Work to suit habits

This is a story of a marriage feast. I visited a marriage function recently. As the feast was served after the marriage, I was noticing the person seated next to me. He was served with the curry made of plantain again and again as he emptied each serving of it quickly. At the end, his leaf plate was left with many unconsumed food items, as we rose up and went to the washroom. Just as a curiosity, I asked him, "Brother! You seemed to be liking plantain curry enormously; you ate only that and nothing else". After a big sigh, he replied, "To the contrary, I hate plantain curry. But, see, I have the habit of first finishing off the food items I don't like, so that I can enjoy the ones I like later, in a comfortable manner. The people who served lunch misunderstood my habit for my liking the curry and kept on serving. So, I ended up with only eating the item that I detested and wasted all other items".

Human habits and attitudes have no discernable patterns and if we don't understand them properly, we would end up putting up a square peg in a round hole. Some people are habitual of taking hard to do tasks first and light tasks in the end and some people do exactly vice versa. While you are being a mentor, look carefully to the habits of your mentee and provide him with the work and training to suit his nature.

CKO Humour

First CKO: We were naive on our part to tell our CEO that there needs to be 'Team Building' in the organisation to implement KM.

Second CKO: What happened?

First CKO: He said " I sanction the cost,whatever it is, immediately; Go and buy that 'building' quickly.!!

Search for an Ideal Search Combination

The biggest news of the internet search community, Microsoft - Yahoo deal is being speculated upon everywhere. KMers job is to search for the ideal knowledge and we will know as to whether this search combination would be beneficial or not in the coming times. For those, who would want to know the possible consequences of the deal of the two Search giants, this blog post provide enough food for thought. (I used the Google Search to get at this post!!)

Children - Carriers of Knowledge?

As we are rejoicing the Knowledge Economy that converts its younger generation into "Intellectual Property" for the welfare of the future, there is also distressing news that somewhere else, the children are getting converted into future "Disaster Material". We would like our toddlers to become self carriers of 'Knowledge', 'Productivity','Peace' and 'Love' and not a 'Destructive Bomb' as given in this news.

Let training and learning for the new generation be Productive and not Destructive.

Balanced Knowledge Scorecard

As a trainer in both the Balaned Scorecard method and Knowledge Management, it is interesting to look at an attempt to combine both the subjects. A simple excel based calculation methodology attempts to create and measure Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Knowledge Management from four perspectives, namely, Financial, Knowledge Preservation, Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Sharing. These individual indicators (16 in number) are then combined to create an overall index.

Many similar attempts made in the past to measure KM had their good and bad points. So is the current version from Strategy2act.com, as some of those KPIs may not have sufficient baseline to generate and monitor the trend. Also we should be beware of the counter productive situation where the 'measure' manages the system instead of the other way.

In any case, those of you interested to have a hands on trial of the software, can download a free excel file from their download site.

Art of Living and Personal KM

During this week, I was introduced to the knowledge and practice of art of living. Some of the questions and the answers arising out of this experience are:

1. Who, What and Where are you? - I am a small tiny miniscule part of the of the Universe, but I can be a part of it as well as I can fully encompass it by my thoughts and actions.

2. When did you come here, how much long you will stay and what will you do here? - My presence here is eternal through my life cycles and my duty here will be to realise peace, love and truth.

3. What will make you happy? - I can be happy only if I live in the present and does not allow the past and the future to influence my thoughts and actions.

4. What can you do to transform others? - I can spread the awareness of the above thinking for others to consider.

5. When do you get fulfillment? - When I involve myself 100% of my body, mind and soul in things I do towards positive evolution.

All these can lead us to personal KM and we can realise that seemingly difficult questions have very simple answers - only we need to take the effort to understand this universal art of living knowledge. :-)

Living Books

Guteen's Knowledge Newsletter has this interesting news item of the library which lends people, other than books. By borrowing the conversation with different backgrounds of human beings, you are expected to solve your concerns of sterotypes.

Every human being is a living book, in whose memory, there is constant learning and unlearning. By a complex interaction, this book remains in continuous teaching and understanding mode. By borrowing and lending the knowledge in these human books, it must be possible to strive towards the 'Absolute Knowledge' or the 'Truth'.

In the age of the web and the internet, we may also think of the human being as a 'living web page' with infinte hyper links :-)

CKO Humour

First CKO: We created an experts' comeptency knowledge base in our company as a KM effort.

Second CKO: How much was it useful?

First CKO: The maximum search was for the expertise "how to pass the blame to others?" and the search results were that maximum of our people qualified.

