Knowledge is Social

I recently had a virtual conversation with someone who asked where is all this efficiency that was promised to us with digital information systems? He said that we are getting all these new tools and if anything people seemed to be doing more and productivity has not necessarily increased. He wasn’t sure that he was any better than before.

I think back to my younger days in the 60s and 70s when I actually read things in paper format. You remembers books, magazines and news papers from last century, right? Now I read e-Books in PDF format, get news from FoxNews.com and read the Small Wars Journal blog online. Well, one of my favorite magazines was Popular Mechanics and I would recall their frequent articles telling me of the future of jet packs and flying cars in the 21st Century. I would imagine that by the time I reached middle age, surely I would have a personal flying device to get me around like the Jetsons did. I think I was gypped.

I summed it with the assertion that digital systems are no more going to solve our problems and increase productivity than the internet is going to replace the printing press. If we don’t change the process that support or go along with those new information systems we will never reach the productivity envisioned. If you throw a magic box/software/program/widget in to an established organization and don’t adjust the way you accomplish a task (left, right, up, down), then you are likely to not see much of a different output. Define Insanity? Doing The same thing and expecting a different outcome.

I am not saying throw the baby out with the bath water and every new system requires a fresh piece of paper nor that you need to renegotiate how you do everything. The tasks and the standards don not changes, but the conditions do. You do need to evaluate and assess your processes and how it impacts from end-to-end and determine the tweaks necessary to streamline the old process because of the new tool.

And maybe if we get that right we will have more time to make a real flying car.

Changing a culture, that ought to be easy, Right? I mean you are the big cheese in your outfit so all you gotta do is line the troops up and start issuing the order, “Change. Be innovative, go ahead. I have faith and trust in you, now go forth. Be prosperous and live long.” But how do you really inculcate a culture of innovation in a group of people who are highly successful type-A personalities?

US Army CSA Gen. Eric Shinseki said it succinctly, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” But the how-to of developing a culture of change and innovation are the sticky wickets we all must pass through. The top three things that bring about an innovative culture that come to my mind are People, Process and Technology. Now before you groan and say “Dan, c’mon, you’ve got to have more for me that that?,” hear me out.

So first, ask yourself what you or your boss don’t like about your current culture and what do you want to “change to?” I recall discussions about ARFORGEN and the “Ready Pool,” which were eventually followed up by the ultimate question of “Ready for What?” The same question must be answered for change, and that is change in to what? You have to have a destination because it is important to know where you want to end up. Once you have that destination, how do you develop a culture of innovation?

One common theme you may hear is to develop innovative and adaptive leaders. FM 3-0, Operations, says “The Army requires agile and adaptive leaders able to handle the challenges of full spectrum operations in an era of persistent conflict.” It is Soldiers who will accomplish the mission, and that my friends are the “People” part of the equation. You execute change with them and through them. Usually you will find that your most innovative results come from your most adaptive soldiers, no surprise to those who understand the nature of soldiering today. Seek them out and give them new challenges and to help you discover and nurture other innovators.

Culture change is like the toy Slinky I had as a kid where I learned I must start at the head and work down towards the tail to get in moving in the right direction. If I did it right my Slinky made it to the bottom of the stairs. But if I tried from the middle or from the bottom, it would crash every time. Change starts with senior leaders who espouse, support, cajole and exemplify an innovative environment. They reward those who excel and sometimes have to use a boot to encourage others to get moving in the right direction. They push through the red tape that hampers innovation for subordinates and use their executive authority to empower their people. The greatest strength of the Army is its people, but they are often times hampered by archaic processes developed for another time, and without the benefit of the technological advances of today. You can have the greatest people and the best equipment, but if the processes do not effectively and efficiently support them, our advantage is lost.

One of my favorite books I never read is “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum. A few of his examples of important lessons taught to five year olds are: Share everything; Play fair; Don’t hit people; Clean up your own mess; Don’t take things that aren’t yours; Flush. How can you disagree with those examples? By extrapolating them in to adult terms they make good, common sense reminders on how the world would be a better place if we all continued to follow them.

I thought about his book on our youthful lessons when I read #4 of the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Army’s 12 Knowledge Management Principles, “Use every interaction whether face-to-face or virtual as an opportunity to acquire and share knowledge.”

The rationale behind principle #4 is that continuous learning is an expected day-to-day activity for soldiers and we can better accomplish learning by accelerating knowledge acquisition and transfer. Or as Fulghaum so aptly said it, “Share Everything.” Army Knowledge Management Principles create a consistent framework so warfighters can innovate, evaluate alternate courses of actions within context of local conditions, and act quickly and decisively.

Of course knowledge sharing already happens through meetings or roundtables, casual encounters in hallways, or in a social settings, like a dinner party or on the golf course. But the knowledge is passed mouth to mouth with little permanent record. And if others within the same organization need the information but were not privy to the discussion, must often go it alone to possibly solve a problem that has quite possibly been already successfully done.

By understanding what the inhibitors of a good KM program are and working to overcome them will allow us to chart a course, that is define a strategy, for capturing our resident knowledge and sharing it with everybody. It’s so easy a kindergartener can do it.

Just read a little ditty by Robert M. Caruso, “The Social Media Finger Point – Who are you kidding?,” over on Bundlepost, this was a good point about the state of social media advocates and consultants (of which I recently have found myself). Though mostly in the blogosphere and the various other collective and virtual sites, I too have felt a sense of having to “break in” to a club. Though I have been a long-time creator and user of social and collaborative “things,” I only just started to do it professionally on my own. I always feel like I have to explain myself, especially how much of my work was “part time” or what some would consider “hobbiest.”

I hope Mr. Caruso’s comments resonate and a few are reminded of the thrill of their first connections….we all start out somewhere and are lifted to great heights on the backs of others. How about reaching down every now and then and giving a newbie a boost?

//dan,

….is another blog. There are not enough of course, so I must jump in to the fray. I have figured there are many topics and areas that I have thoughts and commentary, and could quite possibily have a positive thing or two to add. So, feel free to follow, comment and read, this could turn out nicely.

Here is a blog post. It is not elegant, and it is not the stock WP Hello World, but it is mine. And its the first of many.