NGKM….Disciplineware, Accountabilityware and Transparencyware all-in-one…
I was exchanging e-mails with my daughter the other day and she told me about a magazine called Campus Technology and how she thought it might be good for me to review due to Awareity’s successful solutions for schools and colleges.
My daughter is a very smart young lady and she is the one that told me I needed to start blogging too… so I clicked on the web link she provided to see what types of stories they covered. When I landed at the Campus Technology web page, I went straight to the current issue to see what types of stories were available to review online.
Looking down the list of featured articles, I saw one called To the Cloud and Beyond and saw it was a virtual roundtable of experts weighing in on the evolution of ‘worldware’ – from desktop software of two decades ago, to today’s Web 2.0 and social ‘cloud’ technologies, and on to the discipline-specific tools of the future.
Wow…this looked really cool so I clicked on the link to read the full roundtable discussion and was glad to read that these experts were talking about some very important issues that I believe are critical to the success of schools, governments and organizations of all sizes as we move into 2009 and beyond. They were talking about how “Web 2.0 is not on the desktop – rather, it is in the cloud” (Colleen Carmean from ASU) and how if the goal is to “cultivate and develop citizens who can be productive knowledge workers in different areas, setting out to solve problems of society, we have to go beyond the simple ability to interact and communicate easily and efficiently with each other. We need to have tools to solve problems that have specific foci. That’s why we’ll begin to develop ‘disciplineware‘, which, alongside other worldware, will leverage Web 2.0 technologies in the cloud.” (Phillip Long from University of Queensland Australia)
The next question made me laugh out loud (or should I type LOL here?) because the moderator then said “That sounds great, Phil, but is this just a futurist, pie-in-the-sky type of thing? How will the rise of disciplineware come about?”
I laughed in a comforting way because Awareity has been ahead of the curve for over 5 years developing our Next Generation Knowledge Management solutions provide disciplineware, accountabilityware, transparencyware and much more.
So thanks to my lovely daughter, I think I need to immediately contact President Obama to let him know that we are “the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things” and we can help President Obama deliver on two of his promises we keep hearing over and over… accountability and transparency in federal government.
Anyone know how I can contact President Obama so we can get started sooner than later??
President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Speech
January 20th, 2009 was great day! And for many reasons, January 20th, 2009 will long be remembered as a very important day in the history of the United States of America.
As USA Today reported, President Obama’s speech mixed promises with rebukes of former President Bush.
I do not want to get into the rebukes, but I would like to take this opportunity to highlight a few of President Obama’s comments and promises regarding accountability, responsibility and knowledge.
Accountability - And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Responsibility – What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
Knowledge – This is the price and the promise of citizenship. This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
I really like President Obama’s promises, but getting real results will require a different approach than using “big megaphones and big jumbotrons” in front of a couple million people or “TV and radio megaphones” blasted out to several million people. Organizational leaders must be empowered with next generation knowledge management tools to ensure that every American and every person that manages the public’s dollars understands their organization’s “customized knowledge” that is specific to their organization’s goals, strategies and obligations.
Time and time again, lessons learned have shown that individuals are easily overwhelmed if they have to sort through entire binders, e-mails, intranets or portals of general information to figure out where their individual roles and responsibilities begin and end and where someone else’s responsibilities take over. These types of broadcasts and megaphone management have not worked and will not work and now is the perfect time to make changes.
President Obama’s speech was great and the President’s promises sound great…so I have a promise too… I promise to do my part in helping every American and every organizational leader to learn how next generation knowledge management tools can help them the same way we are helping other organizations to more effectively manage their “customized knowledge” and ensure accountability and responsibility (and profitability) for their organizational, departmental and individual-level needs and obligations.
God Bless America!
2008 vs. 2009 and Information vs. Knowledge
One thing you can bet on this time of year is “resolutions”.
And now that 2008 is behind us, experts, leaders and politicians are offering all types of information. Some offer top 10 events of 2008 and some provide lists of past and future incidents and challenges that organizations will need to manage and oversee more effectively in 2009 and beyond.
There is no doubt that these experts, leaders and politicians mean well and there is no doubt they are attempting to offer valuable information to help organizations more successfully address escalating challenges especially now due to limited budgets and limited resources. But…(yes I know saying but after a comment can sometimes nullify the previous comment)…But to actually help organizational leaders take proactive steps I must share the following advice:
1) A bunch of Information is not Knowledge.
2) Megaphone Management is not working.
In my previous 27+ years of experience, I have experienced 27 different “new years” and at least 27 different versions of New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately most organizational leaders take a ‘bunch of information’ and broadcast it out to employees, partners and others and expect everyone to understand what the information means and how to implement all the information so decisions and results are better in the new year.
I think we can all agree that this status quo approach is causing a lot of the problems we are now facing in 2009 and beyond.
For “a bunch of information” to be usable, the information needs to be translated into customized knowledge for your organization so your people can use this knowledge to make better decisions.
And “megaphone management” is not working because when you blast out information in e-mails and memos and binders and on intranets, organizations have no idea if the right people got the right information and no idea if anyone understood what, why, where and how the information should be utilized.
In future blog comments, I will provide examples of incidents, events and lessons learned that will help explain how next generation knowledge management efforts will be a key to success in 2009 and beyond.
Next Generation Knowledge Management
Welcome to my next generation knowledge management blog.
My blog will analyze real world incidents and multiple organizational situations and demonstrate why and how “next generation” and “knowledge management” efforts are critical to an organization’s success and how “next generation knowledge management” must replace ineffective “megaphone management”.
“Next generation” = Forward-thinking ways to improve organizational results by replacing outdated and status quo processes. “Next generation” ideas will also help organizational leaders to perform at higher levels as business environments become more complex and more effectively engage and lead others to make better decisions and achieve better results.
“Knowledge management” = While there are multiple definitions for knowledge management, I believe that lessons learned have clearly shown that “knowledge management” has become the most important element (and most ignored and most misunderstood) for all types of management. Management types include: risk, emergency, compliance, security, information, technology, audit, privacy, assessment, operational, disaster, crisis, change, controls, people, and etc.
“Megaphone management” = Most organizations use “megaphone management” methods such as binders, e-mails, intranets, shared network drives, annual general training, knowledge centers, and etc. to broadcast information and knowledge to their people. “Megaphone management” methods do not offer individual-level confidentiality, security, accountability, measurability or audit-ready or legal-ready documentation.
My blog topics will explain how incidents and headlines could have been addressed more effectively and more efficiently with “next generation knowledge management” methods rather than status quo methods and outdated “megaphone management” efforts.
