The Knowledge Management Executive

Process Diagrams

2011-06-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

Process diagrams can be a very helpful tool to explain procedures. I've found many benefits to charting out even the most basic of systems:

Having to describe the steps in detail and place them in proper sequence helps all the people involved identify inefficiencies and redundancies. No matter what the system is, you can't fix it until you can define it.
A picture really is worth a thousand words. A couple of visuals can easily capture the most important points from pages of text describing a system.
It's much easier to collaborate using a diagram than a document of text.

I've been evaluating a tool for creating and sharing process diagrams at gliffy.com.

The product works great so far. I've really only had one complaint and it's that you can't seem to change a shape type after it's created. The most important things for me are that you can share access and you can publish links to the most current version of a diagram. So I can link to the diagram directly from a KMX operational document even if the diagram is not complete. This mean that I don't need to go through the process of manually saving an image of a diagram and re-inserting it into my documentation every time it's changed or updated.

Managing Projects by Boulder Control

2011-05-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know where I first heard the air-traffic controller analogy to project management, but it's a good one. If you manage multiple projects at once you've got all these planes (projects) you need to keep safely in the air and you've also got to focus on getting planes to a safe landing (i.e. completing projects). You can't neglect one or the other, but you've obviously got to pay special attention to the planes that are landing. From a time standpoint this means to me that you've got to allocate a little time on a daily or weekly basis to keep all projects moving forward and allocate more time to the projects you're trying to complete first.

I like to think of a different analogy wherein each project is a large boulder in a field and I'm trying to clear the field of boulders from the center outwards. Picture a game where the score is a combination of how many boulders you get off the field and how large of a space in the middle you can clear of boulders. I have the choice of trying to pick one boulder at a time and roll it all the way off the field or I can just try to move many boulders a little way at a time to create as much space as possible in the middle. Some boulders are small and I can quickly roll them all the way off the field. Some are really large and take a lot of effort to move even a little way. There may be many boulders very close to the edge of the field that can all be moved off easily.

So how does this translate to managing tasks and projects on a daily basis for me? Using the concepts from David Allen's Getting Things Done I review each project and designate a next action. The problem for me is that it's difficult to break actions down for each project to where they will take an equal amount of time. Some next actions may take a few minutes and some may involve a couple of hours. Thus, I create a list of next actions making sure there is an action from every project. The daily discipline is to spend enough time on each next action so I am moving the project ahead but not too much that I can't at least do something on every critical project. After I at least touch on every next action I spend larger chunks of time working on the next actions for priority projects, or projects that are very near to completion. To go back to the air-traffic controller analogy; I check to make sure all the planes in the air are safe and then focus on the ones that need to land.

This concept is implemented in KMX using tags and the ASSIGNMENTS view. I tag the 'next action' activities for each project with a 'current' tag. Then my ASSIGNMENTS view is filtered to this tag, with all activities sorted by 'Last Activity' column. The activities that have had the most time lapse since there was a comment or time entry posted are sorted to the top of the list. I start with those activities and utilize whatever time I have at the moment to move the activity closer to completion.

At the end of the day the main benefit of this method is making sure that no projects are going stale when there is an opportunity to be doing something (even if it's very minor) to move it forward. At the very least, taking time to think about a project helps to flesh out specifics on what it's going to take to finish vs. procrastinating because your next actions may not be well defined.

One Inch at a Time

2011-04-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

Reading Jack Vinson's article 'Perfection is the goal, not the first step' brings to mind one of the concepts we discussed here in '4 Quick Ways to Get Your Business Documentation Rolling'.

The concept is to spend at least a few minutes every day working towards your goal. This idea is especially relevant when discussing the documentation of business operations because:

It's not something that you're likely to see immediate results from.
It's not a particularly fun process.
It's easy to put off because there won't be any immediate impact.
A lot of people literally don't know where to begin.

There are many approaches to business improvements that discuss the benefits of committing a certain amount of time every day to document and analyze your operations. I've found this approach to be much more beneficial then setting aside a certain block of time each week (or month!).

By using the tools offered with KMX to organize tasks I have our entire business innovation approach divided into several small objectives. My KMX dashboard allows me to view these objectives sorted by date according to the last time there was anything done with the objective to move it forward. I make it a priority to start off my day by reviewing these activities and 'doing something'. Some days this activity is just a few minutes to review some notes someone has left and some days it's a couple of hours fleshing out a system innovation.

I'm finding a lot of success in other areas of my life as well following this concept. By focusing on doing something every day - even if it just takes a couple of minutes - to move my 'someday maybe' projects forward I see a lot more things getting done.

Measuring Performance

2011-04-02T07:17:00.000-07:00

The Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness describes the effectiveness of scorecards to establish individual accountability.

Scorecards serve as a good summary for monitoring expectations, but without the critical component of clear documentation of expectations, scorecards do not fulfill their potential.

I once heard an analogy about typical management practices. The illustration depicted a bowling scenario in which the employee was rolling the ball at the pins. Management would stand in front of the pins with a blanket. The ball would roll under the blanket and knock down the pins. Management would keep the blanket up and look at the pins and try to tell the employee how many were still standing, etc. The employee has to keep rolling the ball and try to knock down all of the pins without eer seeing them.

I see this type of scenario playing out often in the 'real world'. You have a conversation with someone describing some outcome and defining the tasks required. Without clear, written instructions it is almost inevitable that two people in a conversation like this will walk away with two different ideas of what the end product will look like. Then you end up with the employee doing what they think is needed and the manager being unhappy because the end product isn't exactly what they envisioned.

Clear documentation for business processes and responsibilities is a sure-fire way to bypass this disparity and drop that blanket so employees know what their targets are and what management expects from them.

Metrics for Process Improvement

2011-03-05T06:06:00.000-08:00

Many people seem to have an aversion to tracking metrics related to business processes. Perhaps it's from a misunderstanding of the intent. After all, people use metrics all day long. How much money did I make, how much did I spend, how much do I weigh, etc. etc. The whole point of 'metrics'is to be able to quantify something you want to change.

If I want to lose weight, first I must know how much I weigh now. Then I go through a fitness program. If I come back at some point and my weight has not changed I can draw a conclusion that the fitness program is not helping me lose weight.

This viewpoint applies directly to business process improvement. If I want to decrease the amount of time it takes from the time a client calls in with a work request to the time I write up a contract, I first must know how long it currently takes.

Gary Comerford, in The Unseen side of Process Projects - Part Four:Measures, notes that implementing a new process without proper measurment is a 'fatal mistake'.

Of course, measuring data can become a process in itself that needs analysis and improvement. Do you have the resources to keep tracking your metrics as you work on the revised process? This is something to consider when choosing the technology you use to implement business improvements.

2011-02-12T05:37:00.000-08:00

Jack Ivinson's article KM is about linking people...and lots of formatting opens up the idea that retrievable pieces of information, such as document, may not necessarily provide all of the information you needed when you set out to retrieve the document.

In the context of managing a project this idea is critical. A person may be able to find a document they need in a folder, by iteself. However, there may be additional information surrounding that document that has an impact on the project. Who received the document? Did they respond if a response is required? Were there other meetings or discussions happening at the time the document what created or received? Who was involved and what were those individuals doing?

There is a tangible benefit to having a complete overview of a project that places any piece of information in it's correct context. This means being able to look at the trail of information that a project creates in a linear fashion.

Digital project documents, internal information exchanges, time entries, etc. all need to be collected in the same portal.

KM Executive approaches project knowledge management with a set of tools designed to collect information during the course of a project as a natural function of the organization. This collection creates a chronoligically ordered knowledgebase allowing users to understand the context of the information they may need to retreieve.

Job Openings Posting and Transfers - Template Policy

2011-01-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

Whenever possible, new and vacant positions will be filled from within the company by promoting or transferring qualified employees in accordance with the following:

All available non exempt hourly job vacancies will be posted on the company bulletin boards for five (5) working days, with the exception of promotional and re-organizational situations.
Employees of a department in which a vacancy occurs may be given priority consideration over employees from other departments for the position.
Promotions will be made on the basis of qualifications and job needs, as determined in the department in which the vacancy exists.
Newly transferred employees will normally have an informal "performance update" meeting ninety (90) days from the date of transfer to see how the employee is doing in their new position.
If there are no employees within the company qualified to fill a vacancy, the most qualified applicant from outside the company will be selected.
The company reserves the right to fill new and vacant positions as it sees fit and according to its sole discretion.

Anyone interested in an opening that is posted should see his or her Manager and the HR/Office Manager.

To declare your interest in a posted position complete the following form and submit to HR/Office Manager:

Position Contracts - Template Policy

2010-12-18T05:39:00.000-08:00

This is a template list of responsibilities that would be included in the company-wide portion of the individual position contracts.

All work will be performed in accordance with all government laws, regulations, ordinances, and court rulings in those jurisdictions in which the company operates.
All routine work will be documented by op-docs in KMEXEC. The information included in theses documents is proprietary.
All work will be performed according to company policies and standards inherent in all position contracts, system action plans, employee manuals, ongoing policy memoranda, and facilities and dress codes.
Client and company information will be held as strictly confidential outside the company.
All telephone calls, both internal and external, will be returned within one business day and within two hours whenever possible.
Manager will be notified of any issues to be resolved or deadlines that cannot be met by reporting position, prior to the due date.
All innovation will be quantified, tested and improved, then documented for routine implementation (i.e., well orchestrated once proven).
Problems with any system must be brought to the attention of manager so the system can be improved, within the structure of the operations manual.
All policy memoranda indicating changes in policy and/or procedures are document through Ambitionality op-docs that require compliance if assigned to your position or company-wide.
Employees will provide staff assistance as requested; each employee may be asked from time to time to cover other areas of accountability and/or departments.
All business communications, whether verbal, visual, or written, whether for internal or external use, will be professional in tone and content and according to any applicable and existing company policies and standards.
Employees will respect each other's time, space, and need for concentration. Socializing and interruptions must not impede workflow.
Employees will have weekly, regularly-scheduled meetings with their manager.
Employees are encouraged to recommend ideas for the improvement of their department and position that are consistent with the company's Strategic Objective.

Information Security & Computer Policy - Template Policy

2010-12-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

Company Access to Equipment and Information:

As a condition of continued employment, employees must cooperate in all situations where the Company seeks access to equipment or furniture. Furniture and equipment located in any office or work area are to be used to conduct Company business and are considered Company property. The Company reserves the right to access at any time the contents of all business systems and work areas including, but not limited to, desks, file cabinets, storage units, lockers, computers, computer-stored information and systems, electronic mail, instant messaging, voicemail, facsimile machines, and telephones. This policy applies to systems and equipment with a password, special entry code, or locking device.

Information Assets (Trade Secret, Sensitive or Confidential):

Information assets are defined as all methods of communications concerning the Company's business, including all verbal, written, visual materials, electronic messaging systems (including but not limited to email, instant messaging, voicemail, fax machine or telephones), computer reports, data storage equipment, internet, and computer-stored data. All information assets sent, received, or contained within Company equipment are considered Company records. All results of work performed, in whole or in part; by you during your employment with the Company shall be the sole and exclusive property of the Company regardless of where the work was performed. The Company retains the exclusive ownership right, to the maximum extent of the law, to all information assets and designates responsibility for control of information assets to its employees. Each employee is responsible for the protection of the Company's information assets.

Information Security:

Information security is the protection of information assets from unauthorized or accidental access, modification, destruction, or disclosure. It also includes protection of information accuracy, availability, and confidentiality. Management is responsible for maintaining information security through the administration of appropriate controls and procedures. Management must ensure that employees are aware of all aspects of the Company's information security policy and are appropriately trained in the protection of information and equipment.

Privacy Not Guaranteed:

The Company reserves the right to access an employee's voicemail, email messages and instant messages at any time. Therefore, an employee's outgoing voicemail message must not indicate to the caller that his/her incoming message will be confidential or private. The existence of a password on either system is not intended to indicate the messages will remain private, and, all employees must make passwords known to the Company. Employees should be aware that even when a message has been erased, it still might be possible to retrieve it from a backup system. Therefore, employees should not rely on the erasure of messages to assume a message has remained private.

Authorized Access:

Access to Company information assets, secured areas and equipment is restricted to authorized personnel and is based on functional need and with management's approval. You are prohibited from accessing Company information with another individual's user ID.

Management has the right to access and disclose all information assets sent, received, or contained within Company equipment or websites. If warranted, management may remove an employee's access to Company information resources without notice.

Employee Responsibility:

In order to safeguard the assets of the Company, employees who use information assets are expected to follow Company policies, procedures, standards, guidelines, and regulations concerning information security:

You are encouraged to take an active part in improving information security. If you know of non-business or illegitimate use of information, loss of information or equipment, please report such activity to management. You should not use Company equipment for personal reasons such as personal internet correspondence, solicitation or outside commercial usage without management approval. Any written, verbal, or electronic communication of a personal nature stored within Company equipment will be treated, like all other business communication, as Company assets.

On occasion, personal messages may be left on the voicemail, email or instant messaging system for an employee, and the Company is willing to accommodate personal messages to a limited degree. However, personal use of information systems that interferes with an employee's work performance will not be tolerated.

You need to promptly disclose to the Company all results of your work performed for the Company during your employment and you must surrender possession of such information to the Company upon any suspension or termination of employment.

Do not take any potentially harmful, disruptive, or offensive actions when using Company equipment or websites including but not limited to: Hacking or distributing viruses, Sharing obscene files and off-color jokes, Forwarding chain letters, Posting or emailing of Company secrets or intellectual property, Messages on the company's voicemail, email and instant messaging systems are subject to the same policies regarding harassment, discrimination, or retaliation, as are any other workplace communications. Offensive, harassing, or discriminatory content in such messages will not be tolerated and offenders will face corrective action up to and including termination of employment.

Please refrain from discussing confidential business matters in elevators, restrooms, restaurants, etc. You should be aware of probing questions about sensitive information from outsiders as well, especially by telephone.

Disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment will be taken when any person, through willful act, omission, or negligence, violates the Company's information security or supporting departmental policies, standards and procedures.

Confidential Information:

Sensitive information should be identified as confidential when it meets any of, though not limited to, the following criteria:

It provides the Company with a competitive edge.
It is of such a nature that unauthorized disclosure would not be in the Company's interest.
It is important to the technical or financial success of a product or service.
It contains proprietary information, such as, personnel, customer, or budget information.

At a minimum, all confidential information assets must be properly secured at all times and disposed of by shredding, using the appropriate destruct techniques, or appropriately erasing and destroying information stored electronically or magnetically.

Restricting Confidential Information:

There are times when confidential information requires additional controls to limit its use by the end user or recipient. This information is on a predetermined, need-to-know basis and must not be discussed, copied, or forwarded to any other individual unless authorized by the originator of the document or information. It is important that such restricted information be labeled with an appropriate direction such as "Do not copy", "Do not route", "For your eyes only", or "Destroy after reading". Management is responsible for identifying information that is sensitive and/or critical and for restricting information on a need-to-know basis.

Computer Equipment:

Users will not modify company computer equipment in any manner including, but not limited to, attaching external disk drives, external hard drives, changing the amount of memory in the computer, and attaching/installing any peripheral device. Whenever possible all portable computing equipment (laptop computers, palm top computers, electronic organizers, etc.) will be maintained under the direct supervision of the user that they are issued to. Do not leave any of these items in a company or personal vehicle. Computer and electronic equipment are generally delicate and shall be treated accordingly. Damage to or loss of computer electronic equipment caused by negligence may result in the responsible party being charged for the repair or replacement costs.

