Language united mankind for building the tower of Babel, and loss of language caused its abandonment. Everyday language is too linear for the complexities of business communication and misrepresents it. A language to unite stakeholders will go a long way towards overcoming the disagreement and egos that jeopardize success.
- The Quality of work:
- You can reach people around the clock, but they won’t think any better or any faster just because you’ve reached them faster. The give and take remains a limiting factor” (Andy Grove to Business Week in 2000). The need is for a compelling language to conduct conversations that goes beyond expressing the inner life and knowledge of its participants.
- The management of Knowledge work:
- “The ratio of unstructured to structured information in most organizations is easily 9 to 1, yet many of us spend most of our time worrying about — indeed, dedicating our careers to — managing the most familiar 10 percent of the problem: structured information. …………..in what other profession can practitioners ignore 90 percent of what defines the profession? It’s as if physicians were to treat only the 10 percent of their patients who suffer from the best understood diseases with the most familiar treatments …………………. Because of this fixation, we neglect the most important side of the ratio, the unstructured information that drives much of the decision making in our key business processes.” (Mark Tucker (1) of Delphi Group in 1999): There is no breakthrough in management of unstructured interactions, the prime creator of unstructured information, since 1999. This workplace is being adversly affected.
- McKinsey have defined real Knowledge workers as those who deal with ambiguity, exercise high levels of judgment and draw deeply on their experience. They need tio engage in Knowledge interactions for conduct of their daily work. McKinsey studies (2) have established the emerging primacy of Knowledge interactions for work in the 21st century as also absence of means to manage Knowledge exchange for superior performance.
- 70 percent of all US jobs created since 1998 require judgment and experience. The ratio is increasing rapidly. These jobs now make up 41 percent of the labor market in the United States.
- Recent studies—including landmark research McKinsey conducted in 1997—show that specialization, globalization, and technology are making interactions far more pervasive in developed economies. Outsourcing leads the way.
- “The ratio of unstructured to structured information in most organizations is easily 9 to 1, yet many of us spend most of our time worrying about — indeed, dedicating our careers to — managing the most familiar 10 percent of the problem: structured information. …………..in what other profession can practitioners ignore 90 percent of what defines the profession? It’s as if physicians were to treat only the 10 percent of their patients who suffer from the best understood diseases with the most familiar treatments …………………. Because of this fixation, we neglect the most important side of the ratio, the unstructured information that drives much of the decision making in our key business processes.” (Mark Tucker (1) of Delphi Group in 1999): There is no breakthrough in management of unstructured interactions, the prime creator of unstructured information, since 1999. This workplace is being adversly affected.
The impact of the problem:
I shall just illustrate two dimensions here to reveal the impact of the problem:
- Quality of interactions: Senge (3) gives the example of collaboration performed in say English in diverse cross-functional teams such as a management team. Each team member carries his or her own predominantly linear mental models…..The team members genuinely resemble the proverbial blind men and the elephant – each knows the part of the elephant within his grasp, each believes the whole must look like the piece he holds, and each feels his understanding must be the correct one. The assumptions, generalizations, learning disabilities, defensive reactions and limited system view are not revealed by the means for interaction.
- Volume of untamed interactions: State of the workplace
- In the United States, 2 million employees fall victim to workplace violence every year. According to the Workplace Violence Research Institute, 723 people are attacked in some way at work every day. Workplace violence costs businesses over $36 billion per year in legal fees, counseling for employees, and money paid on claims.
- As reflected by murder of Yale student Annie Le in October 2009: New Haven Police Chief James Lewis called Le's death a case of workplace violence. "It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country."
“Reality is composed of multiple-simultaneous, interdependent cause-effect-cause relationships. From this reality, normal verbal language extracts simple, linear cause-effort chains. This accounts for a great deal of why managers are so drawn to low leverage interventions”.