Knowledge to Smile About

An infant on an average smiles 400 times a day; as it grows older and older, the number of smiles keep going down and down. When fully grown up, you are frowned upon if you attempt to smile or laugh. As I went for a stroll in the morning, I noticed people well past their primes are coaxed to loud laughter by a coach as a health exercise. The artificial way to bring laughter to those miserable targets brought a natural smile on my face.

How is that we forget the natural tendency to smile about things that happen around us? Can KM help us to revive our knowledge to smile about things we can and we can't influence? Time to think about!

Knowledge of Food to Forget

My posts in my blog are generally on 'Food for Thought' that can add to your 'Knowledge' and 'Productivity'.

For a change, I have come across a blogpost that talks about Food one should forgo to keep good physical health.

Well! A combination of 'food for thought' and 'f'ood to forget' can make you really knowledgeable and productive :-)

Learning that never eclipse

Everyone in this part of the world, is anxiously looking forward to the total solar eclipse, a rare celestial phenomena, to be happening in this decade. The Sun, Moon, Earth and other cosmic objects always provide enough wonders and solar eclipse provides enough thoughts for the astronmers, scientists, astrologers and the religeous minded. On this occasion, the Sun which is about 400 times larger than the earth will be totally covered by the tiny moon from our vision.

To me, the total solar eclipse symbolises our ability of cold reasoning and kindness ( represented by the Chandra or the moon) to totally overcome the flames of the anger and jealousy (represented by the Aditya or the sun).

We, the citizens of the Earth, on this occasion, try and reinforce the above learnings provided to us by this wonderful once in lifetime event.

Web Ratna Awards

Are you doing yourself a good e-Governance job or atleast aware of any such initiative by some Government agency? Normally, Government domain is one of the most secretive and don't want to share information unless forced - remember there needed to be a specific law called 'Right to Information' to reinforce citizens' freedom to demand Government information.

KM initiatives in Government can succeed only if good practices are recognised through awards and the successes are widely shared. Web Ratna awards annouced by India Portal is an interesting beginning in this direction.

Hope Web Ratnas of today lead to future KM Ratnas of the Government :-)

To Make a Koel Sing

King Pulikesi during one of his hunting missions heard a ‘Koel’ bird singing, for the first time. He was very pleased and ordered that one such bird should be kept caged in front of his bed, so that he can hear it’s singing every morning after he wakes up. His order was instantly obeyed.

To his astonishment, the caged bird never sang. He thought it wanted its favourite food and hence ordered the choicest worms as its morning diet. Yes, the Koel managed to devour those worms, but refused to sing. He then decided to starve it so that it will sing out of hunger. The bird grew thinner and thinner, but no, still it won’t sing. The king then decided to motivate the pet by surrounding the cage with green plants, and yet the bird did not utter a single music note. He finally decided that it can be coaxed into singing, if a mate is put in the same cage as ‘team working’. It only resulted in ‘two’ instead of one bird, forgetting their natural passion for singing.

You and I are aware of the common sense that ‘Koels’ sing only in their natural habitat and not when caged and artificially motivated. Only Corporate Kings forget this in their modern management madness.

Freedom is Love

Thanks to the Golden Inspirations, i got the free down load of 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' , the story when read, looks as fresh as 'freedom' even after thirty years.

Knowledge of the inner self, as we learn deeper and deeper, gives us freedom to understand the external happenings more and more lucidly.

We realise that the real Freedom is 'unlimited' and converges with 'Love'.

Still Hopeful

Gloomy Clouds
Pouring Rains
Flooded Streets - Still
My heart is hopeful

Scorching Sun
Driedup Land
Thirsty Mouths - Still
My heart is hopeful

Wicked Minds
Naked Crimes
Inhuman Acts - Still
My heart is hopeful

Cosmic Cycles
Nature's Justice
Common Sense - So
My heart is hopeful.

CKO Humour

First CKO: In our company, me and my boss have a perfect sharing culture.

Second CKO: Can you explain?

First CKO: Well! I share all the workload, he shares all the credits. :-(

Quench your KM Thirst

KMers always look for information to quench their knowledge thirst. Here are some useful websites that you can look for:

1. For good audio books - the site provides you with reviews on many good audio books
2. For free audio books - you can get free downloads of some audio books
3. For Scrapbooking ideas - quick and easy ideas for scrapbooking
4. How to make a Website - Many of you would like to learn as to how to make your own website
5. For Inspirational Quotes - KM is 90% inspiration and 10% perspiration

Go check for yourself the above useful sites.

Fly with this KiWi

I chanced upon this news of KiWi project funded by EU to look for Knowledge in a 'Wiki' through semantic web methods. The result of the project would be to develop a KiWi Vision, KiWi System, User Cases and a handbook.

Wish this KiWi flies to its destination fast.

