LEVERAGING KNOWLEDGE TO UNLEASH A
CULTURE OF INNOVATION
THE ACT KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FORUM
5TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
David Rymer, Director Know-How Minter Ellison
October 2004
OUTLINE
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Why Emergence as a strategy?
Applying complexity
Organisational DNA
Cultural dynamics
Innovation
Implementation models
Work in progress
EMERGENT STRATEGY
Intended
Strategy
Deliberate Strategy
Unrealised
Strategy
Realised
Strategy
Emergent
Strategy
Henry Mintzberg: The Rise & Fall of Strategic Planning
PROBABILITY
Definition:
• Probability = the % of time an outcome
happens
• Event = single occurrence
• Outcome = result of an event
• Implications:
• Field multiple initiatives to mitigate potential
delays/roadblocks
• Select final solution late to manage
risk/turbulence
APPLYING COMPLEXITY
KNOW-HOW ARCHITECTURE
Know How Strategy
Business
Drivers
Organisation
(Facilitator)
Infrastructure
(Elements)
Capability
(Enabler)
(Emergent)
Know How Organisation
(Innovations, Know-How Operations, Divisional KHC’s)
P & C
Content
Process
Collaboration
Precedents
Tran’s Maps
SNA
Library
Change Mgt
Communities
Stories
PM Reviews
Networks
Taxonomies
Pipeline Fill
Champions
Client work
R & Recog’n
Commercial
Discipline
Costing
BI process
Technology Infrastructure
(WCMS, databases, eRoom, SDX, e-work)
CULTURE
WHAT IS ORGANISATIONAL
CULTURE?
Culture is:
• The way work is organised and experienced
• How authority is exercised & distributed
• How people feel rewarded, organised & controlled
• Values and work orientation
• Degree of formalisation, standardisation & control
• Scope for individuality, risk-taking and initiative
• Emphasis given to rules, procedures and results,
• Team or individual work
FOUR BASES OF ORGANISATIONAL
DNA
Most companies are dysfunctional!
MINTER ELLISON = PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE
Neilson. Pasternack, and Mendes
Booz Allen: strategy+business Winter 2003
CULTURAL DYNAMICS
Typical legal traits:
• Risk averse, change resistant
• Revenue focused (billable hours)
• Trained to deconstruct not create
• Decisions often ambiguous & not
communicated
• Anti-managerial
• 6 min blocks
LOUIS XIV SYNDROME
PLAY THEORY
Play Theory allows us to safely explore:
• Our physical environment to learn how new
ideas and tools work.
• Social interactions and the spaces in
between. (Reflecting on new experiences
can help teams learn to adjust to an
intervention.)
• The new, the unfamiliar and the evolving
without incurring performance penalties.
In play, there are no REAL consequences
CHANGE IMPLICATIONS
From:
• Managing things
• Single lawyer
To:
• Managing
complexity
• My way
• My team
• Team view
• Standard portfolio
• Struggle to survive
• X functional team
• “Can we”
• Collaboration
• “Should we”
INNOVATION
IDEAS ARE WILD...
Ideas demand:
• Anticipation
• Boundary spanning
• Probing for fit
• Seeding experience
• Pilots
• Prototyping
• Sense making
• Transferring experience
• Skunk works
APPRECIATIVE ENQUIRY
Discovery
Appreciating
“the best of what is”
Destiny
Sustaining
“what will be”
Positive
Topic
Choice
Dream
Envisioning
“what could be”
Design
Co-constructing
“what should be”
(Ludema J.D., Cooperrider D.L. & Barrett F.J. 2001 in Reason P. & Bradbury H. (eds) Handbook of Action Research. Sage, London)
ITERATIVE APPROACH
OPENING UP TO NEW EXPERIENCES
OPENING UP TO NEW EXPERIENCES
MBOT MANTRA
Map
Build
Transfer
Operationalise
PROGRESS REPORT
PROGRESS REPORT
Enablers include:
• Futures
• Emergence
• Champions & advocates
• Self-organising teams
• Physical environment
• Strategic conversations
• Storytelling
• Collaboration
• Social networks
• Reward & recognition
Minters:
?
!!!

50%
X
X
25%
50%
X
X
PROGRESS REPORT
Enablers include:
Minters:

• Mentoring & coaching
• Implementation model
75%
• Search engine
25%

• Business process mapping & re-design
• Change management
50%

• Environmental scanning

• Taxonomies & thesauri
• Workflow automation
25%

• Intranets
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• Document management
“Better to light one candle than curse the darkness.”
Ken Wilber
Futurist
QUESTIONS?
David Rymer, Director Know-How
[email protected]