Category Archives: Business Culture & Process Issues (Operational)

why the UK Government is seeking to capture and retain critical knowledge

Posted on by

As I write this an updated Government knowledge & information Strategy is being crafted.

Following the recognition of knowledge & information management (KIM) as one of the professions of government and building on Information Matters published in 2008 it represents another important milestone in the journey towards a more flexible workforce able to recognise, capture and retain that knowledge & information critical for its current and future business.

More on that in due course once the Strategy has been released.

turning the km & i vison into reality

Recently HMRC (through Civil Service Learning) commissioned Sparknow and I to run a set of pilot programmes on capturing and exploiting corporate knowledge. HMRC like all areas of governement face the threefold challenge of:

  • equipping new joiners with sufficient knowledge and information that they are able to hit the ground running (while making the most of the knowledge they are bringing to the organisation)
  • ensuring that when staff are reassigned they have sufficient time and access to the knowledge they need to transition into the new role
  • capturing the huge experience and knowledge (often tacit) from staff who are coming up for retirement, whose job may be dissapearing or who are leaving to pursue a career elsewhere.

In welcoming the participants our sponsor said:

This proposed programme…aims to make knowledge retention part of the engrained behavior and the way ‘we’ work. It should be a continuous process fuelled by the belief that everyone has something to contribute and much to learn from sharing knowledge.

Our challenge then: to develop an informative, participative and enjoyable set of interlinked modules that gives exposure to a dozen or so tools and techniques that will help to identify, capture and reuse what are often termed ‘critical knowledge assets. And find a measurement (we used Dr Donald Kirkpatrick’s Learning Evaluation Model) to assess the success of this capacity building initiative.

View from first training room

The view from the venue for modules one and two.
Picture by Victoria Ward

Over the next month I am going to be taking a more in depth look at the modules we ran and the areas that stimulated most interest among the dozen or so senior HMRC staff from different areas of the business around the UK.  So as ‘they’ say: ‘watch this space’!

when knowledge & information  flow

As part of the discussions leading up to the programme we developed a vision (a future story) of what an knowledge & information friendly environment might look like:

I’ve just returned from ‘an audience with…’ session with  John who is about to retire. It was different from the usual breakfast briefing – we got to learn about topics and events we’d identified as being of interest. Hearing those described by someone who’d been through it all was really insightful for a relative newcomer.

I relocated this year: thanks to Agnieska who’d built a bridge between my predecessor and me there were few surprises and I still see Jane for a regular catch up. I am much more aware of things that are going on, who I can go to and ask a question. Most importantly I now have a set of useful questions and the confidence to ask them in any situation.

I am keeping my Decision Journal: who’d have thought it but it’s  been immensely valuable as a prompt when having conversations.  And I am now a timeline convert and shocked my Director when I  used postcards on a timeline to share my regular update.

I do feel that should I leave it would be easier to pass on what I’ve learned in a more illuminating way. If only I’d begun it earlier – using objects as prompts has made sharing experiences intuitive.

The business has benefited: an idea brought in by a new staff member resulted in process improvements that improved collection rates; when Roger transferred to East Kilbride the transition time was much shorter as he was able to tap into the networks of his predecessor and the insights that emerged from the sessions with Priyanga prior to her departure helped shape the new set up in Southend. Whereas before we may have lost touch, now she still feels a sense of attachment and was at one of the recent breakfast events that are now open to alumni.

 

 

 

 

when Moscow and Bangkok meet: conducting a cross border/cultural debrief

Posted on by

A couple of weeks ago I was the fictitious CEO of a global insurance group listening to a presentation by a combined group of Russian and Thai delegates at a training programme. Their task was to convince me that my company should engage them and to do so they had to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the approach they’d spent the previous 4 days learning about.

They had a few rules to adhere to:

  • The presentation was to last for a maximum of 50 minutes and minimum 25 minutes
  • Each person had to present for at least 5 minutes and no more than 10 minutes

Those familiar with both cultures will know that one is voluble and will openly debate, happy to occupy centre stage; the other more reserved preferring offline conversations with an aversion to open criticism.  After lunch my challenge was to conduct a debrief on this exercise with the group drawn from consulting and energy with a good to acceptable command of English.

