Learn-Unlearn-Relearn Cycle

Knowledge Management emphasizes continuous learning for organisations. When an organisation embarks on the learning path towards new insights, it often faces the need to first 'unlearn' the ignorance layer that covers its core. This layer has been formed over the long period of its existence and contains its past experiences and various prejudices it used for its survival. In order to remove this layer and successfully implement the 'unlearn' process, it will be surprising to note that the best tool will be to 'relearn' what has been learnt long back but forgotten and kept suppressed at the core by the outer layer.

Millenniums ago our scriptures exorted “Vishwam vasudeva kudumbakam” meaning the entire universe is one family and all living beings are related closely to each other. In the path of our learning towards modern civilisations, we have formed the outer ignorant layer to the inner core creating divisions in the forms of Nations, Faiths, Languages, Cultures and so on. It is time that the humanity uses the 'relearning' of the fundamental principles of love and truth to 'unlearn' these divisions and proceed towards the path of the Unified Knowledge that is the Eternal Peace. 

Knowledge of Peace

When humans tend to hate

To kill, destroy and fight

Spreading terror and fright

Through ignorance and conflict

In the name of religeous right

Do we need some light

Let our souls spark and ignite

Love be the binding force

Univeral Knowledge of Peace

Superstitions and Knowledge

Yesterday's terror attack in Mumbai joins the series of earlier natural and terrorist related disasters, the gujarat earth quake, the tsunami, the terror attacks at Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore etc. that happened in India on the specific date of 26th. Is there a coincidence to the number 26 and disasters in India ?

We have traditionally been practising certain beliefs which direct our thinking and actions in our life and cultures. There are certain times, dates, numbers, signs and symbols which are connected with certain dictats in our practice. For example, some people in South India do not travel on "Asthami and Navami" days, the incident of a cat crossing your way foretelling failure for your immediate objectives, Crows cawing in front of the house meaning arrival of guests etc. etc.

Many of these beleifs are considered to be superstitious and many be brushed aside as the random and adhoc thinking of a collection of people. But, can there a part truth to some of these beliefs, which is not explainable through the logical reasoning of the physical world, but have possibly been divined to be realised by the soul experience ?

You think superstitions can provide knowledge Links?

Go Rip Van Winkle

The Citi Bank, the giant Amercian Corporation which used to proclaim “The Citi never sleeps” is now creating large nightmares for the American economy, as the American Government is trying to keep it and other large banks awake with massive dose of bailout funds. After the earlier news of similar prop-ups for Merryl Lynch and AIG, this is yet again another attempt to soar up the gloomy financial sentiments.

As we understand, that these bail out funds are so huge that they can easily exceed the total GNP of a developing country, the question arises as to how this expenditure would be compensated. Would it mean further burden to developing countries' economies already reeling under the side effects of the melt down?

To escape the evil effects of the madness and the manouvering that is going on worldwide, it may be advisable now to do a “Rip Van Winkle” rather than keep awake all the time. :-(

CKO Humour Series

First CKO: You said the "Peer Assist" programme launched in your company as a part of the KM project failed miserably. Why was it so ?

Second CKO: The employees heard it as "Beer Assist" and demanded that they all should be assisted with Beer parties all the times.

Gender Perspective in KM?

Is there a gender perspective to Knowledge Sharing? I was told in a discussion that men naturally share more of logical and analytical information whereas women tend to share more of emotional and relationship information. So it was argued that considering that Knowledge Management in an organisation has to do more with the People's perspective and their emotional integration, women may make better KM team members than men.

As a corollary, men may be better placed to deal with formal knowledge assets like IPRs and Patents, women may be better placed with social networking and relation building.

In any case, the natural choice is to have both men and women jointly contribute to the integrated evolution of KM, as they do in every other walk of life.

Blabbering Knowledge

A small child's blabber, most of us have experienced, is sweeter than the best music. Though we cannot get any decipherable information from the child's apparent blabbering syllables, we still get the highest satisfaction, as there is a spiritual energy connect between our soul and the child's feelings.

The child's blabbering apart, sometimes apparently meaningless statements by grownups, also satisfy you for the sheer delight and wisdom that is hidden in their sentences. Many great saints have made common sense statements, that could not apparently reveal any wisdom at the instant when they were made. Later, the same sentences have been interpreted to provide insightful thoughts to millions of followers.

This phenomenon has been aptly captured in one verse of Thirukkural which states that the whole world gets benefited by not only the sheer presence of good world citizen but also whenever he blabbers.

Does this appear as a Blabbering Knowledge !!

Certified Tacit Knowledge

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will be embarking on the task of testing, assessing and certifying the knowledge and skill sets available with the large population of workforce in the formal and informal sectors who have no certified formal qualifications. As per the Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, the certification process will document and inventorise the tacit knowledge with these people. This simple process itself would amount to doubling the Productivity performance in the sectors where these peoeple are employed.

