Success in any Economy

by Steven Wieneke, Wieneke & Wieneke, Inc.                                                            Contact the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

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If there ever was a time when we need to work smart, do it right the first time and do more with less, it is now.
No silver bullet in this article, just insight that may prove useful to your enterprise. By enterprise, I am
referring to any manufacturer, service organization, academic institution or government organization.

Is there any economy where an enterprise would NOT need to know,

1. Who their customer is,
2. What their customer wants and values and
3. What design or service features create the desired performance or outcome?

Do you agree that any successful enterprise must know the answers to these questions despite the economy? The issue is not the economy. The issue is what the enterprise collectively needs to know, actually knows and effectively applies. For a learning enterprise, what is known is visible, valued, accurate, relevant, shared, understood and reused across that enterprise.

Let us consider one of your last projects. Using a variety of methods your project team has learned what your customer wants and values. The team has determined the crucial design or service features that create the desired outcome. They have carried out a strategy to make the design or service insensitive to variation and any factor not controlled; any known interactions in the design or service have been balanced.

Your enterprise invested resources for the project team to successfully deliver a product or service the customer wants and values. The team learned, but what has your enterprise learned? Can other peers be as successful the next time? Can the learnings and knowledge gained be readily reused on another project? Does the enterprise value the knowledge gained by the team as an asset, a knowledge asset?

What are knowledge assets?

Knowledge assets are documents, technical references or other intellectual properties. These assets are one of three categories of intellectual capital an enterprise has. The other 2 categories are individual know how (technical excellence) and good discussions (intellectual exchanges).Knowledge assets can be structured, semi structured or unstructured. In this article, structured assets are virtual documents managed in a knowledge base. Semi structured assets are template documents. Unstructured assets are free-text documents. Semi structured and unstructured assets can at best be used passively, at the discretion of an individual. Structured assets can be used either passively or actively. Active knowledge assets are directly tied to individual workflow (processes or design math data) allowing continual assessment of compliance.

Written knowledge?  All you need are a few “go-to” people!

Let us take a close look at this popular knowledge management approach; all we need is to have everyone in the enterprise connected with a few go-to people. Yes, someone in any enterprise must have knowhow; no argument there.

One of many issues is whether these go-to people can be available 24/7. From personal experience, availability is a concern for global companies because the demand is 24/7. Another concern is whether answering the same questions repeatedly is the best use of their time? How do these people have time to apply their knowhow to maintain it? Not to mention time to grow it.

Remember playing the children’s game telephone. Sitting in a circle, the first child whispers a short message to the child sitting next to them, then that child whispers what they heard to the next child, on around the circle. The last child typically announces to the entire group a different message than the original.

Some of the factors that caused the communication breakdown during the game are the same factors that breakdown communications and spoken knowledge transfer in your enterprise,

1. listening skills,
2. experiences,
3. diverse cultures,
4. dialects (and enunciation),
5. gender,
6. hearing impairment and
7. topic familiarity.

Setting the other factors aside, let us explore “topic familiarity,” the reason we would want to connect those less familiar with a topic to those more familiar with the topic. What causes the communication or knowledge transfer breakdown?

For a given topic, people will fall into or are transitioning between one of four knowledge holder states. The 4 states are summarized in Figure 1; the Novice, the Apprentice, the Mentor and the Expert. The column headings are “Know” and “Do Not Know.” The rows are labeled “Not Aware” and “Aware.” 

Starting in the lower right hand quadrant and moving counterclockwise, the Novice is not aware that they do not know the topic. The Apprentice or student is aware that they do not know the topic. The Mentor or teacher knows they know the topic and can readily explain the What’s and the Why’s. The Expert operates in the zone no longer aware that they know. The Why’s, When’s, Where’s have long been stored away allowing them to execute expediently with ease unencumbered with explanations.

From experience, we should not be surprised to find the understanding and retention of only spoken knowledge to diminish with each transaction. Figure 2a illustrates the scenario, like the telephone game, where understanding diminishes with each spoken exchange.

Adding the complexity of Knowledge Holder States, we should not be surprised to find the level of understanding to be even more diminished. In fact the retention of the receiving person may not be more than 10%. Figure 2b illustrates an Expert telling an Apprentice what to do with little or no explanation; followed by the Apprentice telling another Apprentice again with little or no explanation of why. The second Apprentice suggests what might be done to the Novice. The Novice gains no understanding; not realizing their lack of understanding; a state of bliss.

A better strategy…balance knowhow with written knowledge, then align to tasks

The understanding and retention of spoken knowledge can be greatly improved when augmented with written knowledge. The improvement is proportional to the relevance, richness and clarity of the written content.

