What if?

A funny thought crossed my mind right now as I was searching for some information on google. What would happen if google's systems just collapsed one day. I mean I cannot remember where I used to get information from before google came along (probably because I was still in primary school and we got all our information from books and searching for info directly from sites, but all in all, getting information seemed so limited until google came along).

It is funny that we are so dependent upon some really delicate sources to store information and knowledge. We encourage IT systems in organizations, documentation and sharing of information because we live in a technological world and tacit knowledge has to be transformed into explicit knowledge, which is reasonable, but what if someday aliens invaded earth or some strange thing happened and all IT systems shut down (I think I need to stop watching fiction movies about the world ending). Or if someday all the material possesion on paper was destroyed. Where would knowledge reside then? I know none of these might seem sensible/realistic but the unexpected happens all the time and we fail to anticipate it.

Even our brains are not a reliable source for storing information or knowledge becauase people get brain injuries all the time and forget everything...we talk about Knowledge as an asset as if it is something with a guaranteed-being, but really, this precious thing we call knowledge is so fragile.

Until Next Time

Xxxs

Pauline

Pauline Mmbaga : Yesterday 21:15 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

So close, yet so far away

So, as I am sure most of you are experiencing at the moment, writing up the dissertation and attempting to finish the last PMA's is not a slice of cheese cake! We are so close to the finish line, yet so far away!What I am finding as really complicated at the moment, especially with writing up the dissertation, is the fact that 'knowledge' is ever-changing. You read 20 journals which have a similar theme, then out of nowhere comes an academic who argues something completely different, and suddenly prior knowldge becomes less relevant and so on and so forth. Or what annoys me, is when there is certain facts that have been established in the past but some academics create new convinient badges for those old facts and make it seem as if it is something new, and just confuse you even more.

A wise man once told me (well, my dad actually :) told me this about a week ago) that knowledge like the universe, is always unfolding, so you can never be too knowldegable. The only option is to always be open minded and have a curious mind.

Its a funny thing, this thing we call 'knowledge', it can turn from fact to fiction in a split second. It has no limitations, yet we always limit ourselves. I rememeber hearing somewhere that we do not know very much, but rather very little about many things and that we know nothing for sure, except the fact that we know nothing for sure. I guess all there is to do is to keep exploring the unknown. Well, generally, in life, atleast. Cause I dont know about you guys but once I finish my dissertation, I intend on not reading anything, for at least a month, apart from emails.

Until Next Time,

Xxxs

Pauline

Pauline Mmbaga : Yesterday 00:01 |  Tags: Dissertation Kbam |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

When you can guarantee health but not safety

Being a huge basketball fan, my team (the New York Knicks) just lost their run for the playoffs championships this season and I am extreemly sad. And one of the main reasons we lost is due to being over matched, two of our best players have been injured and were thus not present for the games. One of the interesting facts about basketball and im sure many other sports is that the orgaization (say the NY Knicks board) can gurantee that if their emplyees (the players that is) get injured,then they will provide and ensure the best health care for them.

However, whereas they can guarantee health, they cannot guarantee safety. In deed they coach the players on how they protect themselves (for instance they offer mouth guards, plastic goggles etc etc) and they also coach the players on how to avoid injuring others, the organization cannot guanrantee the players safety because the games get very physical and injuries are part of the game. There are numerous sports men and women who have lost their entire careers out of injuries suffered during games. Although the players still get payed when injured (a good example is Yao Ming, who got injured and was being payed 17 million dollars for an entire year as he was recovering), once their contracts end, their value is seen as depreciated becuase of all the lost time and they are likely to get traded to other teams,so in most cases players decide to retire rather young (unless other teams are willing to pay a good sum of money for their trade), they do not get paid nearly as much as before.

So I guess at times, the career paths we choose to take come with strings attached (in terms of health and safety issues) and we have to decide whether the return outweighs the risks we are likely to incur.

Until Next Time,

Xxxs

Pauline

Pauline Mmbaga : 14 May 2012 00:49 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Unsafe work enviroments

Learning about health and safety management,my mind has been completely ignoring anything that did not appear fatal. I only thought of operational harm; chemicals and employees being exposed to difficult working conditions. But there is other psychological, biological and socio-cultural harm worthy of attention. Organizations complement themselves for having 'diversity' and hiring individuals from different backgrounds etc etc, and although that is an excellent thing to do becuase it does to a great extent create competative advantage, it can do just as much harm as it can do good.