Software Installation:

Installing software is NOT allowed by MEAI employees other than employees in the IS department. This helps to keep the systems from becoming corrupted and unusable and also ensures that all software is properly licensed. Without the prior written authorization of the IS department, users shall not:

Install any software on company owned computer equipment.
Install company owned software on any non-company owned computer equipment.
Provide copies of company owned or licensed software to anyone.

Jury Duty and Court Appearance - Template Policy

2010-11-20T05:39:00.000-08:00

ELIGIBILITY

Regular full time employees on active status are eligible for jury pay/subpoena after completion of the 90-day probationary period.
Part time employees (less than 30 hours per week) are not eligible.
Temporary employees are not eligible.

COMPUTATION OF PAYMENT FOR ABSENCE

The maximum jury duty/court-ordered appearance pay would be up to five (5) days or up to a maximum of 40 hours pay.
Pay for the absence is computed at the regular hourly rate to a maximum of eight (8) hours for one day for regular full time employees and six (6) hours for regular part time employees.
Time off granted in accordance with this policy shall not be credited as time worked for the purpose of computing overtime.
The employee may keep compensation received for serving on jury duty.
Because the company is paying for time at court, it is expected that the employee report back to work when off for the day or if excused early.

EVIDENCE OF REASON FOR ABSENCE

The company requires verification of the absence prior to payment.

PROCEDURE

Employee

Notify supervisor of jury summons/subpoena.
Provide confirmation from the court verifying dates and times of service.

(NOTE: The jury summons is not sufficient)

Management Principles

2010-10-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

Management by agreement and management by exception help build and sustain a working environment based on respect and trust through our communicating directly with one another and taking responsibility and accountability for ourselves and our actions.

Management by agreement and management by exception include these elements:

The manager and employee have agreements about what work is to be done and how and when it is to be done. Often, these agreements are expressed in documented business systems.
Any changes in the work requirements are made only after mutual agreement between the manager and the employee.

The employee takes full accountability for performing the work and achieving the results as agreed, and the manager is accountable for providing the employee with the resources and guidance needed.

Exceptions are reported immediately. The employee is accountable for notifying the manager, and any other affected people, in writing if the work will not be performed or the results will not be achieved as agreed. The manager also notifies the employee if commitments made by the manager cannot be achieved.

The manager can assume the work is being performed as agreed unless otherwise notified.

Periodic check-ins between the employee and manager, called "reporting loops", are the main vehicle for keeping each other informed about how work is progressing.

Failure to notify of exceptions or missed dues dates - in other words, silence - is not acceptable.

Relationships built on trust are developed as managers and employees keep their commitments and successful results are achieved.

Guidelines for Working Interactions

The guidelines for working interactions are a set of operating procedures that establish standards for interpersonal communication at work so that people can achieve results without conflicts or ambiguity.

The type of organizational relationship you're in with another person, line or staff, will guide your working interactions.

Directives should only come from your manager. Directives are any information, requests or delegations that would cause you to take action or change the course of your actions.

If a directive is given to you by someone other than your manager that feels inappropriate or intrusive, or would cause you to be unable to meet a prior agreement, you should refer the person to your manager.

Everyone in the company has one, and only one, primary manager.

Owners who work in the business must assume positions on the organization chart and act according to the line and staff relationships defined by those positions.

Everyone will respect each other's time, space, and need for concentration. Socializing will not impede anyone's work activities.

When a manager is absent from the workplace, temporary authority for his or her reporting employees goes to the next higher position in the "line".

Service relationships do not supersede, conflict with, or comprise line relationships. Service systems will be developed and used to manage service relationships effectively.

Guidelines for Effective Delegation

Identify work or result you want to delegate and determine to whom you'll delegate it.

Put the delegation in writing, with the due date.

Discuss the delegations with the employee whenever possible.

Get the employee's agreement.

Guidelines for Effective Regulation

Use periodic reporting loops to review work.

Give quick, clear, and direct feedback and instruction.

Communicate with each other in writing.

Avoid under-regulating, over-regulating, reverse delegation, and unnecessary meetings.

Tuition Reimbursement - Template Policy

2010-09-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

Purpose

{MYCOMPANY} supports employees who wish to further their education and prepare themselves for promotional opportunities. In keeping with this philosophy, {MYCOMPANY} has established a reimbursement program for expenses incurred through approved institutions of learning for up to nine (9) hours of courses per semester; or, trimester systems will cap out at eighteen (18) hours per year. This program will reimburse participating employees for all employer approved tuition costs of approved courses and training after completion. {MYCOMPANY} will reimburse up to a maximum of $500.00 per semester incurred by an employee for continuing education through an accredited program that either offers growth in an area related to his or her current position or might lead to promotional opportunities. This can include college credit courses, continuing education unit courses, seminars and certification tests. ELIGIBILITY-You are eligible to participate in this program if you work thirty (30) or more hours per week, have successfully completed your probationary period, and, the courses are job-related.

Document

To apply for tuition reimbursement, follow the procedures below:

Advise your manager as far in advance of course content, course dates and times, cost, and expected benefits to the Company.
The Tuition Reimbursement Form should be completed and all the appropriate signatures obtained prior to enrolling.
The employee should bring the form to the HR Department and a copy will be filed in the employee's file. The employee will maintain the original until he or she has completed the course.
Upon satisfactory completion of an approved course, you must submit proof of payment, a grade report or certification, and original Tuition Reimbursement form to the HR Department. Satisfactory completion is defined as the equivalent of 'C' or better or 'P' if taken Pass/Fail to receive any reimbursement.
{MYCOMPANY} will reimburse you 100% of the cost of enrollment/test up to $500.00, including books and other required material, after submission of the documentation described above.
If travel/hotel costs are incurred for employment related tests/exams/seminars, {MYCOMPANY} may pay for cost upon prior HR approval.
If employee terminates employment within one year after receipt of reimbursement, employee will be responsible to pay entire reimbursement cost back to {MYCOMPANY}.

Any questions or comments should be directed to the HR department.

Placing Projects on Hold

2010-08-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

In a recent article titled 'Put it in park, then drive' Jack Vinson discusses the potential benefits to project driven organizations of placing certain projects on hold. This seems like a fairly obvious solution but in reality there are potential pitfalls. Primarily, it's likely you've established some sort of deadline with a client, so placing their project on hold may present a problem.

I know that in my world, it would be ideal to be able to work on one project until it was complete. There have been some occasions that we've had the luxury of doing this and the overall product generally ends up being better. Not to mention the resources required to finish the project are usually less than if the project is just one of many.

How could there ever be too many projects in progress? The main problem, which Jack alludes to, is that there always needs to be some 'work in the pipeline' to keep the operation running. If you were to work on one project at a time from start to finish and then start looking for the next project the likelihood is high that you would have gaps in production where people are not doing anything but waiting for the next project.

There is also the issue of having staff that work on different components of a project. If you have a project that requires X, Y, Z from your services it's hard to keep all of the people working on each of those components busy at the same time. The result is that you end up taking a new project on because the 'X' group needs work even though the 'Y' and 'Z' groups are overloaded.

I feel the real solution to being able to keep project oriented staff busy and maintain a decent backlog of work is to be able to accurately schedule resources. If you can do this successfully and communicate the situation up front to your clients you'll allow ample time to give projects the attention they need and hopefully avoid having to park a project once it is started.

Project Communication

2010-08-12T06:13:00.001-07:00

It is a common assumption that project managers spend a majority of their time relaying information between project participants (i.e. 'communicating'). In a day and age where communication seems to be non-stop between phone, email, and IM conversations, communication isn't really the problem - the problem is organizing and documenting all of the information that's coming in. You may have a record of all these messages in their native format, but how do you present them for a client review or archive them for future reference?

I know from personal experience that some of the largest chunks of time for a project are taken up sifting through all of the communications, documenting issues and decisions, and reporting this information to the project owner.

