Living by Design

Agile development experience has demonstrated how practical conditions and simple processes foster highly-performant teams that produce sustainable results. A Small-World View Here are some of the "rules-of-thumb" that contribute to success: A small number of people, no more than can be fed by two pizzas Everyone in the same room with no walls and barriers Lots of collaborative tools, include shared computers, full wall visuals, and whiteboards Optimal mutual availability and accountability Full awareness of roles and capabilities Easily communicate with all members Maximum opportunity for serendipity and knowledge sharing Everyone focused on a single well understood project No personnel turnover Beyond the Ideal Of course, we all would love to have the conditions that accelerate effective teamwork as described above. The reality is that people are constantly moving, often collaborating across corporate and geographic boundaries, and working on a variety of projects in very...

What does successful collaboration look like? Understanding how communities and people interact online is essential for setting the right expectations. Often people misinterpret metrics or focus their energy in the wrong direction because they do not have a reasonable benchmark to assess how well their on-line communities are functioning. All Things Are Not Equal In any team or community you can expect to find a variety of expertise and strengths. We usually don't expect everyone to do the exact same thing, or to have the same skill sets and strengths. In fact, the complementary nature of individual strengths is essential to creating strong teams and vibrant communities. Knowing this, it is surprising that the default expectation for online interaction is identical contribution, with performance metrics that reinforce this unhealthy view. Not only is this unrealistic, it's a sure recipe for failure! Setting Expectations Most everyone is familiar with the Pareto principle ...

SECI Model at Fuji Xerox - from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology A Model for Learning When researching knowledge management and organizational learning you're bound to come across the SECI model and the work of the Nonaka and Takeuchi. Appreciating the value of tacit knowledge (carried in people's minds) and explicit knowledge (codified or articulated) is paramount for the knowledge based industries. The authors of the SECI model emphasize that as valuable as the knowledge assets may be, the process of creating knowledge and how it is transformed is where the real potential lies. Simply managing existing knowledge is not enough . The Heart of the Machine Intuitively we know that human talent is the critical success factor in hi-tech and other knowledge based contexts. Creativity and innovation are primarily human functions and are hard to systematize but are essential for ongoing success. Additionally, the picture below demonstrates how all significa...

What looks like a doc, sounds like a doc, but doesn't behave like a doc? It's a Google Doc! Google Docs , along with similar offerings from other web based vendors, is an innovative collaboration environment that behaves a lot more like a Wiki than a traditional document management system. Mike Riversdale captures this eloquently in his post, " Google Docs ... so what - the ONE reason why you should care " Wikis live by understanding the connectivity of their environment and the innate desire of 'words' to love all and be loved by all. In the future there will be no difference between a Google Doc and a wiki page ... in fact, it may be so close already it's just a matter of semantics and opinion. Collapsing the Publishing Process One of the dynamics of a Wiki is that whatever you create is immediately, or very quickly, published. This means that knowledge can be communicated as quickly as it is captured, significantly outpacing the change in knowledge d...

Perhaps because we were raised on encyclopedias and textbooks, we tend to think of knowledge in two primary forms: Steam - The thoughts, ideas and concepts that rattle around in our heads. Ice - Books and polished documents that we reference from time to time. In the context of knowledge work, this oversimplification fosters miscommunication and information management bureaucracy . A far better metaphor is to see knowledge as a dynamic, continuously flowing stream, with resulting artifacts passing through various stages of a knowledge lifecycle . How Knowledge Grows You don't require too much imagination to visualize how knowledge transitions from simple ideas through further crystallization, eventually forming reusable artifacts and polished publications. All knowledge workers have participated in this process. Many of the steps occur informally or are managed in isolated environments on personal computers. Content Management Systems (CMS) or Document Management Systems hav...

Photo Credit: Dominion Coal and Wood Silos - from University of Western Ontario Libraries One of the fastest ways to build trust and foster collaboration is to make everything visible. Complex organizations quickly become specialized and fragmented, creating isolated knowledge silos. Significant human effort and heroics are often required to bridge these gaps and maintain ongoing productivity. How Dangerous Is Open? In most organizations the tendency is to emphasize protection instead of knowledge sharing. Many systems start with out-of-the-box permissions that restrict everyone, allowing for manual overrides to allow individuals and groups to share content. Not only is this a sure recipe for clogging the knowledge arteries in an organization, it also tends to generate complex and unmanageable access matrices that introduce new risks and security holes themselves. The reality for most information is: Most people can't find it anyway, even when they have full access. Generally, ...

