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Preparing
for Conversations with Melissie Rumizen
Forward to Basics:
A 'Curmudgeon' Grounded in the Practical
Dr. Melissie Rumizen
Knowledge
Strategist, Buckman Laboratories
 Biographies
The
Unofficial Guide to Melissieville
- Height: Not much
- Weight: Too much
- Age: Increasing
- Hair: What my hairdresser
likes
- Eyes: Myopic brown
- Profession: Rabble-rouser
- Voluntary interests:
Cooking, reading cookbooks, trying new cuisines, wine, traveling,
wild animals (preferably from Africa, New Zealand and Australia),
new countries and cultures, and learning enough of new languages
to travel and get myself into trouble.
- Involuntary interests:
Home repair and dieting
- Professional interests:
Storytelling, communities of practice, knowledge transfer, adult
learning, and driving my boss crazy
- New countries I
want to visit next: New Zealand, Greece, and Morocco
- Countries I would
like to visit again: Canada, France, the UK, South Africa, Australia,
Iceland, and Norway
- If I were an animal
in a zoo I would want to be a: Mongoose (go, Rikki Tikki Tavi!)
- Favorite animal
of the Big Five: Leopard
Official
Biography
Dr. Melissie Rumizen,
author of The Complete Idiot's
Guide to Knowledge Management, began her career as a
German and Russian linguist in the United States Army. During
her 10 years in the Army she had a variety of assignments, to
include working at an intelligence site, acting as a platoon
sergeant in an infantry division, and instructing at an Army
training school.
Upon leaving the
Army she became an education specialist at an Army training school,
where her duties included competency testing and design of correspondence
courses.
She then moved to
the National Security Agency (NSA). Initially, she was assigned
to the language-testing branch. Her major project was the production
of a prototype for computerized adaptive testing of language
competence. She managed the $2 million project, collaborated
with other government agencies to develop the prototype, and
provided the testing expertise needed for the technical side
of the project.
After this project
ended she transferred to the corporate total quality management
office. She introduced benchmarking to NSA.
In late 1995 she
attended a conference on knowledge management. She and a colleague
became convinced that knowledge management was an imperative
for NSA to continue to succeed. As a team, they spearheaded an
effort for KM to be adopted as a strategic goal, working extensively
with the NSA Board of Directors and Director. In early 1997 it
became a strategic goal and the team turned its attention to
helping determine the first steps for implementation.
In 1998 she joined
Buckman Laboratories (BL). Her duties as Knowledge Strategist
include evaluating the knowledge system, making recommendations
for strategies and tactics, exploring new learning opportunities,
and representing BL publicly in a number of fora. She also provides
knowledge management consulting services to customers of Buckman
Laboratories and others. One such project is with the Johns Hopkins
Institute of Nursing.
Her accomplishments
at BL include developing and maintaining its award winning Buckman
Laboratories Website on knowledge management (http://www.knowledge-nurture.com).
During the creation of a teaming process and facilitation training
she was a key player and now leads a community of practice on
facilitation. Her adaptation of an after action review for Buckman
Laboratories has become a widely used tool internally.
Opening
Thoughts: Overview of the New Basics
Our field has mavens,
gurus, stars, practitioners, rabble-rousers, novices and even
frauds galore. There are Chiefs of Knowledge Networking, Chief
Knowledge Officers, Chief Learning Officers, Ba Conductors, Knowledge
Strategists, Knowledge Architects, to name a few. (My favorite
title so far is Knowledge Sorceress, which sadly is not my title.)
In this discussion
I'd like to play the role of Knowledge Curmudgeon, as long as
I get to define curmudgeon as someone who is stubbornly and determinedly
grounded in the practical. I am delighted to discuss theory ad
nauseum as long as we get to the down and dirty of how we apply
theory to work that makes a difference.
That said, over the years I have found some of our basic beliefs
in this field have changed, as we learned through failures (of
which I have my share). I'd like to share some of my lessons
learned on KM basics.
If you don't
have a passion for KM, get out of the field. There are easier ways to
make a living and/or drive yourself crazy.
Keep learning.
Regardless
of whether someone is a novice or an old hand, there is always
plenty to learn. I particularly like to scoop up ideas and processes
to stick on a back shelf, hoping for a day when I can use them.
In the meantime, I concentrate on continuing to learn.
