I have finished reading the autobiography by lance Armstrong "It's Not About The Bike”. The book is about Lance Armstrong's autobiography detailing his life growing up in Texas with a single mom, a bike and a passion for riding. He overcomes many hardships to become a famous world-class athlete only to face the possible loss of it all to brain and testicular cancer.
Learning’s:
1. "Make every obstacle an opportunity." Or negative into positive.
2. Each one of us have unrealized capabilities to meet any crises situation.
3. An unflinching passion for work/activity/life.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Computer Assisted Audit Techniques (CAAT)
Audits are performed to ascertain the validity and reliability of information, and also provide an assessment of a system's internal control.
In financial accounting, an audit is an independent assessment of the fairness by which a company's financial statements are presented by its management. Auditing in the computer based information system involves complex data extraction, error detection, log checks etc.
The audit procedures can be grouped into five categories:
1. Audit tests include basic population statistics, data stratification, checks for gaps in numeric sequences, testing for holidays, classifying transaction dates by day of week and tests using Benford's Law.
2. Cost recovery procedures include identification of potential duplicate invoice payments.
3. Data extraction includes a comprehensive suite of functions to enable the auditor to focus on the specific data relevant for the procedure.
4. Fraud and error detection includes a variety of tests designed to hi light "outliers" as well as detect potential duplicates using either the "same, same, same" test or "same, same, different".
5. Analytic review procedures include various linear regression tests, "napkin" tests and "mini-max.
The audit test includes:
1. Basic population statistics
2. Tests for round numbers
3. Gaps in numeric sequences
4. Check for dates falling on holidays
5. Transaction count by day of week
6. Tests with Benford's Law
7. Data stratification
Some of the popular softwares are ACL, SAS, JMP, EZ-R Stats.
Overview of ACL:
ACL is platform independent software, and can communicate with multiple data platform like (Oracle, SAP ERP etc). The software works on image format, and is not pre programmed. The image file format is proprietary of ACL. The software occupies not more than 30 MB of the disk space and the reports cannot be tampered or ported to another system. The interface is simple and can extract data from all the commercial databases. The latest version on offer by ACL is ACL Xchange 2009
In financial accounting, an audit is an independent assessment of the fairness by which a company's financial statements are presented by its management. Auditing in the computer based information system involves complex data extraction, error detection, log checks etc.
The audit procedures can be grouped into five categories:
1. Audit tests include basic population statistics, data stratification, checks for gaps in numeric sequences, testing for holidays, classifying transaction dates by day of week and tests using Benford's Law.
2. Cost recovery procedures include identification of potential duplicate invoice payments.
3. Data extraction includes a comprehensive suite of functions to enable the auditor to focus on the specific data relevant for the procedure.
4. Fraud and error detection includes a variety of tests designed to hi light "outliers" as well as detect potential duplicates using either the "same, same, same" test or "same, same, different".
5. Analytic review procedures include various linear regression tests, "napkin" tests and "mini-max.
The audit test includes:
1. Basic population statistics
2. Tests for round numbers
3. Gaps in numeric sequences
4. Check for dates falling on holidays
5. Transaction count by day of week
6. Tests with Benford's Law
7. Data stratification
Some of the popular softwares are ACL, SAS, JMP, EZ-R Stats.
Overview of ACL:
ACL is platform independent software, and can communicate with multiple data platform like (Oracle, SAP ERP etc). The software works on image format, and is not pre programmed. The image file format is proprietary of ACL. The software occupies not more than 30 MB of the disk space and the reports cannot be tampered or ported to another system. The interface is simple and can extract data from all the commercial databases. The latest version on offer by ACL is ACL Xchange 2009
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Power of Positive talk
I remember my dad teaching me the power of language at a very young age. Not only did my dad understand that specific words affect our mental pictures, but he understood words are a powerful programming factor in lifelong success.
One particularly interesting event occurred when I was eight. As a kid, I was always climbing trees, poles, and literally hanging around upside down from the rafters of our lake house. So, it came to no surprise for my dad to find me at the top of a 30-foot tree swinging back and forth. My little eight-year-old brain didn’t realize the tree could break or I could get hurt. I just thought it was fun to be up so high.
My older cousin, Tammy, was also in the same tree. She was hanging on the first big limb, about ten feet below me. Tammy’s mother also noticed us at the exact time my dad did. About that time a huge gust of wind came over the tree. I could hear the leaves start to rattle and the tree begin to sway. I remember my dad’s voice over the wind yell, “Bart, Hold on tightly.” So I did. The next thing I know, I heard Tammy screaming at the top of her lungs, laying flat on the ground. She had fallen out of the tree.
I scampered down the tree to safety. My dad later told me why she fell and I did not. Apparently, when Tammy’s mother felt the gust of wind, she yelled out, “Tammy, don’t fall!” And Tammy did… fall.
My dad then explained to me that the mind has a very difficult time processing a negative image. In fact, people who rely on internal pictures cannot see a negative at all. In order for Tammy to process the command of not falling, her nine-year-old brain had to first imagine falling, then try to tell the brain not to do what it just imagined. Whereas, my eight-year-old brain instantly had an internal image of me hanging on tightly.
This concept is especially useful when you are attempting to break a habit or set a goal. You can’t visualize not doing something. The only way to properly visualize not doing something is to actually find a word for what you want to do and visualize that. For example, when I was thirteen years old, I played for my junior high school football team. I tried so hard to be good, but I just couldn’t get it together at that age. I remember hearing the words run through my head as I was running out for a pass, “Don’t drop it!” Naturally, I dropped the ball.
My coaches were not skilled enough to teach us proper “self-talk.” They just thought some kids could catch and others couldn’t. I’ll never make it pro, but I’m now a pretty good Sunday afternoon football player, because all my internal dialogue is positive and encourages me to win. I wish my dad had coached me playing football instead of just climbing trees. I might have had a longer football career.
Here is a very easy demonstration to teach your kids and your friends the power of a toxic vocabulary. Ask them to hold a pen or pencil. Hand it to them. Now, follow my instructions carefully. Say to them, “Okay, try to drop the pencil.” Observe what they do.
Most people release their hands and watch the pencil hit the floor. You respond, “You weren’t paying attention. I said TRY to drop the pencil. Now please do it again.” Most people then pick up the pencil and pretend to be in excruciating pain while their hand tries but fails to drop the pencil.
The point is made.
If you tell your brain you will “give it a try,” you are actually telling your brain to fail. I have a “no try” rule in my house and with everyone I interact with. Either people will do it or they won’t. Either they will be at the party or they won’t. I’m brutal when people attempt to lie to me by using the word try. Do they think I don’t know they are really telegraphing to the world they have no intention of doing it but they want me to give them brownie points for pretended effort? You will never hear the words “I’ll try” come out of my mouth unless I’m teaching this concept in a seminar.
If you “try” and do something, your unconscious mind has permission not to succeed. If I truly can’t make a decision I will tell the truth. “Sorry John. I’m not sure if I will be at your party or not. I’ve got an outstanding commitment. If that falls through, I will be here. Otherwise, I will not. Thanks for the invite.”
People respect honesty. So remove the word “try” from your vocabulary.
My dad also told me that psychologists claim it takes seventeen positive statements to offset one negative statement. I have no idea if it is true, but the logic holds true. It might take up to seventeen compliments to offset the emotional damage of one harsh criticism.
These are concepts that are especially useful when raising children.
Ask yourself how many compliments you give yourself daily versus how many criticisms. Heck, I know you are talking to yourself all day long. We all have internal voices that give us direction.
So, are you giving yourself the 17:1 ratio or are you shortchanging yourself with toxic self-talk like, ” I’m fat. Nobody will like me. I’ll try this diet. I’m not good enough. I’m so stupid. I’m broke, etc. etc.”
If our parents can set a lifetime of programming with one wrong statement, imagine the kind of programming you are doing on a daily basis with your own internal dialogue. Here is a list of Toxic Vocabulary words.
Notice when you or other people use them.
Ø But: Negates any words that are stated before it.
Ø Try: Presupposes failure.
Ø If: Presupposes that you may not.
Ø Might: It does nothing definite. It leaves options for your listener.
Ø Would Have: Past tense that draws attention to things that didn’t actually happen.
Ø Should Have: Past tense that draws attention to things that didn’t actually happen (and implies guilt.)
Ø Could Have: Past tense that draws attention to things that didn’t actually happen but the person tries to take credit as if it did happen.
Ø Can’t/Don’t: These words force the listener to focus on exactly the opposite of what you want. This is a classic mistake that parents and coaches make without knowing the damage of this linguistic error.
Examples:
Toxic phrase: “Don’t drop the ball!”
Likely result: Drops the ball
Better language: “Catch the ball!”
Toxic phrase: “You shouldn’t watch so much television.”
Likely result: Watches more television.
Better language: “I read too much television makes people stupid. You might find yourself turning that TV off and picking up one of those books more often!”
Exercise: Take a moment to write down all the phrases you use on a daily basis or any Toxic self-talk that you have noticed yourself using. Write these phrases down so you will begin to catch yourself as they occur and change them.
Source: Speech of former president Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam
One particularly interesting event occurred when I was eight. As a kid, I was always climbing trees, poles, and literally hanging around upside down from the rafters of our lake house. So, it came to no surprise for my dad to find me at the top of a 30-foot tree swinging back and forth. My little eight-year-old brain didn’t realize the tree could break or I could get hurt. I just thought it was fun to be up so high.
My older cousin, Tammy, was also in the same tree. She was hanging on the first big limb, about ten feet below me. Tammy’s mother also noticed us at the exact time my dad did. About that time a huge gust of wind came over the tree. I could hear the leaves start to rattle and the tree begin to sway. I remember my dad’s voice over the wind yell, “Bart, Hold on tightly.” So I did. The next thing I know, I heard Tammy screaming at the top of her lungs, laying flat on the ground. She had fallen out of the tree.
