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Information and Knowledge Management
“A good time to be original” – lessons from the movie industry
Feb 8th
In the early days of knowledge management, organisations focused on maximising the value of the workforce. New structures and ways of working were explored. One of these structural models involved the creation of ‘dream teams’ to tackle specific projects. The teams might cut across hierarchies and departments but the members would be chosen as being the most appropriate for the project. The right people at the right time would come together, deliver a project successfully and disperse into new project teams.
This model was often referred to as a ‘film production’ model. A film producer’s role is to bring together the right script, talent, funding, marketing and distribution to deliver a successful project. What, then, can we learn from film producers?
Tim Bevan is co-founder and co-chairman of the UK’s most successful film production company. Working Title, founded in 1992, is responsible for such films as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Atonement; Fargo and Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Tim was the guest at the ninth annual Olive Till Memorial Debate, held at Goldsmiths College in London this month. Interviewed by Mike Goodridge, the editor of Screen International, he shared insights into the business of making movies and some significant transferable lessons learned.
- Don’t be afraid to learn as you go – Try to learn something concrete after every project. His work on an early project (My Beautiful Launderette) not only taught him the process of film-making but also helped him focus on what really interested him – the business and creative sides of getting films made.
- The power of creative partnerships – and of team selection. In film-making, talent relationships are everything. Tim has had long-lasting and successful partnerships with people who trust him and understand how he works. Face to face meetings have proved more informative to him than show reels when it comes to choosing partners. Sometimes completely counter-intuitive appointments are the most successful (Ang Lee was certainly not the obvious choice to direct Pride and Prejudice)
- Challenge and push you team – Despite having trusted teams around you, remember that most team leaders will ask for more budget than they really need! By challenging them appropriately and collaboratively, sometimes wonderful, creative solutions arise.
- Ensure projects are sufficiently resourced- When resources are tight, you might end up having to complete a project simply because you have spent so much on it already and need to claw some back.
- Balance your portfolio – Working Title may be working on 60 projects at one time – although many will never be pursued to completion. They have always balanced box office/commercial hits with other films
- Speed is sometimes the enemy of thought – when it comes to newer technologies such as digital editing, the simplification of the technology means that some processes become less ‘considered’
- Dare to be different – particularly in the current climate, other movie makers might prefer to play safe, creating the same movie over and again. But for those who are steeped in an independent spirit, this is the perfect time to be creative, take a chance and go down a different path.
[The Olive Till Memorial Debate and Bursary are presented by Stewart Till CBE, CEO Icon Entertainment and Deputy Chair Skillset, in memory of his mother]
Challenges faced by marketing sound familiar
Oct 13th
IBM has just published its 2011 Global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) 2011 report (called From Stretched to Strengthened). Over 1700 senior marketing staff in 64 countries were interviewed about the transformations and challenges they and their businesses are currently facing.
The CMOs identified four big ‘game changers’
- data explosion
- social media
- proliferation of devices and channels
- consumer demographics
They also identified key areas for focus and development, including understanding customers and delivering value to them; creating lasting relationships; and the necessity for measuring ROI. This focus on ROI reflects a move from marketing being seen as a ‘cost centre’ to focusing on customer centric initiatives. In fact, it’s all sounding rather familiar.
The report synthesises the wisdom of the respondents to suggest nine strategic imperatives. These too are relevant to information professionals. These include:
- focus on creating value to customers as individuals
- capitalise on new digital channels to stimulate customer conversations
- use advanced analytics and compelling metrics to improve decision making and demonstrate accountability
It seems there are opportunities for information professionals to help senior marketing colleagues understand the potential impact and deliver the benefits of social media and to support them as they attempt to meet the challenges of data explosion and analysis.
What ‘good’ looks like
Sep 22nd
Some years ago, when he was working at BP, Chris Collison and his colleagues developed a deceptively simple methodology that helped transform the way that knowledge and expertise was identified and shared. This ‘river’ diagram remains an astonishingly powerful tool that is used by organisations of all types, size and sectors, from global telecommunications businesses to third sector organisations.
At the latest NetIKX event, Chris guided members through a river exercise that sought to identify the supply and demand for knowledge expertise within the room.
The process involves:
- Bringing stakeholders together to agree ‘what good looks like’
- Enabling teams to self-assess their performance levels
- Encouraging teams to set targets for improvement
- ‘Matchmaking’ those with a supply of expertise and experience with those who want to improve
As with any great consulting methodology there is as much to be gained from participating in the process itself as there is from the actual outputs. The conversations that take place to discuss what constitutes ‘basic’, ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ can help stakeholders to develop a shared organisational language. The process helps organisations identify, capture and share good practice. The longevity of the river diagram approach also shows the power of effective visualisation – and of a great metaphor.
In our session, two café conversations took place, bringing together those who self-assessed high on knowledge strategy and organisational learning and those seeking to learn from them.
