:–)

This is my last module that assess our blogs.  um... for me , as a online blogger for 8 years (i guessXP), i feel i bit sad as I understand my motivation to write blogs here and chances to read new blogs from others will be reduced as pressure of our projects increased.  Others may come less to warwick blogs, too.

i did enjoy writing blogs here as i think i have developed my thinking and my logic a bit here.  i have never been writing blogs about academic stuff before.  by actually writing down the things i have learnt and reflecting on them, i m clearer about the knowledge i got.  but still, sometimes i would prefer to jot down things, that should appear here, in my personal blog in chinese=0="  haha~ one more thing!  i should admit that my time management has many rooms for improvement as I always give excues for blogging here><

anyway~ starting to blog here did change my style of blogging and I really enjoy.  thanks everyone=]
i hope i would still write blog here to share with u all my learning progress for doing my project~~

always remember 3 questions:
what you have learned?
why it is important?
and how you will apply what you have learned?

CHeers!!!^0^

: 31 May 2010 23:38 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

academic Vs. practical

Both LE and KBAM PMA require us to base on the case study of WaveRiders and act as a consultant to give improvement suggestions for the company.

I expect that I did not do very well in my LE because I was so confused to wrtie a practical paper with academic references.  But no worries, I think I have improved this time.  I am not sure whether this is because the difficulty is different or because I have learnt from the previous experience.  This time I found it is much easier to relate academic references to practical suggestions for WaveRiders.  I think one of the difficuties for last time is we were asked to base on one philosophy and i was a bit confused whether or not searching support from other researchers other than the one I chose.

Nevermind, both PMAs have finished.

I love the idea of using case study to learn.  Besides the PMA, we did practical presentation and simulate to present for a real business.  I did try to make everything real but so far, I dont know my result.  I mean I still cant imagine the gap between my presentations and the real ones as I have zero experience.  However, I did learn a lot from it and I believe I can do better as I am prepared.  One tips for the presentations and that is think of your audience.

: 31 May 2010 23:14 |  Tags: Kbam Le |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Can KBAM be started from only one aspect of AM?

This is a question that suddenly came to my mind when I wrote about suggestions for future study in my PMA.

I have written a few pages about changing the corporate culture to enhance KBAM.  So, i asked this question because i thought when the culture has changed, the whole method of AM would be changed.  Thus, it is impossible to start kbam from only one aspect of AM.  Instead, the whole thing should be changed simultaneously.

However, it is difficult to change everything at one time without procedures.

so, it becomes a chicken or egg question.  is corporate culture lead to KBAM or KBAM change the corporate culture?

after all, i think the main focus of the PMA is letting us to understand how KBAM can be implemented in a practical way.  when a company starts to implement KBAM in a systematic way, the KM tools will be there to facilitate all the aspect of AM but not only one.

As AM exists as the business starts running, introduction of KBAM is a big change for the company.  And it would the time for me to apply my knowledge from MOC...

: 31 May 2010 23:02 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

AM: health and safety

The aspect I have chosen for the PMA is health and safety.  Of course, this is a topic that I am interested in and that's why I choose this.  But one more reason for that is health and safety is a topic that cannot be ignored for every business.

Before researching in this topic, I thought it would be a challenge to write a PMA on this aspect as the scope is quite narrow especially for WaveRiders because most of the processes are done by hand.  However, I was wrong.  I have browsed a lot on the government website and many health and safety parties and realize that even for a SME like WaveRiders, there are tons of concerns in this topic!

health and safety is about paying attention to every small detail that might cause danger or harm to human.  it covers a lot because everything can be a risk if it is handled in a wrong way.

so, similar to CSR, though health and safety is regulated by law, voluntary effort is highly prefered.  not only the things listed in laws are needed to be considered.  as this is a serious topic that that relates to human lives, it is important for every company to investigate its own risks and take further actions to solve the problems.

again, it's a matter of awareness.  without the directions lead by law, we need to put efforts to see the big picture so as to remove risks.  this is a lesson that we have to learn about.

: 31 May 2010 22:46 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

reflection on leadership after kbam

The most impressive thing that I have learnt after these few weeks is about the humanistic influenece in a business.  This thought might be a result of the PMA + OPP + MOC.

I remember when I did my LE module, I kept thinking which style of leadership suit me the best.  My conclusion was it should be flexible according to the situation.  Sometimes, when things are not going in the "ideal" path that allow me to go for the "ideal" management style, I thought we should be flexible to do the "wrong" things.  For example, there might be times that using authority is the best to manage a business.

However, my mind has changed a bit now.  Rooms for flexibility should still be available.  But now, I go for the side of putting human at the first place more.  I hope to be a leader that listens because I understand the feeling of people is closely related to performance.  OPP teaches us to pay attention to the socio-emotional factor.  After the PMA, I understand that even for managing health and safety, the input of employees affects a lot.

: 31 May 2010 22:11 |  Tags: Kbam Le |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

KM tool —> blog

One thing I like blogging is that we can translate our thoughts into words that can be shared.  This is the immediate thought that came to my mind when I read the comment from my friend.  She said that we shared similar feeling towards the MOC simulation and I did not realize it until I read the comment.  This is the power of blogging.  And this is also the power of this knowledge management tool.  let me divide the usage of this tool into stages of KM.

1st stage: knowledge generation and recording
Writing blogs helps me to covert my tacit knowledge into words that can be shared.  These thoughts can be recorded for later use.

2nd stage: knowledge sharing
This is a media for us to search for knowledge and exchange ideas.  Discussion are stimulated and continued to generate more knowledge.

