de Stricker

An IKM Awareness Checklist: Part 4 of 10

Email Management (You knew this was coming!)

We can't function without it - but we sometimes dread looking at the inbox. It's a fast and efficient communication vehicle - but we have discovered it gobbles up hours in the day.  We know better - but many of us admit to using our email folders as a personal information management tool (ouch).  So how should we and the organizations we serve deal rationally with email?  Here are several potential statements typical employees could make; their implications are food for thought for IKM personnel and all email users alike:

4a.  Because so much of the deliberation leading to a decision is traceable only through email exchanges, it is effectively lost to the organization.  In other words, it will be difficult in future to discover "what were we thinking?"

4b.  My sent mail folder works as a safety net:  When I can't find a document on the shared drive, I can usually remember approximately when I sent it to a colleague and find it that way - assuming the message in question is not so old that it has been archived by IT.

4c.  Ideally, messages ought to be grouped logically by topic - but I haven't had the opportunity to set up a good folder system for myself.  As a result, I spend a lot of time searching through past mail.

4d.  There is a departmental folder structure everyone adheres to for certain types of mail; in addition of course we each set up personal folders to reflect our individual jobs.  We have access to an expert who advises individual employees on managing email.

4e.  To keep the inbox manageable, I place all non-urgent informational email in a "reading" folder - only it seems I never get to it!

4f.  I have noticed several articles on 'email etiquette' with good advice on practices and pitfalls in email management.  If we all remembered just a few of the tips - for example, "ensure the subject line clearly states the topic and the desired action" - we might do each other a great favor.

4g.  Our collective approach to email would be a good topic for our lunch-and-learn series - so many of us are expressing frustration and looking for techniques to master the monster.

Next in the series:  Do we pass the test for "good writing" in emails?

An IKM Awareness Checklist: Part 3 of 10

Current Awareness:  Here, "current awareness" refers to the act of ensuring one becomes aware of appropriate topical and industry events, publications, legislation, news, debate, and so on in a timely manner so as to react to them or otherwise incorporate them into one's work.

If they do it themselves, how well - and through what means - do knowledge workers ensure they stay abreast of relevant developments in their field - without getting inundated by and wasting time on irrelevant or duplicated information?  If it's done for them, how successful is the program? 

3a.  Employees are keenly aware of the need to stay abreast of developments and put effort into maintaining a personal lineup of sources to monitor and/or news "feeds" to receive.

3b. The culture supports free subscriptions to many web based newsletters, blogs, and the like - and the time to review the incoming notifications is regarded as a necessary part of staying sharp.

3c. The information centre or a similar entity offers a customized service to establish, manage, and periodically review a set of current awareness sources - including ones that aren't free.

3d. The information centre, the communications group, or a similar entity monitors the media and posts a daily intranet collection of items of general interest to everyone ("what you need to hear about today").

3e. Employees sometimes comment how they are uncertain they 'get it all' and feel uncomfortable when they are caught unaware of a relevant development.

3f. Employees indicate their current awareness mechanism is irregular, deriving in some cases from conversations with colleagues.

3g. Some say that although they do not subscribe to many sources, they still feel they catch the important items.

3h. Employees find it time consuming to look at their burgeoning inboxes and end up deleting many notifications unread.

3i. Personal preferences vary from "I want it all to come in email (or I'll never find the time to look)" to "I'd prefer a central news forum where I can go browse if I have the time (and yes, I may rarely find the time)" - so any organizational effort to support current awareness must necessarily cater accordingly.

Next in the series:  Email

An IKM Awareness Checklist: Part 2 of 10

Corporate Memory:  How easy is it to find out what we know?

How accurately do the statements below describe the organizational entities in which we work?  The statements illustrate typical circumstances in typical workplaces; no value judgment is implied. My purpose is to invite examination of the practices we follow - with the goal of identifying information and knowledge related opportunities.

2a. Employees manage the information objects (documents, presentations, bookmarks, emails, etc) they need in personal files according to organizing principles they find intuitive.

2b. There is a central repository or document management system housing the department's files, routinely used by everyone.

2c. The entity is small enough and/or the external contacts are so well defined that everyone knows "who to go to" when there are questions.

2d. A directory or similar tool tracks who is in charge of what subjects or projects so it is straightforward for a new team member to identify the best person to approach.

2e. There are formal mechanisms for sharing information (for example, at staff meetings or through tools such as wikis) or informal channels through which information flows naturally.

2f.  When an employee retires or leaves, a procedure ensures information handover to any successor.

2g. Additional mechanisms for protecting corporate memory include ...

Next in the series: Current Awareness

An IKM Awareness Checklist: Part 1 of 10

Best Practices? No.  Awareness? Yes.

In his post http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2008/08/05.html#a2212 well-known Dave Pollard offered a thought provoking inventory of "12 tools that will soon go the way of fax and CDs".  Dave has this to say about item 3, the elusive "tool" known as Best Practices:  It's natural that people want to hear what the leading companies and individuals in any area of business endeavour are doing, but the sad truth is that most "best practices" are so devoid of context, of the knowledge and history that explains why they are so effective, that they essentially become unactionable.

Indeed each organization - in fact each department within it, whether by way of geography or function - is a unique mix of purpose, history, resources, individual approaches, and many similar factors.  It is impossible to generalize how an enterprise unit ought to go about information and knowledge management (IKM). What is possible is to gauge the level of awareness among managers and team members as to the suitability of the practices being followed now or potential new practices to be followed in future.

Over the years, I have used many questions to shed light on the approach an organization takes to IKM.  In this and the next nine posts, I illustrate the nature of such questions in hopes they may help readers who are interested in the attention paid to the way knowledge workers go about IKM.  There is no implication that a "correct" answer exists - the intention is strictly to encourage conscious assessment of actions habitually taken (or not).

IKM Awareness Checklist 1 of 10:  Policy

1a. Is there a Chief Knowledge Officer or similar position with central responsibility for IKM polices and practices - or is ownership (with funding) decentralized to the local level?

1b. Are there documented procedures to follow for finding and storing information - or do individuals follow personal practices tailored to their own work?

1c. Are new employees given training in the appropriate inhouse or external resources, search methods, and tools such as document management systems - or is there a mentoring function to handle that aspect of each job?  Is it assumed that new team members are already well versed due to previous experience - or does the department take in new hires fresh from formal education?

1d. Is an overall assessment of IKM practices undertaken from time to time - or are such practices considered in evaluations of departmental or individual performance? 

1e. Do position descriptions specifically mention expectations as to research and communication - or is it implicit that knowledge workers are assumed to perform professionally in that regard?

Next in the series: Corporate Memory