I scampered down the tree to safety. My dad later told me why she fell and I did not. Apparently, when Tammy’s mother felt the gust of wind, she yelled out, “Tammy, don’t fall!” And Tammy did… fall.
My dad then explained to me that the mind has a very difficult time processing a negative image. In fact, people who rely on internal pictures cannot see a negative at all. In order for Tammy to process the command of not falling, her nine-year-old brain had to first imagine falling, then try to tell the brain not to do what it just imagined. Whereas, my eight-year-old brain instantly had an internal image of me hanging on tightly.
This concept is especially useful when you are attempting to break a habit or set a goal. You can’t visualize not doing something. The only way to properly visualize not doing something is to actually find a word for what you want to do and visualize that. For example, when I was thirteen years old, I played for my junior high school football team. I tried so hard to be good, but I just couldn’t get it together at that age. I remember hearing the words run through my head as I was running out for a pass, “Don’t drop it!” Naturally, I dropped the ball.
My coaches were not skilled enough to teach us proper “self-talk.” They just thought some kids could catch and others couldn’t. I’ll never make it pro, but I’m now a pretty good Sunday afternoon football player, because all my internal dialogue is positive and encourages me to win. I wish my dad had coached me playing football instead of just climbing trees. I might have had a longer football career.
Here is a very easy demonstration to teach your kids and your friends the power of a toxic vocabulary. Ask them to hold a pen or pencil. Hand it to them. Now, follow my instructions carefully. Say to them, “Okay, try to drop the pencil.” Observe what they do.
Most people release their hands and watch the pencil hit the floor. You respond, “You weren’t paying attention. I said TRY to drop the pencil. Now please do it again.” Most people then pick up the pencil and pretend to be in excruciating pain while their hand tries but fails to drop the pencil.
The point is made.
If you tell your brain you will “give it a try,” you are actually telling your brain to fail. I have a “no try” rule in my house and with everyone I interact with. Either people will do it or they won’t. Either they will be at the party or they won’t. I’m brutal when people attempt to lie to me by using the word try. Do they think I don’t know they are really telegraphing to the world they have no intention of doing it but they want me to give them brownie points for pretended effort? You will never hear the words “I’ll try” come out of my mouth unless I’m teaching this concept in a seminar.
If you “try” and do something, your unconscious mind has permission not to succeed. If I truly can’t make a decision I will tell the truth. “Sorry John. I’m not sure if I will be at your party or not. I’ve got an outstanding commitment. If that falls through, I will be here. Otherwise, I will not. Thanks for the invite.”
People respect honesty. So remove the word “try” from your vocabulary.
My dad also told me that psychologists claim it takes seventeen positive statements to offset one negative statement. I have no idea if it is true, but the logic holds true. It might take up to seventeen compliments to offset the emotional damage of one harsh criticism.
These are concepts that are especially useful when raising children.
Ask yourself how many compliments you give yourself daily versus how many criticisms. Heck, I know you are talking to yourself all day long. We all have internal voices that give us direction.
So, are you giving yourself the 17:1 ratio or are you shortchanging yourself with toxic self-talk like, ” I’m fat. Nobody will like me. I’ll try this diet. I’m not good enough. I’m so stupid. I’m broke, etc. etc.”
If our parents can set a lifetime of programming with one wrong statement, imagine the kind of programming you are doing on a daily basis with your own internal dialogue. Here is a list of Toxic Vocabulary words.
Notice when you or other people use them.
Ø But: Negates any words that are stated before it.
Ø Try: Presupposes failure.
Ø If: Presupposes that you may not.
Ø Might: It does nothing definite. It leaves options for your listener.
Ø Would Have: Past tense that draws attention to things that didn’t actually happen.
Ø Should Have: Past tense that draws attention to things that didn’t actually happen (and implies guilt.)
Ø Could Have: Past tense that draws attention to things that didn’t actually happen but the person tries to take credit as if it did happen.
Ø Can’t/Don’t: These words force the listener to focus on exactly the opposite of what you want. This is a classic mistake that parents and coaches make without knowing the damage of this linguistic error.
Examples:
Toxic phrase: “Don’t drop the ball!”
Likely result: Drops the ball
Better language: “Catch the ball!”
Toxic phrase: “You shouldn’t watch so much television.”
Likely result: Watches more television.
Better language: “I read too much television makes people stupid. You might find yourself turning that TV off and picking up one of those books more often!”
Exercise: Take a moment to write down all the phrases you use on a daily basis or any Toxic self-talk that you have noticed yourself using. Write these phrases down so you will begin to catch yourself as they occur and change them.
Source: Speech of former president Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam
Friday, December 5, 2008
Knowledge Management 2.0
bring people together
let them share
encourage collaboration
break down barriers
let them share
encourage collaboration
break down barriers
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
True Knowledge - From the Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata
We have usually been identifying knowledge with learning—the academic acquisition of information regarding the various objects of the world. But spiritual wisdom is the same as insight, known also as intuition, whereby the object of knowledge is possessed in completeness and does not any more remain as an extraneous something. Knowledge is power, and where power is lacking in respect of the object of knowledge, it can be safely said that right knowledge of that object also is comparatively lacking. Knowledge of an object is not merely the observation of an object in a scientific manner; it is a complete grasp of the secrets of that object, whereby it becomes a content of one’s knowledge in an inseparable manner. Therefore it is that it acquires complete control over the object—mastery over things—so that the apotheosis of knowledge is omniscience, which cannot be separated from omnipotence. So knowledge is power, knowledge is also righteousness, and knowledge is at the same time happiness. Wherever there is right knowledge, there should be power of some kind—capacity and energy. Wherever there is right knowledge, there is also automatically felt the presence of virtue and righteousness; and wherever there is knowledge, there is also the experience of happiness. If these results are not seen even in a meager measure, one should conclude that the knowledge is defective. Knowledge is not book-learning, and is not the acquisition of a certificate from an academy. Knowledge is actual communion with things, gradually, by appreciation of the character of things—an approximation of oneself to the nature of things with the intention finally of abolishing the distinction between oneself and the objects of knowledge.
Source: http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/maha/maha_19.html
Source: http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/maha/maha_19.html
Monday, December 1, 2008
Curriculum Vitae
Summary of professional experience:
Presently employed as Assistant Director with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Has gained around 10 years of IT consulting and training experience in Project Management, Information Technology, Management Information Systems (MIS), e-governance, Knowledge Management, BPR and Process Management.
Skill Sets:
Report Writing, Technical Writing, Proposal Preparation, RFPs, DPR, Productivity & Process Improvement, System Analysis & Design, Portal Design & Development.
Computer Skill sets:
RDBMS: SQL Server 2005
Front End: Visual Studio pro 2005
Applications: Ms Office, Ms Visio, Ms Project, SPSS
Operating System: Win 2000, MS Vista, Linux, Unix
Summary of qualifications: Masters in Computer Application
Professional experiences:
Jul 2008 – Present Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, New Delhi, INDIA
Assistant Director (Information Technology), Board of Studies
Jul 2005 – July 08 National Productivity Council, New Delhi, INDIA
Assistant Director (Information Technology)
· Consultant and trainer.
· IT Infrastructure Management of all the offices of NPC.
· Project based assignments & conduct required studies at client's organization
· Plan, organize & conduct residential/ Non-residential conferences cum training programs for Top/Middle and Junior Management of various government and private sector organizations.
Jan 2004 – Jun. 2005 IPER, Bhopal, INDIA
Head – MCA department
Aug 2003 – Dec 2003 MCEE-MIM, Bhopal, INDIA
Lecturer
Sep 1998 – June 2003 EIM, Bhopal, INDIA
Lecturer
Jun 1995 – Jan 1998 TEC Computers, Mumbai, INDIA
System Support Professional
Majors Assignments handled
(1995 – Till date)
1. Assignment on Knowledge Management Implementation at Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) – Demonstration project supported by Asian Productivity Organization(APO), Japan.
2. Assignment on Implementation of Sevottam IS-15700 at Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
3. Successfully completed assignment on “Compliance Audit of PAN front Offices” for Directorate of Income Tax, Govt of India.
4. Core member of consultancy assignment on Knowledge Management initiated by Directorate of IT (DIT), Govt of India along with IIT Roorkee. NPC conducted two International conferences on Knowledge Management in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The project was successfully completed.
5. Core Member of consultancy assignment on ‘Feasibility Assessment of Mission Mode Projects on Panchayats, Municipalities, Land Records and Registration’ the study was conducted for 1) General implementation feasibility 2) Financial sustainability and 3) Implementation risks and recommended mitigation measures. The project was assigned by DIT, Govt. of India, National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The project was successfully completed.
6. Successfully completed assignment on Portal Design, IBR Project for Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Computerization of Hindi version of Indian Boiler Regulations.
7. Design of the scheme for “Evaluation of awards for exemplary initiatives in E-governance” for Dept. of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, Govt. of India.
8. Resource speaker and subject experts in residential conferences, training programmes for senior level executives and middle level executive from government and industry.
9. Resource speakers and experts on workshop for BHEL, BEL, NADP and others in following areas:
1. Information Security and Risk Management
2. Productivity and competitiveness
3. Work Simplification
4. Knowledge Management
5. Knowledge Audit and gap analysis
Trainings & Certifications:
1. Attended study Meeting on Methodologies for Knowledge Management Measurement at Manila, Philippines, organized by Asian Productivity Organization (APO) Tokyo along with participants from Asian countries. The objectives of the study meeting; to undertake comparative analyses of case studies on knowledge management (KM) practices in APO member countries, and based on examination of those cases identify and develop a common framework and appropriate methods for measuring the results of KM implementation. Presented Country paper on KM implementation in India.
2. Trained on Competency Mapping, Quality Management System IS 15700:2005 and Balanced Score Card, Ms Visio, SPSS, MS Project, Kaizen, 5S, Case Writing etc.
3. Team member of various syllabus Review committees.
Publications:
1. Paper on Internet Marketing – from Websites to Blog., ITS, New Delhi, 2008
2. Paper on “E-Governance infrastructure and integration” - Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore 2008.
3. Research paper on “Applying Knowledge Management in Government Organizations” – PIMR, Indore 2008.
4. Theme paper on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management at International Conference on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management at New Delhi, 2008.
5. Knowledge Management for customer friendly public service - The Smart Manager – 2006.
Presently employed as Assistant Director with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Has gained around 10 years of IT consulting and training experience in Project Management, Information Technology, Management Information Systems (MIS), e-governance, Knowledge Management, BPR and Process Management.
Skill Sets:
Report Writing, Technical Writing, Proposal Preparation, RFPs, DPR, Productivity & Process Improvement, System Analysis & Design, Portal Design & Development.
Computer Skill sets:
RDBMS: SQL Server 2005
Front End: Visual Studio pro 2005
Applications: Ms Office, Ms Visio, Ms Project, SPSS
Operating System: Win 2000, MS Vista, Linux, Unix
Summary of qualifications: Masters in Computer Application
Professional experiences:
Jul 2008 – Present Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, New Delhi, INDIA
Assistant Director (Information Technology), Board of Studies
Jul 2005 – July 08 National Productivity Council, New Delhi, INDIA
Assistant Director (Information Technology)
· Consultant and trainer.
· IT Infrastructure Management of all the offices of NPC.
· Project based assignments & conduct required studies at client's organization
· Plan, organize & conduct residential/ Non-residential conferences cum training programs for Top/Middle and Junior Management of various government and private sector organizations.
Jan 2004 – Jun. 2005 IPER, Bhopal, INDIA
Head – MCA department
Aug 2003 – Dec 2003 MCEE-MIM, Bhopal, INDIA
Lecturer
Sep 1998 – June 2003 EIM, Bhopal, INDIA
Lecturer
Jun 1995 – Jan 1998 TEC Computers, Mumbai, INDIA
System Support Professional
Majors Assignments handled
(1995 – Till date)
1. Assignment on Knowledge Management Implementation at Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) – Demonstration project supported by Asian Productivity Organization(APO), Japan.
2. Assignment on Implementation of Sevottam IS-15700 at Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
3. Successfully completed assignment on “Compliance Audit of PAN front Offices” for Directorate of Income Tax, Govt of India.
4. Core member of consultancy assignment on Knowledge Management initiated by Directorate of IT (DIT), Govt of India along with IIT Roorkee. NPC conducted two International conferences on Knowledge Management in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The project was successfully completed.
5. Core Member of consultancy assignment on ‘Feasibility Assessment of Mission Mode Projects on Panchayats, Municipalities, Land Records and Registration’ the study was conducted for 1) General implementation feasibility 2) Financial sustainability and 3) Implementation risks and recommended mitigation measures. The project was assigned by DIT, Govt. of India, National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The project was successfully completed.
6. Successfully completed assignment on Portal Design, IBR Project for Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Computerization of Hindi version of Indian Boiler Regulations.
7. Design of the scheme for “Evaluation of awards for exemplary initiatives in E-governance” for Dept. of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, Govt. of India.
8. Resource speaker and subject experts in residential conferences, training programmes for senior level executives and middle level executive from government and industry.
9. Resource speakers and experts on workshop for BHEL, BEL, NADP and others in following areas:
1. Information Security and Risk Management
2. Productivity and competitiveness
3. Work Simplification
4. Knowledge Management
5. Knowledge Audit and gap analysis
Trainings & Certifications:
1. Attended study Meeting on Methodologies for Knowledge Management Measurement at Manila, Philippines, organized by Asian Productivity Organization (APO) Tokyo along with participants from Asian countries. The objectives of the study meeting; to undertake comparative analyses of case studies on knowledge management (KM) practices in APO member countries, and based on examination of those cases identify and develop a common framework and appropriate methods for measuring the results of KM implementation. Presented Country paper on KM implementation in India.
2. Trained on Competency Mapping, Quality Management System IS 15700:2005 and Balanced Score Card, Ms Visio, SPSS, MS Project, Kaizen, 5S, Case Writing etc.
3. Team member of various syllabus Review committees.
Publications:
1. Paper on Internet Marketing – from Websites to Blog., ITS, New Delhi, 2008
2. Paper on “E-Governance infrastructure and integration” - Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore 2008.
3. Research paper on “Applying Knowledge Management in Government Organizations” – PIMR, Indore 2008.
4. Theme paper on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management at International Conference on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management at New Delhi, 2008.
5. Knowledge Management for customer friendly public service - The Smart Manager – 2006.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Internet Marketing: From Websites to Blogs
Abstract
Internet marketing referred to as web marketing is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet revolution has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. Internet marketing includes design, development, advertising, and sales and it is no longer confined to building or promoting a website, nor does it mean only placing a banner ad on another website.
Internet marketing is rapidly manoeuvring towards search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO) and Web 2.0 strategies. The web 2.0 based marketing has integrated the customer in the marketing process though continuous dialogue, one to one marketing, segmentation and collaboration. The future of Internet marketing can be viewed as collective branding, collaboration, product innovation and IP ownership between the consumers and the service providers.
The paper traces the journey of Internet Marketing from mere hosting a website to blog and Podcast and beyond it.
National Seminar on Marketing Innovations for Reaching Consumers, Delhi
Internet marketing referred to as web marketing is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet revolution has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. Internet marketing includes design, development, advertising, and sales and it is no longer confined to building or promoting a website, nor does it mean only placing a banner ad on another website.
Internet marketing is rapidly manoeuvring towards search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO) and Web 2.0 strategies. The web 2.0 based marketing has integrated the customer in the marketing process though continuous dialogue, one to one marketing, segmentation and collaboration. The future of Internet marketing can be viewed as collective branding, collaboration, product innovation and IP ownership between the consumers and the service providers.
The paper traces the journey of Internet Marketing from mere hosting a website to blog and Podcast and beyond it.
National Seminar on Marketing Innovations for Reaching Consumers, Delhi
Friday, November 21, 2008
Issues of Integration in E-government Applications
(Gist of paper submitted by me on National Conference on E-Governance and its Applications, Bangalore, 2008)
A number of issues, some old and some new, have arisen in e-governance Application, for example,
(i) Lack of standardization ( For example, similar projects are carried out by different states using incompatible database and different application standards. Most of application software are built on proprietary Software’s.
(ii) Reverse compatibility of application with legacy systems are missing.
(iii) The Physical (IT) Infrastructures are procured before building the application or digitizing the data.
(iv) Physical security is emphasized, whereas the Logical and application security is left to vendors.
(v) Shortage of Skilled Manpower.
(vi) Lack of understanding among the implementing agencies of components of e-governance application that can be outsourced or can be carried out in-house.
(vii) IT implementation in government is mostly vendor driven.
A number of issues, some old and some new, have arisen in e-governance Application, for example,
(i) Lack of standardization ( For example, similar projects are carried out by different states using incompatible database and different application standards. Most of application software are built on proprietary Software’s.
(ii) Reverse compatibility of application with legacy systems are missing.
(iii) The Physical (IT) Infrastructures are procured before building the application or digitizing the data.
(iv) Physical security is emphasized, whereas the Logical and application security is left to vendors.
(v) Shortage of Skilled Manpower.
(vi) Lack of understanding among the implementing agencies of components of e-governance application that can be outsourced or can be carried out in-house.
(vii) IT implementation in government is mostly vendor driven.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Questions? -- A tool for KM
“ There are these four ways of answering questions. Which four? There are questions that should be answered categorically [straightforwardly yes, no, this, that]. There are questions that should be answered with an analytical (qualified) answer [defining or redefining the terms]. There are questions that should be answered with a counter-question. There are questions that should be put aside. These are the four ways of answering questions. ”
—Buddha,
A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. This information is provided with an answer. [Source: Wikipedia.org]
Questions are the most neglected tool in office setup. Questioning should be motivated and people should be trained to ask questions, respond to question or provide healty environment of questioning and answering.
—Buddha,
A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. This information is provided with an answer. [Source: Wikipedia.org]
Questions are the most neglected tool in office setup. Questioning should be motivated and people should be trained to ask questions, respond to question or provide healty environment of questioning and answering.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Feedback for KM
In organizations, feedback is a process of sharing observations, concerns and suggestions between persons or divisions of the organization with an intention of improving both personal and organizational performance. (source: wikipedia.org)
Feedbacks have been commonly used to collect suggestion, ideas and improvements in any assignment or task after completion. The feedbacks are then used by managers to project the success of the assignment or to find fault with the people at helm.
Generally the feedback data are discarded after the initial reporting. Unless and until there is sharp decline in revenue or profit on year on year basis.
I do not recollect of many across organizations, which perform comparison or trend analysis on feed back data after collecting similar feedback for the 3rd or 4th time.
Several software’s are available to carry out 360 degree feedback online or offline.
I was wondering whether software’s available can perform Gap Analysis and Comparison between multiple feedback and present a report in the customized form.
Feedbacks have been commonly used to collect suggestion, ideas and improvements in any assignment or task after completion. The feedbacks are then used by managers to project the success of the assignment or to find fault with the people at helm.
Generally the feedback data are discarded after the initial reporting. Unless and until there is sharp decline in revenue or profit on year on year basis.
I do not recollect of many across organizations, which perform comparison or trend analysis on feed back data after collecting similar feedback for the 3rd or 4th time.
Several software’s are available to carry out 360 degree feedback online or offline.
I was wondering whether software’s available can perform Gap Analysis and Comparison between multiple feedback and present a report in the customized form.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
One Act of Random Kindness.
Never before a film had a soothing affect on me, than during the repeat viewing of film "EVAN ALMIGHTY". The film is light and comic in nature, and underlines the need for bringing about change in the world order by building an ARK (one act of random kindness.)
Browsing the web on the subject provided me a link to the website http://www.actsofkindness.org. The website links to community sharing, learning and enjoying the ARK process.
Down here is the compiled a list of a few ideas to brighten someone else's day! (taken from the website.)