The emphasis on the obvious also explains why stakeholders on the same side of a fence are drawn into destructive internecine warfare - They do not investigate the root cause where there may be an identity of views. The helplessness induced by the obvious also explains rage, the loss of desire to volunteer, and the incidence of fear with uncertainty. Rage is enhanced by the pile up of work arising from untamed interactions.
Senge states the solution is to talk in terms of the underlying patterns of system behavior. I believe, in addition, the language for engaging in conversations must emerge the process, assumptions and generalizations to deliver the loops of Learning stated in my Barrier on Neglect of the accumulated Management Wisdom. Besides, empowerment will acquire meaning only when supported by a means for Learning to overcome the internal barriers to its gainful utilization.
This solution is wholly conceptual. It explains how the assembly of Knowledge achieved by assembling interactions with the Knowledge Assembly Line presented in the aforesaid Barrier promotes a language for the loops of learning, i.e., meaningful collaboration, and exposes complexities to emerge the Reality. The Assembly Line does pretty much what the Comment Board does on a web news story - See illustration (CLICK HERE). The concept of language is important as it explains the ready absorption of the Knowledge Assembly Line, my means for taming interactions, into the work-stream of any organization.
As a rule, knowledge leaks in the direction of shared practice and sticks where practice is not shared (4, Brown, & Gray, 2003). Knowledge is a by-product of interactions. Thus the need is fluent use of a common language for the conduct of all Knowledge interactions.
Language is procedural in nature. Architecting a language driven by IT to conduct conversations will not only enable management of interactions and work volumes but will also impart the language a compelling appeal by making it:
- A satisfier of key personal needs of Knowledge workers not satisfied today. Satisfaction will definitely reduce the helplessness conducive to rage in the workplace. My Barrier: Neglect of the accumulated Management Wisdom states the personal needs satisfied.
- Intuitive for conducting interactions;
- Smart, i.e., anticipating the next Action for co-ordination;
- Self-driven, i.e., executing the Action in conjunction with the enterprise organization chart;
- Clear in its communication of the expectation accompanying the Action and assisting follow-up;
- Secure for assembling Knowledge on an event and access thereafter to the Knowledge exchanged; and
- Available for interactions at the convenience of the participants, i.e., irrespective of same-time contact and temporary suspension of connectivity.
Such a common language can be expected to evoke the commitment of busy administrators to be shared practice for all interactions. Apart from creating time and liberating personnel energy it will induce its own adoption by reducing, through definition and follow-up, the anxiety from expectations that accompany the conduct of interactions.
Freiherr von Humboldt (Wikipedia), the first to clearly lay down the character and structure of a language, described language as a system which "makes infinite use of finite means", i.e., creates infinite sentences using finite number of grammatical rules.
Collaboration with Web 2.0 tools is not governed by grammar, the hallmark of a language. Self-organized seeking drives the interactions. Dependence on self-organization and tool skills, disregard of the organization structure and blindness to the expectations accompanying interactions makes Web 2.0 akin to sign language. Even where collaboration takes place the format ignores conduct of the loops of Learning. This explains why Web x.0 and its derivative for the enterprise, Enterprise x.0, simply do not possess the DNA to foster meaningful collaboration among stakeholders across the distributed enterprise.
The common language may be modeled on the successful conduct of paper-based dialogue by the Indian colonial administration (5, Drucker, 1988) at a time when train, telephone and telegraph were in narrow use. The Dialogue assisted the colonial administration to function as an effective team. The following comparison illustrates the difference between a normal language and the proposed common language for Dialogue or meaningful collaboration:
(KEY: Parameter: English language – a common language for meaningful collaboration)
- Purpose: Communication among individuals – Interactions with reliable feedback
- Goal: Sentences for expressing thought – Flow of Knowledge to surface complex thinking
- Vocabulary: Words to drive thought – Actions to manage interactions and expectations
- Assembly of vocabulary: Grammar – Norms derived from evolution of teamwork
- Focus: Subject – Business event (meta data + content, e.g., email, letter, idea, etc.)
