Knowledge is Power…

Hello everyone;

Title for this entry is a favourite quote from Sir Francis BACON. "Knowledge is Power"...

There are lots of people all over the world who can defend this is absolutely a wrong statement. Because; those people are generally convinced by great powers (like written and visial press) that MONEY is the source of real power. Even those great powers are proofs of this statement.

I do believe this statement is still true and it was quoted in 1597 if my resource is right. I respect the insight of Sir Francis BACON for understanding the greatest power source.

Money has great influence on others because we are motivated and taught for it. Every media source advertise great deals money can achieve. They influence people's minds with different kinds of unuseful information and topics which they want to gain attention.

Does anyone think wars are still won with military strategy? or Combination of different kinds of political and information strategies? or else...

Does anyone think there are more than 100 countries who are totally free? or just 8? or lower than 8?

Does anyone think B.ll G.t.s has power because he is rich? or because he has knowledge? or he has access to every bit of information in the world?

I can continue to write hundreds of these questions which some of you will laugh and call me "a conspiracy theorist" but i just want to end this with a quote from an American Ventriloquist called Jeff Dunham;

"... killing folks is easy. Being politically correct is a pain in the .ss"

I hope you were following the media recently and you will see how this quote can be related to power of knowledge and influence...

Cheers...

: 06 Jun 2010 08:36 |  Tags: Kbam Knowledge Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Teamwork…

Good night everyone;

If I remember right; as one of the teams explained in a session of KBAM; Teamwork has 3 leadership stages;

• Initiate
  
• Encourage
• Facilitate

I would like to explain their meanings for me. The initiate stage is; where leaders understand the situation, system and resources. Then share it with team members. Clearly transfer and control if the right information was gathered.

Encourage stage is; where leaders encourage team to move forwards as fast and as straight as possible. Drive them to victory over project in hand.

Facilitate stage is; where leaders are observing the team and their direction. Facilitating right resources where team members need them. If team members fall into a trap (distraction, incorrect information sharing, etc...) and lose their direction, leaders would be able to see it and then turn them into the right course.

In knowledge management; these stages become one and serve as one. I can't think them seperate when examining knowledge management. I mean; leaders must think of every possible stage when they are inside an organisation which has a webbed information flow. They may not be able to seperate all stages to act.

Cheers...

: 25 Apr 2010 00:00 |  Tags: Kbam Mbe Teamwork |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Marketing? Pay for sales or not?..

Hello everyone;

I was wondering "if paying for numbers in marketing will effect KM in an organisation" for quite some time and I would like to share it with you. I mean there are two kinds of wages for marketing & sales; first one is; paying a specified amount and second one is; paying a specified amount for some number of sales and additional payment for extra sales (also decreasing it if the number of sales is very low, nearly like percentage over a sale). Are those able to put some barriers between knowledge flow in an organisation?

I was thinking and came up with an answer as "no and yes". Because; if the payment is specified and enough for the amount of work which has been done then answer should be "no". But if the payment depends on sale numbers it will surely force a competiton between sales reps. and will limit information flow, the answer will be "yes".

For the sake of information flow to be kept up all time; thinking the marketing & sales as a team and paying them what they all together deserve will be effective. But that may lead some problems like judging your teammates' efforts and believing they are not contributing like you do. Personal problems between individuals may rose up.

Pay by sale will be efficient for individuals but it may stop them sharing any tips and/or information which will help the others to sell more.

I am not sure if it depends on the situation/sector/industry/organisation as well. If anyone can share ideas I will be grateful.

Cheers...

: 24 Apr 2010 21:22 |  Tags: Kbam Marketing Mbe |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Real Team Players…

Hey all;

While I was reading my friends' blogs about leadership and coaching, I suddenly came up with some ideas which I wanted to share here.

Leadership is a very important skill to reach success. Leaders can motivate and drive their team to a bright future. This is true if they have an effective team. I am not convinced about a great leader can lead a team to success if team members are difficult to deal with. Some of you can tell me that there are many ways to deal with people and their behaviours. Yes, I am agree with you on it. But how about a team which has people who are lazy, un-supportive, in-effective and aggresive. They will have a negative effect on their team. Leaders have to focus on them rather than dividing attention to all team members. If the leader is very effective then he/she may be able to make the team work in time but not on time.

I believe team members should have possessed great skills as well as their leader. Skills like communication, team-work, leadership, etc... Especcially for leadership; every team member should have ability to emerge as a leader if needed. If the team members have such skills, success of the team would be inevitable without too much effort.

I think this is why all organisations are recruit people who posseses these skills nowadays...

Cheers...

: 14 Mar 2010 18:09 |  Tags: L&E Leadership Mbe Teamwork |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Leadership…

Good Afternoon Everyone;

I would like to talk about leadership definition that I came up with. I know I don' t have the experience to do such a thing. However; no one can stop me sharing my ideas by my blog.

Basicly; Leadership is an art of managing resources to do the right things.

