First step towards knowledge sharing in the organization

Knowledge sharing between the employees within the organization is a greater challenge then it appears. There are many factors that contribute to barriers for knowledge sharing. These are:
1. Knowledge is assumed as Power
2. Lack of trust
3. Organization's Culture
Introduction of ICT tools and web has contributed to creation of CoPs and social networks, but these measures are not enough to facilitate free flow of knowledge between the employees.
The organization could start by reviewing its structure and work environment before demanding that the employees share and collaborate. This can be followed up with dismantling water tight compartments, introducing group mailing, arranging get together, following uniform and regular job rotation policy, providing training to its employees, allowing and encouraging informal discussions during lunchand tea break etc among all other enablers for knowledge sharing.

Knowledge Workers and Idle time....

I have observed time and again that office workers (knowledge workers) tend to keep themselves busy with redundant jobs, which do not add value to the employee or the organizations many a times. knowledge workers generally want to keep themselves occupied and tend to assimilate work and are happy to be referred as good worker. But given the chance to them to cut down on this work , they tend to complain of little work or Idle time.

My personal opinion is, knowledge workers should wear the thinking cap and works towards removing redundancy, cutting down waste, shortening the process, use technology effectively and efficiently, set priorities and find new ways to do the job. The idle time is indeed a period to review the job completed and find ways to do it correctly and fast. Hence there is no time to idle........

Knowledge Audit

Knowledge audit is a systematic examination and evaluation of organizational knowledge, which examines organization’s knowledge needs, existing knowledge assets/resources, knowledge flows, future knowledge needs, knowledge gap analysis as well as the behavior of people in sharing and creating knowledge. In one way, a knowledge audit can reveal an organization’s knowledge strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and risks.
Knowledge Audit encompasses four dimensions of examination:
1. Finding out What We Know We Know
2. Finding out What We Know We do not Know
3. Finding out What We do not Know We Know
4. Finding out What We do not Know We do not know
The data can be collected through Questionnaire, Site visit, Interviews, Informal & formal Interactions and observations etc.
The sample questionnaire is
1. Does the organization have electronic and paper documentation and manuals.
2. Can the documentation and manuals be accessed manually or electronically, when required.
3. Does the organization know about the best practices in the similar kind of organizations.
4. Where does the organization lack in comparison to the competitors.
5. Did the organization ever conduct knowledge gap analysis.
6. Does the organization have Data center/ Data mart and Dataware housing & mining facilities.
7. How many innovations and patents have been registered.
The above sample questionnaire would help in knowledge gap analysis.

Positive Living

Life is about GOOD HEALTH, Take Care.
Life is about OTHERS rather then oneself ( Think of people around you before self).
Life is about making FRIENDS and FAMILY & BUILDING RELATIONSHIP among friends and family.
Life is about SHARING rather then Collecting. (Distribute Wealth, happiness, Knowledge, Ideas, Best Practices, Experiences etc).
Life is about being POSITIVE ALL THE TIME rather than being Negative.
Life is about pursuing for WIN-WIN outcomes rather then SUCCESS.
Life is also about FAILURE rather than Success.

Office Productivity - Using Printers

The phrase “paperless office” once was considered a reasonable goal. Almost all IT deployment objective is to eliminate paper wastage. Instead of decreasing the amount of paper that businesses handle, computer technology has simply made it easier to create more paper trails than ever before. Printing does not constitute only of paper waste, but also of Cartridge and power.

The IT department can follows some basic principles of printer deployment and usage for improved productivity and effectiveness. These are:

1. Printer Resource Mapping: Analyzing whether the printer is actually required and finding out the present usage and network of resources.

2. Selecting the correct printer: Several models and types of printers are available in the market. The usage of printer by the user is the prime consideration along with the running cost for selecting printers. The new printer brought should be forward and backward compatible with respect to cartridge, power requirement etc.

3. Sharing Printer Resources: The printers must be shared among users for increased productivity. The printer resource must be brought under common use.

4. Auditing Printer Usage: The audit should be carried out fortnightly to monitor waste of print resources.

5. AMC of Printers: Printers may be brought under AMC to carry out regular servicing and refilling.

6. Educating Users: Educate our users and announce a printer policy with these three rules:
a. You shall not print anything unless you absolutely have to have a hard copy for a permanent file.
b. You shall not print any personal items on company printers.
c. You shall promptly pick up any documents you have sent to the printer.
d. No Waste policy.
e. Switch off printers when not required.

The above rules followed could lead to better use of printers and cut down cost dramatically.