The amount and level of animated knowledge sharing at our workshop demonstrates just how healthy the NetIKX knowledge marketplace is. It also shows how committed the members are, not only to their own learning, but also to the ongoing development of peers and the future success of knowledge and information management.
Information professionals – unsung ‘good fairies’?
Aug 4th
This week’s Sue Hill breakfast meeting provided a compelling snapshot of what is exercising information professionals across a wide range of sectors (health, law, property and more were represented).
Several delegates reported that their organisations are working to develop new strategies and models to reflect the changing business landscape. Collaboration, both internally, but increasingly externally, is seen as a strategy for success – or at least survival. Organisational websites are no longer static ‘repositories’ but are being opened up to collaborative content creation – with all the challenges that this might generate. Colleagues must learn to work more openly and in new matrix structures. There are opportunities for knowledge and information people to act as role models when it comes to collaborative working. It may not come as easily to others as it does to our profession.
But it’s not just our customers with whom we need to collaborate. There is also work to be done educating, informing, and exerting influence on those who seek to regulate and measure our business. We can assist in raising the profile, not just of our profession, but of our organisations and the sectors in which we work. We can help share success stories, internally and externally and have a role to play in helping our colleagues interpret, and maximise, internally generated knowledge. We can help our organisations mitigate information risk and maximise information value.
Even against the backdrop of a challenging business landscape, the conversation was positive and energised. In hard times, we are the ‘good fairies’ of our organisations – our good deeds bring business benefits!
Suzanne from Sue Hill Recruitment has also blogged about this event. Click here for her review.
Clear, concise, accurate – what all information managers should aim for
Jul 20th
Information is an organisational resource that needs to be managed, just like any other. It needs to be allowed to flow appropriately and effectively if its value is to be maximised – and its potential to harm is to be minimised.
Our second speaker at the NetIKX Information Risk Management workshop was Patricia (Pat) Bryant – a risk manager with experience of advocating the benefits of managing risks at a senior level in the public, private and third sectors.
Pat used the recent events at News Corp and Westminster to highlight some key lessons about managing information risk. Poor information management combined with alleged criminality has created financial problems for that organisation and raised political implications in three continents.
Key lessons from Pat’s presentation and the discussion that followed it:
- ‘Secrecy’ is the enemy of information security. If information is locked down, then it becomes siloed. Information lock-down creates a barrier which can lead the disaffected to believe that you have something to hide.
- It is possible to manage information boundaries, but organisations are not very good at it! Organisations should aim for information transparency within clear boundaries.
- Organisations should consider who is best placed to control and manage information flows
- Similarly communications are vital and serious consideration should be given to who is the best person to do it!
- Your information should be concise, factual and the person who communicates it should be trustworthy
- Leaks tarnish people and organisation
- Get your information right in the first place
- Organisations should seek to move from ‘risk averse’ to ‘risk managed’
- Has your organisation defined its ‘appetite for risk’? – you should work within that framework
- The watchwords should be ‘Clear, Concise, Accurate‘
How to align IM with organisational risk management
Jul 20th
As recent events have only too clearly shown, poor information management and control (particularly when combined with a ‘flexible’ appreciation of information ethics and legislation) can lead to financial and reputational loss.
It was an extraordinary coincidence of timing that while a UK Government Select Committee was in progress in Westminster, members of NetIKX were discussing the concept of organisational information risk management.
Liz Scott-Wilson, currently an information architect at a large law firm, has years of experience in information management and consulting roles in both the public and private sectors. In her presentation she shared what she considers to be the most valuable lesson of her career. When it comes to exerting influence within your organisation the key to success is to focus on what keeps senior people in your organisation awake at night.
Senior managers are unlikely to care much about the intricacies of information governance but they will be concerned about organisational risk. Liz outlined how in a previous role, she had analysed a (very detailed) organisational risk register and identified information pressure points. She then used these to demonstrate how effective information management could help mitigate organisational risk at key pressure points.
Key lessons from Liz’s presentation:
- Focus on real pain points for senior managers
- Ensure you understand the power systems in your organisation
- Find friends in your organisation’s governance/risk teams
- Reflect organisational language in your strategy
- Demonstrate how IM can bring plausible and affordable processes to mitigate risk
The key call for action was to encourage anyone interested in demonstrating the importance of IM to organisations to meet with organisational risk managers.
(There were two speakers at the event. Watch out for a second blog entry!)
Making the most of SharePoint – 8 lessons from NetIKX
May 19th
The latest meeting of NetIKX, focusing on making the most of SharePoint, was a full-house. Delegates were keen to learn from others who have experienced (and even been responsible for) SharePoint roll-out and survived. The session proved that as a tool, SharePoint is flexible enough to ‘take on the personality’ of the organisation.
Mark Field set the agenda for the afternoon, outlining the ways in which the UK’s Department for Education is using SharePoint to help deliver real behavioural change. Additional case studies were provided by the British Red Cross and Jones Lang LeSalle.
Although being showcased in three very different corporate settings, some key lessons and themes reflect how to deliver a successful SharePoint project.
- Recognise the value of IM as well as IT skills in taking implementation forward. Sound information architectures and information standards as well as customer skills are essential
- Over engineered approaches are high risk
- Do not use SharePoint/Microsoft terminology if that will be a barrier in your organisation
- For one organisation, the tool simply provided ‘workplaces’ for its users
- Obtain high level ‘business’ support (that’s a given) but also identify pilot groups/individuals who will challenge you
- The naysayers will test and push you but will become valuable advocates if you deliver what they need
- Get ‘intimately’ close with your internal clients to understand their work processes/pain points. Focus on the ways real people really work
- Focus on constant improvement and iterations not on one ‘big delivery/rollout’ of a standard implementation. Really understand internal work processes
- One size does not fit all but recognise the dangers of letting a thousand flowers bloom
- Provide the necessary support and training to ensure success
- Be pragmatic, not dictatorial
- Not all documents will require rich metadata
- Be open to learning from other organisations/rollouts but recognise that you will have to adapt for your own circumstances
- For one organisation, extensive customisation is required to ensure access in low bandwidth situations
- User pull is vital
- Under deliver on functionality and then respond to user demands for more ‘stuff’
All of the case study organisations had identified the contribution that collaborative software, interfaces with a good look and feel and well structured document libraries make to team and organisational effectiveness – and to improved compliance with records management policies.
Email triage
Apr 11th
Many thanks to Craig Roth for introducing me to the concept of ‘extreme email triage’. With 411 emails in his inbox, he set aside some uninterrupted time, checked he wasn’t expected in any meetings and ‘triaged’ his way out of email overload. His techniques included:
- Working in stealth mode (he didn’t turn off his out of office until he was ready to do so)
- Scanning for high priority messages (firefighting, red type, subject headings in capitals etc)
- De-spamming (this removed almost 25% of his inbox in one swoop)
His article reminds me of the challenging (for us) decision I reached with several colleagues. We decided to stop burdening each other with our polite acknowledgements and good mannered correspondence and banned thanking each other via email. It made a real difference!
Email inbox now dealt with, I wonder if anyone has any hints on how to deal with the pressure I feel when my Google Reader tells me there are 1000+ items waiting to be read?
Adventures in data visualisation
Apr 3rd
The great graphic designer Abram Games was the UK’s official war poster artist and continued to create iconic images after the war. He would test his designs with friends and family – including his children. If they could not quickly grasp and explain the meaning of the image he would discard his work and start again. A great image can convey at a glance what may take 1000 words or a ream of numbers to communicate.
At this month’s SameAs meeting in London, an interest in data visualisation brought together the widest range of speakers imaginable including statisticans and creative designers and artists.
Jade Davies is a graphic and visual designer who is interested in emotional responses to visual representation. Her project, Emotionalisation, involved her ‘using her own emotions as a data source’ and representing this data as pins on a model’s face to bring the data to life. The pins map the Jade’s emotions on a difficult day in her final year at university. The image is a striking representation of ‘fuzzy data’. Stefanie Posavec’s ‘writing without words’ projects result in stunning visuals of writing styles and texts.
Meanwhile, Brock Craft of the London Knowledge Lab showed how he used publicly available data to map the patterns of usage of London’s ‘bikes for hire’ schemes, creating mesmerising videos that show the flow of bikes across the city. The Guardian data blog also uses public data to tell stories, show trends and engage users – for example in the interactive ‘budget cutting’ feature that was lauched during the UK election in 2010.
Truly, information can be beautiful!
How (not) to spin a good yarn
Feb 17th
Many of us were first introduced to business storytelling as one technique in the knowledge management ‘toolkit’. KM guru David Gurteen calls it a ‘key ingredient’ for a range of organisational activities, from training to innovation. Stories enable us to unite ideas with emotional engagement, but in order for them to be really effective the story must have a clear meaning – and be relevant to your audience.
In an article on Openforum.com, Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith write about the ‘7 deadly sins of business storytelling’. They are the authors of a book about using social media to drive social change. The article actually focuses more on the do’s than the don’ts. The key elements of effective business storytelling are:
- Show don’t tell
- A story arc is better than strict chronological order
- No jargon!
- Focus on people, not things
- A real story – no invention!
- Include the problems – and the failures – in the story to increase engagement
- Encourage storytelling by all – employees, customers etc
In practice, organisations can take simple steps to develop a storytelling culture. The authors suggest you start a staff meeting with a story rather than a progress report and review the ‘about’ section on your website so that it includes more ‘narrative’.