We are not as
interesting as we think we are. People
respond to action. It's concrete; it's real. Folks who sleep
through your dazzling explanation of theory will come to life
once you talk about how you plan to do something and the potential
ROI. Much fascinates us as knowledge geeks but it often bores
others to tears. Likewise, ditch the jargon. We don't talk about
KM at Buckman Laboratories. We do things that make sense for
our business.
Knowledge management
is not a fad.
To quote Verna Allee, "It is a business fundamental."
Smile sweetly at those who tell you that KM is outdated. Until
something replaces knowledge as the means of production, KM in
some fashion is going to matter.
Communities of
practice are simply another way of doing collaborative work. Success factors for a team,
and a work group are the same as those for a community of practice.
The catch is they way you do them is different.
Simple is good.
One of the
most effective KM strategies implemented at Buckman Laboratories
has been the after action review. Those short and sweet five
questions have helped a non-reflective culture to become continuous
learners. Granted, the underlying thought is sophisticated. But
there's no point in bringing that up (see point above).
- Strategic
Lessons Learned
Copy the strategic
planning experts.
They do SWOT analyses (Situation, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats). They think through the context of their organization
their environment, competitors, etc. They think about the
future. We have the same requirement for developing KM strategies
as well as looking at the overall strategic plan for our organization.
There is no perfect
KM strategy for your organization.
All too often we hold out for the Holy Grail of the perfect strategy.
In any organization there are undoubtedly a number of potential
strategies. You will not have the resources for all of them,
so pick the ones that make the most sense, the ones you most
likely can implement, the ones that will have a good ROI, etc.
Once we get down
to a specific KM strategy, however, we have two primary choices. As Ross Dawson says in
Living Networks, "People's knowledge can be embedded into
documents, models, and software so that others can use it. People
can be connected to others with relevant experience so that they
can apply their knowledge to a specific issue. These two strategies,
sometimes called connection and collection, are relevant to every
business."
Self-interest
is good.
I've heard too many complaints about WIIFM, what's in it for
me. I adore WIIFM. If I can't show why it is to someone's benefit
to do something, I encourage him or her to show me the door.
Knowledge workers need to see a benefit for making a change.
More power to them.
- Implementation
Lessons Learned
Plan on making
mistakes.
Implementing a new strategy, approach, tool, or process is an
innovation. We need to allow ourselves room for a little judicious
failure. Otherwise, we are not taking enough risks. We also need
to analyze and learn from our mistakes.
Culture can be
a showstopper; get over it. I
challenge anyone: for every barrier you find in a culture, you
also can find an enabler. Look for the positive and build on
it. You will never change the monolith of culture. The best you
can do is target specific behaviors and help change them. Not
only will you be more successful, you won't antagonize people
by talking about how bad your organization is.
If you're wondering
who has warped my brain and thinking over the years, I can tell
you who -- some of the theorists and practitioners are who have
shaped my beliefs and work. Theorists for me who meet that criterion
of usefulness include Verna Allee, Ravi Arora, Karl-Erik Sveiby,
Ed Schein, Roger Schwarz, David Snowden, Juanita Brown, Etienne
Wenger, Bill Snyder, Rob Cross, Chris Argyris, to name a few.
Practitioners who
live in that segue way from theory to action who impress me include
(in alphabetical order): Bill Baker, Mike Burtha, Charl Cuyler,
Chirs Collison, Ross Dawson, Pete Engstrom, the pirate crew at
Fuji Xerox, Kent Greenes, Sue Hanley, Jim Henneberry, Marina
Hiscock, Anne Jubert, Jun Yeon Kwak, Nick Milton, Geoff Parcell,
Josh Plakoff, Deborah Plummer, Hubert Saint Onge, Egil Sandvik,
the team at South African Breweries, John Smith, Jeff Stemke,
Judi Sandrock, Karen Spencer, Erick Thompson, Deb Wallace, Nancy
White and Tom Young, to name a few. I owe all of them a great
debt.
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Links and
Favorites
Favorite URLs include:
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Some of my favorite authors are:
- Ed Schein
- Verna Allee
- Hubert Saint Onge
- Deb Wallace
- Rob Cross
- Gabriel Szulanski
- Etienne Wenger
- Bill Snyder
- Nancy Dixon
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- John Kotter
- David Snowden
- Roger Schwarz
- Peter Block
- William Bridges
- Dr. Seuss
- Ursula Le Guin
- J.K. Rowling
- Ian Wallace
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Some of my favorite
books are:
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