Miles to Bytes

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India was fascinated by the poem of Robert Frost and so was I during my school days:

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep"

Today's leaders and youth all alike have tremendous web addiction, so they may like the poem to be:

"The life is lovely, sweet and bright
But I have virtual contacts to keep
And bytes to surf before I sleep
And bytes to surf before I sleep" :-)

From Chaos to the Crowds' Hunch

I had a hunch to blog something about the 'Chaos Theory' that hypothesises that the chaotic behaviour of the universe is indeed an interwoven 'cause - effect' phenomena. My hunch became a fact as, surprisingly, I was led to the site hunch.com which now provides a platform for convering crowds' chaotic thinking to methodical reasoning. You can contribute your actions and causes for your decision making to the site and so will be the crowd. From these scores of 'chaos' emerges a 'pattern' that the site provides as a possible solution to your questions.

If you want to have a net aided hunch, go trying!!

Populate the World Women Knowledge Base

Today is the 'World Population Day' and UNFPA has coined the slogan "Fight Poverty : Educate Girls". It would be the most appropriate to add to the knowledge base of the young women who would be the creators of the future population of the globe.

Let us contribute our little bits to this noble aim and hope for transformation of every part of the world into a 'Knowledge Economy' :-)

Small making a Large Difference

The news of the little master Sunil Gavaskar reaching 60 years of age, makes me recollect memories of how small things ( or persons) can make a large difference. Our school and college times, we used to wonder this little man virtually carrying the Indian team to accolades all over world.

The genesis of great performers always germinate from small seeds of ideas and initiatives:

• A small human gesture can totallychange the attitude of a group
• A small gift made in time can go to provide the biggest relief
• A small teaching to needy children can turn them into experts
• A small spark of idea can turn into a great innovation

On this occasion of the Little Masters' milestone, let all of us contribute our small littles towards larger evolution of the peace and prosperity of the world.

Fearful Knowledge

'Fear' is one of the fundamental human traits to save him against offenders by programming his defence. But at the same time, it is also a constraint against innovation of new paths for his protection as well as development.

Knowledge of fear is a psychological subject, but this news identifies it as a neuron effect in the brain by medical scientists.

Hope we will be able to overcome all fears with a holistic knowledge of the 'Fear':-)

Failure of KM Projects

A draft report of SAI I was reading on "Why e-Governance Projects fail?" seem to be matching exactly to the question of "Why KM Projects fail?"

The broad reasons given in the report are:

• Lack of real process modifications to suit the new initiative
• Vendor driven initiative as opposed to customer led initiative
• Individual's pet theme concept as opposed to creation of an organisationwide culture
• Interference from vested interests
• Failure to solve confidentiality ( in case of KM it would be IPR) issues
• Digital divide amogst different levels of human resources

It is certainly worth preparing plans to counter these problems at the project preparation stage to manage KM better.

A Billion Facebook

KMers always believed that "Knowledge Economy" tools help not only in connecting billions of human resources but also help generate billions of dollars. Well, it is now supported by this news item that "Facebook" will be a 'billion' dollar company in five years.

A good news to hear amongst otherwise gloomy predictions out of the current recession:-)

What difference?

Two boys were walking along the road while returning from their school. As they walked, one boy noticed on the sides of the road small butts of cigarettes strewn here and there, still smouldering and glowing aided by the wind passing on them. Some diehard smokers have not bothered to properly dispose them off after their smoking sojourn. The boy stopped and started to systematically stamp his feet on each butt so that all of them got extinguished. He had to crisscross from one end of the road to the other and spend sufficient time and effort in this venture. The other boy stared at his friend and asked “ You see! Many smokers keep doing this all the times. What difference your small effort like this is going to make?” Just then a fuel tanker sped across and a few of the butts extinguished by the boy flew from the impact of the draught created by its speeding and one of the butts just managed to penetrate the carelessly opened lid of the tanker. Now the boy replied to his friend “ You can now feel what difference it would have made to the occupants of the tanker and the people like us standing by”

Every time, someone tries to attempt a bold initiative that stands apart from the crowd behaviour, it is natural to think “What difference it will make”,

“Well! It can make all the difference”

CKO Humour

First CKO: It was wrong to have proposed to our CEO that we should have "Open Innovation".

Second CKO: Why? What Happened?

First CKO: He has made our R&D people work in the open yard outside the building.

The length of life

Traversing the length of life

From birth to end of breathe

Every intersection makes you feel

Diverse choice of roads to unravel

One made of beautiful soft roses

Other laid with stones and thorns

The roses are comfort and cool

But they make you lazy and dull

The stones and thorns give pain

But the inner spirit is full in gain

Lord! Let the stones turn to roses!