[May Be Spam] RE: [Sigkm-l] Annual ASIST Planning Meeting Recap

[montgomery_mark at juno.com]

Forgive the email format- my old catch all web account.

Kelly- you are in good company. I've designed, built, and operated three large but different learning networks over the ten year period since we converted our consultancy into an incubator specializing in knowledge systems. 

The challenges for organizations to effectively manage their knowledge yield are substantial and complex. We've been working since 1997 on the problem for large organizations, and I came to the conclusion in an R&D breakthrough of sorts a few years ago that we needed to change a few issues in the organizational structure itself, and provide tools to help change the culture as well.

Your colleagues in the federal government have been struggling with the issue on a very large scale for quite some time, and many are now in agreement with me since they have now gone down a similar path as we did with global systems.

I've found several keys that have helped unlock some barriers, but it requires a comprehensive knowledge architecture for the organization, integration with enterprise and communications systems, a slight adjustment in the org. chart in each business unit, and a multi-component & adaptable technical architecture. 

Until the organization as a whole embraces that level of change in becoming a learning organization, like the federal Gov in the past for example, each department is likely to acquire their own systems that require little commitment, improper governance, and what I consider to be very low knowledge yield. Therein lies the problem with portions of the KM movement. The path of least resistance in marketing isn't necessarily the most appropriate.

Kind regards,

Mark Montgomery
Founder- KYield
http://www.mountaincomputertech.com

~~~~~
I would love to know more about other's experiences in this area!
We have just implemented a part of a portal and a limited rollout of
collaboration tools.
Our previous attempt at providing message boards bombed. We have learned
from that and have changed our approach accordingly. Essentially we need
to first educate the execs and managers before letting it loose to the
agency. 

There were a couple instances of censorship when the board was first
released and that completely killed it. 
There was no understanding of using these things as a learning tool. Not
only that, misinformation or incomplete information that shows up in
online discussion are reflections of informal knowledge exchanges
already taking place!  It baffles me that the upper level management
would not want to expose these ideas and use this means to correct them;
explaining in what ways they are inaccurate. There are those in the
agency that still have the top down mentality, so we are still
undergoing a cultural change. We are encouraging a mixed approach. As a
government agency, we do have certain things that are top down from the
legislature or board on down.
However, cross divisional teams determine how these things are
implemented. At the front line level, employees do exchange ideas of how
to best accomplish their tasks. 

At any rate, does anyone have experience in teaching exec. level
employees about the advantages of free information exchange? I am not at
a level high enough and so have to be sure I don't step on the
administrator's toes when communicating. Our hope is that our pilot
projects which include exec and management level people will allow them
to experience some of these lessons. We have already found more
excitement running through the agency as others are getting wind that a
few people have been using other tools. At this time, we are also
constrained by funds for licenses. 



Kelly Ann Green
KMS Content Analyst
Virginia Retirement System



-----Original Message-----
From: sigkm-l-bounces at asis.org [mailto:sigkm-l-bounces at asis.org]On
Behalf Of montgomery_mark at juno.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 6:07 PM
To: Kelly A Green
Cc: sigkm-l at asis.org
Subject: [May Be Spam] RE: [Sigkm-l] Annual ASIST Planning Meeting Recap



I don't know her, but we've done quite a bit of work in researching
knowledge system design and collaboration with respect to innovation and
change management. 

A decade running a private incubator specializing in knowledge systems
allows sufficient time to navigate some of the obstacles to knowledge
yield. There is a lively discussion on this taking place currently on KM
in general and innovation specifically, although most of it is private.
Among the key areas of focus include incentivizing individuals to
contribute to the whole, organizational design, and financing state of
the art pilot projects.

Kind regards to all,


Mark Montgomery
Founder - KYield
http://www.mountaincomputertech.com
Initium Venture Capital
http://www.initiumcapital.com

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