3rd stage: applying knowledge
last but not least, apply knowledge in appropriate situations.  every situation is unique and it may worth to be recorded as a new knowledge.

Then, the cycle repeats.

KM tools can have their best effects when people are engaged.  Like the stimulus of writing this blog, I can feel I am understood by my friend only when she tell me through her comments.  sometimes, i did inspire by the blogs from the others but there is lack of motives to start the discussion.  i guess it might be the problem of the cultural thing.  but things cant be changed only when actions are taken... right?!

: 31 May 2010 21:48 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

some thoughts about the workshop

This is an entry that I have saved as a draft for a long time.  This is about my thoughts about the role of managers after the siutation awareness workshop.

In many of our MBE modules, we look at the accidents happened to emphasize the importance of doing things right.  During the discussion after the workshop, I was so impressed and shocked about the responsibility of managers over all the accidents happened in the workplace.  That is right.  Managers have to see the big picture and they have the duty to make sure that the working place is safe for everyone.  This is a very serious responsibility (that's why managers get higher salary than the shop floorXP).

but how?

Attentive to details is a very essential character for the manager to avoid workplace accidents.  The manager should have the ability to image how the worst things can happen and take precausions to avoid them.  Of course, managers are humans but not gods.  They cant be perfect without the help of the others.  Thus, it is important to create a culture in the company that safety is the number one priority for the business.  For instance, workers are the ones that understand the processes best.  They might know the things related to safety that can be easily forgotten by staff. Then, they can report this to the manager so that he/she can take further actions, like providing trainings or simply giving out warnings and reminders.  At the end of the day, this kind of corporate culture is also the responsibility of the top management.  So, this is a real challenge for every manager.

: 30 May 2010 21:33 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

KM VS. education

University education is about generating useful knowledge by exploring and sharing with the hope that these knowledge can contribute positively in the future.  From this, we can see that education is actually closely related to KM if we consider university as a company.

Why I talk about education here is because I wanna mention about my PMA.  When deciding the aspect of AM to focus on in the KBAM PMA, I have been struggling between health and safety and environmental management for a long period of time.  Environmental management is a topic that I am very familiar with because it is related to my project and I am an environmentalist myself.  Thus, I am sure if I go for this aspect, my workload would be much less than now.  Yes!  at the end, i have chosen health and safety because of my curiosity and I would like to explore more new knowledge.  some of my friends disagree with what i did because time is very precious for most of the WMG students now, especially I am now facing some difficulties with my project and got stuck at some points><  however, i can't stop myself from being curious about new knowledge.  I am not sure whether i am doing the right thing now, but at least i don't feel regret at this moment as I have really learnt something new from my PMA.

one thing i can learn about myself from this incident is that i need to control my curiosity about new knowledge.  in the future when i have my own job, i should balance between using resources for new knowledge and solving problems with sufficient existing knowledge.  Knowledge generation is only first part of KM and it is important to put similar efforts in other aspects in order to have good practices.

: 29 May 2010 04:28 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

MOC & KM

As I have mentioned in the previous blog, people is a key thing for KM.  So, after knowing this, what can I do?  though we also know that people is a unique element for every company and we cannot have the "best" way to manage people, we still need to have the correct approach in viewing this issue.

I would like to mention the stimulation I experienced in MOC to discuss about KM here.

in the simulation, i was a shop floor worker.  I was very quiet during the simulation though I have so much thoughts running in my mind.  this was because there were so much dicussion going on and people were just throwing out their points, their solutions and their views without digesting the others'.  in this kind of scenerio, KM is difficult.  I mean when people are so eager to express their opinions is really a challenge for KM.  as an "educated shop floor worker" at that moment, i knew the importance to share my knowledge to the team.  however, i still failed to do so.  So, back to the reality, just letting people understand the importance of KM is not enough, encourage people to share is more effective.  it is an issue that every leader should pay attention to.  actually, when i was silent in the simulation, i was waiting for the leader to organize the chaos so that i could have an appropriate time for contributing.  Did i do the correct thing?

anyway~ just wanna relate my experience in MOC to KM in order to express that effective leadership is a driver for KM.=]

: 28 May 2010 11:15 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

KM as the heart of the company

After finishing the KBAM module week, I had 3 other modules to attend.  I was too busy that I nearly forgot to write blogs here.  how stupid i am><

I have finally finished all the modules for my master degree (of course, I still have PMAs to do).  In the last few modules, probably starting with KBAM, I started to relate the modules I have learnt together.  And I found that KM is really the heart of a business while people is a key thing to enhance KM.

I am not sure whether my point here is affected because my last modules were KBAM, OPP and MOC.  But at this moment, I truely believe that KM is sooo important.  In many of my modules, we mentioned about quality and we learnt some technical tools to help investigating quality and improving it.  But how to use these tools?  at the end of the day, it's about knowledge.  most of the time, these tools also require sharing of information inside the company.  Thus, KM really matters a lot in a company.

In order to practice effective KM, the key thing is about people.  Knowledge is stored in people's mind most of the time.  KM is about extracting these knowledge and share them in order to benefit the company.  Thus, people play a key role in generating the knowledge.  People is a unique element in every single company.  It is difficult to tell how to manage people to enhance KM.  In simple words, we may say that as a manager, we should respect every individual in the group and give them the insight of the importance of KM so as to encourage them to contribute.  But what exactly should be done?  I think we can only know the answer by putting it into real life and do it.:-)

: 28 May 2010 10:34 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem