lives inside

their organizations or networks – in the teams, processes and experts

that comprise them. You can make this happen by being a boundary-

spanner, helping others to surface usable insights, and putting know-

how to work.

We describe a ―convening competency‖ that addresses this through

planning, facilitating, and following through from effective

conversations. Paired with appropriate technology and participation,

―conveners‖ use facilitation, conversation and translation to

streamline new product development, accelerate merger integrations/

restructurings, enable off-shore and outsource teams, and smooth

transitions to new executives, teams, and geographies.

(These ideas expand upon and apply many of the concepts in the

book Sharing Hidden Know-How (by Katrina Pugh, Jossey-

Bass/Wiley, 2011.)

http://www.alignconsultinginc.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.amazon.com/Sharing-Hidden-Know-How-non-Franchise-Leadership/dp/0470876816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295578223&sr=1-1








Agenda• What’s wrong with traditional tacit knowledge-transfer

approaches?

• You can help!

• Deep dive on the competencies

• How (where) do you get those competencies?

• What’s animating you?

2(c) 2011 AlignConsulting

Three Knowledge Transfer Cases


Case 3M

Large Med

Device

Manufacturer

Strategy

Consulting Firm

Business Issue

Experienced

operators suddenly

retire in crucial

manufacturing site

IT team missed

deadline, quality

objectives

Fleeting case teams

K transfer

Approach

Story telling,

preceded by

rudimentary ―critical

event‖ assessment

After action review

(project team only)

Template-based,

filled by junior

consultant with

senior review

Result

Lack of planning not a

handicap, but warning

about future K

transfer investments

Self-improvement,

but no big probes

into systemic issues

Repository slow to

get used (still going

to personal

networks)

Knowledge

Blind spot?

Knowledge

Mis-match?Knowledge

Jail?

What’s the problem?

• We need to probe past

―Where’s the scarcity?‖ to

―What matters to the

organization?‖

– Issue is a team-change, new

project or product start up

• We don’t know who knows, or

who needs to know

– What organization might be

holding back for political

reasons? Job-security? Fear of

recrimination?

(c) 2011 AlignConsulting

Knowledge “Blind Spots”

4

Addressing the unknown unknowns


[T]here are known knowns; there are things

we know we know.

We also know there are known unknowns;

that is to say we know there are some things

we do not know.

But there are also unknown unknowns – the

ones we don't know we don't know.

Donald Rumsfeld, Feb 12, 2002

What’s the problem? (cont’d)

• We fail to see the relevance

of the lesson learned to our

context (discipline jargon)

• Documents rather than

dialogues

– Omissions, summaries,

acronyms, implications for

original audience (The cryptic

PowerPoint)

– Alternatively, detail, when

need a simple answer


Knowledge “Mismatches”

What’s the problem? (cont’d)

• High effort to create

repositories, and difficult to

achieve quality, build

credibility

• Info glut and poor search

– 107 Trillion emails in 2010

(12T real); 153 million blogs

– Unstructured data mining

expensive, time-consuming

• Unidirectional: Too much

push and not enough pull!

Knowledge “Jails”


Roberto’s regret

• ―My only surprise is the surprise by other people

that it (traditional repositories) didn’t work!‖

• It could not possibly work – BY DESIGN

– Didn’t address inherent asymmetry of cost-benefit in

provide/retrieve processes -- blindspots

– Didn’t get context, insight (try to be all things to

everyone) -- mismatches

– Didn’t address long-term sustainability issues -- the

ability of the system to be relevant over time -- jail


What are the competencies a convener

needs?


Knowledge “Blind Spots”

Knowledge “Mismatches”

Knowledge “Jails”

1. Facilitation: Prioritizing


Sharing Feasibility• Participants available?

(Stand-in available?)

• Participants ready?

• Facilitator available?

• Know-how is

accessible?

• Appropriate ―cover‖ or

safety?

• Knowledge absorption

rate?

Knowledge Impact• Improve efficiency?

• Single points of failure?

• Product/mkt innovation?

• Job satisfaction?

• Experts/veterans leaving

or moving?