1. Volunteer at a kitchen
2. Donate old books
3. Donate canned goods
4. Send out cards telling people why they are special
5. Donate blood
6. Anonymously pay someone's parking ticket
7. Keep a supply of bottled water and crackers in your car to give to homeless people
8.Donate gently worn winter coats
9. Invite an acquaintance over for the holidays who doesn't have family close by
10. Give your coffee or tea to a construction worker
11. Drop off a bag of groceries for a family that is in need
SMALL ACTS ARE ALWAYS APPRECIATED
Browsing the web on the subject provided me a link to the website http://www.actsofkindness.org. The website links to community sharing, learning and enjoying the ARK process.
Down here is the compiled a list of a few ideas to brighten someone else's day! (taken from the website.)
1. Volunteer at a kitchen
2. Donate old books
3. Donate canned goods
4. Send out cards telling people why they are special
5. Donate blood
6. Anonymously pay someone's parking ticket
7. Keep a supply of bottled water and crackers in your car to give to homeless people
8.Donate gently worn winter coats
9. Invite an acquaintance over for the holidays who doesn't have family close by
10. Give your coffee or tea to a construction worker
11. Drop off a bag of groceries for a family that is in need
SMALL ACTS ARE ALWAYS APPRECIATED
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Do's and Do nots at the workplace.
Employees behaviour and attitude has both direct and indirect effect on the work environment and on the individual performance and team work. Some Do and Do nots at the workplace are as follows:
Do's at Work place:
1. Compliment your fellow colleague's and team members generously.
2. Share only positive experiences, ideas and learning during formal and informal meeting.
3. Respect and motivate your fellow colleagues and team members.
4. Try to add value to others learning when you share your ideas or suggestions.
Some Do nots at the Workplace
1.. Do not idle or pass time at the work place.
2. Do not become member of the grapevine community.
3. Do not share negative experiences. (Do it only when asked for).
4. Do not pass apprehensions, reservations to others during formal or informal meeting.
5. Do not criticize in public about your organization, team, project or work.
6. Do not compare your work, qualification and pay etc with your team members.
The Do's and Do nots are known to all, but we should practice it to remain free of unwanted office stress and increase productivity of the team and the individual.
Do's at Work place:
1. Compliment your fellow colleague's and team members generously.
2. Share only positive experiences, ideas and learning during formal and informal meeting.
3. Respect and motivate your fellow colleagues and team members.
4. Try to add value to others learning when you share your ideas or suggestions.
Some Do nots at the Workplace
1.. Do not idle or pass time at the work place.
2. Do not become member of the grapevine community.
3. Do not share negative experiences. (Do it only when asked for).
4. Do not pass apprehensions, reservations to others during formal or informal meeting.
5. Do not criticize in public about your organization, team, project or work.
6. Do not compare your work, qualification and pay etc with your team members.
The Do's and Do nots are known to all, but we should practice it to remain free of unwanted office stress and increase productivity of the team and the individual.
Monday, August 18, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
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........
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........
Friday, August 8, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, August 4, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Productive Change
I am going through sixth major change in career this week. The change in job brings in uneasy situation for the employee as well as the employer. The notice period is the most non productive period of the career. Change in career has mostly being associated with changing loyalty, lust for money, giving up due to pressure situation and so many non positive traits. But the experience for the employee is different. He gets an opportunity to UNLEARN, NETWORK WITH NEW PROFESSIONALS, Experiment with new ( Ideas which were never tried in the previous job) and old ideas (Ideas which have worked) etc.
Although I have been suggested many a times to settle down with a job (organization), I disagree (as of now) with the term settlement. Settlement , I feel is accepting to what ever is dished out to you. Settlement could only be associated with movement toward fullest utilization of ones potential and exploring the intellectual or work capability beyond the individual LIMITS.
I experienced CHANGE as Productive phenomenon for the employee as well as the employer. Hence Change must be accepted more positively. In fact organizations must formally allow inter change of professionals among themselves to become more productive.
Although I have been suggested many a times to settle down with a job (organization), I disagree (as of now) with the term settlement. Settlement , I feel is accepting to what ever is dished out to you. Settlement could only be associated with movement toward fullest utilization of ones potential and exploring the intellectual or work capability beyond the individual LIMITS.
I experienced CHANGE as Productive phenomenon for the employee as well as the employer. Hence Change must be accepted more positively. In fact organizations must formally allow inter change of professionals among themselves to become more productive.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Knowledge transfer within the large manufacturing company
In the course of Initiation meeting with the large Manufacturing Companies on Knowledge Management Implementation, many issues came up during the meeting of the implementation committe. These were:
1. Knowledge transfer between the Workman's has never been the inherent culture of the organization.
2. The job rotation policy had never been seriosly applied.
3. The outflow of experienced employees is resulting into capacity loss to the organization.
4. The new means of Knowledge transfer technology like intranet, ICT tools and eNewsletter is not effective. (due to gap in computing facility made available to the employee.)
5. It has also been found that the computing facility is available only up to executive level and as these facility do not have means to capture the working or tacit knowledge of the supervisors.
6. The acquired knowledge by the supervisor from the Workman's and transfer amongst them or within the system is missing.
The immediate task to begin with is to conduct knowledge audit, Knowledge mapping and expert mapping followed be assessment and designing a KM solution for the organizations.
It also appears that larger the organization, more is the tendency of people to work in isolation with one another. (restricts knowledge flow).
The problem also appears with the organization structure which do not seem to align with vision, mission of the organizations.
1. Knowledge transfer between the Workman's has never been the inherent culture of the organization.
2. The job rotation policy had never been seriosly applied.
3. The outflow of experienced employees is resulting into capacity loss to the organization.
4. The new means of Knowledge transfer technology like intranet, ICT tools and eNewsletter is not effective. (due to gap in computing facility made available to the employee.)
5. It has also been found that the computing facility is available only up to executive level and as these facility do not have means to capture the working or tacit knowledge of the supervisors.
6. The acquired knowledge by the supervisor from the Workman's and transfer amongst them or within the system is missing.
The immediate task to begin with is to conduct knowledge audit, Knowledge mapping and expert mapping followed be assessment and designing a KM solution for the organizations.
It also appears that larger the organization, more is the tendency of people to work in isolation with one another. (restricts knowledge flow).
The problem also appears with the organization structure which do not seem to align with vision, mission of the organizations.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Egovernance Issues and Challenges
E-governance has been the buzz word in the government for last 10 years, Many successful Mission Mode Projects (MMP) reflect strong sentiments for ICT adpotion. But then there are several issues and challenges for the organization which needs to be immediately addressed. These are:a) Vendor driven adoption of technology in the government departments.
b) Lack of standardization in softwares and hardware.
c) Infrastructural bottleneck.
d) Training and implementation.
e) Corruption and Misuse of resources.
The above mentioned issues and challenges were discussed in length by officers incharge of e-governance cell in their departments at the recently held workshop on the above subject.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Kaizen
What is “KAIZEN”
KAI is for Changes
ZEN is for Better
KAIZEN is a Continuous improvement(Continuous = again and again, ongoing)
Where to do Kaizen?
KAIZEN CAN BE DONE IN : ONE’S OWN WORK AREA - ROUTINE or NON ROUTINECOMMON RELEVANT AREA: WITH DEPARTMENT PEERS
WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS
Areas to do KAIZENS?
1. WASTE
2. HOUSEKEEPING
3. COST
4.QUALITY
5. MAINTENANCE
6. SAFETY
How to do KAIZENS ?
1. START WITH SMALL IMPROVEMENTS
2. START WITH OUR PROBLEMS AND NOT THAT OF OTHERS
3. START WITH EASY AREA
4. MAKE MAKING IMPROVEMENTS A HABIT !!!
5. NEVER ACCEPT STATUS QUO…
6. NEVER REJECT ANY IDEA BEFORE TRYING IT
7. HIGHLIGHT PROBLEMS, DO NOT HIDE THEM..
KAI is for Changes
ZEN is for Better
KAIZEN is a Continuous improvement(Continuous = again and again, ongoing)
Where to do Kaizen?
KAIZEN CAN BE DONE IN : ONE’S OWN WORK AREA - ROUTINE or NON ROUTINECOMMON RELEVANT AREA: WITH DEPARTMENT PEERS
WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS
Areas to do KAIZENS?
1. WASTE
2. HOUSEKEEPING
3. COST
4.QUALITY
5. MAINTENANCE
6. SAFETY
How to do KAIZENS ?
1. START WITH SMALL IMPROVEMENTS
2. START WITH OUR PROBLEMS AND NOT THAT OF OTHERS
3. START WITH EASY AREA
4. MAKE MAKING IMPROVEMENTS A HABIT !!!
5. NEVER ACCEPT STATUS QUO…
6. NEVER REJECT ANY IDEA BEFORE TRYING IT
7. HIGHLIGHT PROBLEMS, DO NOT HIDE THEM..
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Workshop for Senior officers on KM Practices and Applications
The workshop conducted in the first week of June 2008, discussed and reflected various issues pertaining to KM adoption, and KM tools for improving organization efficiency and competitive advantage. The speakers emphasized KM adoption to reduce demographic risk in large and old public sectors and government enterprises.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Applying KM in government organizations
Abstract:
Government organizations and public sector organizations are increasingly facing pressure from citizens and private companies at the level of service delivery, technological advancement and managing old employee base. Some of these above factors like employee management and advancement in technological advancement have been leveraged by private companies to gain strategic advantage. On the other hand, the government organizations may appear lean and profitable through retiring employees, but the organizations face significant loss knowledge and skills.
Government organizations and public sector organizations are increasingly facing pressure from citizens and private companies at the level of service delivery, technological advancement and managing old employee base. Some of these above factors like employee management and advancement in technological advancement have been leveraged by private companies to gain strategic advantage. On the other hand, the government organizations may appear lean and profitable through retiring employees, but the organizations face significant loss knowledge and skills.
The possible solution is to deploy Knowledge Management systems to capture and transfer intrinsic and operational knowledge within the organization and develop knowledge center to avoid the organization from becoming outdated and obsolete. This approach accepts that knowledge management as a separate division of an organization, focusing on enabling knowledge sharing and creating common knowledge amongst the inter government organizations and citizens by establishing a communication infrastructure for knowledge work.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Organizing Workshop: The facilitators guide
If you are repeating what you did two years ago, is something wrong?
1. Do something new
2. Fail forwards
3. Bounce Back
4. Celebrate Learning.
The facilitator should:
1. Establish rapport
2. Show respect
3. Abandon preconceptions
4. Hand over the stick
5. Watch, listen, learn
6. Learn from mistakes
7. Be self-critical and self aware
8. Be flexible
9. Support and share
10. Be honest
The facilitator should not:
1. Rush
2. Lecture
3. Criticize
4. Interrupt
5. Dominate
6. Sabotage
Preparing for workshop: A Checklist
1. Why?
2. How does it fit?
3. Who and how many?
4. What expectations?
5. How participatory?
6. What is your part?
7. Who else?
8. Where?
9. When?
10. Finance?
11. Programme
12. Languages
13. Logistics
14. Material and Equipment
15. Participants preparation
16. Local liaison
17. Outputs
18. Follow-up
Inaugurating the workshop
1. Welcome
Options include:
· Put up welcome notices
2. Administration and logistics
3. Expectations, hopes and fears
Options include:
· As they arrive, ask them to take post-it or cards, write down their expectations, and stick them on a wall or board
4. Background and purpose
5. Outline of the programme and/or process
6.. Information – on documents, stay, hotel arrangement, local site etc.
7. Introduction: Meet and greet
Options include:
· Mapping: A splendid ice-breaker, Draw and label, or imaging , a large map on the ground. Participant’s stand where they were born, and then move progressively to where they had education, and then where their careers have taken them, ending where they are now.
· Short self-introductions
· Mutual introductions.
Energizers/ Games
1. You move, all move
2. Form Groups
Options include:
· Not known to one another
· From different organizations
· From other disciplines
3. Games
Options include:
· Number Games: Five or seven clap hands instead of saying the numbers or multiple of numbers, turn around on seven etc.
· Mirrors: Pair off. Oneperson is the actor, the other the mirror.
· Anilbhai says…to jump up, to touch toes, to kneel down, to turn around, to stop. Participants only follow the instruction when you say Anilbhai says.. Those who make mistakes drop out.
· All move who.. are wearing blue, tie coin, language, traveled, etc..
Evaluation
Options include:
· Mood Meter: Post up a chart in a public place, perhaps near the door. Its column are workshops days, and its lines either three indication levels of morale or satisfaction.
· Verbal
· Questionnaire
· Evaluation Wheel
· Step forward or back
Group Photographs
Options include:
· The group photograph is mounted on paper with a margin for writing on. The photos are passed round. Everyone sign one photo. If there is time and space personal messages can be included.
Analysis and Learning
1. Johari’s window: A versatile framework to enhance awareness of the differences between professionals and local people’s knowledge. Show a 2-by-2 matrix.
They know They don’t know
We know
We don’t know
2. If I were you…: An exercise for imagining and appreciating the realities of others.
3. Contested chairs: Conflict resolution exercise.
4. Discussions and Analysis
5. Case study comparisons
6. Compile and Collate
7. Video Learning
Do not Lecture
· Use Wall charts
· When you have to talk, keep it to 10 minutes
· collect questions to discuss later
· Invite participants to answer their own question first.
· find and use experience and knowledge of the group
· Facilitate lateral learning
· Give yourself breathers
Workshop Materials
Flip chart paper
Colored marker pens
Wall charts
Masking tape
Post its
Glue/Gum
Scissors
Pen,Pencils
LCD, Laptops
Camera
Screen
Software's
Presentations
Papers
Coloured stickers
Pins
Source: participatory workshops by robert Chambers.
Learning Organizations
Organizations need to learn more than ever as they confront intensifying competition, advances in technology, and shifts in customer preferences. Each company must become a learning organization.
The concept is not a new one. It flourished in the 1990s, stimulated by Peter M. Senge’s The Fifth Discipline and countless other publications, workshops, and websites.
The result was a compelling vision of an organization made up of employees skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge. These people could help their firms cultivate tolerance, foster open discussion, and think holistically and systemically. Such learning organizations would be able to adapt to the unpredictable more quickly than their competitors could.
Building blocks of the Learning Organization
1. Supportive Learning Environment: An environment that supports Learning has following distinct characteristics:
i) Psychological Safety
ii) Appreciation of Differences
iii) Openness to new Idea
iv) Time for reflection
2. Concrete Learning Processes and Practices
i) Experimentation
ii) Information collection
iii) Analysis
iv) Education and training
v) Information transfer
3. Leadership that reinforces Learning
Content adapted from the March 2008 Harvard Business Review article,
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Collaboration Tools
Collaboration is a process defined by the recursive interaction of knowledge and mutual learning between two or more people who are working together, in an intellectual endeavor, toward a common goal which is typically creative in nature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration
The main idea behind collaboration is of working together; sharing of planning, making decisions, solving problems, setting goals, assuming responsibility, working together cooperatively, communicating, and coordinating openly (Baggs & Schmitt, 1988). http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/499266_2
Collaborative process involves Team Creation, Idea Generation, Decision-Making, Work or Production and Evaluation or Recap.
The team may involve Small number of people – less than 10. The members must have complementary skills with common purposes for working. The team should share one working approach and be Mutual accountable.
• Group Formation
– Yahoo groups
– Google Groups
• CMSs, LMSs, etc.
• Social Networks
– Friendster, LinkedIn, Orkut, MySpace, Facebook, etc.
• Network Formation
– Ning, Elgg
The idea generation can be carried out through:
• Role plays
• Brainstorming Tools - http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-web20-apps-to-help-you-learn
• Research and Tracking – del.icio.us and RSS readers http://www.del.icio.us
• Concept mapping / mind mapping http://bubbl.us/ http://www.flowchart.com http://www.gliffy.com
• Storyboarding – web comics http://www.sacredcowdung.com/archives/2006/03/all_things_web.html http://www.mainada.net/comics/
http://www.quicktoons.com
The decision making could be:
• Autocratic
• Hand-clasping and cliques
• Consensus
• Deliberative Processes
• Polling
• Voting (voting mechanisms) etc.
The work or production is
• Functions: execution, tracking, time lining and optimizing…
• Separate roles and responsibilities – individual work
• Iterative (eg. Word Update)
http://docs.google.com
Evaluation is
• Tabulation of expectations and results
• Surveying, polling
• Scoring and measurement against objective standards
• Story-telling, lessons learned
• Collection of best practices.
The main idea behind collaboration is of working together; sharing of planning, making decisions, solving problems, setting goals, assuming responsibility, working together cooperatively, communicating, and coordinating openly (Baggs & Schmitt, 1988). http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/499266_2
Collaborative process involves Team Creation, Idea Generation, Decision-Making, Work or Production and Evaluation or Recap.
The team may involve Small number of people – less than 10. The members must have complementary skills with common purposes for working. The team should share one working approach and be Mutual accountable.
• Group Formation
– Yahoo groups
– Google Groups
• CMSs, LMSs, etc.
• Social Networks
– Friendster, LinkedIn, Orkut, MySpace, Facebook, etc.
• Network Formation
– Ning, Elgg
The idea generation can be carried out through:
• Role plays
• Brainstorming Tools - http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-web20-apps-to-help-you-learn
• Research and Tracking – del.icio.us and RSS readers http://www.del.icio.us
• Concept mapping / mind mapping http://bubbl.us/ http://www.flowchart.com http://www.gliffy.com
• Storyboarding – web comics http://www.sacredcowdung.com/archives/2006/03/all_things_web.html http://www.mainada.net/comics/
http://www.quicktoons.com
The decision making could be:
• Autocratic
• Hand-clasping and cliques
• Consensus
• Deliberative Processes
• Polling
• Voting (voting mechanisms) etc.
The work or production is
• Functions: execution, tracking, time lining and optimizing…
• Separate roles and responsibilities – individual work
• Iterative (eg. Word Update)
http://docs.google.com
Evaluation is
• Tabulation of expectations and results
• Surveying, polling
• Scoring and measurement against objective standards
• Story-telling, lessons learned
• Collection of best practices.
Friday, May 2, 2008
'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'
(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia , March 22,2008)
Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?
Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India 's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India 's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.
By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal . It was a big failure.
That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish D hawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.
The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today." I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.
" Never limit your challenges; challenge your limits....! " " Every change is not a progress, but every Progress is a change..... Do it Now ! " " Expect more from yourself than from others. Because expectation from others hurts a lot, while expectation from you inspires a lot.... ! "
Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?
Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India 's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India 's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.
By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal . It was a big failure.
That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish D hawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.
The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today." I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.
" Never limit your challenges; challenge your limits....! " " Every change is not a progress, but every Progress is a change..... Do it Now ! " " Expect more from yourself than from others. Because expectation from others hurts a lot, while expectation from you inspires a lot.... ! "
Monday, April 28, 2008
Office Productivity - Using Computers
The adoption of ICT tools in offices will not produce desired results, untill and unless it is used effectively. The list of top 10 websites , Productivity software's and Internet software's are given below. The listed sites and tools will help the user to effectively use computer and Web for Communication and Document Management.
Top 10 Web Sites (Personal)
Bnet.com
Slideshare.net
Youtube.com
Learnthis.ca
Brint.com
Google.com
Wikipedia.org
robinsharma.com
Scholar.com
Blogspot.com
Top 5 Productivity - Internet Tools
1. Firefox is one of my top picks here and it really is a great browser. I’ve switched to it from using Opera for years because some of the new extensions to sync data with online accounts(Google Browser Sync) I just can’t go without them anymore. The new Firefox version 3 seems to have really improved on its major drawbacks in speed and memory usage. I’m looking forward to its full release soon.
2. Google Services and Products really are a wonderful set of tools available completely for free. There are so many applications available from Google, there is something for everyone. he tools I use regularly from Google are search, gmail, reader, picasa, notebook, maps, earth, docs, finance, books and toolbar.
3. AVG Antivirus is a great free antivirus solution. It is the most popular free solution, has great capabilities and updates available.
4. Spyware Terminator is a recent find of mind after several other tools I had didn’t protect against some nasty spyware/malware that ended up destroying my install. I hunted through many free tools and was shocked to find as many products as I did. The problem with them is that most of them were not that great. One exception to this is Spyware Terminator that I now really like. Its simple to use and has a lot of capabilities to protect your system. It includes antivirus protection based on ClamAV which is also free and integrated into Spyware terminator’s interface.
5. Filezilla is a great internet tool for accessing FTP sites. This is commonly needed for web content and online storage solutions which more and more people are becoming familiar. It is now up to version 3 and I still prefer Filezilla 2 as there are a few more options and features like file editing with automatic re-upload to the server.
Top 5 Productivity Software's
1. Acute Finder – Searches duplicate files.
2. Backup Utility - To back up and restore back ups.
3. JKDefrag - Most people do not realize that their harddrive gets incredibly slow by fragmented files. The windows defragmentation tools are very slow and poor, and your productivity can be easily improved by using JKDefrag as a disk defragmenter and optimizer to speed up your system with better file and disk access.
4. Open Office - This is a extremely impressive and capable multi-platform and multi-lingual complete office suite. It includes several applications all highly compatible with commercial office packages, including:
Writer (Word Processor)
Impress (Presentation / Slideshows)
Math (Formulas and Calculation)
Draw (Full Paint and drawing)
Calc (Spreadsheets)
Base (Relational Database)
5. Google Doc – For online collaboration
6. Irfanview is a super fast, small graphic and picture viewer. It offers many powerful features, excellent support of hundreds of graphic formats and great features to view images and to make slideshows from them. A close competitor is XnView.
7. Picassa is a great photo organizer, especially if you have a lot of photos from a digital camera. It lets you easily locate and organize all your photos and movies. Its easy to apply some simple effects and touch ups and offers a number of ways to share your photos. It includes
quick support to share photos on email, free online web photo albums as well as with Blogger and printing and exports for web pages. Its very easy to learn and will definitely save you time organizing your photos.
8. Xplorer2 Lite will help you browse your desktop files more productively and give you a much more capable file management engine and feature set than what is available natively in windows. It gives you dual listers and trees to make file management much easier. Its multithreaded and has many additional features like better filters, renaming, enhanced search and simple file viewing.
9. File Hamster - This is a fantastic little tool that makes backups and version tracking for any set of files. Its ideal for anyone who edits a lot of documents, files, pictures or any other content and want to have it backed up with each revision tracked and made historical. I find that I use this more than a regular backup tool since it archives all file changes and lets me quickly revert to any version with a safe backup on another harddrive in the event of a failure. And of course I also maintain other drive and offline backups.
10. Notepad++ is a text editor (notepad replacement) and source code editor which supports various languages, multiple files open at a time, auto completion and many other great features. If you ever use notepad or wordpad to edit a text document, STOP! Replace it with Notepad++.
Top 10 Web Sites (Personal)
Bnet.com
Slideshare.net
Youtube.com
Learnthis.ca
Brint.com
Google.com
Wikipedia.org
robinsharma.com
Scholar.com
Blogspot.com
Top 5 Productivity - Internet Tools
1. Firefox is one of my top picks here and it really is a great browser. I’ve switched to it from using Opera for years because some of the new extensions to sync data with online accounts(Google Browser Sync) I just can’t go without them anymore. The new Firefox version 3 seems to have really improved on its major drawbacks in speed and memory usage. I’m looking forward to its full release soon.
2. Google Services and Products really are a wonderful set of tools available completely for free. There are so many applications available from Google, there is something for everyone. he tools I use regularly from Google are search, gmail, reader, picasa, notebook, maps, earth, docs, finance, books and toolbar.
3. AVG Antivirus is a great free antivirus solution. It is the most popular free solution, has great capabilities and updates available.
4. Spyware Terminator is a recent find of mind after several other tools I had didn’t protect against some nasty spyware/malware that ended up destroying my install. I hunted through many free tools and was shocked to find as many products as I did. The problem with them is that most of them were not that great. One exception to this is Spyware Terminator that I now really like. Its simple to use and has a lot of capabilities to protect your system. It includes antivirus protection based on ClamAV which is also free and integrated into Spyware terminator’s interface.
5. Filezilla is a great internet tool for accessing FTP sites. This is commonly needed for web content and online storage solutions which more and more people are becoming familiar. It is now up to version 3 and I still prefer Filezilla 2 as there are a few more options and features like file editing with automatic re-upload to the server.
Top 5 Productivity Software's
1. Acute Finder – Searches duplicate files.
2. Backup Utility - To back up and restore back ups.
3. JKDefrag - Most people do not realize that their harddrive gets incredibly slow by fragmented files. The windows defragmentation tools are very slow and poor, and your productivity can be easily improved by using JKDefrag as a disk defragmenter and optimizer to speed up your system with better file and disk access.
4. Open Office - This is a extremely impressive and capable multi-platform and multi-lingual complete office suite. It includes several applications all highly compatible with commercial office packages, including:
Writer (Word Processor)
Impress (Presentation / Slideshows)
Math (Formulas and Calculation)
Draw (Full Paint and drawing)
Calc (Spreadsheets)
Base (Relational Database)
5. Google Doc – For online collaboration
6. Irfanview is a super fast, small graphic and picture viewer. It offers many powerful features, excellent support of hundreds of graphic formats and great features to view images and to make slideshows from them. A close competitor is XnView.
7. Picassa is a great photo organizer, especially if you have a lot of photos from a digital camera. It lets you easily locate and organize all your photos and movies. Its easy to apply some simple effects and touch ups and offers a number of ways to share your photos. It includes
quick support to share photos on email, free online web photo albums as well as with Blogger and printing and exports for web pages. Its very easy to learn and will definitely save you time organizing your photos.
8. Xplorer2 Lite will help you browse your desktop files more productively and give you a much more capable file management engine and feature set than what is available natively in windows. It gives you dual listers and trees to make file management much easier. Its multithreaded and has many additional features like better filters, renaming, enhanced search and simple file viewing.
9. File Hamster - This is a fantastic little tool that makes backups and version tracking for any set of files. Its ideal for anyone who edits a lot of documents, files, pictures or any other content and want to have it backed up with each revision tracked and made historical. I find that I use this more than a regular backup tool since it archives all file changes and lets me quickly revert to any version with a safe backup on another harddrive in the event of a failure. And of course I also maintain other drive and offline backups.
10. Notepad++ is a text editor (notepad replacement) and source code editor which supports various languages, multiple files open at a time, auto completion and many other great features. If you ever use notepad or wordpad to edit a text document, STOP! Replace it with Notepad++.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
How to Stay Young n Happy Always :-)
1. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down. (Keep this in mind if you are one of those grouches!)
2. Keep learning: Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain get idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!
3. Enjoy the simple things
4. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. And if you have a friend who makes you laugh, spend lots and lots of time with him or her!
5. The tears happen: Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourself. LIVE while you are alive.
6. Surround yourself with what you love: Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
7. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
8. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is
9. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
2. Keep learning: Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain get idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!
3. Enjoy the simple things
4. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. And if you have a friend who makes you laugh, spend lots and lots of time with him or her!
5. The tears happen: Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourself. LIVE while you are alive.
6. Surround yourself with what you love: Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
7. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
8. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is
9. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Managing Demographic risk in large organizations
As employees get older and retire in large organizations, The organizations may appear to be lean and profitable, but the organizations can face significant losses of critical knowledge and skills, as well as decreased productivity. In some cases, an organizations ability to conduct organizational business may even be hindered. When people begin retiring in droves, there may be no one left who knows how to carry out usual business activities. The nature of risk could be Productivity risk (due to aging workforce) or capactiy risk (due to mass retirement). Therefore there is an immediate need to access the risk and mitigate the problem. The solutions is to compute productivity risk and may be re- employ the retiring employees to compensate for the immediate loss of knowledge. The best strategy could be to deploy knowledge management tools to avoid productivity risk.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Work Simplification
Work Simplification
The idea of work simplification has been often related with sophisticated tools and technique to simplfy complex job the complex ways, but interaction with 60 young engineers at BHEL helped me understand that it is nothing but the commonsense, step-by-step way of studying jobs to find easier and better ways of doing them.
I was happy to find engineers throwing questions like:
1. How to question?
2. relevance of continous improvements?
The case discussions were interesting and most of them were clear that technology interventions are just enabler and not solutions in itself.
The idea of work simplification has been often related with sophisticated tools and technique to simplfy complex job the complex ways, but interaction with 60 young engineers at BHEL helped me understand that it is nothing but the commonsense, step-by-step way of studying jobs to find easier and better ways of doing them.
I was happy to find engineers throwing questions like:
1. How to question?
2. relevance of continous improvements?
The case discussions were interesting and most of them were clear that technology interventions are just enabler and not solutions in itself.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
knowledge management in government
The programme on MOM at khajurao was exciting on many accounts, firstly I got a chance to listen to Akhilesh mittal after a long time and I was using the video and Internet for demonstration to delgates from govt. Web tools like blog, tags, facebook, wikipedia, webcast, web 2.0 demonstration was fascinating to many delegates and provided an insight to share knowledge within and amongst organizations.
delegates realized that the existing KM tools like AAR, Mentoring, CoPs, story telling, content management and document management must be seriously reinvented and implemented especially when many organizations established 40-50 years ago, have employees retiring and new employees joining the organization.
delegates realized that the existing KM tools like AAR, Mentoring, CoPs, story telling, content management and document management must be seriously reinvented and implemented especially when many organizations established 40-50 years ago, have employees retiring and new employees joining the organization.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Practice Listening
Good listening is the key to skillful communication and can be mastered through practice. I could understand this only during the core committee meeting at MCA. Dr. Mitra listening and skill communication at the meeting appeared to me, as he had practised listening skills and could engage the recipients at will.