KM Executive has a function that helps corral all of this information together into one bucket that makes it much simpler to review when the need arises to perform a review and produce a report. The 'comments' feature allows a task and/or file attachment entry attached to any task that is automatically date stamped. Any phone conversations are documented in this way. Meeting notes are scanned and attached. Critical email conversations are copied and pasted. The end result is a chronological log of all project activities that can be sorted and filtered according to the tags you use for your tasks.

Heirarchy of Knowledge

2010-07-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

Procedural knowledge can be organized in a hierarchical structure to provide clarity and organization in terms of project management.

There are essentially five different levels.

Description of the end result desired - A broad description of the work to be performed.
Milestones - Breakdown of the end result into broad completion points.
Tasks - Breakdown of each milestone into general tasks defining intermediate deliverables.
Checklists - Define what needs to be included with the completion of each general task.
Documentation - Describe the requirements to complete each checklist item.

The relevant point relating to complex project management is this: Any type of project that is repeated within your organization should be formatted with this model in mind. The outline should be generic enough that you can apply it to any similar project, with the ability to fill in the outline with more detail pertaining to the project at hand. The benefits of this approach are two fold.

The most obvious benefit is to provide a framework for project completion. Your team won't be starting from scratch each time and will always have direction on what the organization standard is for finishing the project.

Perhaps less obvious is the benefit of innovation. By establishing this structure as a standard you have a framework that allows you to leave a note behind for yourself for the next time you come across a similar project. If the milestones, tasks, checklists, and documentation are all linked together and can be re-used there are distinct places to add information as you work through a particular project and discover something you may have missed in the initial process of outlining the procedure.

Company Knowledge Base as a Touchstone to Innovation

2010-06-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

A simple definition for 'knowledge base' is a set of information organized by specific storage and retrieval protocols. When does information in your company formally become part of a knowledge base? Simply having information stored in folders on a server does not represent a very efficient knowledge base. However, it's my experience that this is the most common format in use.

I've found that virtually every organization has stakeholders that, given a forum, can provide ideas for how to improve their organization. I'm sure all of us have been part of a meeting that generated some great ideas only to find that as time passes people get busy and the ideas don't go anywhere because of lack of implementation. The ideas get lost. A common scenario is 'where did we put the notes from that meeting'?

The KMX Documents module was created with the intent of creating an easy entry point to add information to an organizational knowledge base. The concept is that the information from the type of meeting described above would be entered into the company 'knowledge base' immediately with no extra steps. Using tags and review assignments implementation becomes more probable. Revisions and comments are automatically tracked by date and user. More importantly, the original ideas are captured in a context that can be easily retrieved and cross referenced. The documents become a touchstone for innovation as changes are implemented within the organization.

Improvement Through Analyzation

2010-05-20T06:32:00.000-07:00

In a previous posting I discussed the importance of Collecting Data to Improve Your Business. Having the data available you need for a thorough analysis of your business operation is certainly important, but it is only one component of the improvement process. Jack Vinison, in his post
Measures should drive the goal discusses the importance of knowing what to do with your data once you have collected it. The most prominent take a way from Jack's article for me is that if your measurements don't relate to getting things done faster there is no point in collecting them.

The KM Executive project and task management features were designed around the principle of measuring performance and being able to process the measurements seamlessly to both plan ahead and look back in time to discover weaknesses. Each of the bullet points that Jack identifies for project measurements are addresses in the following manner:

Tasks (activities) automatically log who created the task and when along with a modifiable start and end date. Each task is allowed a time budget. Various reports allow easy reference to this information to determine how much time is left for a task, where the task is at in relation to schedule, etc.

The ability to tag each activity and arrange reports by these tags provides a backward looking analysis of task performance. By using one tag to identify a project and separate tags to identify and group tasks it is easy to see at a glance which projects exceeded budget and then drill down further to identify which tasks or groups of tasks within the project caused the most problem. Through consistent tagging it is easy to look across multiple projects to identify specific areas that demand improvement. This allows you to focus your innovation efforts in the areas that will have the most impact on performance.

Activity load reports provide a quick analysis of which resources are overloaded and which are underutilized.

The conclusion that the overall goal of project improvements is to be able to get projects done as quickly as possible is very poignant.

Is Your Software an Asset or a Liability?

2010-05-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

Many people have the misconception that their house is an asset. The reality is that your house is a liability, assuming you don’t own it outright. If you have a mortgage, your house is an asset to your lender.

I believe this analogy applies to software that companies invest in. Under traditional software models a company makes a large up-front investment to purchase a software package. At that point the company views the software as an asset. The reality may be that the software is a liability. Time must be spent learning the software and integrating it into your company’s operation. Then you can start looking forward to steady outlays of cash to keep up with upgrades, patches, and support if required. Eventually companies reach a point that they cannot afford to switch to a new package even if they are not happy. The cost in time and money invested simply becomes too great to warrant any change.

These problems can be magnified if you are not getting the exact results you require from a specific application. Additional time needs to be spent to try to tweak the software to your needs, or additional manpower is required to massage the output into the format you need. Perhaps you even end up needing a second package altogether.

A specific example of this scenario I am familiar with involves an accounting software package. After paying the shocking sticker price and absorbing months and months of technical support and training time the software would not give us all of the reports we needed. We could not absorb the same type of hit to 'try' a new package so we had to set up a parallel manual system that would glean the information we required. At the end of the day, this software package did not save any money and indeed increased operating costs.

A company's real asset is it's information. A more practical model is to be able to control your information and have the ability to transfer it between software packages that fit your needs. Or, equally important, be able to try different solutions inexpensively to see what fits best. The emergence of Software As A Service shows promise in both regards. Although there is still a long way to go to standardize the data used for these packages, the idea of being able to pay a small periodic fee to manipulate your data in a manner that best suits your needs is definitely the wave of the future. Faster feature upgrade and bug fix cycles also make Saas ideal for providing a connection between the features you need and the software developer.

USA Today, in the article Software-as-a-service gives small business powerful tools calls attention to the fact that SaaS applications are growing into a legitimate solution for any size business. The fact that this growing field of applications can allow small business to "go toe-to-toe with big business" should not be overlooked.

Collecting Data to Improve Your Business

2010-05-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

In his New York Times Magazine article 'The Data-Driven Life' Gary Wolf illustrates a very interesting view on data collection. I found a couple of particular clips from that article that relate directly to business:

"We have blind spots in our field of vision and gaps in our stream of attention....These weaknesses put us at a disadvantage. We make decisions with partial information. We are forced to steer by guesswork. We go with our gut."

"If you want to replace the vagaries of intuition with something more reliable, you first need to gather data."

This human characteristic led to the creation of KM Executive. In order to make informed decisions about the operation of your business you need to be able to see trends and in order to see trends you need to be able to track information. People are not apt to do this on their own no matter how many forms or how much paperwork you try to force them to fill out. I believe this is because people somehow know they are not going to like what they see. The idea is to have a way to glean information from the stream of data that your business generates by doing what it does.

KMX was initially established as a tool to organize business process documentation, with a focus on systematic improvement. We soon realized that the tracking of metrics required to measure improvement had to be closely tied to the documentation system if people were going to use it. Ultimately we concluded that both of these processes must be an integrated part of the operation's daily workflow so that people were not maintaining two systems. We learned that if people had to go very far out of their way to contribute to system improvement they were less likely to do so. What the company ends up with, in that event, is partial information.

Additionally, people generally do have a poor sense of time. Gathering precise data about where time is going is the objective. For many businesses time is going to be the primary metric of the effectiveness of a business process. KMX integrates project, task, time, and process management into one tool that allows businesses to capture and track the data they need to implement innovative change.

Invoice Request Form

2010-03-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

KMX Forms are powerful tools ideally suited to track and communicate information within your organization. One example of a practical application of a form is an Invoice Request Form intended for a professional service company that issues invoices on a periodic basis. This form includes both reference fields that link to other forms, contacts, etc. and manual fields.

The example form shown below centers around a process in which a project manager makes a request to a billing manager to issue an invoice. The PM selects the correct budget to reference, fills in the amount to be billed based on applicable time/billing rate entries, and submits the form. Once that function has been performed the status field is used to communicate information and direct activity.

The status options used for this example are:

Submitted
Ready for Invoice
Invoice Prepared
Sent
Invoice Entered by Accounting
Full Payment Received
Partial Payment Received
Full Payment Posted
Partial Payment Posted

Each change of the status field creates specific tasks for individuals to take actions required to complete the invoicing process.

Email support@kmexecutive.com to find out how you can implement a similar system with your KM Executive account.

Gathering Company Knowledge

2010-03-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

Every company produces information through the course of daily operations that can be used to improve productivity and efficiency. This information is the core of your company knowledge. If stored and indexed correctly this information can become a powerful component of your innovation strategy.

How is this information collected in your company and what do you do with it? How high is your barrier to entry? Do people write down phone numbers on sticky notes (low barrier) or enter them into a complex company database (high barrier)?

Where you set this barrier will directly affect the integration of the collection and use of data into your company culture. Set the barrier too low and secondary processing will be required (i.e. someone will need to enter the phone number into a system from the sticky note) before the information can be shared. Set the barrier too high and people won't use it on a consistent basis (i.e. pausing a phone conversation to load a database). The goal should be to keep the barrier as low as possible and still be able to access and process relevant data immediately after it is entered. Ride the line between a process that easily fits into the workflow habits of your company and at the same time stores and processes information to give you the picture you need of how your company is operating.

The KM Executive suite was first developed as a tool for documenting and innovating procedures based on interaction with the people that used the suite. In order to ensure this interaction it became apparent that the suite could not operate in a different sphere from daily operations. If someone is required to write, review, or comply with an operational document they need to be able to do that using the same tools they used to perform their normal operational functions. More importantly, people need to be able to record observations about a process into a tool that will not require additional processing. Emailing a co-worker about an idea to improve a process is not a bad thing, but that email needs to be processed by someone on some level to become part of an innovated process. In other words the tactical work of the organization needs to mesh with the operational work to maximize efficiency in the innovation process.

KMX considers how the tactical and operational tasks of your business are separated and the time you may be spending getting these two functions to talk to each other. Explore how the KM Executive assignments, forms, and documents can be combined to eliminate this wasted time.

KMX In Action - Lead Conversion

2009-12-17T18:40:00.000-08:00

Combine KMx tools to create a powerful lead conversion system for services requiring a project proposal.

Custom forms offer several benefits for this process including custom field creation, automatic numbering, form linking, tag creation, and task assignments.

Create a template form to store client information such as company name, contacts, addresses, phone numbers, etc. Each form(client entry) is automatically numbered, assigning a unique ID number to each new client.

Create an additional template form to collect information regarding the request for services. Assign the new project to a client by creating a field to link to an existing client form. Create entry fields within the form to collect relevant data about the project. Entry fields can be text, numbers, currency, radio buttons, lists, dates, contacts, etc. This information can be indexed and retrieved for filtering and searching. Create fields assigning tasks required to complete the proposal.

When each request for services form is completed and saved it is assigned a unique number. Based on this number and the title used for the form a new tag is created for the project. Based on the assignment fields used within the form new tasks are created, tagged with the project name/number, and assigned to the relevant users.

These features can easily be used to track client conversion rates by client, job type, project manager, location, etc. The possibilities are virtually endless and the impact on system innovation is tremendous if the available process metrics are tracked .

Sharing Best Practices

2009-11-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

Sharing information within your organization is crucial for innovation. Current technology offers many tools to facilitate this communication. Bill Ives submitted an interesting article regarding the successful implementation of wikis at Océ to share information and improve processes.

Wikis are a suitable tool for collecting information on current practices and making the information accessible. More structure is required, however, to fully integrate this information into company policy. Specifically, there needs to be a formal process in place to ensure that the information being disseminated is in accordance with company objectives.

For more detail regarding the benefits of KM Executive Documents vs. a wiki refer to the article Why Not a Wiki?

Tracking Long Term Objectives

2009-10-05T19:30:00.000-07:00

Maintaining consistency with innovation in your company can be one of the most difficult habits to develop. It's just hard to focus on long-term 'important/not urgent' activities when you are constantly barraged with the 'urgent' activities of day to day business.

There is a specific feature built in to KMX that can be used to provide assistance in this regard and make sure that strategic objectives don't take a back seat.

I use this functionality to make sure I don't let long term objectives fall through the cracks in the following way:

I have created a set of activities that identify long term objectives for business development.
These activities can be assigned to me, or to anyone else in the company that needs to be working on them. Either way I assign myself as a 'watcher'. What this does is bring the activity onto my dashboard under the 'My Watched Activity' section. This section is arranged so that the newest items, or items that are updated, are floated to the top of the list. Thus, the last item on the list is the activity that has not had any action for the longest time.
At periodic intervals I concentrate on working from my watched activity list, starting at the bottom and working up.
For each item on the list that identifies a long term objective for business development I do some action to move it forward. By adding a comment or time entry to the activity it bumps up to the start of my watched activity list. The comments allow me to pick up where I left off the next time I get a chance to work on the activity.

The best part of this functionality is that tasks associated with long term objectives are within the same framework as the day to day work activities so I don't have to maintain a completely separate system for tracking each type of task.

Benefits of Sofware as a Service Model

2009-09-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

The primary benefit to companies that implement a Software as a Service (SaaS) model is the savings in up front costs. You eliminate the mechanical costs of implementation involved with upgrading hardware and operating systems and installing software. Not to mention consulting time and fees associated with installation problems and conflicts. You dramatically decrease the deployment time.

Long term you eliminate the time required to update databases and maintain harware and operating systems. Your users focus on the functionality of the solution and the developers focus on it's operation.

When you implement an SaaS solution you are leveraging the expertise of the software developers and creating a balance between that expertise and the expertise of your company.

SaaS adds the benefit of regular feature upgrades. System changes can occur instantaneously, which cannot be accomplished with on-site deployment.

KM Executive recognizes the dramatic benefits of the SaaS delivery method as opposed to standard on-site installation. Take advantage of the benefits your company can experience today - start exploring with a free, no obligation, KMX account.

Process Leadership

2009-09-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

My first introduction to the term Process Leadership came from Victor Newman in his article Introducing Process Leadership: The First Leadership Discipline . This is the most concise explanation I have discovered that explains the importance of creating a systematized approach to business.

Communicating system information is likely the most obvious key success factor for an effective process leader. However, the process used to create and document the systems and keep them relevant and fresh in your business culture is also critical for any long term success.

A company may have excellent systems and be directed by an effective process leader, but if it all centers around 'hands-on' training success will be limited. If implementing systems relies ONLY on person to person interaction the growth and improvement of your company will be limited by the number of people that are qualified to disseminate information and the amount of time those people have to train others.

Systems must seamlessly integrate into daily activities and the company culture and allow immediate feedback/response from the system operators.

KM Executive has provided a solution by creating a set of tools that collect and distribute critical operational information. These tools work within a framework built around company operational documents. Users enter time, communicate with other team members, and manage projects and tasks - essentially documenting all daily activities - with operational documents guiding how activities are performed. By reviewing critical data related to a particular guided process the effectiveness of the process can be evaluated and the system revised to accomplish the intended results.

Km Executive is a vital tool for process leaders.

Accountability Part I

2009-09-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

In his most recent commentary about a presentation by Patrick Lencioni, Jack Vinson identifies avoidance of accountability as one of Lencioni's 5 dysfunctions of a team. I find that accountability is one of those frequently used business buzz words that can have many different meanings depending on the context.

Accountability is the cornerstone of Km Executive and can be explained by a three-fold definition. Primarily, employees in any organization must abide by company policies and regulations first and foremost. Second, employees must be accountable for the results they are expected to achieve. This includes accomplishing the results within the required schedule and budget constraints. Third, the results must be achieved in the systematic manner defined by the company so that the process fits into the larger, company-wide picture.

Quantifying accountability on all three levels is the most difficult task that companies face because it requires a simultaneous view of many pieces of disparate information. Most often this data is difficult to collect and is only relevant from a backward viewpoint. A manager must have distinct parameters defined for successful outcomes and then be able to analyze the unsuccessful outcomes and determine where the process failed.

Km Executive provides the tools for this analysis. We will discuss how these tools can be applied in future articles.

Why Now is the Time to Innovate...your Business

2009-08-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

I've read several blog posts over the last several months discussing the importance of investing in R&D and innovative products during this recession. The May 2009 Oracle newsletter discusses the importance of investing, specifically in SOA. Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox also shared some of her insight on the importance of investing in a downturn. I ran across countless other articles and blogs discussing the importance of innovation in rough economic times, most all of which focused on investing in products and marketing. I have to agree with the vast majority of these sentiments - working while others sleep is a great way to get ahead.

One point that seemed to be regularly glossed over, however, was the importance of innovating business processes, procedures and systems - innovating businesses themselves. Let's face it, although all businesses are either directly or indirectly affected by technological advancement, product innovation, and evolving marketing tactics those facets of business do not alone dictate success. How we do business - our efficiency - our approaches - these aspects of our businesses separate the survivors from the extinct and the titans from the proles.

Two things happen during a severe economic downturn such as the US is currently experiencing: (1) businesses of all sizes cut back spending; and (2) consumers shop around for the best products for the best prices. As it happens, both of these tendencies foster a perfect environment for business innovation.

When businesses cut back on spending, the areas that gets hacked early on are wages and salaries - individuals get laid off, companies shrink their workforces. Obviously there is an unfortunate reality associated with these decisions, but there's also a silver lining for innovation-minded organizations. With fewer employees, the ability to innovate, implement and improve procedures and business systems is greatly increased. A smaller work force implies more opportunities to be dynamic. Now is the time to really focus on tweaking processes that didn't scale well when business was booming, get rid of processes and positions that were easily merged and replaced during downsizing, and develop new processes to help processes scale again when the economy picks back up.

When consumers begin paying real attention to the products and services that they need and considering their ROI, they become smarter consumers out of necessity. Such conditions reward those companies that are spending time figuring out how to offer their products with superior quality and delivery. Clients and customers become more willing to provide praise or criticism to companies that exceed their expectations or push the wrong buttons respectively. Taking the time to listen to consumers, identify problem areas and exceptional areas will pay dividends.

The point? - Smaller workforces and more demanding consumers today, are providing organizations with the opportunity to take advantage of an environment that will foster innovation and increase the likelihood of emerging from this recession a stronger, more stable company. Business leaders that recognize this and push for improvement now will reap the rewards when the money begins circulating again.

Ouch, Working for Free is Expensive

2009-07-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

It would sure be nice if the laws of physics held for economics, but unfortunately we do not always get out of a project what we put in. Everyone business must face off against non-payment, late accounts and collection now and then. For small consulting companies and professionals, this is a pretty trivial task since the number of project managers and stakeholders lends itself to everyone being aware when work needs to be stopped on a project. As the number of employees and managers increases, though, the risk of not communicating stopped job status to all team members increases as well.

For purposes of illustration, consider an e-commerce web site project assigned to several teams each working on different aspects of the assignment. One team focuses on developing copy text, another developing search engine marketing, another performing graphic design and yet another developing the application logic behind the site. This project is but one of several that each team is working on simultaneously.

Each team is doing well and plugging along with each of their projects. In the meantime, the bill for the last deliverable on the e-commerce project goes past due. In this scenario, it is usually best to contact the client immediately to gauge their intentions - are they going to pay? Are they satisfied with the work? (I talked about some of the benefits of regular communication with clients in my last blog.) If it doesn't look like payment is on its way, it's a good idea to stop investing time into the project immediately, especially given the current state of the economy.

In the event that work needs to be stopped, the stop must be communicated to every individual across every team, beginning with the accounting department. With many tasks already assigned to various individuals across man teams and some tasks possibly subcontract to third party firms, ensuring that everyone is aware of the work stop may be difficult depending on the level of organization and communication within and between the project teams in addition to accounting. If work does continue, especially in the case of third party contractors, the project loss can get big quickly.

One approach to ensuring that project status is well communicated to all team members is holding regular project meetings to discuss status and details. One drawback is that it may not always be practical to arrange these types of meetings with busy schedules - another is that any team member not present may not get the information at all. Another approach is to integrate time tracking with project management such that all tasks to which time is attributable can easily be put on hold, thus eliminating the possibility of performing work. This, of course, relies on good time tracking practices in the first place.

The bottom line is that if a clear and consistent method of documenting and communicating project status to all team members is not in place, you can end up doing a lot of work that you never get paid for.

Litigation Mitigation, Communication Implementation and other non-rhyming business necessities

2009-07-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

I grew up in a world where a handshake constituted a binding contract that need never be enforced in a court of law and where a person's word was more important than money. I can't say that I see those principles much today for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there are a lot more people today and therefore a lot more liars, a lot more looters and moochers, and a greater need to protect the interests of the rest. Secondly, our lives and our world are immeasurably more complex than they were fifty years ago.

The bottom line is that contracts and "litigation mitigation" pervade our business lives these days because law suits spring up every day over disagreements concerning copyrights, patents, real estate transactions, ownership, contract performance, liability, employment and for hundreds of other reasons. Employers have every right to be concerned and devote their attention to preventing lawsuits - just one bad lawsuit can destroy a company's future and ruin lives.

Good documentation and consistent practices are the cornerstones of a good defense against frivolous or wrongful lawsuits (avoiding legal action with employees, OSHA protection, minimizig litigation risks). In the absence of good documentation, litigation relies on testimony, i.e., words against words against recollections against fabrications. I'll provide an illustration by example of a client I recently worked with.

A client I consult with was recently involved in a wrongful lawsuit for contractual non-performance (which was actually a counter-suit against a suit by my client for non-payment for services rendered). My client "Joe" had provided services on a particular project over the course of several months and had billed out against that job regularly and communicated status regularly via phone. During each payment follow up communication between Joe and his client Joe's client indicated that they just hadn't gotten to it, but would be sending payment soon. Finally, after nearly a year of attempting to collect payment from Joe's client, Joe finally broke down and filed suit for payment.

To Joe's surprise, he was slapped with a counter suit from his client alleging that his performance under their contract was not acceptable and caused the client monetary damages. Unfortunately for Joe, although he and his staff had regularly communicated status to the client and had been told by the client on multiple occasions that they would be paid and that the work was excellent, there was no documentation to support it. Joe's insurance company settled and Joe actually lost his contract proceeds, the time and efforts of his staff and experienced increased insurance premiums as a result of the settlement. What went wrong?

What went wrong was that Joe was unable to provide enough evidence to establish that there was regular communication of project status to his client throughout the project lifetime. The client was able to claim that they were unaware of the project's progression and that they had no chance to object to the work being completed as it was completed.

This is one clear cut case where some consistent knowledge management practices would have gone a long way. If, for instance, a regular schedule of client contact was in place company-wide it would have been easier to establish that it was likely that the client received regular communication since all Joe's clients receive regular communication. Second, if each communication was well documented complete with subject matter, Joe would have had a much better chance at convincing a judge that the client was apprised of project status with no disapproval.

The short and skinny: two great ways to avoid litigation are to be consistent with client communication and to make sure that all client communication is well documented. The first alone will often lead to better client relationships and reduced chance of misunderstandings or dissatisfied clients. The second does a great job of CYOA in the instances where the first just isn't enough.

Inventory Your Company's Knowledge

2009-06-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

After the beginning of my company's knowledge management awakening the exhilaration of thinking there was hope for the jumble of existing business processes faded and I was left facing the reality of the situation. Where do we start? There seemed to be so many possible directions to go and so many things that seemed to need help. Where there people or tools out there to help?