• Surprisingly successful?

• Surprisingly not?

1. Facilitation (cont’d): Boundary Spanning

not just people, but also ideas

Source: Andrew Parker, Stanford University (Thank you, Stan Garfield)11(c) 2011 AlignConsulting

Boundary spanning between

knowledge creates ―uncommon

connections,‖ one of the sources

of 3M Innovation

Extra-organizational knowledge

can also be connected (say,

Twin Cities Knowledge

Management Forum members

who benchmark across

industries)

Models can be used to abstract

and relate previously

unconnected areas of

knowledge (e.g., the DMAIC,

systems thinking archetypes)

Strengthening weak ties Connecting ideas

2. Conversation: Evoking conversation


Pursuit of Diversity

Glen

Beck!

Paul

Krugman!

Lady

Gaga!Sarah

Palin!

Robert

Reich!

Practices of Dialogue

ListeningSuspension

Respect

Voice

Not assuming

(opposite: Abstraction)

Not judging

(opposite: Certainty )

Appreciating what is

(opposite: Violence)

Sense of agency or authority

(opposite: Idolatry)

Posture of Openness

/

2. Conversation (cont’d): Helping people

ask right questions, right tone

Michael Wilkinson’s’ generic information gathering moves (Secrets of Facilitation, Jossey-Bass, 2004)


Float—–

―What about. . .

? What are the

benefits?‖

Tag Question—

―That’s

important,

isn’t it?‖

(warms

people up)Prompt

Question—–

―What else

might come

into play?‖

Leading

Question—

―Are there

solutions in

the area of. .

.?‖

Playback—

―Let me try to

restate that. . .

.‖

Redirect—

―Good point.

Can we put

that in the

parking lot?‖

Indirect Probe—―

And the

reason you

did that is. . .

.‖

Direct Probe—―

Why is that

important?‖

Thank You!

2. Conversation (cont’d): Visualizing knowledge

using text, concept mapping, systems thinking


Concept Mapping Systems Thinking

Cats

Canaries

[Eat]

Canary

population

Cat Fat

Canary Meals

-

+

-

+

Time

Ca

na

rie

s Steady

state

Balancing

Loop

Balancing

Loop

[provide]

Calories to

Cats

3. Translation: Help others put the

knowledge to work

Help the ―brokers‖ (seekers’

reps) with:

• Representing the ―Seekers‖

• ―Remixing‖ Content

• Promoting learning

• Handling perish-ability

• Measuring impact

• Being a change agent!


3. Translation (cont’d): Have a repertoire

of translationsBuild a repertoire of translations relevant to you. Some

examples:

• Amyris Technologies: fermentation processes in drug

development applied to produce ethanol

• ―Subscription model‖ (publishing, members’

organizations) adopted by community farms

• 3M’s hearing aid group learned about aesthetics from

dental prosthetics

• Recreational ammunition cartridges became oxidized

(―looked old‖), so they benchmarked with L’Oreal

cartridges for lipstick

• US Postal Service leveraging Nordstrom’s customer

service


Starts

during

Boundary

spanning!

Convener Competency Summary:

Transcend any individual process


Surfaces usable insight • Tone of common curiosity

• Models

• Probes, Captures

Puts knowledge to work• Summarizes

• Translates

• Measures and Nudges

Spans boundaries • Brings people and ideas together

• Prioritizes

• CoordinatesFacilitation

ConversationTranslation

You can grow the convening

competency…

• Evoke serendipitous

connections

• Convene break-through

conversations

• Inspire responsibility for shared

learning, and collective change

• Model common curiosity instead of

competing


Social NW analysis, social media

planning

Facilitation, dialogue, systems

thinking

Change management, Stakeholder

mgt., impact communication

Story telling, relevant case

development

Start a knowledge portfolio

(―feasibility and impact‖ 2x2)

• Identify the risk implications of

blindspots

Facili

tation

Convers

ation

Tra

nsla

tion

Take it to the bank


New Product

Development

Merger integration

Offshoring/Outsourcing

Overcoming Info-Glut

Exec./Team Transitions

Sales insights

Making social Media

initiatives succeed

Who is the ―convener‖?


