Effective Knowledge Managers Differentials

In the SIKM Leaders Community, Patti Anklam recently asked for suggestions about what makes knowledge managers effective. She cited my list:

• Share what you have learned, created, and proved
• Innovate to be more creative, inventive, imaginative
• Reuse what others have already learned, created, and proved
• Collaborate with others to take advantage of what they know
• Learn by doing, from others, and from existing information

to which she added:

• Connect people
• Work out loud
• Pilot and prototype; refine; repeat

Dave Simmons suggested this list:

1. Drive for most valued information in an organization
2. Write once and use many ways
3. Spot information pain as a KM opportunity
4. Link all KM content to business metrics
5. Start small and build both supporters and content (Sinclair "Stealth KM")
6. Be prepared to speak IT, BusinessSpeak, budget, Content, Process, and HR when addressing KM
7. Know your constituents' metrics for success.

John Hovell suggested using my SAFARIS list:

1. Share a link, tip, trick, or insight
2. Ask a question to collaborate with others
3. Find a resource, person, or site
4. Answer someone’s question
5. Recognize a colleague’s contribution or achievement
6. Inform about what you are working on, where you are, or where you will be
7. Suggest an idea and solicit input using a poll

Patti synthesized the resulting discussion in this list:

1. Share Relentlessly what you have created and what you are learning. Be a role model for those around you.
2. Search First looking to find, reuse, and refine what others have done before creating something from scratch. Listen to what others are saying.
3. Communicate, Ask and Answer in the Open using email only when absolutely necessary. Make your work and your talents discoverable by working out loud. TAG, TAG, TAG what you create so others can find it.
4. Seek Active Collaboration for tasks both small and large. The sum is always greater than the parts.
5. Build Social Capital as if it matters as much as financial. Build your personal network and connect people so they can enhance theirs.
6. Act on Your Ideas for creating and sharing knowledge. Leverage company KM resources.
7. Improve your Knowledge and Skills with KM Tools and Practices by learning one new thing every day (and then go to #1 and share).

In a recent LinkedIn post, Jean-Claude Monney offered three tips:

1. Be a Knowledge Citizen – Display accountability for sharing, re-using and improving collective knowledge to create greater value.
2. Be Social with a purpose – Be an active participant of your organization’s Communities of Practice.
3. Be Digital – Studies show that 50% of your productivity comes from individual task performance and 50% from collaboration.

In a previous post, I shared three other tips:

1. Articulate the end-state vision: what does it look like when it is working?
2. Start working on getting to the vision right now, in small steps, and with measurable progress.
3. Define compelling use cases: don’t talk about adoption or rollout of a tool - talk about the advantages of using it over existing alternatives.

What makes for a successful knowledge manager?

Knowledge management is everyone's responsibility, not just the work of knowledge managers. But knowledge managers are needed to raise awareness, align knowledge actions with business priorities, promote a knowledge sharing culture, engage senior leadership, manage the infrastructure, and support all knowledge workers.

Good knowledge managers are part connector, part maven, and part salesman, to use Malcolm Gladwell's terms from The Tipping Point. Not everyone is a connector, maven, or salesman. So those who play these roles, and especially, those who combine more than one of these roles, can function as power knowledge workers, facilitating knowledge flow throughout the organization.

Knowledge managers know how to use KM tools, how to ask others for help, who should be connected to whom, who would benefit from a piece of information, and how to persuade others to use information effectively. One role of a knowledge manager is subscribing to many information sources, belonging to many communities, and reading many publications, always looking out for what may be useful to others in the organization.

Good knowledge managers regularly inform their management colleagues about an article, book, presentation, or con call which was relevant to their areas of responsibility. These colleagues can subscribe to the same sources and join the same communities, but if not, they will appreciate being selectively alerted when content applies to them.

