leadership

 We always say how people and culture are the biggest moving parts in the success (or failure) of KM, and that KM is "about people not tech", so what part does job-focused psychology play in KM?

This twitter chat is inspired on the Wizard of Oz! The dicsussion questions are oriented around 3 of the characters; Tin Man (heart) , Scarecrow (brain), and Lion (courage):

- Heart: The importance of culture (relative to KM)
- Mind: The role of technology (in enabling KM)
- Courage: The effect of leadership (in supporting KM)

 This prompt helps people to think a bit outside the box. What goal would you strive for if you were not hampered by all the little reasons that block.

Q1: If I ran conferences (from a KM perspective)
Q2: If I ran all meetings
Q3: If I controlled the direction for social media in my organization

Successful knowledge management has traditionally been thought to be a “system” issue. Technology was the solution. Reality is that the technology system is ½ the issue – the other half is human behavior to WANT to share/contribute knowledge. Changing behavior relative to sharing and contributing is as important as the tool.

From Journal of Knowledge Management :

Most companies are finding that leveraging knowledge extremely difficult, and more dependent on building a culture based on effective communicating teams, and interdepartmental trust, than on information technology. (from: 2Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, August 2004 The Relationship Between Social Interaction And Knowledge Management System Success Anthony J. Delmonte, Kennedy Space Center, Jay E. Aronson, The University of Georgia.)

Key to success is getting people to share information.

The questions for the chatters are:

1. Do you see sharing as a barrier to knowledge management?
2. What other behaviors are critical to a successful KM initiative?
3. What have you done in the past relative to increasing participation in KM initiatives?
4. How has participation been rewarded and reinforced?
5. How important is it to have senior managers modeling KM behaviors?

 

In this week's Twitter Chat we revisit the 13 KM tips of Stan Garfield by highlighting control and motivation issues in knowledge management.

Stan will host a discussion based around 2 of his 13 tips

• Let go of control; encourage & monitor
• Just say yes; be responsive

11 other KM tips from Stan

• Collect content; connect people
• Lead by example; model behaviors
• Tell stories; get others to tell theirs
• Include openly; span boundaries
• Prime the pump; ask & answer questions
• Network; pay it forward & share relentlessly
• Let go of control; encourage & monitor
• Just say yes; be responsive
• Meet less, deliver more
• Enable innovation; support integration
• Try things out; improve & iterate
• Set goals; recognize and reward

Many knowledge management programs and social media initiatives begin as grass roots efforts or skunk works projects, gaining users from the ground up. Others are launched by top executives through formal communications imploring members of the organization to participate. The most successful implementations combine both of these methods, while adding one more: the executives and their staffs not only communicate about the initiative, they actually participate themselves in a visible manner.

During this chat we'll examine this premise, and share experiences around it.