Photo Credit: 3D Wiki in Second Life - 3pointD.com Almost five years ago, I introduced one of the first wikis into the corporate environment of a large healthcare company. We needed to solve a very simple, pervasive problem. The common challenge for a global team of analysts was twofold: I found something interesting, but there is no obvious place to store it in the project infrastructure or corporate taxonomy. I need to quickly find this stored information when it becomes relevant, even if I forgot about it in the interim. The best solution at the time: a reused server under my desk loaded with SWIKI, a dead-easy Wiki server, all under the radar of corporate IT. Apart from solving the above-mentioned problems, we quickly experienced some of the exciting knowledge flow and work team dynamics that are inherently encouraged by Wiki technology . Five years later, Wikis are the talk of the town. This same company has now purchased an enterprise Wiki that is accelerating interaction and...

Learning Cycle: University of Tasmania Buried deep in the psyche of quality management systems is the discipline of training. It goes something like this: Define what needs to be done Train people how to do the work Test to ensure compliance Repeat activity in a predictable manner Optimize as needed The Danger Zone Much of this emphasis finds its roots in Taylorism. Also known as Scientific Management, this discipline focussed on studying current work processes and optimizing quality and performance in mass production environments. Unfortunately, the context has shifted dramatically to what is needed in today's knowledge-based organizations. "In political and sociological terms, Taylorism can be seen as the division of labour pushed to its logical extreme, with a consequent de-skilling of the worker and dehumanisation of the workplace." from Wikipedia: Scientific Management Learning in the Brave New World The truth is that in our current information-age work contexts, ...

In the last post , I talked about the importance of focusing on communities as the context for collaboration and knowledge sharing. How do you accelerate community building in your organization? Here are some ideas: Community Portal - Create a convenient, helpful central page of information that helps others discover, explore and engage your community. Include elements like: Identification Info - meaningful description of community context and purpose, links to core community artifacts. Communications - engaging news about community activity and contributions. People - highlight who is involved in your community. Exploration Tools - intuitive links, search and other navigation to help visitors find valuable content. Self Help and Interaction - FAQs, Q&A, and discussion forums to help the community find answers and kickstart collaborative contribution. Orientation - online training and help to remove barriers for new visitors, paving their transition to community con...

In a previous post, I suggested that the People are the Product , particularly in knowledge-based industries. However, when people in these contexts work and interact in a community , it becomes the platform for realizing continuous improvement and value innovation. What is a Community? Some of the definitions for community from the Miriam-Webster dictionary include: a unified body of individuals an interacting population of various kinds of individuals a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society In businesses, you find a variety of structures that help people interact and align to create value: Organizational units and teams Functional teams Cross functional teams Project teams Ad hoc communities of practice Informal associations and social relationships If we only recognize the traditional or formal "communities" or organizational structures in a business, we can easily end up managing and assessing only a fracti...

After viewing Robin Chase's video on how wireless mesh networks could help reduce global warming, I was struck by how the characteristics of mesh networks are related to human interaction improvements in the business world. What is a Mesh Network or Meshwork? Meshworks are highly distributed networks of devices which connect to each other without prior infrastructure. Let's apply some of the characteristics of mesh networks to our innovation design for human networks in the business context. Characteristics of mesh networks include the following: Many possible interconnections. Any node can connect to any other node. Connections are dynamic and temporary. People have many dynamic and temporary interactions with a variety of others, both within and outside of the organization. By increasing presence awareness , through capabilities, such as instant messaging and self-publishing, it is possible to dramatically improve the frequency and range of interactions. Nodes have purp...

Long before the birth of the Internet, Peter Drucker foresaw the growing prominence of "knowledge work" and the changes required by management and leadership to harness this potential. Many of these principles apply directly to the software development industry. When it comes to "Software Engineering", Alastair Cockburn states: " People are Active Devices " People have lots of interesting characteristics, and we don't know what they are - which makes it all the more absurd that we try to define methodologies and processes that incorporate them. Software Development as a Cooperative Game - Alastair Cockburn In knowledge work, the people are the product. It is their potential that creates the possible future, and sustainable value. They are dynamic knowledge repositories and sustainable intellectual property creators. Although the products produced by these individuals and teams represent realizable value, they have a very limited half-life, depreci...

Protecting intellectual property has become a harmful preoccupation for many leading-edge software and knowledge-based companies. Security policies, fear of competitors, and growth through mergers and acquisitions have created isolated knowledge silos across the organizational landscape. Unfortunately, the very dynamics used to protect this most valuable asset ironically creates significant barriers for innovation. The end result is a growing stranglehold on the ability to generate sustainable future value. It shouldn't surprise us that the antidote to this problem is currently playing out on the world wide web in a high stakes challenge of social networking innovations. What does connecting people have to do with innovation? People are sustainable dynamic IP generators People provide expertise and informal access to needed knowledge, easily doing end-runs around poorly managed IP protection strategies. "Who you know" has always been a significant component in effecti...

The Challenge In an industry with over 35 years of software engineering experience, it's amazing that we have failed to produce any significant breakthrough that improves the ability of executing successful software projects . The brightest minds have been humbled battling the tide of anarchy that persistently undermines the progress of their complex initiatives. "Discipline and control", the gurus cry, will help curb our irresponsible creative surges. Envying their manufacturing counterparts, knowledge workers have reached out to embrace disciplines that have reduced the insanity while simultaneously eroding innovation and creativity beneath the weight of bureaucratic process and fragmented work distribution. In this protected environment, the "sigh of relief" eventually evaporates into a new level of panic, as emerging competitors run roughshod across existing markets with disruptive innovations. Successful assembly and delivery of complex artifacts is ulti...

Each year, millions of dollars dissipate via projects that provide little residual value to their sponsors and end users. The source of the problem: an ever-widening communication gap between complex business needs and convoluted technical capabilities. Yet there is hope. One of my favourite bridging devices is a powerful visual modeling standard called Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) . Currently undergoing acceptance by the OMG , BPMN aptly crosses the chasm, clarifying business value and contextualizing technical capability through the following characteristics: Uses a common modeling language, easily understood by business and technical stakeholders Facilitates efficient process knowledge sharing for Business to Business (B2B) applications Addresses problems with previous attempts in using "software oriented" UML notation for business modeling Provides round trip engineering with XML based business processing languages like BPEL4WS Download an HTML version o...

An Open Door The Internet has created radical new facilities for individuals to collaborate independent of geographical and economic constraints. Riding on the wave of this capability, is the growing phenomenon of open source development and services. This altruistic, voluntary trend is impacting the economics of software production around the globe. Although some would trivialize these attempts as insignificant, many others are jumping through the open door of opportunity. How do organizations make money from open source software? This ZDNet article summarizes how: Selling related services such as packaging and documentation Selling support services Creating custom licenses for particular customers Producing proprietary software that integrates with an open source system Of course, the product mixing strategy requires specific due diligence for an organization to ensure that they do not compromise the open-source licensing with their proprietary distribution. Here is some helpful ...

I've long been fascinated by the effective use of Wikis to incubate and nurture research and information organically. Exposed to the power of Google search and the breadth of information on the Internet, everyone struggles with how to best interface their brain with the informational waterfall. Common approaches include: Bookmark mayhem - bookmark everything and then try to organize your bookmarks Tagging - a more flexible, generic style of bookmarking Gross capture - using cut and paste methods to copy verbatim information for future reference, hoping you can find it later. Wikis - value add contextualization to referential information in a searchable knowledge incubator. I was recently reminded of how crucially interdependent I have become on my personal Wiki in light of the number of projects that I'm juggling. I had switched to Microsoft OneNote for a couple of months, attracted to the ease of drag-and-drop capture from the Internet. Additionaly, OneNote automatically...

I have had the great privilege of participating in the rediscovery of key design principles through the recent renaissance led by the likes of Alan Cooper ( The Inmates Are Running the Asylum) and the folks at IDEO . Using a fresh emphasis on observation and the capture of customer behavior and goals, they have successfully realigned our methodologies of how to sustain success in this overengineered culture. The questions, "Why are we building this?" and, "How can we make this more compelling?" have gone far towards improving our existing offerings. More importantly, they have helped us connect with the core purpose of our products and services, a critical conduit to the value opportunities in an increasingly complex world. In addition to rejuvenating our production value, the same principles can also be applied to the organization as a whole. When business leaders help their teams effectively connect with their shared core purpose, it creates a significant synergy...

I began successfully using voice and screen capture over 10 years ago. At the time, we were doing experiments in alternative learning methods. Since that time, I've successfully used Camtasia for many projects. My most effective use of screen video capture was rapidly creating online training material. In the high-tech boom, recruiting and getting new team team members productive became priority one. Since we couldn't hire people fast enough, we added up to four co-op students per semester as well. How do you successfully bloat a knowledge-dependent team without being crushed by your own weight? It boils down to leveraging the Nyquist theorem and applying it to the disciplines of knowledge transfer. The theorem states: When sampling a band-limited signal the sampling frequency must be greater than twice the input signal bandwidth in order to be able to reconstruct the original perfectly from the sampled version. My application of this principle: To effectively transfer k...

Recently a friend and I were discussing how our culture reinforces passive observation, ever increasing the barriers for real participation. Not only do we have every form of mindless entertainment dulling our senses, but we are distracted with an overwhelming stream of information that is ravenously devouring our most precious comodity -- time. Some have attempted escape, hiding in their Luddite enclaves. Others are swept away by the mindless rush, occasionally surfacing to realize they've lost precious years. Hope still remains. A growing number of people are resisting and even leveraging the phenomenon that we live in. Here's an example of the discipline I've begun to exercise. It's a simple plan to engage the information that floods my mind each day. It looks like this: take a few minutes to to capture your thoughts for each book, significant article, movie or media experience you engage in. To support this activity, I use a flexible and powerful information manager...