Such an alignment strategy is illustrated in Figure 3. In this illustration, the vertical axis is labeled knowledge; both knowhow and written. The horizontal axis is labeled with three business tasks – routine, core business and invention. Collectively the three scenarios include people at each of the four knowledge holder states; novice, student, mentor and expert. The horizontal dashed line across the top of the illustration represents the minimum knowledge required to successfully complete a routine task, a core business task and an invention task. The shaded background of the plot implies that less knowhow is required for routine tasks and more for invention tasks. A routine task can be easily documented where innovation and invention tasks are not documented until after the fact.  

The first scenario, on the left, illustrates the knowhow required to achieve routine tasks. These tasks are typically procedural in nature requiring less core business knowhow. Procedural tasks are typically communicated through verbal or written instructions. An enterprise may decide to provide the Novice with proven written knowledge (manuals, how-to guides) or provide on-the-job training through a mentor and apprentice program.

The second scenario illustrates the knowhow required to achieve core business tasks associated with the enterprise’s products or services. This scenario requires a higher level of individual knowhow and may require a team of cross-functional expertise to successfully complete. In this scenario, the enterprise has augmented the varying degrees, depth and breadth, of cross-functional skills in the team with a shared written knowledge base. The written knowledge allows the team a better opportunity to complete core business tasks more efficiently, maintain continuous improvement and foster innovation.

The third scenario illustrates the knowhow required for invention tasks requiring an in-depth and wide breadth of understanding of the fundamental principles of the topic area. Because the knowledge is yet to be discovered, there may be little if any written knowledge. In a learning enterprise, there will be documentation from previous relevant activities that may prove beneficial.

In most enterprises, all three scenarios exist. When an enterprise is unaware of the importance of augmenting knowhow with written knowledge the enterprise is left vulnerable in several ways. If the knowledge management strategy is limited to only spoken knowledge transfer (orally handed down knowledge), the enterprise will experience diminished collective knowhow over time or through expert attrition or separation from the enterprise. If the enterprise has little written knowledge, the enterprise will need to deploy their experts to mentor and troubleshoot, sacrificing new product or service development, documenting knowledge or keeping up with technological advances. If the enterprise has only automated their written knowledge, fundamental understanding may never be realized for that topic.

Written knowledge myths…

A few knowledge management (KM) pundits will argue that written knowledge stifles innovation. I beg to differ. Innovation introduces improvements or new applications to existing products and services. Invention produces something that did not previously exist through unique intuition or genius. Written knowledge enables innovation. I agree that written knowledge may handicap invention of something that was not imagined or thought possible. Some inventors will use written knowledge to define their out-of-the-box space.

Some KM pundits will also argue that written knowledge can become dated and no longer relevant. This concern is also true of individual knowhow. Remember the go-to people we previously discussed that no longer had time to maintain their expertise. An enterprise that has a visible learning process to ensure the accuracy, relevance and vitality of their written knowledge as well as individual knowhow will not experience knowledge obsolesce.

We need action not clichés…

Work smart by knowing your customer and only working on the things the customer wants and values. Know what needs to be known. Learn what is not known. Apply what is collectively known.

Do it right the first time by understanding the key features that make the design or service work for your customer. Spend resources to ensure the design or service is insensitive to variation and any factor not controlled. Additionally, balance any interactions in the design or service. Finally, monitor the compliance of key factors throughout the design or service process. 

Do more with less by balancing knowhow and written knowledge, then align to the valued tasks that must be completed.  An enterprise can accommodate varying degrees of knowhow with written knowledge for routine and many core business tasks.

Maintaining a balance between knowhow and written knowledge is essential to the success of any enterprise. An enterprise valuing learnings and knowledge as assets, while effectively balancing individual knowhow and written knowledge for the tasks at hand, will inherently be able to achieve more with less. The more written knowledge an enterprise has increases their flexibility to align more experienced people with innovation and invention tasks. Innovation and invention create the future and keeps the enterprise alive.

Managing written knowledge…

The endgame is not to have just written knowledge in a database and passively reused. The endgame is to have the written knowledge available in a person’s natural work flow. The strategy is to directly support people by providing the written knowledge in the appropriate form and at the time needed. This approach frees the time people spend searching for the answer or redoing a series of tasks. Everything the enterprise understands their people need should be readily available in their primary work environment.

I managed an internally developed knowledge base for 8 years. The knowledge base was globally accessed 24/7 but fell short on tying knowledge directly in individual workflow. A commercial software solution satisfying this endgame is now available. This solution is not limited to just engineering applications and is not another document management system. The solution provides a suite of knowledge management functions.

One of the key features of this solution is binding knowledge as rules directly to key design features in math data applications like Siemens’ NX (CAD) or Dassult Systems’ CATIA (CAD).  A tool kit is available for integrating this solution into any PLM, CAD, CAE and CAM applications or business systems. u

For more information about this article, knowledge assessments, enterprise learning, knowledge awareness, implementation, workshops or software solutions for managing knowledge please contact the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Copyright 2009 Wieneke & Wieneke, Inc. All rights reserved.