Becoming an Intelligent Company: Knowledge Management and High-Performance Teams

Becoming an Intelligent Company: 5 Steps

1. Identify the strategic objective and information need: Tools such as Balanced Scorecards and Strategy Maps can be used to identify high-level objectives.

2. Collecting and organizing the data: There are many methodologies for collecting data, which can be quantitative and qualitative.

3. Turning data into information and insights: Data has to be analyzed and put into context to extract information and insights.

4. Communicating information and insights: This step focuses on communicating the information and insights extracted in step three.

5. Turning information into actionable knowledge: This often requires a cultural transformation.

Balanced Scorecards

A strategic planning and management system used to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization.

The Fifth Discipline: Peter Senge

Describes the learning organization as one where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they desire, and where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured.

Five Disciplines of a Learning Organization:

1. SYSTEM THINKING: Developing our capacity for putting the pieces together and seeing wholes rather than disparate parts.
2. PERSONAL MASTERY: Developing our capacity to clarify what is important to us in terms of our personal vision and purpose.
3. MENTAL MODELS: Our capacity to reflect on our internal pictures.
4. SHARED VISION: Building a sense of commitment in a group based on what they would really like to create.
5. TEAM LEARNING: Developing our capacity for conversation and balancing dialogue and discussion.

Barriers for Knowledge Management

• Barriers in Technology
• Barriers in Content
• Barriers in Routines and Procedures
• Barriers in Organization
• Barriers in Personnel

Barriers in Technology:

The use of specialized software can help managers better achieve knowledge generation within an organization.

Barriers in Content:

• Collecting information and content to generate information can be hard work.
• Transforming tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge requires special skills and often creativity.
• Delivered content may simply not be understood due to individual skill gaps.

Barriers in Routines and Procedures:

Processes in an organization sometimes don't represent reality.

Barriers in Organization:

• High-ranking staff may consider themselves more important than others.
• Leaders may only insist on developing knowledge management but don't actively work on it.
• Having a culture of "saying but not doing" regarding knowledge management.
• Organizational survival - not having knowledge management as a priority.

Barriers in Personnel:

• Almost all barriers are connected to individual behavior.
• Personnel might not understand what knowledge management is.
• Providing poor information can be related to a lack of motivation.

High-Performance Teams

TEAM: Management, Collaboration, Utility, Solidarity, Integrity, Understanding, Support

What is a High-Performance Team?

A group whose members have diverse skills and are responsible for common purposes, objectives, and approaches.

Main Components of Teamwork:

• Complementarity: Each member excels in a certain aspect of the project.
• Coordination: Members must work in an organized and collaborative way.
• Communication: Teamwork requires open communication among all members.
• Confidence: Each person trusts their teammates, putting team success before individual success.
• Commitment: Each member is dedicated to giving their best effort to achieve the team's goals.