It is an art because Leaders are artist in my view who can see the whole picture and can think outside the box as well as inside. It is not an easy task to observe the whole picture while leading others. It is even more difficult to think outside the box as well. you should have a mind and vision of an artist I suppose.

Managing resources like; group members, time, situation limitations, etc... is an important task for a leader to overcome. They have to maintain direction of the team to their destination. Think about the human psychology while doing that. Every individual have different needs from the group and to match those expectations with team's aim is leader's job which is a difficult task.

Doing the right things rather than doing things right gives us the different between managers and leaders. Predicting the future and prepare themselves and their team is a crucial part of a leader's responsibilities. A leader should be able to see the future like it is happening today. Leaders should be able to decide what is right or wrong by combining future with the knowledge of his/her team members, resources.

I think; I got the idea of leadership function which has three resources effecting it. Leader, group members and situation. If we can combine these resources successfully then nothing more left to do other than fighting for continuous improvement.

Hopefully; that would help all of us out there to think about what is going on in the world and how can we the part of a change in the future of it. All leaders of tomorrow; businessmen, doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians, artists, etc... making this world a better place without war and evil is in our hands.

Cheers...

"Peace at Home! Peace in The World!" M.K.Atatürk

: 31 Jan 2010 15:43 |  Tags: L&E Leadership Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Strategies?...

Good Evening Everyone;

I want to share my opinions about long/short term strategies. How to select them is not clear in my mind for now. This question comes to my mind when we were discussing on Wave-riders case.

I would always want to select long term improvement and/or growth strategies. But sometimes organisations should be in desperate positions that they must think about their survival from the situation in hand before thinking about growth.

In wave riders case; I thought that they need to have a short term but effective plan to beat their rival and also get rid of their stock in hand as soon as possible. From then on; stock converted to cash will help us to develop our market and distribution channels in Europe. Maybe a new product market should also be examined carefully.
But best strategy for creaters of the case was what I thought as a long term strategy.

I remembered a career meeting with Ernst&Young in Rootes Building. They divided everyone in the room to four groups to play a game. The game was about consulting an organisation. They gave us information about the company and three startegies to choose from. When I saw those three strategies, I told myself I would choose the one containing innovation and growth. We asked questions to the company managers about their plans and thoughts. They aimed for growth as well but the situation that the company was very dangerous. Limited liquidity with small amount of expected sales. As a group of consultants (players) we decided to choose the best short term strategy without too much thinking over long term plans. The plan we chose targeted increase in liquidity rather than market or product development. I was curious about if we were right or wrong. It was also the right strategy for the Ernst&Young presenters in that room.

I started thinking that strategy selection would depend on the situation but everyone should think different because of different personal views. The best question would be "Would it be better if we chose the other way?" but you will never know that in an organisation.

Cheers.

: 14 Jan 2010 17:00 |  Tags: L&E Mbe Strategy |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

In–effective Leadership

Hello Everyone;

I hope 2010 will be a very beneficial year for all of us. We have started a new module and blogging will continue with haste. I am sorry for my huge break without entries. I wish I would have made entries on a daily basis but it didn't happen.

Enough of chit-chat. I want to share a topic that I thought about when I heard it in yesterday's introduction.

In-effective Leadership...

Can we call a leadership as in-effective?

I think we can't call leadership as in-effective. The outcomes of a team work would be worse than we were expecting and it could be a leader's fault. Then I would like to call him/her a leader that was failed in a project.
Leaders are effective in every way if you ask me. They can lead people to positive solutions or negative ones. Both ways they are going to lead. Even it is going to the wrong direction. If you think about a leader without influence and effect on the group, rather than calling him/her an in-effective leader, you should not call him/her a leader. This can also bring us the question of differences between a manager and a leader.

I want to give an example to try to explain these opinions of mine more clearly;

Lets think about a sports team which has players, a team captain and a coach(manager). As fans; we want to see the coach in charge as a Leader. We want to think success or failure will be because of his leadership. The team captain should be a deputy leader and communication link between players (not between players and coach). I think in most cases we can see that. But in some cases; coaches will rely on their experience, past achievements and their reputation. From outside they would be seen as leaders because of those but in the inside, team captain is the bond and emerging leader who would drive the team to victory and/or success by any means. Is the coach here is an in-effective leader or just a manager who is thinking about his/her next career move (eg. transfer choices). (I would use a better word after "or" in that sentence but I think it would be impolite)

Cheers.

: 12 Jan 2010 12:00 |  Tags: L&E Leadership Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Stage:20 => Standardise & Review…

Hey all;

The last stages are today's topic. PMI improvement cycle will be ready for 2nd round after completing "Standardise & Review". Be careful; this is the last stage but there is no stop for this cycle. This is a ring thats turning continuously.

