Creating a learning environment

How Collaboration  works

Introduction

In this fast moving, ever changing and dynamic world of the global economy, “knowledge” building within an organization and its subsequent application is gaining critical importance. Today, knowledge is driving business and creating the key differentiators. The application of knowledge is allowing organizations to create “knowledge added products” there by gaining premiums. It is therefore critical and crucial that organizations create engines within their systems to identify, assimilate and manage knowledge and use “learning” as a management tool rather than just as part of skill development. And it is equally essential that individuals participate in such engines. These “knowledge engines” must be capable of -

Assimilating and distributing tacit knowledge (knowledge based on the experiences and ideas of their own employees. In every organization there exists a huge base of this kind of knowledge, which is actually its Intellectual Capital,  and which is  wasted due to non sharing, non collaboration and finally erodes due to attrition and “retirals”.

Continuous dissemination of Explicit knowledge (Knowledge imparted through Training  and skill development programs. The key operative word is “continuous”. Training programs, once completed, have a habit of fading out from memory. The efficacy of such periodic programs with respect  to productivity and outcomes is low. Training and skill development is a continuous process, with the base training being followed with updates, tutorials, experience sharing and most importantly, the application of that training into real life scenarios.

Core Engines

1.    Training and Learning Management Engine (for Explicit Knowledge)

The training and Learning Management engine is a web based delivery of training content, tutorials, white papers, presentations etc which can be accessed by the employee anytime and anywhere. It is designed to generate interest and retention. With a powerful collaboration tool integrated into the engine, it encourages mentee cooperation instead of competition.

The course delivery system provides for independent or tutor driven courses, as well as multiple formats for supporting documentation and tutorials. It also provides a forum for every employee, mentee or student  to share experiences, observations, and feedback (this information is rarely captured anywhere , thereby losing out on collaboration opportunities and intellectual property).

2.    Mentoring and Knowledge Base and Knowledge Management (Tacit Knowledge)

Collaboration is integrated with a mentoring engine which allows mentors and mentees  to share their experiences, knowledge as well as  problems. Mentors guide mentees without the effort of setting up meetings or reviews. Retired industry specialists share their knowledge built up over the past several years. All this happens online, anytime and anywhere, thereby allowing effective utilization of time. In addition, all specific information can be captured and classified in the Knowledge Base for reference and use by others, or can also be used to create specific, situation based training modules. This information is searchable based on relevancy which then allows the user to save time and effort of searching huge data bases.

Over time, this knowledge base will hold the highest levels of Intellectual Property and Intelligence which can then be mined by organizations and or individuals  to help them make better and informed decisions.

Mentoring

Mentoring techniques

Accompaniment

This means making a commitment in a caring way. Accompanying involves taking part in the learning process by taking the path with the learner.

Seeding

Mentors are often confronted with the difficulty of preparing the learner before he or she is ready to change. Sowing is necessary when you know that what you say may not be understood or even acceptable to learners at first but will make sense and have value to the mentee when the situation requires it.

Accelerating

When change reaches a critical level of pressure, learning can jump. Here the mentor can choose to plunge the learner right into change, provoking a different way of thinking, a change in identity or a re-ordering of values.

Demonstration

This is making something understandable, or using self example to demonstrate a skill or activity. You show what you are talking about, you show by your own behavior.

Harvesting

Here the mentor focuses on “picking the ripe fruit”: it is usually learned to create awareness of what was learned by experience and to draw conclusions. The key questions here are: "What have you learned?" "How useful is it?"

Different techniques are allowed and may be used by mentors according to the situation and the psychological mindset of the mentee. These Techniques can be found in ancient education systems, from the Socratic technique of harvesting to the accompaniment method of learning used in the apprenticeship of itinerant cathedral builders during the middle Ages. Leadership authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner advise mentors to look for "teachable moments" in order to "expand or realize the potentialities of the people in the organizations they lead" and underline that personal credibility is as essential to quality mentoring as skill.

Collaboration should  allow for these techniques and that critical identification of a “Learning  Moment” making it a most effective tool for mentored learning.

Knowledge Management 

Knowledge Management (CKM) comprises a range of practices to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice.

CKM efforts typically focus on organizational/ individual learning objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, and continuous improvement. CKM efforts overlap with the Learning Process , and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. CKM efforts can help individuals and groups to share valuable organizational insights, to reduce redundant work, to avoid reinventing the wheel per se, to reduce training time for new employees, to retain intellectual capital as employees turnover in an organization, and to adapt to changing environments and markets.

Strategies for  Knowledge Management

Knowledge may be accessed at three stages: before, during, or after CKM-related activities. One strategy to KM involves actively managing knowledge (push strategy). In such an instance, individuals strive to explicitly encode their knowledge into a shared knowledge repository, such as a database, as well as retrieving knowledge they need that other individuals have provided to the repository.

Another strategy to KM involves individuals making knowledge requests of experts associated with a particular subject on an ad hoc basis (pull strategy). In such an instance, expert individual(s) can provide their insights to the particular person or people needing this.

knowledge management strategies include:

• rewards (as a means of motivating for knowledge sharing)
• storytelling (as a means of transferring tacit knowledge)
• cross-project learning
• after action reviews
• knowledge mapping (a map of knowledge repositories within a company accessible by all)
• communities of practice
• best practice transfer
• competence management (systematic evaluation and planning of competences of individual organization members)
• proximity & architecture (the physical situation of employees can be either conducive or obstructive to knowledge sharing)
• master-apprentice relationship
• collaborative technologies
• knowledge repositories)
• measuring and reporting intellectual capital (a way of making explicit knowledge for companies)
• knowledge brokers (some organizational members take on responsibility for a specific "field" and act as first reference on whom to talk about a specific subject)
• social software (wikis, social bookmarking, blogs, etc)

Motivations

Motivation is a critical factor in Knowledge Management. Collaboration enables

• Making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services
• Achieving shorter new product development cycles
• Facilitating and managing innovation and individual / organizational learning
• Leveraging the expertise of people across the Portal
• Increasing network connectivity between internal and external individuals
• Managing environments and allowing individuals to obtain relevant insights and ideas appropriate to their work
• Solving intractable or wicked problems
• Managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals)

Task Management and Human Resource development

One of the most popular methodologies for measuring training effectiveness was developed by Donald Kirkpatrick. This model articulates a four-step process. Simply put it measures and assures efficacy through measurement of reactions , participant learning through demonstrable changes in knowledge application, skill and attitude , transfer of learning (application of the knowledge gained in the job performance) and finally Results – measuring the changes in the achievement of business objectives.

Collaboration  uses the Kirkpatrick Model integrated into a Task Manager, where the mentor can assign tasks (at the Objective level) and the mentee can break down that task into transactions (Transaction level) enabling :

·       A completely transparent model of task assignation and management demonstrating Business Managerial skill as well as mentee knowledge.

·       The quantity and quality of the task assignation and completion clearly showing the strengths and weaknesses of the mentees and areas of further development.

• A direct measure of training and development programs and the mentees response.