Like the waterfall’s

structure, You:

• Guide, channel,

• Manage the flow,

• Enrich with

minerals,

• Re-mix different

sources

• Help nourish the

flora and fauna,

recycle


What ―convening‖ do you admire in others?

What obstacles

do you see?

What are you already doing?

Questions about the ―convener‖:

Appendix


Kate Pugh, AlignConsulting• Kate has 17 years of consulting and seven years of industry experience.

She held leadership positions with Intel Corporation, JPMorgan, and

Fidelity. Kate helped run Intel Solution Services’ Knowledge and Process

Mgt Group, led Fidelity Personal & Workplace Investments KM, and

initiated and ran the JPMorganChase’s Finance Portal Program.

• Kate has helped launch and/or run over 20 communities of practice,

including Intel’s award-winning Enterprise Architects’ community.

Sample clients include ClearChannel, Fidelity Investments, The Gates

Foundation, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Medtronic, Mitokine

Bioscience, Motorola, State Farm, and The World Bank. Kate is on the

Board of Knowledge Mgt. Institute Canada and on the faculty of

Columbia’s Inforamation and Knowledge Strategy Masters program.

• Kate has an MS/MBA from MIT Sloan, a BA in Economics from Williams

College, and certificates in Dialogue, Facilitation, Mediation, Project

Mgt., and LEAN Six Sigma.

• Kate wrote the book Sharing Hidden Know-How (Jossey-Bass, 2011).

She has articles in Harvard Business Review, NASA Ask Magazine, The

European American Business Journal, IBM Syn.Chrono.us Blog and

DashboardInsight.


Roberto Evaristo, 3M


• Prior to joining 3M in late 2006, Roberto was on the faculty of the Liautaud

Graduate School of Business at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He has

researched and consulted extensively for over fifteen years in many of Forbes’

500 largest worldwide companies, including Dell, Petrobras, Baxter Healthcare,

Fujitsu, Toshiba, and IBM.

• At 3M, Roberto has continued to work on a methodology he created: strategic

knowledge mapping (SKM). SKM addresses those strategic questions that

CEOs and other high level managers absolutely need answers to and that

existing resource allocation solutions have struggled to offer enterprise-wide

transparency, such as ―Where are your firm’s capability strengths and

vulnerabilities? Where should you be deploying resources to strengthen your

capabilities? How will restructuring affect your capabilities? What business

opportunities are you missing out due to gaps in your capabilities?‖ SKM

enables new perspectives on traditional issues such as succession planning,

staffing strategies, global R&D knowledge transfer, planned expertise growth

path across the workforce, and increasing transparency of knowledge location in

mergers and acquisitions.

• He has published over 100 book chapters, conference proceedings and

refereed articles in both academic and practitioner journals. He has also been a

frequent keynote speaker in worldwide meetings and conferences. Roberto

earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Management Information Systems from the

University of Minnesota.

Some Reading• Sharing Hidden Know-How (Jossey-

Bass, April 2011)

• Case Study: 3M Uses Storytelling to

Uncover Tacit Knowledge, 7-Jan 2009,

G00162392 (by request from Gartner)

• Jamming with the Institute for

Healthcare Improvement ― (NASA Ask

Magazine, Winter, 2011)

• ―Don’t Just Capture Knowledge – Put It

to Work,‖ Katrina Pugh and Nancy M.

Dixon, Harvard Business Review, May

2008.

• Sustainable Communities: Top 10

CSFs for Keeping the Faith, IBM

Synch.rono.us Blog, July 19, 2010


NASA Ask MagazineNASA Ask Magazine




http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/appel/ask/issues/41/41i_jamming.html

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/appel/ask/issues/41/41i_jamming.html

http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2008/05/dont-just-capture-knowledge-put-it-to-work/ar/1





http://synch.rono.us/social/blog.nsf/dx/07192010091946AMSLIHMX.htm

http://synch.rono.us/social/blog.nsf/dx/07192010091946AMSLIHMX.htm

Education

Being the convener for sikm 110816.v6