- Product: Simple expression of insight – Systematic flow and capture of Knowledge in context (see illustration)
- Parsing: Parts of speech – Pre-defined categories that define the flow, whether fact, assumption, or insight, and the context (meta data only)
- Audience: Anybody – Spontaneously selected from a structure. Linked to Action.
- Driving energy: Personnel energy – Processing and communicating power of technology
The use of IT to create a common language for Dialogue is not far fetched. My hack Compelling Energy for a quantum jump in organization performance with the same resources details the harnessing of IT to assure Dialogue in the daily conduct of work and interaction. Total adoption by cynical and intransigent personnel in prototypes has validated its operation as a compelling language for all Knowledge work and interaction. Its systematic recording of conversations for ease of work, knowledge flows, access to experts, and retrospective evaluation of judgments provides the means to engage passion. It has delivered remarkable results:
- Compelling adoption: The invested intelligence makes conduct of Knowledge interactions effortless. It anticipates the next step, systematically records action taken, provides history in context and offers IT tools as needed;
- Pursuit of truth: Dialogue reveals the thinking and assumptions for superior judgments;
- Communities: The structure fosters formal and informal interest driven groups;
- Contemplation time: Created by ability to study and state opinion at convenience;
- Teamwork and trust: Progressed by natural collaboration and feedback on each event. It delivers free flow for inquiry, advocacy, openness, and reflection. Distinct from just knowledge sharing, it progresses constructive combination of intelligence. Responsibility is shared.
- Innovation: Set up by need definition, thought evolution and breaking of moulds;
- Commitment: The ease of work, follow up, creation of time and energy, sharing of responsibility, and superior sense of reality raise willingness for greater commitment;
- Good governance: Accountability is defined and work progress is transparent;
- A culture for excellence: A simple but effective process to deliver the above against measures on each event has showed potential to induce the culture over time.
Efficient and effective Knowledge application is responsible for all results ranging from making organizations adaptable, innovative, inspiring and socially accountable to progressing superior judgments with higher quality standards and speedier service at least cost. The struggle to manage growing customer expectations, government regulation, pace of change, globalization and information glut drains the energy personnel can spare to organize and drive the flow of Knowledge for superior application. The supply of inexhaustible and compelling "intelligent energy" created by my work effortlessly operates a language to drive meaningful collaboration. It assures superior Knowledge application that empowers and drives personnel for change from within. The interested reader may like to read my Barrier: ‘Change from within is a citadel that must be stormed – from within’ to appreciate the powerful value-add of this delivery.
The Dislogue format serves another very useful purpose. Knowledge workers are inclined to interact and not read. I note they often substitue reading with interacting. This may not be the best way to deal with Knowledge but that is how the cookie crumbles. Short exchanges that allow the questioning of assumptions is well suited to ensure that effective communication takes place.
The way of working and interaction established by the language for Dialogue is compelling for workers: its ease of use and service rendered makes it the natural choice for conduct of all Knowledge work and interactions. Incentives are not needed for either adoption or Knowledge sharing.
ONLY replace use of email for business communication over the intranet / extranet with my infrastructure for all work and interaction. (Extranet covers the extended organization of selected customers and suppliers)
Further details for testing and implementation are stated in my Hack: ‘Compelling Energy for a quantum jump in organization performance with the same resources’.
In communicating the import of my work I found the following works particularly helpful:
(1) Tucker Mark. (September 14, 1999). Dark matter of decision making. Intelligent Enterprise, Volume 2 - Number 13.
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/db_area/archives/1999/991409/feat1.jhtml. (Accessed July 01, 2010).
