Rethinking Knowledge Facilitation - Part 3

Encouraging Mindful Knowledge Facilitation by the Organization

This post discusses how adopting organizational Mindful Knowledge Facilitation (MKF) with organizational agility can reveal previously unseen benefits. 

All organizations, even public sector, are in the business of creating and delivering desired products.  If we expand the definition of the "Product" to include ideas, plans, or initiatives targeting both internal and external clients.  This has become exponentially more complex due to a necessary layer of software or IT services that have become a necessary part of product delivery.   This ever-evolving component underscores the need for agility, flexibility, and change management.

"McKinsey & Company defines organizational agility as an ability for an organization to renew itself, adapt, change quickly, and succeed in a rapidly changing, ambiguous, turbulent environment. "

At the PMI Organizational Agility Conference, Josh Seiden presented Sense & Respond: Principles for the Next Century of Work, which asserts that organizations need to change the principles under which they have traditionally operated.

1. Embrace Continuous Change (not oppose it)
2. Manage with outcomes (not outputs)
3. Create a two-way conversation with the market (listen and respond)
4. Create Team Collaboration (Collaboration improves outcomes)
5. Create Learning Culture (failure is learning)

These principles are complemented by organizational mindful knowledge facilitation. 

1. Embrace Continuous Change/ Disregard Preconceptions

What does it mean for an organization to embrace change?  Start by disregarding those "mindless" preconceptions and old habits that have caused faulty starts and lackluster kickoffs.  If an organization is embracing the changes it encounters, it commends those who see the possibilities the changes bring. 

To embrace organizational change, organizations may do the following:

In regular business operations, allot time for individuals and teams to mindfully reflect on the changes being encountered or anticipated to allow opportunities to be revealed.

Launch an organization-wide mandate encouraging persons and groups to specifically identify opportunities revealed by organizational changes.
 

2. Manage with outcomes/ Notice the Better Result.
   Outcomes are measurable changes in behavior that drives business results.  Mindfulness involves observing  the actions our minds actually take to accomplish actions, taking stock of  the outcomes seen from past knowledge facilitation strategies.  Mindful organizations will notice how successful the gathering, creation, and use of knowledge was and notice positive outcomes resulting from MKF.  Organizations should track positive outcomes (production, morale, etc.) that result from changes in making mindfulness a priority.

To leverage mindful knowledge facilitation for better outcomes, organizations may do the following:
 

Define MKF processes and encourage use.

Track when better outcomes are seen because of MKF.

Publicly recognize better knowledge work. 

3. Team Collaboration & Learning Culture/ Practice Alternative Exploration.
   Mindful organizations will rethink how people and teams facilitate knowledge and incorporate additional time in project schedules for positing alternative gathering, creation, and use of knowledge.

To promote collaborative MKF,  organizations may do the following:

Create an organization-wide collaboration initiative.  Inherently, collaboration utilizes the knowledge of multiple parties, and ultimately results in better outcomes.  To be more mindful, this initiative includes making "listening" and "conversation" a standard way of doing business.  This will breed trust in the organization.

Sponsor a Learning Culture in the basic tenets of the organization.  A learning culture  will encourage innovation, resilience and acceptance of failure.  Benefits are seen when failure is recognized as a valuable way to learn.  Innovative solutions rely on the ability to tolerate failure.

4. Call to Action /Recognition
   The organization's MKF must be publicly recognized  and frequently.  Accompany the above mandates  with visible recognition of people and groups who are practicing MKF.  One strategy to create awareness of mindful knowledge facilitation is to implement the Knowledge Management Awareness Week.  This week is the perfect forum for highlighting positive outcomes from MKF.

To underscore the value of MKF as part of Knowledge Management, organizations may do the following:

Celebrate an annual Knowledge Management Awareness Week to bring visibility to Knowledge Management and the mindful knowledge processes encouraged by the organization.

Include an event during KMAW to visibly recognize early adopters and positive Outcome champions.

In the next century of work, agile organizations that adopt a MKF foundation will be better-prepared to weather the turbulence of the imminent complex changes.