I remember when I was in primary school, grade five to be specific, I got punched by a boy...all becuase he did not agree with what I was saying and perhaps he was brought up in a violent background so he took out his frustration on me. I vividly remember how painful that punch felt, and if it was today (having learnt self defence), I would have probably fought back. But what happened was that my confidence was completely shattered from that incident, and I was so affraid of speaking up during group work in fear of being punched again.Thinking of the work enviroment, employees are rather prone to bullying and violence, disciminantion, sexual or verbal harasment, commununication barriers and so on and so forth.

It is absolutely neccessary for leaders to be aware of these cases, and even more importantly prevent them from occuring, and not practice such misconduct themeselves. We hear of so many instances where bosses abuse employees, verbally, or phyisically, and it is honestly sad that these people who are supposed to be leaders are abusing their power. I know I have blogged about wanting to be an exceptional leader, despite the challanges, I want my future followers to be as safe as possible, even if it means invading privacy by having camera's within the organization to prevent such incidents from occuring or track what goes on at all times.

Until Next Time,

Xxxs

Pauline

Pauline Mmbaga : 12 May 2012 18:22 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Negligence is a crime

When I think of the work enviroment at some fields such as mining back in my country, Tanzania, which is still a developing country, amongst the biggest problems we are facing even today, is such as; lack of education, lack of training, lack of certified skill labour and supposedly "poor awareness of top leaders" concerning these issues.

Now growing up I always wanted to do law, and I have since then been interested in crime shows and legal shows and reading about real life cases. And you cannot begin to fathom the level of my frustration when I hear that some minors were killed for instance in a gold mine back home and because they come from poor families that are not able to afford lawyers or have anyone hear they cry for justice, there are no pressed charges in turn, and no one is blamed for what happens. So you tend to find that a lot of business men within the gold/diamonds/whatever stone's, walk freely and are completely negligent or choose to be ignorant towards the tough working labour conditions, the ages of the employees, the lack of training, safety equipment, lack of expertise in that field and so on and so forth.

I am well aware that it is our govenment that has really poor leadership, and does not follow up on whether or not these business men are following rules and regulations. So how can the knowldge I am gaining on health and safety really be put to good use when I go back to my country? I know Paul would say I should lead but considering the situation at had (corruption, especially), I have heard of people being killed just by getting involved in digging up what really goes on in those mining fields. Perhaps starting an anonymous awereness campagine would help riase awareness on the issue and the government could take action.It is something certainly worth thinking about doing.

Until Next Time,

Xxxs

Pauline

Pauline Mmbaga : 12 May 2012 00:13 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Titanic

So, since we’ve been discussing WaveRiders and boats for months now, I thought this story would be appropriate. Being a huge movie fan, I went to re-watch Titanic in 3D last month on the 100^th anniversary of ship sinking. And although the movie is more focused on a love story, it is actually really tragic how so many people died when it could have been avoided had they anticipated what they could/did encounter.

When we talk about Health and Safety in organizations, it is easy to get lost in the details of H&S within manufacturing industries where a lot of cases come from. Nonetheless, there are other business fields in which failure to anticipate accidents leads to fatal results. Take for instance managing a law firm, hotel or school...there is usually basic knowledge management (e.g., procedures on fire escape) but because they are reasonably “safe” environments, it is mostly reactive measures that are taken once disaster strikes…you hear of cases where there is shootings in schools and because there is no procedures or codes on how to react, so a number of lives are lost out of panic and disorder/chaos…and that is just one of the few cases to say the least.

Amongst the few things I gathered from Titanic for instance in relation to KBAM is such as the ship not being able to turn sufficiently to avoid any impact with the ice-berg because of the speed of the ship, the fact that iceberg was seen too late and the size of the rudder. Organizations that don’t know how to break a problem down into specific cause-and-effect relationships mistakenly oversimplify a complex incident by providing solutions such as ‘don’t hit icebergs’. There was also a cancelled lifeboat drill; apparently there was to be a session scheduled on how to use the life boats on the day the ship sailed but the captain ordered it to be cancelled, for unknown reasons,so 53% of people who could have survived due to the space on the life boats,died. I could go on an on about prevention of so many deaths or human errors that led to that tragedy. The point I am trying to reach at here is the importance of managing knowledge, sharing knowledge and anticipating possible outcomes.