(2) MCKinsey Studies: Employee interactions: creating competitive advantages - McKinsey Quarterly - Organization - Strategic Organization: https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Strategic_Organization/The_next_revolution_in_interactions_1690
(3) Senge, P. M. (2006). The Fifth Discipline. NY: Currency Doubleday (First Published: 1990)
(4) Brown, J. S., and Gray, E. S. (2003). Creating A Learning Culture: Strategy, Practice, And Technology. Cambridge University Press
http://www.johnseelybrown.com/intro_learningculture.html. (Accessed Sep. 01, 2010).
(5) Drucker Peter, F. (1988). ‘Coming of the new organization’. Harvard Business Review, January-February, 1988.
It does not pay to be angry. This is a lesson I am learning all over again. It is the reason I missed the import of this hack earlier. It substantiates your use of the word 'compelling' to describe your delivery. A language you do not need to learn but which accomplishes your desire to collaborate meaningfully can only be compelling.
In comparison Enterprise 2.0 is sign language. Both the participants in a Web 2.0 environment must be motivated to communicate and must know the intricacies of the tools used.
Regards,
Nayantara
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Hi Raj,
This hack provides the missing link to your original hack. I do not see it today.
I quote from your response to Mireille following her post in my Barrier:
"The work is modeled on the fifth labor of Hercules. Alone he could not clean out the Augean stables in a single day. So he redirected the mighty energy of the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to do the job for him. He did not have to plan for the cleaning of the stables or the enrichment of the valley below with the rich cattle dung. They followed from the flow."
With a language like the one envisaged by you driving the Knowledge Assembly Line detailed in your Barrier "Neglect of the accumulated Management Wisdom" I can foresee the essence of David Packard and Iverson's Management philosophy of free-flow of Knowledge coming into play.
Here too I found myself wishing for a display of the produce of the language for meaningful collaboration.
Best wishes,
Nayantara
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While I suspect you are stepping in the direction of more details on implementation, Raj, I'd like also to affirm an interest in that from the standpoint of renewal that could become reality.
Given the reasons for this shift, and I can support it also from a brain based perspective, for instance, I have several implementation questions: 1). Where does one start to apply it? 2). How would you and others support leaders already moving in that direction? 3). What resources would be needed? And, 4). Where might the resources and skilled change agents be found?
These are questions I still have after reading your interesting insights here.
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Dear Nayantara,
Yes, the Dialogue exhibit needs to be put up. Somehow, I am having a problem in managing the Materials for my old hack and its two months since I reported it.
I took all my contributions off to remodel them. At first there was 1 and now there are 7 of them! I have taken advantage of the Hack/Barrier format to focus on one problem at a time. Also put up my story to explain the twenty years.
I have been struggling to bridge Freedom with free-flow and you caught the essence so directly: Freedom translates to free-flow! The translation is one with your Barrier: there is no ownership, no ego, no danger of rigid positions. All that exists is Knowledge and its power to emerge the reality and stimulate innovation. Indeed, the flow of Dialogue created by IT will bring about that Freedom.
Delighted,
Raj Kumar
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Hello Ellen,
In talking of renewal you are perhaps referring to the quote you updated to my story: "We must be learning to be fully alive, and when life becomes too predictable or it seems there is little left to learn - we become restless – a protest perhaps of the brain’s plasticity, when it can no longer perform its essential task. (Norman Doidge (MD)". I am simply providing the intelligent energy to organize and drive Dialogue. The rest is your interpretation! Regret, your brain approach is not my line of inquiry.
I conceived this hack not to detail implementation but to conceptually establish that IT can very effectively manage interactions, and organize and drive the procedures that establish Dialogue in the daily conversations. This will greatly enhance the communication of meaning and the formation of a collective to emerge the Reality. According to me the prime purpose of a Knowledge collective is to emerge the Reality. All good flows from this.
1). Where does one start to apply it?:
As my old hack on Compelling Energy says, just replace email with my backbone across the intranet/extranet and encourage the free-flow that follows. The rest takes place on its own. Remember, there is 'intelligent energy' at play.
2). How would you and others support leaders already moving in that direction?