IGNOU is also planning to involve number of other institutions who can develop and implement such certification programmes.

This is a good attempt to document and bring into formal recognition the large knowledge potential of the workforce in the informal sectors of our country and this can also contribute to the better placement of ourselves in the Knowledge Economy Index.

Brain's Gain

Are you aware that the human brain is used by the average person only ten to fifteen percent of its capability. We have known the common statement "No Pain; No gain;". The redundant capacity of our brain capability can be effectively utilised to manage all types of pains. The intensity of pains are basically felt and communicated by the brain. I have realised that the brain can be trained and motivated to manage pain sensations, in different forms, to temporarily switch off the pain sensation, to control the intensity of pain, to manipulate it into a form that provides neutral or pleasure situation and ultimately use the pain to cure the causation of illness itself.

Is it not interesting to note the brain's power to gain from pain?

Green Knowledge

In our country, when we wanted to improve Agriculture, we introduced the "Green Revolution" relating to improvement of Productivity in our farms.

When the society was concerned over the environmental effects of uncontrolled industrialisation, the Productivity Organisations coined the term "Green Productivity" to signify integrated action to improve environmental performance of individual firms as well as nations.

Recently, the concern of Information Technologists are pointing towards managing the operation of their IT infrastructure and Networks in such a manner to provide the least effect on "Environment" and "Energy Consumption". These efforts are clubbed under the term "Green IT".

I was also wondering whether in future we would hear terms like "Green Knowledge" to signify those actions and learnings that would help the humanity and society to network spiritually for positive social developments, which would also integrate "Green Productivity" and "Green IT"! Any takers for this thinking ?

Indian Innovations and Knowledge Economy

In this article on “Innovation and India's Role in the Knowledge Economy”, Dr.Abdul Kalam, Former President of India gives some glimpses of Innovations being practised at different sectors of Indian Economy. As we can see, the Indian innovations stretch from Shampoo satchets for the common men to nuclear technologies for the industry, catering to its different regions and stakeholders.

I was wondering what makes the Indian innovations unique, as pointed out by Dr.Kalam? It is of course easy to notice that both “India” and “Innovation” begins with the two letters 'IN'. Here is possibly a quick answer to some of Dr.Kalam's observations in his article.

Indian innovations are from the “IN-ward” perspective to solve its own specific situations, like the transportation of its “Electronic Voting Machines” on elephants and camels to reach far off places not yet connected by other modes of transportation. Since these innovations are mostly “IN-side” looking, they have possibly not yet made an impact outside India. Does this appear as an 'INnovative' explanation ?

CoPts to CoPs

The accompanying picture was taken at the procession celebrations of Guru Nanak's birthday near my house. It is wonderful to witness the whole community togetherness in achieving their objectives – in this particular situation – the blessings of the almighty. We can observe that people of different professions, occupations, age, gender etc etc, who would normally behave as strangers to each other, combine together to make the public pathway clean for the Chariot carrying the Guru to roll on.

Community of Participants (CoPts) is an age old concept in various Indian festivals and celebrations and provided enormous opportunities for participants to learn and share their tacit knowledge. Their excellent prowess in sharing the culture and emotions have made our past generation thinkers to make them a compulsory aspect of the religious practices and celebrations.

Communities of Participants have now evolved into Communities of Practices (CoPs) as a KM tool in organisations. These CoPs can learn from the festival spirit CoPts to embed celebrations and universal divine spirits to achieve greater successes.  

CKO Humour Series

First CKO: As a part of our company KM communication plan, we made a special campaign on “Learn from Your Mistakes”

Second CKO : What was the result?

First CKO: Don't ask! Most of our workforce have now submitted their resignations.

Globalisation and Knowledge Economy

Foreign Policy Institute along with AT Kearney has published the ranking of nations for “Globalisation Index”. The World Bank has also separately published “Knowledge Economy Index” ranking world nations according to their knowledge economy strength. 

I observed that out of the top twenty nations in both the rankings, twelve nations, namely, Denmark, Sweden, Finland,Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Ireland, Austria and Newzealand appear in both the lists thus indicating a strong correlation between Globalisation and Knowledge Economy.

Contrary to popular belief, China and India are placed much below in the “Globalisation Index” rankings, 66 and 71 respectively and in the “Knowledge Economy Index” 77 and 100 respectively.

The studies were done much before the recent meltdown, however, and some variations are expected in the future rankings. China and India holding almost 50 % of the World Population, the main source of Knowledge Assets, when they open up, are likely to drastically transform the Global Productivity and Knowledge Economy scenerio.

KM - The Other Paradigm

Have you ever visited a zoo?