So far I am learning a lot from KBAM,but whats even more, frightened…we all have a huge challenge in our future careers. The man who designed Titanic (well one of the main guys, I remember there was two in the movie, not sure who was the leading engineer and who was the designer) refused to take a life jacket and leave the ship with one of the life boats out of guilt that so many lives were being lost…if you are not mentally, spiritually and emotionally prepared when you go out into the real world, you will not survive such incidents…H&S is an incredibly important aspect of KBAM!

Until Next Time,

Xxxs

Pauline

Pauline Mmbaga : 10 May 2012 19:05 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

"Practice makes perfect"...ummm,not quite

Mondays session was really interesting!We are repeatedly told that the more you practice, the better you get at something...which is true. But there is a danger in having this mentality. Accidents happen daily, and most of them happen due to failure of anticipation...we get so comfortable in doing the same things or we get put in positions which require repetative work that our minds become only accustomed to norm,we fail to look beyond the expected outcome.

We assume that the obvious is true, so if something out of the ordinary occurs, we fail to respond or respond in an inccorect manner. We opperate by the book alone, which is good, because we follow procedure, but the unexpected happens all the time, regardless of how careful we might be...so instead of waiting for an accident to happen, or ignoring anything out of the norm until it surfaces for us to learn,it is best to anticipate the outcomes...having a checklist in an organization does not suffice,you have to think ahead and anticpate impact,always be causious,especially when people's lives can be endangered.

I came to realise how leaders do actually have great responsibility. I always thought that leaders can only be held accountable to a certain degree because afterall, one man cannot do everything alone, there is only so much a leader can do. But having read all those case studies on accidents happening, when you have so many people working for you and there are difficult work conditions to cope with, you cannot choose to be oblivious to it becuase if something does go wrong, it will haunt you for a really long time. Which makes me think that I will probably make a really awesome leader because I tend to put other people's wellbeing ahead of my own sometimes, its only when everyone is happy that I tend to be satisfied and feel accomplished.

Until Next Time,

Xxxs

Pauline

Pauline Mmbaga : 02 May 2012 16:33 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

After all is said and done…more is said than done

Can we really make robust decisions with limited information?thinking back into RDM we did not have much information about WaveRiders and it is quite the same with KBAM...we are allowed to make assumptions in justifying our implementation suggestions to the board but it makes me question whether we are making scapegoat and "convinient" assumptions which are easy to find solutions to. That is, how different would our decisions be had we been given more information on the case study. I suppose it is easier for us to have this option to make assumptions because we do not have consultancy qualifications but then again how much are we challenging ourselves in making assumptions that really require critical thinking.

I always find it absolutely incredible how each presentation turns out unique, and I am really looking forward to seeing what assumptions other groups are making about WaveRiders in coming up with solutions to knowledge and asset managment.

Until Next Time,

Xxxs

Pauline

Pauline Mmbaga : 27 Apr 2012 18:25 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Question–mark?

A thought crossed my mind today as to whether or not there is a difference between knowledge management and information management?I say yes there is because what I remember from CBE and organizational learning is that organizations acquire knowledge, but they distribute information and interpret information because knowldge can neither be distributed nor interpreted...which made then wonder, can an organization manage knowledge or can it manage information?since knowldge is the result from learning and the knowldge people gain from learning is not usually identical, does that not mean that there will be conlicting knowledge created in the organization?So who gets to decide which "knowldge" is valid and should thus be stored/managed in the orgaanization?

Until Next Time,

Xxxs

Pauline

P.S the painting is about emotions,it has nothing to do with KBAM,i just thought it depics conflict and portrays confusion

Pauline Mmbaga : 27 Apr 2012 00:57 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The Ice–Berg Metaphore

Its easy to ignore and fail to prioritise an issue that is not very urgent until it surfaces and you can no longer ignore it and it is easy to look at the small fraction of an ice-berg that is visible over the water level and ignore what is beneath the water. I have always loved the ice-berg metaphore because it can be used in so many ways, for instance it is an excellent example of the mistakes organizations make.

A good example is how organizations fail to manage their assets until it is neccessary to take reactive meassures. For instance they ignore inventory because it is costly but what they do not see are the hidden costs of not implementing ineventory management such as unrealiable supply, scrap, machine downtime, damaged items, poor layout etc etc.

Hence, they fail to see that an investment in management of aspects such as inventory will protect the organization against all those costs listed above and increase efficiency,essentially paving way for excellent business practice. I guess we have a challange once we graduate to really implement these lessons learnt in organizations, improve our prospects and the prospects of the companies we go to work with.

Until Next Time,

Xxxs

Pauline

Pauline Mmbaga : 25 Apr 2012 21:19 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem