26 January A Social Ecologist (...continuity..change...)

[Paul Terlemezian]

Drucker defines our Social Ecology as follows:

 

Management - The Institution

Knowledge - The Resource

Knowledge Workers - The Ruling Class

 

An understanding of this Ecology demonstrated by the effectiveness of its decisions, investments and measurments is essential to the relevance of the training industry in the 21st century (my belief.) 

 

This means that:

 

Important training decisions must reflect the way the business is being managed.

Investments are to be made in the accessibility of knowledge as a resource.

Measurement of the effectiveness of Knowledge Workers use of these resources will be essential to assure the continuity of the business entity.

 

Most organizations will claim that they already do this. Do you think this is true?

[Paul Terlemezian]

There is natural "tension" between the rules established by Management to allow for continuity (brand and culture) of the Institution. In an era characterized by uncertainty - knowledge is becoming impossible to be defined with certainty and hence requires innovation and change. Last October I found this article on Smart Simplicity that is relevant to sustaining success in today's business ecology - what did you learn from reading the article?

Here are the six rules of simplicity that it describes:

1. Understand what others do – Take the time to find out what is the real work, not the job description
2. Reinforce integrators – Give managers (these are the integrators) discretionary power and interest to make others cooperate
3. Increase total quantity of power – Empower everyone to use their judgment, intelligence and skills
4. Extend the shadow of the future – Create a feedback loop for people to directly experience the consequences of their actions; how my real work affects customers and the company
5. Increase reciprocity by removing buffers of self-sufficiency – Eliminate systems and processes that support and maintain silos
6. Reward those who cooperate and blame those who don’t – Morieux quotes Jorgen Vig Knudstorp of The Lego Group as saying blame is for failing to help or for not asking for help; not for failing