A new tiger entrant in the cage asked its counterpart, “Hi! How is life at this place?” The other tiger replied “Great! In between feeding times, the zoo authorities ensure our entertainment by parading human beings of different colours, regions, habits, languages,size and shapes in front of us, the sight of which is not possible in the forests.”

We, the human beings visualise Knowledge Management as a tool that enables us to share and manage our external knowledge. However, on the other paradigm, it can also mean that the Knowledge (Wisdom or Absolute Truth as understood differently) which is omnipresent and ever unchanging, enabling the connections and sharing between us through networking our thoughts, ideas, emotions, actions etc in a continuous universal plane by providing parts of its characteristics as the web links.

Century of Blogposts

This is my hundredth blog post and this is how I would like to express my experience of the last four months with the blogosphere:

Thanks - A century of blog posts

Expressing my knowledge and thoughts

Passion for Learning and growth

Support from well wisher hearts

Opportunity for universal connect

Network that satisfies the spirit

KM journey to continue and last

Not the destination but path the target

Communication and Learning Orgnisation

Communication is the basic need for learning of human beings. We communicate through spoken language, body expressions and the inner spirits. A complete communication will have all the three components for effectiveness. Though verbal expressions through languages have evolved over thousands' of years, they have extreme variations and the sender and receiver may interpret the same words in different contexts. Body language and expressions on the part of the sender is somewhat automatic, whereas the receiver will require to interpret the same through his tacit understanding. Communication through the inner spirits would require matching of spiritual energy levels between the receiver and learner. We can see the need for proper combination of these three forms of communications for it to be successful, it is not surprising to note the disasters arising from incomplete and totally failed communication.

The above analogy of individual's communication can also be extended to organisations. We keep hearing of organisational failures, a fall out of the recent crisis. Some organisations are announcing bankruptcy whereas others are laying off their people. How is that these organisations have failed to learn and survive? I feel that one of the reasons could be the incompleteness in their communication systems within and externally. The verbal language communication can be compared to the explicit statements of Vision, Mission etc of an organisation; just the presence of these statements alone may not be enough and can also be interpreted differently by the receivers. The organisation structure, procedures and processes can be compared to the body language of communication – these are understood as the underlying actions and reactions of the organisation under different circumstances, spontaneously. Finally the Culture and Values are like the Spiritual form of the communication – these can be realised only by the living experience of the people with the organisation. These three forms complete the Communications system of a Learning Organisation.

Many failing organisations have good explicit statements of their vision, mission, objectives etc similar to nice verbal expression of communication, but fail to complement them with structure and culture.

Let us learn from the recent failures to foster the spirit of complete and communicate for “Learning Organisations”

Nature's Knowledge

As I observed the beautiful stuffed peacock toy kept in the drawing room in friend's house, I admired the creativity and dexterity in the hands of the artist who made it possible. The stuffed toy of peacock was so nicely crafted with matching crystal glasses for the eyes, the vibrant colours of the body preserved through touch painting and the feathers carefully fastened to bring out the reality of the beautiful bird from the woods to his drawing room.

Just then I just imagined a real peacock dancing and rejoicing the arrival of the cloudy rains in the surroundings of trees, nature and wilderness. Even that feeling provided me much more satisfaction and bliss than the sight of the artificial toy decorating the friend's hall. I only wondered how much happiness one can feel, if he can really experience in his front, a peacock dancing in its natural habitat and can there be any substitute for that, however much is the effort of a human artist to duplicate the nature and reality.

It then occurred to me, Knowledge as created, shared and used by us is only a small fraction of the all pervading and uncomparable Reality and Truth existing in the Nature. Let us seek to realise and enjoy the fullness and beauty of the Nature's Knowledge.

Symbolic Chandrayan

The successful Chandrayan Mission News, putting the Indian Satellite in the lunar orbit provides great elation and satisfaction as it reminds the great historical Indian astronomical prowess reinvented once again after thousands of years.

The 'Moon' signifies Love, Purity and Peace in the Indian tradition. I hope that the Indian satellite entering the Lunar Orbit symbolises a new transition of India entering towards a saga Peace and Harmony.

Leadership - 3Ps approach

Whenever a leader faces a situation where he has to intervene to correct an aberration, he has the option to adopt the '3P' approach, recommended by the past thought leaders.

First 'P' approach emanates from a Thirukkural verse which states “The best way to correct a harm doing person is to shame him by doing good to him”. This 'Pardoning' approach provides the best peaceful solution to the entire team.

Second 'P' approach is suggested by Ramkrishna Paramhamsa who once said in his story, “Do not harm anyone; however exercise the option, whenever required, to threaten the wrong doer of the consequences of harm”. This 'Point Out' approach is the middle path which results in some disharmony but intermediate solutions.