I settled on using a timeline as a way of giving both groups a neutral object on which to focus.  I was trying to get them to recognise how differently groups from varied backgrounds and cultures can view the same exercise while concurrently acknowledging their very positive actions as a group. 

using a timeline as a catalyst for coming to an understanding about an event

Here’s the instructions I used:

  1. Please split into two groups Russian Team and Thai Team and take 15 minutes to:
    1. draw a timeline: from handing over to presentation
    2. now trace the steps and the chronology, noting down key moments/decisions as you saw them and who was involved
    3. were there any moments the group got stuck and if so how did you overcome them?
    4. when you’ve completed your sheet put it up on the wall
    5. then inspect the other team’s and note down any obvious differences

A key request was that ‘above the line’ they should record the key moments and ‘below the line’ the sticky (or difficult) moments. TimelineThe Thai team with their energy (engineering) background created a detailed forensic account whereas the Russian Team provided summaries for each of the headings above. The group found it very useful to discuss the difference in approach and outputs since it has real implications on the way to roll out new initiatives in a global organisation.

There was a lot of laughter (a good sign) when I invited them to split 50/50 Russian/Thai in pairs. I invited them to

  1. Get into pairs and discuss
    1. What is something that worked well in this activity?
    2. What is something that did not work well in this activity?
    3. What is something you would do differently next time?
    4. And finally, what behaviours did you find most helpful as you worked in a team for the first time.
  2. Back into plenary and capture each person’s comments.

Once we’d surfaced positive behaviours it enabled me to split the ‘teams’ and as a mark of progress I asked the listener to repeat back what their partner had said.

my takeaways

The formality of the timeline allowed both cultures to fully participate in their own way and  gave the less voluble Thais a mechanism to voice their feelings which otherwise might have remained hidden.

It re-emphasised the maxim that in a global business tailoring your messages to each audience is critical to get adoption.

And finally it underscored the idea that when undertaking a debrief it is important to always recognise and acknowledge the good behaviors that others adopt.

‘…a complaint is a gift’: engaging with customers & stakeholders

Posted on by

The British are uncomfortable with directness. It’s probably why one of my Saudi friends said he preferred dealing with the Americans and the French because he knew where he stood with them as they said what they meant. We tend to say ‘it was fine’ when asked if we enjoyed an experience or a meal when what we actually mean was ‘I wouldn’t serve it to my cat’. We avoid confrontation, write a bad review on Trip Advisor and congratulate ourselves on doing that and vowing never to return.

It’s also about confidence and I am reminded of the Michael McIntyre skit about the ritual of tasting the wine before accepting it to drink.  Few people have the knowledge or confidence to send it back. Here’s the clip.

Some good friends became so as a result of constructive criticism my wife and I once gave.  We’ve never just said that’s not very good, we’ve always tried to say how we might improve it.  Of course there’s a risk you get thrown out of a place and told you don’t know what you are talking about but by drawing out the positives (an Appreciative Enquiry technique I try to apply when giving feedback) your opinion is usually valued.

And yet if you run a customer focused service business such as a restaurant or hotel you need constructive feedback if you are to improve and Claus Moller got it right when he wrote the excellent book ‘a complaint is a gift’.

trouble in paradise

Having decided on 10 days r & r the last thing on my mind was a bout of constructive criticism.  However the majority of the people we met were so willing and genuine my wife and I felt obligated to spend time with the resort’s management when issues started to arise.

What follows is an edited extract from the letter they asked me for (I’ve removed any reference to names – it would be unfair) after the second meeting we had with the most senior member of the team on duty.

I am as promised documenting the ‘issues’ we’ve had during our stay as a way of hopefully helping you and the rest of your team to build on the solid foundations you have.  So I am going to describe each incident and then give you a few suggestions on behalf of us both as to how we think you might improve:

  • Friday 15th: The morning after check in we changed £300 at the front desk.  We had read on Trip Advisor that guests had been short changed in the past so we adopted a strategy of my wife ordering and me watching.  The amount due was 434 but we were given 430.  And we were asked to sign the receipt BUT were not given a copy until we asked for it.  Needless to say we challenged the person who apologised and gave us the remainder. We brought this issue to the attention of the representative that morning.
  • Sunday 17th: We ate in the upstairs ‘A la carte’ restaurant. We managed to get a booking for 9pm (we were told it was the only slot available). When we arrived it was sparsely populated.  The food was inferior to that served in the buffet and the wine (Spanish house white) was full of sediment.  When I drew it to the attention of the headwaiter his response was a shrug of the shoulders!
  • Tuesday 19th: A few days previous we’d purchased a bottle of Carmenere from the shop nearest to the nightclub. Along with crisps and biscuits it came to 12.50. On Tuesday afternoon I bought another bottle, with crisps, and was charged 13.60.  Again no receipt was offered. We returned to the shop and asked for an explanation: a mistake we were told. We asked to speak to the hotel manager (who was unavailable). Instead we had the pleasure of talking to you and are glad we did.
  • Wednesday 20th: The day of our wedding anniversary was spent in Havana with one of the local taxis. We had a superb day and ate delicious local food with them in the taxi at a spot where the taxi drivers buy food opposite the railway station. We’d booked into the downstairs ‘A la carte’ at 8.30pm and were looking forward to celebrating our anniversary in style. We arrived to find half a dozen guests only and ordered mixed tapas with two lobsters.  The Tapas was tasteless – I tried each and left most of it – and the lobster came coated in cheese accompanied by tinned carrots and peas.  We left without eating more than a mouthful each and went to the main area for dessert hugely disappointed that a special evening had been ruined.
  • Thursday 21st: Since the heavy rain on Tuesday our room had developed a nasty smell in the bathroom. That morning it was worse and we notified reception who promised to send someone down to sort it.  We returned that afternoon at 6pm to find the bath covered in excrement.  To the credit of the duty manager we were immediately relocated though obviously we had to repack and unpack and missed the reception you’d invited us to.

In your defence I should note the following:

The service in the pool bar, the piano bar and the buffet has been good: in the case of Vivian and Adimirys we have nothing but praise for their willingness to go the extra mile to provide exemplary service.

The facilities are good and the rooms perfectly acceptable especially those like 1182, which have been redecorated.

The manner in which you have dealt with our issues has been to your credit.

suggestions for improvement

Ana and I have experience in the hospitality and service industries. We are happy to give you some suggestions in the hope it might help turn what is a good product into a great one:

  1. Make both of the ‘a la carte’ restaurants places people want to go not places you give tickets away for.  How many people actually pay to go again having eaten there once? Stop serving canned vegetables such as carrots and peas and serve fresh food of a standard that is appreciably higher that the buffet.  And please employ staff that are as good if not better than the buffet area.
  2. In the buffet serve good Caribbean food as a permanent option using fresh ingredients: we believe you have a local head chef so serve curried goat and other food from around the region rather than doing themed nights that feature frozen food.  As an example Oriental Night had tasteless Sushi, frozen spring rolls and pasta not noodles.
  3. Staff training:
    1. Yours appears to be a culture where people who are in the front line in the restaurants don’t know how to deal with reasonable comments. For example, early in our stay we watched a Canadian turn up to eat in the same beach ware for breakfast and dinner.  When another guest and his party pointed this out to the duty manager in the buffet he had no idea how to deal with this.  Instead of politely pointing out to the offender that there was a dress code for the restaurant and that perhaps it might be better to sit on the terrace, the comment was ignored and the individual continues to turn up shabbily dressed.  The impact is hugely damaging since the party of 8 whose last night it was left with a very negative impression.
    2. My point: as you have dealt with our issues so should your staff.  Other businesses I have worked with have a weekly meeting where the stories of good and bad experiences are discussed and the favourite story chosen as an indicator of practices to be applauded/improved.  If you want more on this see the way Ritz Carlton uses stories to improve performance or go to www.sparknow.net (the business I used to run) to see how big corporations are changing behaviours and culture using the power of stories.

so what happened as a result?

The management circulated our letter to all heads of department and called a management meeting for the following day to discuss the ideas and suggestions.  Subsequently we received a thank you and the offer of a complimentary stay should we choose to return which one day I am sure we will.

The business takes reviews people write very seriously and to its credit uses them as a discussion topic in management meetings.  I know of other restaurateurs who shake when their smart phone alerts them to a new review as they’ve borne the brunt of unfair criticism in the past.

In today’s world service businesses cannot ignore criticism especially with social media tools available to the dissatisfied customer. They have to be willing to embrace it, be upfront and turn criticism into compliments and turn customers into brand advocates willing to give a more positive slant.

In our case I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the venue or the way they dealt with our issues (and in fact have in my own Trip Advisor review).

IMG_0904

‘…maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner…’: stories from people who made London their adopted home

Posted on by

I’m proud to call England my home and London my birth city. It is one of (if not the) most cosmopolitan cities in the world that has welcomed and benefited from the arrival of so many different nationalities and cultures.

In 2010/11 Sara Shamsavari held an exhibition at City Hall. Entitled Britain Retold- a portrait of London it told in their own words the stories of a number of Londoners all of whom had Londoner blog 619620made London their adopted home.

This is what was written about the exhibition:

a collection of sharply empathetic portraits that explore and reinterpret the concept of British identity within London. With an aim to create a singular voice, Sara has photographed a range of culturally diverse individuals and incorporated the symbolism of the Union Jack flag into each image. She seeks to open a platform that will allow the multicultural communities of London to begin re-defining what it means to be British.

I was among the guests at the opening and remember being moved by the stories and the images Sara captured. Her motivation: to reflect the Britain she knew not that portrayed by the far right.

A couple of years on and with the impact of austerity measures across Europe starting to bite I’ve been reflecting on the tenacity of those who by force of circumstance find themselves having to work offshore to survive.

In the past month I’ve met or spoken to, Sudanese, Tanzanians, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Chinese, Saudis, Bajans, Turks and Eritreans in addition to many Europeans including Hungarians and Bulgarians.

Some were students doing MBA’s and MSc’s. Others were working in London. A fair few were in Africa. All are bound by the same desire: to find meaningful and paid employment and in some cases a home. I want to share three stories with you and in two cases I’ve changed the names to protect their identities:

Monika’s story

Monika is Hungarian, from a small village 200km south of Budapest, who is part of the team at one of London’s swankiest and new hotels.  Be-suited, blond and vivacious with a friendly smile and an easy manner she came to England a couple of years ago to find a job as there are few in accountancy back in her native country.

Monika feels a debt of honour to her parents who sold a home to fund her education. She loves London despite living in Seven Sisters some way from the centre and commented on how easy it is to get along with people here.

Ideally, she’d like to go back but in the meantime despite being overqualified for the job she is doing, like many she is grateful for the opportunity of working in London.

Samatha’s story

Sam hails from Barbados via Leeds Metropolitan University. Slight of build and pale of colour she did none the less stand out in Leeds where she spent her formative years having travelled to the UK to join her father. Having graduated she was warned don’t go to London, they are unfriendly.  Her experience is in marked contrast to the advice:

People are great here, I work with 30 nationalities and its like a big family. London is such a nice city.

Like Monika she is grateful for a job for which she is over qualified.  Also like Monika she is driven and wants to pay her way despite the cost of renting eating into much of her salary. And she can find curried goat (essential part of any Caribbean diet) without searching too far for it.

Sayid’s story

Sitting in the back of a 4×4 in Khartoum I am in conversation with Sayid (not his real name) who is one of 200,000 Eritrean refugees in Sudan. As a driver for a prominent research group Sayid has a good job (by the standards of many). His horizons though are limited: his girlfriend (who he’s not seen for 5 years) lives is Asmara; he can’t go back and she can’t leave.

Hard working he hankers after a life in Europe but recognises the challenge of trying to save the $3,000 it will cost to get him to the Sudanese/Libyan border, then on to the Libyan coast and then across the sea to Italy the obvious gateway for Eritreans seeking asylum.  Despite existing on a wage of less than $100 a month he lives in hope of one day making the hazardous and life threatening journey and of being reunited with his girlfriend in the EU.

Last Thursday evening at Brighton University I met a number of students who’ve come here to learn. Some had taken sabbatical’s from good positions. Others had exhausted savings and were eagerly seeking part time work to augment their meagre living standards.  A common theme again among those from Asia: the willingness of their families to support educational advancement even if it means working every waking moment to raise the cash to fund it.

Over dinner on Saturday night in Covent Garden with some of the speakers at the Meet The Blogger event my wife was a speaker at I was interested in the views of a lovely Frenchwoman who has been a resident here for 17 years.  She noted a change in perception among her erstwhile countrymen. No longer is London seen as a desert among the culinary oasis that is Europe; it is now the place to go for varied and good cuisine.

So what are my ‘takeaways’ from this ramble:

  • Londoner’s are lucky to live in a cosmopolitan city enriched by diverse cultures;
  • Briton’s are lucky to hold a passport that allows almost total unrestricted travel and (Heathrow’s immigration queues apart) to return without question;
  • education is seen by the citizens of many nations as their passport to a good career;
  • while London is seen as a desirable place to live and work demand for accommodation will continue to outstrip supply; and finally
  • those with less seem more inclined to share surplus food than those with plenty.

Importance of KM in Health: the story of Doctor Anwar and making use of what he and others know in Sudan

Posted on by

Meet Anwar, a Sudanese doctor. Just one of 5 fictional characters created by delegates at the Knowledge Management for Health in Sudan event I spoke at, helped plan and run.

Sudanese Doctor

Anwar

This exercise, Scenarios for the future, was set in 2020 and invited the 80 or so delegates drawn from across the whole of the health industry in Sudan to consider what a day in the life of each character might look like.  This was a new and warmly embraced concept in an environment where my information is my soul and much of the debate about the future takes place against a backdrop of uncertainty and increasing austerity where:

  • 2/3rds of all drugs are purchased ‘out of pocket’ not from health system
  • drugs are proportionately more expensive than in other domains
  • funds from external sources are available to assist with health informatics.

Having settled on a description of each character the delegates who were by this time in groups of 8-10 then set about imagining what their day might look like on January 1st 2020. A vivid imagination is required and was evident in the quality of the stories that were told by each group’s nominated storyteller.

The story of the Health Worker

Ismail’s story – Health Worker

I will in due course and with the organising committee’s permission publish the two ‘winning’ stories; yes we did do voting while the storytellers left the room.

One of Sudan’s leading pharmacists noted in a one:one conversation how important listening was and how difficult a technique this is for many to use when prescribing drugs.

By inviting each of the storytellers to play back the story to each of the other groups it was good to hear them say in the summing up that by the end they really felt they were the character.

 

The previous day I’d invited the delegates to change the way they looked and think about issues and barriers.  Using when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change exercise conducted in the best breakout rooms I’ve ever worked with, the delegates who are naturally loquacious soon grasped the concept of seeing the room through the lens of different professions.

Breakout room

Breakout room

This change of mindset was important: it allowed the subsequent round table (well round conference room) session that discussed:

‘What are the biggest issues we face in sharing knowledge and information about the health of our nation and how can we overcome them’

I’d invited each delegate to introduce themselves to three people they didn’t know. This worked well and encouraged a very frank discussion. The main issues highlighted were:

  • no systematic collection of information and limited understanding of its value
  • transparency of process (where do the figures go) and credibility of the data
  • lack of human resources to do the collection
  • limited statistical information to undertake scientific research on
  • ownership of data and the whole process – fragmentation
  • accountability to deliver
  • communication/awareness of what each organisation is doing – lots of ‘stuff’ is happening but there is a real risk of duplication of effort e.g. many of the disease control programmes are creating their own informatized information systems

Delegates recognised the tremendous strides being made by the Public Health Institute (one of the event’s sponsors and host of the official dinner) in developing professional public health administration programmes, the creation of a Data Dictionary and the publication of the first Annual Health Performance Review though many bemoaned the lack of official  support for research projects where Sudan has a prominent global position, Mycetoma Research Centre an example.

I came away from reflecting on a discussion I had around the event:

Its all about ‘informization’ – the ability to report from a health centre level with ‘point of sale’ data collected via PDA’s / mobiles as well as computers; about logistics management as a result to ensure supplies get to where they can do the most use.

This can be monitored by the minister, routine reports can be prepared showing which centre reported, which district has complete reporting, which state has complete and timely reporting and % of stock outs of basic drugs or vaccines etc.

And inspired by many of the presentations I’d seen on the morning of the second day from University of Khartoum’s research centre and of course the Public Health Institute who are reaching out to try and create greater awareness through public forum, newsletter and other events.

Perhaps the presentation that struck the biggest chord was from EpiLab
who have achieved impressive results in helping to reduce the incidence of TB and Asthma and whose research and community communication techniques are highly innovative. I loved the cartoons they developed on how to self treat and prevent the incidence of illnesses which were drawn up BY the local communities.  Their pictures and their words are published as guides for the nation and I know they will make them available so I can share them in future blogs.

It was an honour, a challenge but nevertheless great fun enhanced by the warmth of the welcome and a genuine sense of appreciation. Sudan’s people are among the most engaging and intelligent I’ve met. One anecdote from a conversation with a young professional in the communications business illustrates their dilemma:

‘…of the 95 people who graduated in my year a few years back 90 are now working overseas, the majority in highly paid good positions…’

In my address I acknowledged the support I’d had from many people in preparing for the event. They were: Ahmed Mohammed, Dr Alim Khan, Dr Anshu Banerjee, Ana Neves, Andrew Curry, Archana Shah, Chris Collison, David Gurteen, Dr Gada Kadoda, Dr Ehsanullah Tarin, Dr Madelyn Blair, Sofia Layton, Steven Uggowitzer, Victoria Ward