My work will assist all leaders seeking Freedom. Today they have to summon the energ to establish motivation and fight time to establish the culture desired. And thereafter hope for the best to sustain the culture. My work will harness IT to induce the culture within months and sustain it.
3). What resources would be needed?
My hack on Compelling Energy defines the resources. I would say at the least 85% of the MNCs already have them in place. My breakthrough is sustained quantum jump in performance without additional resources. I have demonstrated this with my prototype both in Government and the Corporate sectors. However, my prototype was implemented on the small scale. Now I am seeking proof points on the enterprise scale.
4). Where might the resources and skilled change agents be found?
The hardware resources already exist. There utilization today is under 20%. My work will raise the utlization beyond 70%. The existing IT support structure is enough to service the maintenance needs. Today, they too are under-utilized and competing for a relatively stagnant market. I will need to establish tie-ups with consultants to progress the transformation of organizations. There are more than enough consultants in the market place and quite a few of them are centrally accessible. None of them have a viable strategy for corporate transformation.
All that I need to set the ball rolling is successful enterprise scale proof points. My work changes the IT paradigm for Knowledge work and for that I must face up to minds unwilling to believe the possible till they see it in operation on the enterprise scale. Frankly, conceiving the change of paradigm is a cakewalk compared to the road to its acceptance.
Thank you for your sustained interest.
Regards,
Raj Kumar
P.S.: My original hack stating practical First Steps is available at http://www.managementexchange.com/hack/compelling-energy-quantum-jump-or...
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Dear Raj Kumar,
Your comment in your new Hack at: http://www.managementexchange.com/hack/creating-common-language-unite-st... on the poor response to problems by MIX staff has touched a raw nerve. MIX is a great idea, well integrated with the software. But its conduct is depressing. Firstly, they have yet to revert to me on the problems I faced in registering about 45 days ago. Had I not changed computers I would have still been struggling to join! But even more deplorable is the way contributions are graded. People can downgrade a Sketch without submitting a Build or a Comment! This is a competition. Rivalry is inescapable. Grading without transparency and any responsibility makes it easy for Rivals to bypass merit and climb over the works ahead of them. I have seen your new hack perform like a yo-yo. This time the grading is visible. Does it mean even the MIX authorities are engaging in the cowardly act of blind evaluations of content?
Just yesterday McKinsey released a new article on the poor attention paid to interactions though they govern the conduct of Knowledge work (see https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Strategic_Organization/Bo...). Nobody has the slightest inkling of how to tame (your word) Knowledge interactions and this is at the root of Management problems and stagnation of productivity. Your work is the only one that not only understands the importance of interactions and the havoc their growth is causing but actually proceeds to leverage a powerful philosophy and CREATES an inexhaustible energy source to tame them. You have taken great pains to explain your Hack and how it will bring alive the accumulated Management Wisdom. I have already expressed my expectation that your work will release a force to advance the conduct of Management along the trail blazed by the likes of David Packard and Ken Iverson and others. Could MIX have desired anything more? In the face of so much ignorance I have decided to confine my contributions to your work.
I could be wrong in my assessment of your work but it depresses me the MIX staff are making no effort to understand your work, grading your Hacks without so much as commenting on them and throwing the field open to opportunism. I am going to update this comment to each of your seven contributions in protest against the prevailing ignorance and attitude and give top marks to those of your contributions I have not graded. They deserve the marks.
I must do something: The MIX staff are throwing away the beautifully crafted opportunity created by Gary Hamel to advance Management.
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Hello Nayantara,
I suppose I was too involved with my participation to feel your disappointment at MIX. I did, however, write to the coordinator of MIX about 45 days ago when I first noticed the flaws you have described. I have not yet received his response. I think it is a hiccup in a great experiment and I am sure with the sincere Feedback of participants like you it will get sorted out.
Thanks for surfacing yet another McKinsey study on interactions. It is true no recognized way exists to tame Knowledge interactions and so they are ignored. And so long as they are not tamed the world shall face mounting Management problems and human suffering. The amazing fact is that Machiavelli foresaw my predicament in taking my paradigm change to a hungry market five centuries ago.
Regards,
Raj Kumar
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Hello,
I hope my comment updates here.
Looking upon your Knowledge Assembly Line as Language is indeed a powerful reason for its adoption. In a way it amounts to taking the horse to the water and then sweetening the water so that he drinks it up for his own good!
I have already messaged you on my impression of your other hack creating the Knowledge Assembly Line explained by your Barriers - it is a genuine Breakthrough. The world needs energy to lower the demand on the mental energy of personnel.
I wish you and your work well.
Regards,
Dhiraj
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Sorry for the delay in responding. Not only was I busy with the new hack but MIX has suspended its service of informing updates.
Thank you for your kind wishes. I need them to effect the change of mind that I must to get anywhere.
Regards,
Raj Kumar
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Your lowering the demand on mental energy stirred a thought. I have written in my Achieving the ends of Knowledge hack that there is now a new breed of Knowledge Management folks in town. I have called them the neo-KM school. They have switched the emphasis from Knowledge capture and reuse to natural motivation for effective sharing of Knowledge. The motivation is decided by the specific Managaement aspect being promoted. Thus for better thinking it is purpose and Tone, for trust and teamwork it is sheer wisdom - doing something now before it blows up, and then there is the all encompassing school of Freedom. They say that the drive for Freedom is so strong that it brings self-drive, self responsibility and self-accountability in its wake.
I grant the neo-KM schools the power of self-motivation if the right levers are pressed. My questions are:
- What is the priority in terms of problems that must be attended to? Do we look at trust and teamwork in isolation from empowerment or the drive for success? Do we directly address the thinking process of Freedom or do we work assiduously to create the means for Freedom and let Freedom work its magic? Working on the means implies recognizing the growth of interactions and seeking to master them before they overwhelm us.
- If Freedom is just a matter of procedure as my Hacks and Barriers establish, and IT can provide the infrastructure, then why spend energy in persisting with legacy? Why not ride the bus for a swifter journey and saving of energy? It is possible better results are achieved by personnel mentored by a remotely located expert fully familar with the ground situation because of a powerful infrastructure. It is win-win for all.
The problem is that the win-win has to be seen to be believed. I hope to create undeniable proof points.Nevertheless I cannot help questioning the time spent in the cold when the world is desperately seeking a means for progress towards success.
It is not so much a matter of embracing the new as getting rid of baggage.
Regards,
Raj Kumar
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Hello Raj,
Perhaps, with the MIX feedback system turning dysfunctional, you have not had reason to visit this hack of yours. We have interacted on your latest hack.
Your conversion of IT to compelling energy is fascinating and now this interpretation as language for clear communication is convincing. From what I read companies are going out on a limb seeking competitive advantage. Your work promises extraordinary competitive advantage from existing resources. Why then are you facing great difficulty in bringing it to market?
The story does not fit together!
Regards,
Dhiraj
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I have explained in some detail why client companies are reluctant to progress my work in my response to your query at my hack: http://www.managementexchange.com/hack/compelling-energy-quantum-jump-organization-performance-same-resources#comment-3701 .
My problem in entering the market place is experinced by all fundamental innovations. It takes time but they get over it.
Regards,
Raj Kumar
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Hello Raj,
I discovered this hack while surfing your Materials Section. It is an important link in your delivry. Explains why the solution becomes a part of the blood stream of the enterprise and goes on to induce a culture. Today it is unthinkable for IT to induce a culture across the enterprise though there is the prcedent of email doing precisely that.
Regards,
Rohit
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Thanks for looking in. I created this hack in retrospect to fill the gap between the Assembly Line and its acceptance. It made sense and answered a lot of questions.
Regards,
Raj Kumar
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