At this point we had used the services of one international 'business consultant expert'. All we were left with was an empty wallet and a notebook full of documents that went right on the shelf. This experience led me to believe that the problem was not limited to defining what was bad - we new that well enough through our daily activities. The problem was implementing change that was going to lead to improvement.

Our first step was to focus on one department and set of processes. We assembled a group to start brainstorming to breakdown the department functions into a list of specific skills or processes. Each item on the list was given a priority based on it's current state and it's importance to the overall functioning of the department. This list allowed us to evaluate where we really stood in terms on knowledge management and helped us to see how much of our daily activities were not formally defined.

Out next challenge was to figure out a systematic approach to formally defining all of the highest priority items so they could be evaluated and improved.

Working for the Weekend (Falling off of the Work-a-holic Wagon...and getting away with it)

2009-06-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

I've been accused of being a work-a-holic more than once in my lifetime, more so after getting married. It may be true, but the simple fact is, I like to accomplish stuff. I enjoy the feeling of looking back at a day and being able to quantify the "value" that I've added to the world during that time. It's almost a high sometimes. That's not to say that I don't love to completely vegetate to the Nth viewing of Hot Fuzz or crack open Atlas Shrugged again once in awhile.

Over time I've had to find a balance between family and work, which has left me facing the problem of accomplishing the same amount of work in less time. I can't say that I've completely accomplished that - I definitely work less now than I did five years ago. I have, however, learned a few tricks to cheat and still get a lot of work done: (1) identify "opportunity" time, (2) identify tasks that can be deferred to the weekend, (3) estimate required time / effort, and (4) schedule my weekend activities. Using this approach, I'm able to consistently put in 6 - 8 hours of productive work time on a weekend without stealing anything from my family time.

The bulk of the cheat is finding the "opportunity time", or time during the weekend when no one will miss me. This is like sneaking off to the back room at the in-law's Thanksgiving to catch a bit of the big game while Wifey and Mom talk about how the stuffing would have been so much better if Dad would have laid off of the onion. I found my opportunity time between around 4:30 am and 7:30 am, which is roughly when both my wife and children are still sleeping. 4:30 am might sound bad to some, but for a work-a-holic, delirium tremens sets in after a few hours of work deprivation and waking up is easy. I've also found a second block of time between 9pm to 11pm which is after the kids are sleeping and my wife is drained from taking care of the kids and house all day and decides to knock off as well (but more often than not I choose to watch the Outer Limits or play Rock Band during that time).
Now that I know when I can get away with cheating, I regularly identify tasks that I can defer to the weekend with confidence of being able to complete them. Generally these are things that aren't due until the following week sometime (not necessarily Monday). I *almost never* select tasks that are actually due Monday morning or Friday evenings, etc. just on the off chance that something comes up that prevents me from actually taking advantage of my opportunity time (like the kids waking up way too early and piling in my study just to watch me type - which really means going through my drawers and pushing power buttons on miscellaneous network and server equipment).
With a complete list of all of the weekend possibilities in hand, I estimate the amount of time needed to complete each activity and select a grouping of tasks that can be completed in my available time. This really isn't that difficult because I am a time management nut. I compulsively log and document my time (even when I'm not working) using a task management and time logging tool. So, for instance, not only do I know how long it takes to provision a web server from scratch nearly to the minute, but I also know that I take 4 bathroom breaks, 2 water breaks and check my email twice in a four hour time span and exactly how much time those things take me. I'll admit that I take the whole time logging thing a bit far - friends come over to chat and I have them wait for a moment while I "clock out" of whatever I'm doing and "clock in" to "chatting with a friend". My wife hates it when she comes in to give me a kiss in the morning and I clock out first then clock in to "kiss my beautiful wife".
Finally, I prioritize and schedule my weekend activities during my opportunity time. I pick the items whose completion will benefit me the most during the coming week and that I can button up completely during the weekend. I used to keep a written list, but that made it difficult to continue to document the time and details of my efforts which led to poor estimation. I now (as crazy as it seems) manage all of my tasks with task management software so that I can take advantage of the learning from each activity to better estimate and schedule future activities.

The end result of all of this is that, by employing a little bit of knowledge management, I get to spend family time with familiy and still get to spend some time off of the wagon indulging in my work-a-holic vices.

Back to the Future

2009-06-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

They seem goofy these days, but I really enjoyed the action and sci-fi movies of the eighties. One franchise, in particular, really captured my imagination and started my wheels a-turning: Back to the Future. It wasn't just the screen play, God love ol' Doc Brown, it was the paradox of time travel. While Marty McFly fades into the ether strumming out "Earth Angel" I wondered, "Why is he gradually disappearing? He's either got to *pop* away or stay solid - he can't be *half* born if his parents never get together.

It's funny how so many businesses seem to defy the laws of physics with similar paradoxes. How do businesses stay afloat when they're only *half* running their business? Let's talk about an often neglected component of doing business: project budgets.

A good budget is an *educated* guess on the quantity of a resource that will be required in order to produce some desired result. Being able to properly quantify the energy necessitated by a project, put a profit on top, and pass it along to a client is essential to maintaining a good looking bottom line. The key to that guesswork is the "educated" component - but where does that come from? That's where we take a step back and realize that each job we do, every task we complete isn't just an isolated activity or just for one job or another, but instead is a learning tool and a building block, developing more accurate budgets across the board. Sounds like a job for knowledge management.

I was once oblivious to the power of budgeting and even more so to the idea of managing my company knowledge to improve estimation. When I began a small web design firm awhile back, our process for submitting proposals to clients consisted of nothing more than guesswork really. We looked at other design firms and what they were charging for "boiler plate" projects and used that as a starting point, which really isn't that bad of an idea for getting going initially. As expected, our actual time investment didn't directly correspond to our fees. Sometimes we made great profits, sometimes we lost big, sometimes we broke even. In an ad-hoc manner, we started looking back at past contracts to identify similar projects and started copying our own pricing from previous projects for new projects. This helped us zone in somewhat, but what it failed to tell us was how and why we actually performed (or didn't) per project - we just had an idea of "we lost" or "we profited".

It wasn't until Pete and I began developing our own knowledge management tool (KMx) that my firm was really able to take control of the budget process. Really, it isn't that complex with the right tools, but it does require some discipline. I've found that combining time tracking, task management, and some simple budget tracking features I can pin-point *exactly where* a particular budget suffered or performed and use that information to develop a more accurate budget next time.

The key for us was to develop a systematic approach to the proposal process that now goes something like this:

Gather all of the project requirements. This is an important step, because every requirement translates into some activity that requires some finite amount of time, and therefore money, to complete. If one doesn't identify it before the proposal, they run the risk of not charging for it or worse yet, not doing it and having the client think that they are going to.
Create a detailed task tree indicating how much time each step should take. Taking this approach definitely increases the amount of time and effort required to put out a proposal. It may sound risky since it may be time lost if a project isn't landed, but it's a good investment - that time can be added into the proposal itself. In order to really do a good job at this, it's almost necessary to perform a simulated run on the project, i.e., pretend as if the project has already been landed and line it out for the project team to start work on.
Double check the task tree against previous projects' trees. This will make more sense after running through the whole process, but essentially, we've been tracking tasks, time and budget performance for all of our projects and now have a complete history of every task that we performed well (or poorly) on, project comments, and lessons learned. We use that information to tweak our trees and hours to ensure that we don't repeat the same mistakes.
Create a set of budget items based on deliverables or milestones. Total up the monetized time involved to complete each milestone based on the task tree and billing rates. Now we have the most accurate budget we can achieve for the client.
When the project is accepted, we can schedule quickly and get started quickly because we've already got all of our tasks detailed out complete with the time / resources required. It's simple from here. Now every member of the team simply logs their time as they perform work on their tasks and note specifically what was done during that time (this is made pretty simple using the timer tool). We check our logged hours against our budgeted hours regularly, and note the cause of any underages or overages.

What we end up with after this is an powerful way to gain introspective on how we work and how that work relates to what we bill. Every proposal we put out is based on a budget developed systematically to be the best based on everything we've learned in the past.

Sure enough, a little knowledge management makes a big difference in staying profitable.

The beginning - Discovering the need for Knowledge Management

2009-06-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

I think of Knowledge Management as simply a term that describes the processes I use to examine and control the connections between the information my company creates and uses to operate. Knowledge Management happens every day in every business. Some businesses are very formal about it with documented processes and procedures. Others are very informal with all procedure and process information being communicated verbally.

My first business managed knowledge primarily on an informal basis for the first decade or so of it's existence. The only documented information was the information generated by completing projects. This information was stored in hard copy or digital folders by project. Rudimentary cross reference information was maintained that grouped projects by location and client. Functional duties were shared as each situation dictated and specific position responsibilities were only loosley defined.

This operation was successful as long as there were only a handful of employees. Production could be monitored by the principal to ensure quality. Training occurred only as result of being shown how to do a certain task enough times to ingrain the requirements.

As the company began to grow, the most apparent problem was clearly the lack of a systematic training process. Technicians were shown how to do something once, or a couple of times, and expected to know how to do it next time it came up. If they did not remember how to do the task they would ask someone else. The person showing them may not fully understand the process themselves so a 'propagation of misinformation' began to happen. Without the principal(s) being involved with every step of a process it was not done to the company's standards.

This was the first time we truly recognized the need for some sort of knowledge management. In this partiular case that meant we needed to create a training process that produced documented, application specific, reference material that could be easily located when it was needed.

Out next step was to take inventory of our company knowledge and determine how much of it was formally defined and how much was retained in the heads of the employees.

Managing Knowledge

2009-06-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Whether it’s raising money for the community, selling flowers, or building cars every business or organization has a mission that must be carried out in the most efficient way possible. The ability to carry out this mission consistently over time is directly governed by your ability to manage knowledge. Carrying out this mission requires aligning the day to day activities of workers with the mission, which requires providing timely and relevant information for workers and making it easy to institute change.

The hub through which this is carried out is your company knowledge base. There is a wide spectrum of models for how companies operate their knowledge base. On one end are the companies that have no formal knowledge base at all aside from the records generated from the work they perform such as customer and job files, invoices, etc. Information is held within the experience of the workers. Roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined. These companies are hit the hardest by the loss of their ‘corporate memory’ when someone leaves and are very slow to grow because they must find people that already have experience or hire people that must learn by doing and watching – which takes a great deal of time.

On the other end of the spectrum are companies that have developed methods to store, catalog, cross-reference, and retrieve company knowledge on demand. These companies capture and document the worker’s experiences and expertise. Change comes naturally as outdated information is updated in real time. Employee lead to new or updated procedures for operation. Corporate memory is not lost as employees come and go because their expertise has been captured in the knowledge base for a replacement to pick up on. Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. Training time for new employees is drastically reduced due to the fact that the training materials are a direct product of the knowledge base. Further, efficiency and productivity are maximized as employees have the ability to serve themselves to critical information instantaneously.

With today’s technology it is easier than ever to employ efficient and cost-effective solutions to preserve your corporate knowledge. KM Executive uses this technology to provide an inexpensive online solution that makes it easy to build and maintain a knowledge base and has a variety of pratical applications.

Suggestion v. Frustration

2009-05-31T12:46:00.001-07:00

There is an abundance of of published information regarding guidelines for and benefits of an employee suggestion program. A few informative articles can be found at the Community for Human Resource Management, Chart Your Course International, and About.com.

There is a very simple context that is overlooked in most discussions about how to establish a successful employee suggestion program. Suggestions are much easier to implement if they are viewed as a solution to a frustration. A frustration in the context of business can be defined as an undesirable pattern of events that can be eliminated by installing or improving a system. It is preferable to have employees list frustrations rather than suggestions because simply listing a suggestion may not be getting to the heart of what their problem is. Simply listing a suggestion does not reveal the true core of the problem and eliminates an opportunity to provide a systematic solution in a larger context. As an example a suggestion to

‘Buy better coffee’

does not reveal the source of an individual’s concern about the situation and limits the company’s choices to find a solution. A frustration listed as

‘I get queasy when I drink the coffee in the morning’

leaves the door wide open for the company to investigate the situation and identify all of the possible solutions. This would lead to an investigation of the entire process and equipment used to make the coffee, etc. to determine if the coffee itself is indeed to problem, or if something else is causing the undesirable result.

Committed to Innovation

2009-05-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

Bryan Yager in his article Time Management is NOT the Problem at cmoe.com suggests that a lack of focus ('strategic targets') is what keeps people from accomplishing what they want, not a lack of time.

Although strategic focus is certainly required there is another equally important aspect of commitment. We cannot try to fully address everything that comes into our lives and expect the most important things to get the attention they deserve.

For individuals with clear strategic focus this may mean giving up time with friends or 'relaxing' to hone a skill or complete a project. Or it may mean giving up time doing something they are passionate about to spend more time with friends and family. It all depends on where their focus is.

The same idea can be applied to business. Assuming there are a finite amount of resources available, any business truly committed to innovation must make a sacrifice of some sort in another area. At a bear minimum someone in the business is going to have to spend a little less time working 'in' the business and a little more time working 'on' the business. A larger sacrifice may mean parting ways with certain clients or projects to leave more time for innovation.

Most businesses will find success by committing a small amount of time each day to innovation and making it a priority. One successful strategy is to make sure you spend one hour a day, first thing in the morning, on developing and applying your strategic vision to your business. Let the normal barrage of calls, emails, and paperwork that pull at your attention take a back seat until your innovation time for the day is done. Over time the incremental changes you can bring about will have a huge impact on your business.

The bottom line goes back to the old saying - 'If you try to be all things to everyone you will be nothing to anyone.'

4 Quick Ways to Get Your Business Documentation Rolling

2009-05-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

Good business documentation, including policy and procedure manuals, are a cornerstone of efficiency and innovation. There are various processes for systematic creation of policies and procedures. Regardless of the process used the most difficult step is the initial gathering of operational information. In this article, I suggest four time-friendly steps to begin building your business documentation.

Even a business starting with a detailed business plan does not often have detailed process documentation. Most businesses start small without any form of documentation (such as in the case of many businesses and organizations that begin with a few key individuals holding most of the knowledge). We have to realize that the businesses that do not currently have documentation for their policies, procedures and other operational knowledge probably have a pretty big job ahead of themselves in collecting and documenting it. That said, time is always a commodity in high demand and short supply so any approach should seek to minimize the time involved and maximize the efficiency of the time used. The following steps are offered with these considerations in mind.

1. Dedicate 10 minutes of every day to documentation

Having employees spend ten minutes every day in this process is a great idea for a couple of reasons. First, most people do not have fun doing documentation. By making it a short period of time, you reduce the likelihood of making the process tedious. Secondly, it is difficult for most individuals to sit and write down their knowledge, keeping the time short reduces the risks of "writer's block" and encourages writers to put down the easy stuff on the tip of their mind without bogging down with details.

2. Use "brain dumping"

When you're just getting started with documentation, it's very easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of information that needs to be transferred from your head to paper, especially if you try to be organized with it. Instead of requiring structured, complete information to start with, encourage employees to pick a topic and use their time to "dump" everything they can think of. The information can be structured and revised later - it is most important to first get the information out there and available to other members of the organization for review and comment.

3. Use reviews to generate questions and fill in holes

Assign periods of review for every document by individuals other than the original authors. Another individual will often find holes, identify assumptions, generate questions and make suggestions on a topic that the author may have overlooked due to their familiarity with a topic. This review also helps acquaint more members with more information about the organization, giving everyone better perspective on its functions and goals.

4. Include related resources

If there are articles, manuals, websites, pictures, other operational documents, etc. that help explain or clarify the subject matter, include references to them in any documentation. More relevant information may help authors or reviewers determine additional subject matter to be included or simply provide greater insight into a process without reinventing the wheel.