Before this meeting, I had learnt that listening is keeping quiet. but it is much more than not speaking.
Before this meeting, I had learnt that listening is keeping quiet. but it is much more than not speaking.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
REPORT ON SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON “TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
REPORT ON SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON “TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India has sponsored a project to identify policy issues and strategies for the Government to enable National Competitiveness in the Knowledge Economy. The project is being jointly executed by National Productivity Council (NPC), Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IITR), Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) and International Management Institute, New Delhi (IMI). The role of NPC in the project has been to organize two International Conferences to provide a wider platform for deliberations on the various facets of the subject. The First Conference was organized by NPC during 11-12, January, 2007 with the title “Knowledge Management for Productivity and Competitiveness”. The objectives of the first Conference were to review KM initiatives in India ; identify themes and subjects relevant to KM for further in-depth study and development; and prepare guidelines for concrete actions in the areas identified by stakeholders.
Evolving from the discussions of the First Conference, NPC organized the Second International Conference with the title “Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management” during 12-14, February, 2008 at New Delhi . The objectives of the Second Conference were to present the findings and suggestions of the various research and dissemination activities of the project, deliberate on policy issues to be adopted by the Government, suggest implementation methodology for Technology and Innovation and to create a continuing and sustaining network of KM practitioners.
The Conference was organized jointly with the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) and supported by the other partner institutions of the project. The conference had 180 international and national delegates representing different sectors: industry, academia, research bodies, government institutions, and NGO. The 53 international delegates were sponsored by APO from countries in the Asia and the Pacific, namely, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Fiji, Korea, and Taiwan. The APO also deputed five experts to speak at the conference: Dr.Ron Young, Chief Knowledge Officer, KM Associates, UK , Dr.Rory Chase, CEO, Teleos Marketing , UK , Dr.Serafin Talisayon, Professor, University of Philippines , Mr. Praba Nair, KDi Associates, Singapore and Mr. N.Ogiwara, Fuji Xerox, USA .
The Conference was inaugurated by Hon. Minister of State for Industry, Shri Ashwani Kumar. In his Inaugural Address, the Hon. Minister underlined the progress made by India in knowledge-based development and outlined the various policy and support measures provided by the Government of India towards transformation of Indian economy towards Knowledge orientation. He indicated that the Government would consider follow up to the policy recommendations emanating from the Conference. Shri Ajay Shan kar, Secretary- DIPP and Chairman, NPC who delivered a special address on the occasion congratulated NPC for choosing an important theme for the Conference at the appropriate time as India is poising towards high growth patterns as a result of the economic reforms.
The Conference featured presentations by 22 eminent National and International experts on various aspects of KM. The presentations were grouped into six different Technical Sessions to cover the subjects of Leadership Position in the Knowledge Economy, Technology and Innovation, KM Networking, HR/Education/Financial Perspectives of KM, KM Standards, Regulations, Tools & Techniques and KM Applications in Organisations. There were also two separate panel discussions and question answer sessions where the APO resource speakers interacted with the delegates intensively through detailed answers to the questions posed by them.
The technical papers addressed issues, perspectives and tools in three areas of application of knowledge management and innovation: (a) the organizational including corporate or business sector, (b) the social or development sector, and (c) the national policy sector specifically the current policy thrust of the Indian government towards the transition from an industrial economy to a more knowledge-based economy and society.
The deliberations of the Conference provided important inputs into the following major issues:
Effective pursuance of both productivity and innovation.
Measurement of the impact of KM
Commitment of CEOs to KM
KM benefits for the larger society
Motivation for buy-in or acceptance of KM
Methods to make knowledge workers to share their knowledge
Factors important in the journey of a nation from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based economy and society.
The Valedictory address of the Conference was delivered by Dr. B. K. Gairola, Director General, National Informatics Centre, who illustrated the efforts and programmes of the Government that are contributing to the development of the core sectors towards a more knowledge-based society.
Annexure
COMMENDATIONS ON THE CONFERENCE BY SOME DELEGATES
Congratulations on the successful execution of the conference.
..............................................................Raj Datta, Mind Tree Consulting
It was a pleasure participating in the Conference - congratulations for organizing such a fine event! And thanks again for giving me the opportunity.
Look forward to continued association with NPC/APO initiatives and events.
.....................................................................Ved Prakash, Wipro Technologies
Congratulations for organizing such an excellent Conference....
...........................................................................Prem Saran, Govt. of Assam
Conference was really fruitful and was a very good learning opportunity for me.
All the arrangements and conference was very well organised.
.............................................................Sadanand Gupta, Irrigation Dept., Govt of AP
Thank you for your e-mail and also your all supports for implementation of 2nd International Conference on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management.
As a delegate of the conference please take my regards to all staffs of NPC for their kind supports of this project.
It was truly a productive and useful conference.
...................................................................M.Alipour (Ms) National Iranian Productivity Center
I would like to congratulate you for the quality and time schedule of the conference. The papers and discussions where very interesting and enlightening (and some of them very thought provoking). And to be able to stick to the planned schedule with so many speakers is a real achievement. It is remarkable.
...........................................................Anne Chappuis, Visual Information Systems for Action
It was a good learning experience - I will surely join the community!
..........................................................Sanjeev Kumar, HRD, MECON
I wish to extend my heartily congratulations for the excellent manner in which you have conducted the 2nd International Conference on " Technology & Innovation for Knowledge Management".
Kindly extend my heartily congratulations also to all your colleagues who worked hard to make the International Conference a great success. Personally I greatly enjoyed in participating in the conference,
...........................................................................Dr. M.S.Mathews, IIT Madras
It was a great pleasure for Professor Harsha Sinvhal and myself to participate in the Second International Conference on “Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management” recently organised by National Productivity Organisation during 12-14, February, 2008.
We wish to congratulate you on the grand success of the International Conference so meticulously organized by you.
..............................................................Prof. Vinay Nangia, IIT Roorkee
Congratulations for organizing another milestone in KM. The success of KM is dependent on people that can revitalize the energy to pursue greater value through knowledge and innovation. Thank you for keeping the fire burning!
...................Alwin STA Roza,VP- Knowledge Management, Association of the Philippines
Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India has sponsored a project to identify policy issues and strategies for the Government to enable National Competitiveness in the Knowledge Economy. The project is being jointly executed by National Productivity Council (NPC), Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IITR), Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) and International Management Institute, New Delhi (IMI). The role of NPC in the project has been to organize two International Conferences to provide a wider platform for deliberations on the various facets of the subject. The First Conference was organized by NPC during 11-12, January, 2007 with the title “Knowledge Management for Productivity and Competitiveness”. The objectives of the first Conference were to review KM initiatives in India ; identify themes and subjects relevant to KM for further in-depth study and development; and prepare guidelines for concrete actions in the areas identified by stakeholders.
Evolving from the discussions of the First Conference, NPC organized the Second International Conference with the title “Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management” during 12-14, February, 2008 at New Delhi . The objectives of the Second Conference were to present the findings and suggestions of the various research and dissemination activities of the project, deliberate on policy issues to be adopted by the Government, suggest implementation methodology for Technology and Innovation and to create a continuing and sustaining network of KM practitioners.
The Conference was organized jointly with the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) and supported by the other partner institutions of the project. The conference had 180 international and national delegates representing different sectors: industry, academia, research bodies, government institutions, and NGO. The 53 international delegates were sponsored by APO from countries in the Asia and the Pacific, namely, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Fiji, Korea, and Taiwan. The APO also deputed five experts to speak at the conference: Dr.Ron Young, Chief Knowledge Officer, KM Associates, UK , Dr.Rory Chase, CEO, Teleos Marketing , UK , Dr.Serafin Talisayon, Professor, University of Philippines , Mr. Praba Nair, KDi Associates, Singapore and Mr. N.Ogiwara, Fuji Xerox, USA .
The Conference was inaugurated by Hon. Minister of State for Industry, Shri Ashwani Kumar. In his Inaugural Address, the Hon. Minister underlined the progress made by India in knowledge-based development and outlined the various policy and support measures provided by the Government of India towards transformation of Indian economy towards Knowledge orientation. He indicated that the Government would consider follow up to the policy recommendations emanating from the Conference. Shri Ajay Shan kar, Secretary- DIPP and Chairman, NPC who delivered a special address on the occasion congratulated NPC for choosing an important theme for the Conference at the appropriate time as India is poising towards high growth patterns as a result of the economic reforms.
The Conference featured presentations by 22 eminent National and International experts on various aspects of KM. The presentations were grouped into six different Technical Sessions to cover the subjects of Leadership Position in the Knowledge Economy, Technology and Innovation, KM Networking, HR/Education/Financial Perspectives of KM, KM Standards, Regulations, Tools & Techniques and KM Applications in Organisations. There were also two separate panel discussions and question answer sessions where the APO resource speakers interacted with the delegates intensively through detailed answers to the questions posed by them.
The technical papers addressed issues, perspectives and tools in three areas of application of knowledge management and innovation: (a) the organizational including corporate or business sector, (b) the social or development sector, and (c) the national policy sector specifically the current policy thrust of the Indian government towards the transition from an industrial economy to a more knowledge-based economy and society.
The deliberations of the Conference provided important inputs into the following major issues:
Effective pursuance of both productivity and innovation.
Measurement of the impact of KM
Commitment of CEOs to KM
KM benefits for the larger society
Motivation for buy-in or acceptance of KM
Methods to make knowledge workers to share their knowledge
Factors important in the journey of a nation from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based economy and society.
The Valedictory address of the Conference was delivered by Dr. B. K. Gairola, Director General, National Informatics Centre, who illustrated the efforts and programmes of the Government that are contributing to the development of the core sectors towards a more knowledge-based society.
Annexure
COMMENDATIONS ON THE CONFERENCE BY SOME DELEGATES
Congratulations on the successful execution of the conference.
..............................................................Raj Datta, Mind Tree Consulting
It was a pleasure participating in the Conference - congratulations for organizing such a fine event! And thanks again for giving me the opportunity.
Look forward to continued association with NPC/APO initiatives and events.
.....................................................................Ved Prakash, Wipro Technologies
Congratulations for organizing such an excellent Conference....
...........................................................................Prem Saran, Govt. of Assam
Conference was really fruitful and was a very good learning opportunity for me.
All the arrangements and conference was very well organised.
.............................................................Sadanand Gupta, Irrigation Dept., Govt of AP
Thank you for your e-mail and also your all supports for implementation of 2nd International Conference on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management.
As a delegate of the conference please take my regards to all staffs of NPC for their kind supports of this project.
It was truly a productive and useful conference.
...................................................................M.Alipour (Ms) National Iranian Productivity Center
I would like to congratulate you for the quality and time schedule of the conference. The papers and discussions where very interesting and enlightening (and some of them very thought provoking). And to be able to stick to the planned schedule with so many speakers is a real achievement. It is remarkable.
...........................................................Anne Chappuis, Visual Information Systems for Action
It was a good learning experience - I will surely join the community!
..........................................................Sanjeev Kumar, HRD, MECON
I wish to extend my heartily congratulations for the excellent manner in which you have conducted the 2nd International Conference on " Technology & Innovation for Knowledge Management".
Kindly extend my heartily congratulations also to all your colleagues who worked hard to make the International Conference a great success. Personally I greatly enjoyed in participating in the conference,
...........................................................................Dr. M.S.Mathews, IIT Madras
It was a great pleasure for Professor Harsha Sinvhal and myself to participate in the Second International Conference on “Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management” recently organised by National Productivity Organisation during 12-14, February, 2008.
We wish to congratulate you on the grand success of the International Conference so meticulously organized by you.
..............................................................Prof. Vinay Nangia, IIT Roorkee
Congratulations for organizing another milestone in KM. The success of KM is dependent on people that can revitalize the energy to pursue greater value through knowledge and innovation. Thank you for keeping the fire burning!
...................Alwin STA Roza,VP- Knowledge Management, Association of the Philippines
Monday, February 25, 2008
INTERVIEW OF WARREN BUFFET
1. He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!
2. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
3. He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha , that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
4. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.
5. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.
6. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis. He has given his CEO's only two rules. Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holder's money. Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.
7. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch Television.
8. Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.
9. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.
His advice to young people: "Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and Remember:
A. Money doesn't create man but it is the man who created money.
B. Live your life as simple as you are.
C. Don't do what others say, just listen to them, but do what makes you feel good.
D. Don't go on brand name; just wear those things in which you feel comfortable.
E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on things that you really need.
F. After all it's your life, then why give others the chance to rule your life."
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
people KNOW MORE THAN THEY KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW.
People KNOW MORE THAN THEY KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW.
During the Q&A session at BEL, I was thinking why do people resist sharing ideas, comments, experience in a professional setup?. I realized that could be because fo fear of loosing valuable information, culture of the organization, organizational structure, lack of motivation or a SARKARI virus has got into them. Interestingly i found people KNOW MORE THAN THEY KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW.
During the Q&A session at BEL, I was thinking why do people resist sharing ideas, comments, experience in a professional setup?. I realized that could be because fo fear of loosing valuable information, culture of the organization, organizational structure, lack of motivation or a SARKARI virus has got into them. Interestingly i found people KNOW MORE THAN THEY KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
value the Intangibles
Today, I appeared for an inteview with a dream company. All through out the interview I kept reinforcing what I have done, they kept briefing how TOUGH the JOB is and so on. When it came to salary, the issue was ARE U READY TO Negotiate? . The point here is, When companies are not ready to compromise on job, why on salary! .
I was also pondering ,during the Interview, I have taken so many interview in years, How did i interview the candidates and best find were many a times the WORST. Only few I can remember, went on to become the leaders in the organization. OOPs.... these mistakes.
I still wonder, It is not easy to evaluate the intangible credentials of the candidates, which may include loyalty, attitude to work and Peers, Team work, drive, longetivity, ability to do the best, motivator, learner and so on.
I was also pondering ,during the Interview, I have taken so many interview in years, How did i interview the candidates and best find were many a times the WORST. Only few I can remember, went on to become the leaders in the organization. OOPs.... these mistakes.
I still wonder, It is not easy to evaluate the intangible credentials of the candidates, which may include loyalty, attitude to work and Peers, Team work, drive, longetivity, ability to do the best, motivator, learner and so on.
Friday, February 1, 2008
The Tao Of Forgiveness
The Tao Of Forgiveness
One day, the sage gave the disciple an empty sack and a basket of potatoes. "Think of all the people who have done or said something against you in the recent past, especially those you cannot forgive. For each of them, inscribe the name on a potato and put it in the sack."The disciple came up quite a few names, and soon his sack was heavy with potatoes."Carry the sack with you wherever you go for a week," said the sage. "We'll talk after that."At first, the disciple thought nothing of it. Carrying the sack was not particularly difficult. But after a while, it became more of a burden. It sometimes got in the way, and it seemed to require more effort to carry as time went on, even though its weight remained the same.After a few days, the sack began to smell. The carved potatoes gave off a ripe odor. Not only were they increasingly inconvenient to carry around, they were also becoming rather unpleasant.Finally, the week was over. The sage summoned the disciple. "Any thoughts about all this?""Yes, Master," the disciple replied. "When we are unable to forgive others, we carry negative feelings with us everywhere, much like these potatoes. That negativity becomes a burden to us and, after a while, it festers.""Yes, that is exactly what happens when one holds a grudge. So, how can we lighten the load?""We must strive to forgive.""Forgiving someone is the equivalent of removing the corresponding potato from the sack. How many of your transgressors are you able to forgive?""I've thought about it quite a bit, Master," the disciple said. "It required much effort, but I have decided to forgive all of them.""Very well, we can remove all the potatoes. Were there any more people who transgressed against you this last week?"The disciple thought for a while and admitted there were. Then he felt panic when he realized his empty sack was about to get filled up again."Master," he asked, "if we continue like this, wouldn't there always be potatoes in the sack week after week?""Yes, as long as people speak or act against you in some way, you will always have potatoes.""But Master, we can never control what others do. So what good is the Tao in this case?""We're not at the realm of the Tao yet. Everything we have talked about so far is the conventional approach to forgiveness. It is the same thing that many philosophies and most religions preach - we must constantly strive to forgive, for it is an important virtue. This is not the Tao because there is no striving in the Tao.""Then what is the Tao, Master?""You can figure it out. If the potatoes are negative feelings, then what is the sack?""The sack is... that which allows me to hold on to the negativity. It is something within us that makes us dwell on feeling offended.... Ah, it is my inflated sense of self-importance. ""And what will happen if you let go of it?""Then... the things that people do or say against me no longer seem like such a major issue.""In that case, you won't have any names to inscribe on potatoes. That means no more weight to carry around, and no more bad smells. The Tao of forgiveness is the conscious decision to not just to remove some potatoes... but to relinquish the entire sack."
One day, the sage gave the disciple an empty sack and a basket of potatoes. "Think of all the people who have done or said something against you in the recent past, especially those you cannot forgive. For each of them, inscribe the name on a potato and put it in the sack."The disciple came up quite a few names, and soon his sack was heavy with potatoes."Carry the sack with you wherever you go for a week," said the sage. "We'll talk after that."At first, the disciple thought nothing of it. Carrying the sack was not particularly difficult. But after a while, it became more of a burden. It sometimes got in the way, and it seemed to require more effort to carry as time went on, even though its weight remained the same.After a few days, the sack began to smell. The carved potatoes gave off a ripe odor. Not only were they increasingly inconvenient to carry around, they were also becoming rather unpleasant.Finally, the week was over. The sage summoned the disciple. "Any thoughts about all this?""Yes, Master," the disciple replied. "When we are unable to forgive others, we carry negative feelings with us everywhere, much like these potatoes. That negativity becomes a burden to us and, after a while, it festers.""Yes, that is exactly what happens when one holds a grudge. So, how can we lighten the load?""We must strive to forgive.""Forgiving someone is the equivalent of removing the corresponding potato from the sack. How many of your transgressors are you able to forgive?""I've thought about it quite a bit, Master," the disciple said. "It required much effort, but I have decided to forgive all of them.""Very well, we can remove all the potatoes. Were there any more people who transgressed against you this last week?"The disciple thought for a while and admitted there were. Then he felt panic when he realized his empty sack was about to get filled up again."Master," he asked, "if we continue like this, wouldn't there always be potatoes in the sack week after week?""Yes, as long as people speak or act against you in some way, you will always have potatoes.""But Master, we can never control what others do. So what good is the Tao in this case?""We're not at the realm of the Tao yet. Everything we have talked about so far is the conventional approach to forgiveness. It is the same thing that many philosophies and most religions preach - we must constantly strive to forgive, for it is an important virtue. This is not the Tao because there is no striving in the Tao.""Then what is the Tao, Master?""You can figure it out. If the potatoes are negative feelings, then what is the sack?""The sack is... that which allows me to hold on to the negativity. It is something within us that makes us dwell on feeling offended.... Ah, it is my inflated sense of self-importance. ""And what will happen if you let go of it?""Then... the things that people do or say against me no longer seem like such a major issue.""In that case, you won't have any names to inscribe on potatoes. That means no more weight to carry around, and no more bad smells. The Tao of forgiveness is the conscious decision to not just to remove some potatoes... but to relinquish the entire sack."
Monday, January 14, 2008
Visit to Andamans
The visit to Andamans had been in my minds for very long, I landed at port blair(PB) along with varsha & aryav on 8 jan 2008. The drive to hotel Sinclair was 10 minutes from the airport. The hotel is beatuifully located at the Sea. The scenic beauty at andamans is fantastic and breath taking. The Snorkling experience was worth repeating.