Third 'P' approach is forcefully put up by Bharathiyar when he said in one of his poems, “ Don't be afraid of wrong doers; punish them and admonish them so they reform” This 'Punish' approach is the ultimate weapon, which however produces enormous stresses and tension within the team.

The three 'P's approach is a continuous chain which need to be adopted by a leader of the team whenever he needs to correct an aberrant situation.

Training to the Times

The modern trend of automating and outsourcing everything can cause difficult times often. Today's experience over my mobile phone is worth sharing here. I received this call on my mobile phone from a person who looked like a student just preparing for a school examination. “Sir, did you receive an invitation to the Corporate seminar to be held next week on the subject of XXX in the venue of YYY hosted by our company ZZZ” - he enquired after the customary checking as to whether I was the same person he wanted to talk to. I said “Yes; Just today I received the invitation and I would be confirming my attendance” and felt that the matter is over there.

It was not to be so; he continued. “Thank You Sir! Can I check some details about your participation in the seminar – This is required for our verification”. I offered to help him with whatever possible reminding him that I have an immediate meeting to attend. “ Sir, the spelling of your name is G.S.K R I S H N A N – is it correct ?” Not amused I replied “Yes – that is what you have mentioned in your invitation also.” “Thank You Sir! Your address is ........” Before he could complete I interrupted “ Look! All these things you have already mentioned in your invitation and since I am confirming that I have received it correctly, what is the need for verification again?”

“Sorry Sir! This is the procedure to be followed by us to register you for the seminar. Your address is .......” Now quite irritated, I once again tried to reason with him “You will appreciate that I am in a hurry and I had already confirmed my attendance to your seminar, you can send your registration to me by mail later”

“Right Sir! Let me atleast check with the next procedure, your mobile number is ----” This type of conversation went on and on for another 2 – 3 minutes. Finally he wound up with “Thank You Sir for your cooperation and we would be honoured to have you at our Corporate seminar to be held next week on the subject of XXX in the venue of YYY hosted by our company ZZZ”

I was only wondering that if the training to the person was designed and provided so that he can understand various contexts and react accordingly rather than a 'take it from me standard package', would it not be much more productive and customer satisfying.

Trainers to the new technology personnel – Are you adept to cater to the requirements of the times ?

Making Impossible Possible

"Everyone thinks of the possible and ask Why, I think of the impossible and ask Why Not" - this was a famous quote of an American President. 

Senator Obama's victory in US has again proved that things inconceivable only a little time back suddenly becomes a reality.

Let us wish him good luck to lead the future of his nation towards productivity and prosperity!

Food for Thought

I was watching this old famous Tamil movie in the television, when I was put into the thinking mode by the and old mythological tamil verse by Avvaiyar, who narrates in the film, to the God about things that are 'Good', 'Bad', 'New' etc. in life.

One such verse goes like this “ It is very harmful to have the women who have no affection, but it is much more harmful to have them prepare and serve food to you”.

The connection between food and human qualities are the same as that between body and mind and matter and energy. That is why many times we see just material nutrition and medication alone do not produce health or cure, however much the modern science and technology tries us to believe so.

So food should not only have good quality nutrients but should also be given to us by people who can inject love and affection into them. That is why many times we prefer home food to hotel food, but some unlucky people prefer it the other way. Is this food for thought to you?

CKO Humour Series

First CKO: Due to the recent economic crisis, we approached a Bank to lend us debt.

Second CKO : How much debt you could get ?

First CKO: Despite our pledging all our assets, the bank declared us as insolvent and refused to lend any credit.

Second CKO: Why So?

First CKO : They say that whatever physical assets we have are more than discounted by the quality of our Knowledge Assets.

Characteristics of KM Guru

The role of the 'Guru' or the mentor has been multifaceted in the path of acquisition of Knowledge. In the ancient scriptures 'Guru' is equated to the 'Supreme'  - “Guru Saksath Param Brahma”.

In the path of seeking of 'Knowledge', one has to transcend many phases, from the earthly physical space to the emotional mental space to the soulful peace space and to the ultimate Supreme space. An ideal Guru helps his disciple in each of this transformation in two ways: Firstly, he provides a living example which can be consciously copied to experiment with the tools, techniques and methods of each step; Secondly he illuminates the consciousness in the disciple creating a suitable environment to convert the experiment into regular being.

The importance of a Guru towards one's Knowledge path has been repeatedly stressed in all ancient scriptures and it has also been believed that the 'Guru – disciple' combination and relation at all times is an automatic selection – through divine choice – requiring no external efforts. An example of this automatic and natural selection in the combination of Krishna and Arjun and recently, Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Swami Vivekananda.

KM Coordinators in modern organisations should learn to acquire the characteristics of 'Gurus' and combine with the team members to take the firm towards higher and higher levels of Knowledge.