Effective KM Leaders

KM leaders should:

1. Lead by example
1. Practice what you preach
2. Become an expert in the tools that you want others to use
3. Get respected leaders to model desired behaviors
2. Set three goals for everyone
1. Simple, fundamental, measurable
2. Consistently communicate and leverage
3. Widely communicate and inspect
3. Recognize those who demonstrate the desired behaviors
1. Praise
2. Reward
3. Promote

KM leaders need to perform the following tasks:

1. Improve business results by institutionalizing a knowledge sharing culture. With the help of the senior executive and the other leaders in the organization, take steps to achieve a positive culture which rewards caring, sharing, and daring.
2. Define, maintain, and execute the KM implementation plan for the organization. This is the overall program plan for the KM initiative.
3. Define, communicate, and implement people, process, and technology components for sharing, innovating, reusing, collaborating, and learning. These are the core elements that enable the KM program.
4. Define KM measurements and rewards for the organization and KM goals for all relevant members. This aligns individual and organizational objectives.
5. Report regularly on the organization's performance against KM metrics. This lets the leadership team know how the program is progressing.
6. Implement action plans for people, process, and technology projects. These are the detailed implementation plans for each project leader.
7. Lead the organization's KM teams. These include the program staff, the core team, and the KM community.
8. Manage the organization's KM communications. This keeps all users informed on the program.
9. Actively participate in communities. Model the desired behaviors by being visible as a leader and member of multiple internal and external communities.
10. Network with other KM Leaders. Demonstrate the use of social networks to stay current in the field of knowledge management.

Profile of an Effective Knowledge Manager

Experience

1. Management: supervised people, led work teams, managed a business or functional unit
2. Project management: successfully managed projects to meet deadlines, provide deliverables, and adhere to budgets
3. Communications: published documents, gave presentations, and managed communications programs
4. Top 50 Knowledge Management Components: for many of these, performed evaluations, led implementation projects, and used them regularly
5. Reputation: has earned the respect of people both inside and outside of the organization based on accomplishments, networking, and communications

Skills

1. Leadership: able to influence others, lead work teams, and manage projects
2. Communications: excellent at writing, speaking, presenting, and using a variety of communications vehicles
3. Process and Technology: able to quickly learn and master a wide variety of tools and processes
4. Top 50 Knowledge Management Components: expert at using many of these
5. Analysis: able to seek input, analyze information, consider alternatives, and make good decisions

Attributes

1. Adaptable
1. Flexible: willing to try different courses of action
2. Resilient: overcomes difficulties, withstands setbacks, and meets challenges
3. Open-minded: considers the opinions of others
2. Assertive
1. Takes initiative
2. Consistently achieves challenging objectives and meets commitments
3. Makes effective decisions in a timely manner
3. Calm
1. Maintains a high level of performance even when under pressure
2. Even-tempered even when dealing with unpleasant circumstances
3. Balances logic and emotions when interacting with others
4. Client-focused
1. Understands clients' needs and concerns
2. Responds promptly and effectively to client needs
3. Eager to be of help to users
5. Creative
1. Develops innovative approaches to problem solving
2. Invents new ways of doing things
3. Willing to try out bold ideas
6. Collaborative
1. Acknowledges others' contributions
2. Works effectively with individuals of different backgrounds and from different groups
3. Willing to seek help as needed
4. Shares personal knowledge
5. Builds partnerships and networks
7. Curious
1. Stays current in the field
2. Open to new ideas
3. Asks others to share their knowledge and experience
8. Dynamic
1. Gets results
2. Balances analysis with action
3. Sets high standards
9. Influential
1. Gains support and commitment from others even without formal authority
2. Resolves differences by determining needs and forging solutions that benefit all parties
3. Facilitates teamwork across organizational boundaries
10. Personable
1. Gets along well with many different types of people
2. Nurtures new relationships
3. Well-liked as a manager, employee, and colleague

What do you think makes for a good knowledge manager?

Publicada por:

Stan Garfield

¿Me ayudas a pensar? Aprender los unos de los otros: una metodología para la formación en las empresas

Me cuenta mi padre (que ahora tiene 88 años), que cuando él era un chaval y trabajaba en un taller de ebanistería, los operarios aprendían con la práctica del día a día, dirigidos por los profesionales más veteranos. Los operarios con más experiencia enseñaban a los demás, y eso era algo intrínseco al trabajo de todos; una más de sus tareas o responsabilidades.

Hoy en día las cosas han cambiado; la volatilidad de los empleos es tan alta que quizás ya no dedicamos recursos (tiempo, sobre todo) para que las personas se formen y aprendan en las empresas. No hay más que mirar las ofertas de empleo: ya no se buscan profesionales generalistas, que se vayan formado en las tecnologías y negocios de la empresa, sino que te piden una buena lista de siglas (tecnologías) que se supone ya debes dominar.

Además es un auténtico aburrimiento de vida profesional, pues te encasillan… y es complicado cambiar de tecnología o subsector.

Pero creo que hay empresarios que sí quieren dedicar recursos a formar a su gente. El otro día una empresaria millennial me invitó a visitar su empresa y me contó cómo era el día a día de su negocio: una de sus aspiraciones consistía en poner en marcha mecanismos de formación de su gente, lo cual ella entendía que iba a ser beneficioso para la empresa, sus clientes, y su gente.

¿Y si volviésemos a generar un ambiente de aprendizaje dentro de las empresas, totalmente incorporado a su cultura corportativa? Pero, claro, desde que mi padre era aprendiz, ya han pasado 75 años. ¿Cómo sería el aprendizaje en las empresas en pleno siglo XXI?

¿Qué opinas de todo esto? ¿Qué soluciones se te ocurren? Tus comentarios me ayudarían a construir un servicio que, como freelance, podría ofrecer a las empresas.

Publicada por:

Rafael Mompó

Sua Empresa tem um Plano de Contingência para a Crise Hídrica?

O que nossas Empresas estão fazendo para preparar-se para a Crise Hídrica que afeta a Região Sudeste, especialmente São Paulo?

As cabeceiras dos rios que formam o Sistema Cantareira precisam receber pelo menos 3 vezes mais chuva que as médias registradas nos últimos 10 anos para poder recuperar seu volume armazenado, segundo o Consórcio PCJ, associação das prefeituras das cidades abastecidas pelas bacias dos rios Piracicaba, Capivari e Jundiaí. O problema é que o Sistema Cantareira continua registrando os menores índices pluviométricos de sua história, e a SABESP, administradora do sistema, já bombeou quase a totalidade da primeira cota do chamado "volume morto". Segundo a SABESP, as demais cotas do "volume morto" seriam suficientes para abastecer a Grande SP até Abril de 2015, quando se inicia a próxima estação seca. Resta-nos apenas esperar que este verão seja especialmente chuvoso, ao contrário dos últimos verões, o que até esse momento, não é o caso.

Enquanto nós, como cidadãos, nos preocupamos em economizar o máximo possível da (pouca) água restante, com banhos mais curtos e sem lavar calçadas e molhar plantas, temos também a obrigação de questionar-nos: o que estamos fazendo em nossas empresas para minimizar o impacto da situação? E, se realmente houver cortes do abastecimento, como isso será gerenciado?

A verdade é que a maioria das Empresas não possui qualquer Plano de Contingência. Claro que existem indústrias mais ou menos dependentes da água em seus processos produtivos, mas em última análise é preciso considerar as pessoas que nela trabalham. E de nada adianta culpar o Governo ou a falta de investimentos, pois a causa raiz está muito além do nosso controle: falta chuva!

Umas poucas empresas investiram em poços artesianos, ou mesmo estão próximas de fontes minerais suficientes para manter seu abastecimento. Menor ainda é o número de Empresas trabalhando para implantar sistemas de reuso da água em suas instalações, ou mesmo para prevenir as perdas. Quais Empresas, porém, possuem um Plano de Contingência sério, que prepare a Organização para enfrentar um desabastecimento longo e generalizado de um recurso tão importante?

O que você está fazendo em sua Empresa para prepará-la para enfrentar a Crise Hídrica? Deixe sugestões e comentários.

E continue rezando para que venha muita chuva!

Estratégia no Mundo dos Negócios

Muitos falam sobre Estratégia nas Empresas. Você sabe o que é Estratégia? Como empregar algo sem conhecer corretamente sua definição? Quais são os componentes da Estratégia da sua empresa?

Se você já se interessou por Estratégia, deve ter lido ou ouvido falar de Sun Tzu, o autor do famoso livro "A Arte da Guerra". De Sun Tzu à Clausewitz, temos ainda Miyamoto Musashi, samurai autor do "Livro dos Cinco Anéis", e ainda Niccolò di Macchiavelli, ou simplesmente Maquiavel, mais conhecido por sua obra "O Principe", mas também autor de "Dell'Arte della Guerra". Não os conhecia? Se você não frequentou uma Escola Superior Militar, provavelmente as obras desses autores realmente não são sua especialidade. E exceto por Sun Tzu, os demais não costumam ser citados nos cursos de MBA.

A palavra "estratégia" deriva do grego "stràtegós" ("stratos" = exército, "ago" = liderança), e significa a arte da liderança de um exército. Portanto, trata-se de uma liderança com o objetivo de derrotar o inimigo em uma guerra. Esse conceito foi trazido para o mundo corporativo tendo como correlação a necessidade de liderar os esforços da Empresa (o "exército") para atingir seus objetivos derrotando seus competidores (o "inimigo) no mercado (o "campo de batalha").

Portanto, Estratégia é a arte de liderar para se atingir objetivos. Da definição de quais são esses objetivos e quais os meios para liderar os esforços de toda a organização para que sejam atingidos deriva a Estratégia Corporativa. Muitos também confundem Estratégia com Tática, mas esse será assunto de outra postagem.

A Estratégia é composta, no mundo dos negócios, por alguns elementos. O mais conhecido deles é o trio "Missão, Visão e Valores". Além desses também fazem parte da Estratégia:

- Plano de Negócios
- Planejamento Financeiro
- Gestão de Riscos
- SWOT (analise das Forças, Fraquezas, Oportunidades e Ameaças)
- Retorno de Investimentos
- Plano de Continuidade de Negócios (BCP)

Esses elementos devem interagir entre sí para formar a Estratégia da Empresa. A visão macro deve gerenciar todos os trabalhos em todos os níveis da organização. Na maioria das Empresas, esses elementos são documentos distintos, trabalhados e criados separadamente, sem que haja uma integração deles ou uma preocupação em como fazê-los serem entendidos por todos os níveis.

Se trabalhados em conjunto, porém, mostram uma força espetacular, pois sua uniformidade de conceitos leva a um real planejamento com objetivos claros, onde as prioridades serão entendidas por todos, e não somente por uns poucos que tiveram acesso à informação privilegiada. A integração desse elementos leva à disseminação deles como Conhecimento à todos os colaboradores, que passarão a utilizá-los na prática, no dia-a-dia.

Gostaria de saber mais sobre Estratégia Empresarial? Entre em contato conosco através do blog, do email ou telefone. Agende uma visita e conheça os serviços da KMC.

Better Brainstorming - A Framework for Success

I know, we've all been in a "brainstorming" session which devolves into either a pointless series of discussions that never goes anywhere, or which are code for "let the executives speak, and follow their lead." The simple fact is that most people aren't trained to work in a true brainstorming fashion, and that most businesses don't invest in the right kind of thoughtful facilitation that's necessary to have effective brainstorming sessions.

But that's not to say that it can't be done, and that there aren't proven and reliable ways to create an engaging and productive brainstorming session. Through my work as a Product Manager and Product Owner, I've worked with teams who fully embraced the principles of Agile development -- and, surprisingly enough, there's a lot of commonality to be found in empowering a team to be self-directed and working with stakeholders to brainstorm new ideas. To wit, I provide you with the following framework for effective and productive brainstorming sessions.

There are proven and reliable ways to create an engaging andproductive brainstorming session.

Before the Meeting - What's the goal?
The single most important thing that you can do in setting up a successful brainstorming session is to stop and think critically about it before you even start sending out invitations. Brainstorming is a powerful tool, but is has to be directed. Just setting up a meeting to "brainstorm new directions for the company" is likely to be just as productive as "brainstorm solutions for colonizing Jupiter." What is the ultimate goal that you want to draw from the meeting? What kinds of ideas are you looking for? If you're looking for ideas about expanding into new markets, that's good. If you're looking for ideas about how to reduce the overall cost structure of the organization, that's good. You want to be less general but more specific - there's a balance to be had here, and thinking through what the goal of the meeting is and clearly articulating it will help tremendously to manage expectations and set things up for success. Ideally, there should be one high-level theme that’s to be covered in the meeting; two is feasible, but more than that and things will start spiraling out of control.

Invitations, Agendas, and Ground Rules
Once you think you've nailed the overall goal and theme of the meeting, the next thing to do is send out invitations. And no, I don't mean go down to Papyrus and peruse the custom paperwork books, I just mean good old fashioned meeting requests. But, ensure that you're (1) properly stating your theme and goals for the meeting, (2) provide an explicit agenda, and (3) set out the ground rules in advance.

I'll be honest, I love agendas - I use them for any meeting that I set up. They let people know what's going to be covered, in what order, and if particularly important, for how long. For a brainstorming session, they help to clarify that (1) some time will be spent in setting up, (2) some time will be spent in winding down, and (3) the majority of the time will be spent in discussion. You're trying to prime the pump with people, and ensure that they understand that the goal here is discussion, not just a wholesale dumping of information. Lastly, they set a start time and an end time -- stick to these as much as possible. Nothing will derail a meeting faster than having people step out around the end to go to something else that they decide is “more important”.

Nothing will derail a meeting faster than having people step out around the end to go to something else they feel is "more important."

As for the ground rules, I think everyone has probably seen these, but you need to include them in every email invitation as well has have them prominently posted in the meeting itself. It sounds silly, especially since these are (as my last workplace called them) "Kindergarten Rules", but you'd be amazed how just having these rules stated in advance can get things going in the right direction from minute one of the meeting. Here are my rules:

1. You’re here, you’re committed.
2. There are no "bad" ideas.
3. Everyone in the room is an equal.
4. No finger-pointing or blaming.
5. One person speaks at a time.

Like I said, they're basic grade-school rules, but I'm sure if you think about it you can come up with times when you've seen each of these rules broken in business meetings. The most important one is Rule #1 - You’re here, you’re committed. Brainstorming sessions only work when everyone is committed to the meeting. This means that the CEO doesn’t “step out” to take a call, or the VP of Services doesn’t spend their time on their laptop “fighting fires”. If you’re not committed, go ahead and leave the room - and sacrifice your seat at the table.

If you're not committed, go ahead and leave the room -- and sacrifice your seat at the table.

Establish a Facilitator
Someone has to run the meeting. One person. And, that person is not also a participant in the meeting. Their sole jobs are to ensure that the meeting moves forward, and that there are actionable outcomes at the end of the meeting. Facilitation is truly an art - but I believe that most people can be effective if they focus on the process and the ground rules. They also need to be somewhat fearless and entirely empowered while in this meeting -- that means that they have to be able to, while in this meeting, tell the CEO to let someone else talk, or ask the VP of Sales to not point fingers. It's a position that is due respect by its nature, and one that provides respect in return.

Where's the Beef?
If you've stuck with me this far, I'm sure you're wondering where the process is, where's the important stuff. To this, I'd say I already covered 90% of what you need to be successful, and the rest is just fluff. If you have a strong facilitator and people respect the ground rules, it may not matter much how you proceed. But, since you're looking for it, here's my process:

Supplies
You’ll need the following supplies for this process:

• A room with at least one wall clear for posting sticky-notes to; a large whiteboard works well.
• A pad of sticky-notes (Post-Its or the like) for each person, uniform in color (use different colors for different topics, if there are any). Over-sized notes are preferred to the standard 3x3 notes, so people can write larger.
• 10 “dot” stickers for each person, also uniform in color (contrasting with the sticky-notes, and one set per topic).
• One medium-point Sharpie marker for each person (and a few to spare).
• A flip-chart (Post-It charts are awesome for this, since you can remove the page and stick it to the wall).

Setup
Before anyone comes into the room, make sure that you have the layout already configured and supplies available to each person. This minimizes the chaos during the first few minutes of the meeting, and starts the meeting off on a structured, organized foot. Each person should have the following available to them:

• 1 sticky-note pad color-coded for each topic.
• 1 Sharpie marker or a similar medium-point permanent marker.
• A set number (5-10) of “dot” stickers color-coded for each topic.

Introduction
Before you leap into the fray, take some time to review the goals of the meeting, the ground rules, and to walk the team through what’s about to happen at a high level. Ask for and answer any procedural questions before you jump into the brainstorming process.

Brainstorming
Now you get to the fun part. After you pose the question that you’re trying to answer, you invite the team to start writing down ideas -- any ideas -- related to the topic on the sticky-notes in front of them. One idea per note, written as clearly as possible. You should keep an eye on people to make sure that everyone is participating, and prompt people who seem to be lagging. The goal will be to get all of the sticky-notes up on the board, and there are a few ways to do this. The best will depend on the team and your assessment of whether there’s a risk of undue influence:

1. You can have everyone hold their notes until the end of the session, then everyone takes them up at once. The chaos here covers for the risk that people will identify stickies with individual people.
2. You can have people walk up and post each note to the board as they complete them. Less chaos, but more risk that people will be able to connect specific posts to specific people.
3. You can walk around the room and collect sticky-notes from people as they complete them. Less engagement with the team, but minimal risk that people will connect posts to people.

I usually give this process anywhere from 10-15 minutes, depending on the topic. It’s important to have a hard stop, and to remind people as that stop approaches. Also, if you see people beginning to stop writing, you can make the executive decision to cut the time early - what you don’t want is for conversations unrelated to the brainstorming to start eating away at the team’s commitment. Once all the notes are up on the board, you move to the next step, voting.

Voting
Okay, maybe this is really the fun part. Once all of the stickies are posted, you as the facilitator walk through each one and read them aloud. The team may ask clarifying questions about the sticky, and it’s your job as the facilitator to make any clarificationswithout outing the author of the note. Once each item is clear (and duplicate or very similaritems are combined), then you invite the team members up to “vote” for the ideas that they want to discuss in greater detail by attaching their “dot” stickers to the sticky (or somewhere reasonably near it). Set a time limit for this - maybe 5-10 minutes at most, and remind people at intervals how much time is remaining. Once all votes are cast, have the team take a break while you review the votes and pick the top-voted items for discussion.

Discussion
This is the meat of the process, and the key to making the brainstorming session valuable. After you’ve filtered the list of ideas down to the top 5/10/15 (whatever you think you reasonably have time for), it’s time for the team to discuss each one and ideally create an action or responsibility out of them. Plan for 5-10 minutes per sticky, and start conservatively with a smaller number (the stickies and their votes are still there, you can always pull in the next-highest item if you’ve got time).

This is where your flip-chart comes into play. Affix the sticky to the top left of the flip-chart page, and take diligent notes on the page about the discussion. Start general - get feelings, thoughts, clarifications. Take everything down, and look for patterns and consistencies among the discussion. As the discussion continues, drive the team toward assigning aspecific responsibility and/or action that will be taken on this topic. Ideally, someone in the room should walk away with both responsibility for follow-up and a specific deliverable (including a timeframe) on each topic that is discussed.

It’s also possible that a topic gets discussed and dismissed - that’s fine, and it’s better to “fail fast” on an idea than waste time talking about it. If it sounds like an idea’s getting dismissed, confirm it with a majority of the team, and then table it and move to the next one.

It's better to "fail fast" on an idea than to waste time talking about it.

The hard part here lies on the facilitator -- it’s your job to move the discussion forward, and it’s your job to make sure everyone is heard. Keep an eye for quiet people, and keep an eye on those who are talking too much. Try to maintain a balance, and ensure that everyone has a say and that nobody is monopolizing the discussion. Often, that’s as simple as saying, “Joe, what do you think about this?” or “Joe, do you agree with Kim on that?”

Closing
Once you’ve reviewed all of the highly-voted stickies, it’s time to recap. Make sure that you’ve got a good 15 minutes or so for this, since there can be some questions and clarifications involved. Now, go through each sticky and flip-chart set, and make sure that the team is clear on who is responsible for follow-up, what the follow-up action is, and when it should be delivered. Also, do a quick review of any remaining stickies that the team feels need additional follow-up later.

Following Up
Perhaps the biggest mistake in any brainstorming session is not following up on the topics discussed and the deliverables assigned. Shortly after the meeting is concluded, write up an overview of what was discussed, include all efforts assigned, and send out meeting notes to everyone who attended. Make it as concise and clear as possible, while still covering the key points. Then, schedule a follow-up session within a few weeks, to review the discussion points, the expected deliverables, and the follow-up that was assigned out.

**********

Cliff Gilley has been a B2B product manager for over 10 years in a variety of industries, and is a passionate advocate for agile, effective Product Management. He is also the real-life alter-ego of The Clever PM, providing tips, tricks, and hacks to make people better, more clever Product Managers at http://www.cleverpm.com. Follow him on Twitter at@thecleverpm and @ctgilley.

Publicada por:

Cliff Gilley

Economy of Speed: How to Make Your Organization Move Faster

The internet, rapid technological innoation and ever more adaptable business models have produced a business environment that’s changing at break-neck speed.

To survive in this accelerated world, organizations have got to learn to move fast. Everything—communication, decision-making, teamwork, the delivery of products and services—has to be done quicker than before. Speed is key.

At my company, we took a long and hard look at ourselves, and at other firms’ best practices, before coming up with five basic policies to become a speedier organization.

1. 24-HOUR RESPONSE RULE

We introduced a rule that all e-mails have to be answered within 24 hours, or one business day. After that, the sender is free to treat a non-response as agreement. With mails copied to many recipients, the 24-hour rule accelerates debate between all parties, with the result that issues that could drag on for days or weeks get sorted out in a single day.

Softbank, the telecoms and internet company headed by Masayoshi Son, was my inspiration for this policy. Softbank, however, had a 48-hour rule, so we literally doubled down on this one!

2. INTERNAL STAIRCASES. NO PARTITIONS

We rent space over several floors of a large office building. The building’s elevators and staircase can only be reached by going out through secure doors and along a corridor. To make it quicker and easier for people to go and talk directly to their colleagues on other floors, we built additional internal staircases. This cost us a great deal of money, but the benefits from free and easy internal communication justify the expense.

To boost internal communication further, we also got rid of partitions and private offices. My desk is out on the floor with everyone else; anyone can come to see me anytime, and I can also “manage by wandering around.” I got this idea from a visit to the open-plan offices of Bloomberg, the financial data company. (One Bloombergism I did not adopt was the concept of glass-walled meeting rooms, which must be distracting for everyone concerned.)

3. CHOPPING THE CHOP

Most Japanese companies retain an old-fashioned, bureaucratic approval process which involves circulating documents until all the relevant department heads have stamped them with their official chop or seal (hanko or inkan in Japanese). The system is a notorious time-waster, and I detested it when I worked in a large trading company in my twenties. I made a conscious decision when I set up my own firm in 1992 that we would never use a chop—and we never have.

4. NOODLE DISCIPLINE

All our meetings have to start and end on time. Nothing saps morale like a meeting that gets underway late and drags on with no clear end-point. Equally, nothing is as energizing as a brisk, well-run meeting that yields prompt and tangible results. In our VC business, we have a rule that anyone who arrives late to a meeting has to treat everyone else to a lunch of spicy tantan-men noodles. This threat seems to keep everyone nice and punctual!

5. SHARED VALUES AND CLEAR GOALS

This last point is obvious, but no less important for that.

To make decisions fast everyone in the organization needs to be thinking and acting in alignment with the same core values. We have a staff book that clearly explains our vision, mission and values. This makes sure that all of us are pointing in the same direction from the get-go.

We also instituted quarterly one-on-one meetings between bosses and their team members to discuss key parameter indicators (KPI, or any measurable goals or objectives). Because of these one-on-ones, every individual in the organization has acrystal-clear understanding of precisely what it is they’re meant to be doing over the next three months. Again, everyone is in alignment in micro as well as macro terms.

These are the five key approaches we adopted to make our organization move faster.

Perhaps they appear a bit of an eccentric jumble to you.

My only answer to that is: THEY WORKED!

What are you doing to make your organization speedier? I’m curious to hear all your ideas, borrowed, adapted or original.

After all, being receptive and open-minded is the first step to building a speedy and adaptable organization.

(Photo: Shutterstock / Ollyy)

Publicada por:

Yoshito Hori

O Roadmap da Qualidade Total

Identificando o nível de maturidade de sua Empresa, você poderá entender melhor o que ainda lhe falta para atingir seus objetivos estratégicos e onde você pode ter ganhos rápidos que lhe mostrarão o caminho a seguir.

A Gestão para a Qualidade Total, ou TQM, foi desenvolvida na década de 1960, e modelou a maneira de muitos engenheiros e administradores de pensar a Qualidade nas organizações. A TQM colocou todos os colaboradores da Empresa em sintonia para buscar atingir elevados níveis de produtividade, além de aumentar a satisfação do cliente através de menor número de defeitos e menores custos de fabricação, melhorando portanto o resultado financeiro da Empresa.

Através dos anos, porém, tantas foram as ideias e os modelos para se implantar a Qualidade Total, que algumas empresas acabaram colecionando diferentes iniciativas que nunca chegaram a atingir um ponto tal que pudesse ser classificado como Qualidade Total. A taxa de insucesso é alta e os colaboradores envolvidos no projeto se sentem frustrados, pois não conseguem entender as razões pelas quais iniciativas tão nobres acabam "morrendo na praia".

Percebe-se, entre outros fatores, que nem sempre há uma preocupação em mapear o nível de maturidade da organização antes que as iniciativas de melhoria sejam planejadas. Na verdade, isso deveria ser parte integrantes de qualquer projeto de melhoria. Afinal, se não se sabe de onde se está partindo, como saber onde chegar? E como definir qual é o caminho a seguir?

Convido-o a olhar para a figura acima. Nela, você verá uma árvore cheia de frutos. Muitas vezes estamos mirando aqueles frutos lá de cima, os quais nos parecem maiores e portanto mais atrativos do que os menores, deixando de lado os mais próximos que poderiam nos propiciar ganhos rápidos.

Mais do que isso, a verdade é que sem uma base estrutural boa, nenhum programa de melhoria segue adiante. Ao implantar programas de Gestão para a Qualidade Total, a organização deve fazer uma leitura muito crítica de sua atual posição em relação aos conhecimentos já internalizados e solidificar aqueles que ainda não estejam totalmente implantados, de modo a que se tenha uma clara visão do nível em que a Empresa e seus colaboradores se encontram. É preciso que uma ferramenta de diagnóstico seja empregada para que a Empresa tenha critérios claros para se auto-avaliar.

É importante reforçar que muitas organizações apenas tem certas ferramentas em uso no papel, ou mesmo que tem um conhecimento prévio de certos modelos e não os emprega na prática. Isso pode levar os planejadores a entender que tais ferramentas já são conhecidas e que será fácil colocá-las em uso, mas é preciso ter o cuidado de perguntar antes o porquê dessa ferramenta ainda não estar em uso. Será a cultura da Empresa que não vê valor em seu emprego? Ou será que há apenas um conhecimento superficial daquela técnica específica?

Faça essa pergunta e olhe para sua própria organização. Tente entender onde a sua Empresa está nesse caminho. Questione de maneira séria qual é o nível de maturidade da sua organização. Aí sim, você será capaz de determinar claramente quais devem ser os seus primeiros passos, consolidando aquilo que se sabe e buscando novos conhecimentos onde eles serão realmente necessários. Sem perder os objetivos maiores de vista.

Se você quer saber mais sobre Qualidade Total, ou quer fazer uma avaliação do nível de maturidade em sua Empresa, entre em contato conosco e agende uma visita. Estamos a disposição para ajudá-lo a atingir seus objetivos.