We have to standardise our improvement in the process and then prepare a Standardisation Document to handover the project to process management team. They will be responsible for anything else from then on. A standardisation document should include;

• Process flowcharts,
• Details of people involved in the process, responsibility and authority,
• Data collection points,
• Guidelines (Special causes or changes),
• Training requirements,
• And a clear explanation of why the change is required and how to implement it effectively in operational environment.

In order to keep people who are responsible, in the newly standardised method; we can use some visual aids, process checks and new technologies to help them.

This document should be handed over to process management team with explaining them every inch of this document and its responses in practice.

The project team can review conclusion of last project and discuss what they have learned from this experience. They can define if there is any other improvement that can be made to that project or is it on target with minimum variation. If it is on target with minimum variation then it is time for them to think about future improvements and start the cycle again.

I thought about gaming industry which needs an improvement every second. For instance; massive multiplayer online gaming companies. They have to improve their games as well as their facilities to support customers as rapidly as possible. Because; their market is worldwide and they have thousands of players. Blizzard is not one of them. They have millions of players and they have the biggest piece of the cake I suppose. Do I think they will continue to be that popular? I can say that they will be. But; the reason will not be their improvements on games, the reason will be their partnership and resources management. They are improving customer services rather than the game itself. And I mean "World of Warcraft" by game here. It became an addiction for players rather than a game.

Blizzard Leaders; if you can hear me, please use this cycle to improve the game as well. Think about the players that are addicted and cant quit. They want some respect and understanding I suppose. They are also waiting for SCII and DiabloIII. Please be careful Diablo III has good competitors. Watch out for Ubisoft and Activision.

Cheers.

Ref: http://www.pmi.co.uk
Related Websites: www.blizzard.com , www.wow-europe.com , www.worldofwarcraft.com , www.activision.com , www.ubi.com , www.starcraft2.com , www.blizzard.com/diablo3/ , assassinscreed.uk.ubi.com , modernwarfare2.infinityward.com

: 08 Dec 2009 12:00 |  Tags: Activision Blizzard Cbe Piuss Pmi Ubisoft Wow |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Stage:19 => Implement…

I hope that you have started a very good week;

This stage has three steps which I will cover them all in one entry I suppose;

1. Understand Implementation Environment.
2. Develop and Communicate a Plan.
3. Monitor and Review the Plan.

Lets say; after studying the results, we had decided to adopt this change because it is an improvement for us. We have to pilot this solution within operational environment before complete adoption across the whole organisation. To do that we need to understand our implementation environment. Then the project team have to plan how to integrate the solution into this operational environment. We must be careful about socio-emotional processes here as well as we did in the previous stages. It is important to remember that most of the failed projects were because of socio-emotional issues. Our internal and external stakeholders will be affected by this change. We have to define those affects in this stage.

Here; we need an imlementation plan which is including;

• Basic actions to take; main changes in the process,
• Responsibilities and Responsible people; people that changes include and kind of responsibilities they have,
• Training required for those to be affected; both mental and physical training,
• time to completion for each task; general timeline,
• A risk assessment and Contingency plans to prevent or recover from foreseeable problems; a ready Plan B to prevent negative results,
• Updated Business case information with a cost/benefit analyse; main information that we need to learn.

We should use skill matrix for training plan and we will also need a communication matrix to make it more clear for stakeholders. We have to monitor and review our plan regularly to make it continuous and it will also help us to have some idea about further changes.

In my opinion; this implementation stage is very important for us to see if our efforts are really making it better. But we have to think twice about our plan B. Because; it may not be as perfect as possible in real environment rather than test environment. Operational environment can be very difficult to implement changes. There are socio-emotional barriers we have to overcome as well as some other barriers. Preperation, communication and training comes into play here.

Have a great week.
Cheers.

Ref: http://www.pmi.co.uk

: 07 Dec 2009 12:00 |  Tags: Piuss Pmi |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Stage:18 => Study Results…

Good afternoon everyone;

We have to "Study Results" after doing tests. Nooooo... Not just after the tests finished. We also need to watch results if we can while tests are in progress.

We must study data during the tests. See if there are;

• Assignable cause present,
• That cause sustained throughout test,
• Does it represent improvement!!!

During the test or as the outcome of our test if we can see these on our chart then we have to make a decision to go on with the test or not. We can choose to adopt the changes or adopt changes on our test or abondon it and start from the start with another solution. If test has an improvement on our process we should choose to go on and adopt it. If test has some improvement but not sufficient enough then we can decide to adopt some minor changes on our plan. As last choice if we have negative results or no change at all; we would choose to abondon this solution.

We should use PDSA cycle throughout to;

• Identify and validate cause of variation.
• Test solutions to reduce cause.

We have to use test results on charts to control our improvement. This will help us to make our decision to adapt,adopt or abondon. We must consider the new process capability from this charts as well. We can see if we are on target with minimum variation. We need to continue to use PDSA to keep learning on our tests and experience.

Cheers.

Ref: http://www.pmi.co.uk

: 04 Dec 2009 12:00 |  Tags: Piuss Pmi |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem