The wealth of its network is a
tangible treasure for the company that knows how to measure it, and
whose culture allows it to value the forward motion of
self-improvement, and the windfalls of synergy.
We have
spent this week outlining exactly how this wealth exists, and operates,
and grows. Underlying all the mechanics of collaboration, and the
innovation that proceeds inevitably out of it, underlying all the IT
headaches of connecting people and their computers together, underlying
it all is the money that comes into being in a knowledge economy: the
money of knowledge.
All of the striving for agility and
competitive advantage that companies are locked into stems from the
surge of knowledge across the global markets, and is accomplished
essentially through the acquisition and refinement of knowledge.
For proof of this claim, witness:
- knowledge of the customer is now essential to retention and upselling;
- knowledge of the vendor and product is easily gained now by the customer through distributed review systems;
- knowledge of the enterprise status in real time is the competitive grail that drives business intelligence development;
- agility
to act in the face of threat or opportunity requires IT systems that
mobilize costly human resource into rapid re-formation;
- finally,
the human resource itself, as the costliest element in the corporate
machinery requires instant delivery of explicit knowledge appropriate
to the situation of the moment, and in turn carries the enormous
potential of tacit knowledge to be surfaced for the enterprise benefit.
Knowledge can’t live on forever tacitly; eventually, to get anything done, tacit knowledge needs to meet up with process.
“The current interest in the tacit aspects of
knowledge has diverted attention from the economic significance of its
converse, explicit or articulated knowledge, and, by implication, the
importance of articulation – the process through which tacit skills and
knowledge are made explicit- and codification – the process of
rendering articulated knowledge in fixed, standardized and easily
replicable form.” – Creating knowledge: the power and logic of articulation
Companies that recognize the value of
learning will take their knowledge management systems seriously.
Consider Symcor, a company committed to continuous improvement, which
some would say is the only effective survival posture. Symcor’s story is told in full at Chief Learning Officer Magazine. Highlights include:
“The objective was to strengthen the integration
point between the service desk workforce that receives a customer
inquiry and the assignment group workforce that resolves and enhances
service.
“Although the information system can handle part of
the support for the new customer service process, the technology by
itself will not produce the behavior change needed.
“So, Symcor’s ongoing customer experience transformation program also involves a change management and training program.”
To achieve the essential human resource
enhancements Symcor has to look beyond technology, and institute team
protocols and procedures, that technology then assists. Checks and
balances both create and resolve the dynamics of verification.
“The training targets each group’s understanding of
the importance of each other’s function, as well as how to make the
connection points stronger so customer inquiries do not fall between
the cracks. The training assessment and measurement programs explicitly
test the knowledge each group has of the other.” – The New Face of Workforce Integration
Symcor’s process shows that its leadership
embraces a mature human understanding of the value of people, and the
value of knowledge. Because it invests in increasing its human
knowledge capital, its agility in the global economy may not always be
adequate, but it will always be amenable to adapting.
In a
rapidly changing world, workforce training is the new challenge, and
also the new opportunity. The solutions are the same in both views. As
learning is changing, so too is teaching.
Knowledge
sharing is the overarching principle that binds together all the
efforts to distil tacit knowledge and to distribute explicit knowledge.
The underlying belief is in the value of intellectual capital. The
result is a knowledge worker whose value and resources continually
increase.
“In the same way, when children (who play computer
games in their free time and learn what they’re interested in on the
Internet) get to school, they open a traditional textbook, listen to
lectures and are totally bored. They don’t internalize learning as it
has been done traditionally, and they intuitively recognize its
limitations because they have experienced better. They are not
learning-disabled. Rather, they recognize that most schools are
teaching-disabled. Most workplace training approaches are equally
inadequate in maximizing the potential of the learner.” – High-Tech Learning for Low-Tech Employees
We will save for another time an examination
of the costs and benefits of knowledge cultivation. Obviously, the
gains have to outweigh the losses. Equally obviously, the profitability
of the venture enlarges by applying the network effect to the process,
and breaking traditional hierarchies of distribution into colaborative
efforts with costs are amortized across many resources.
