2. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Who is me?
National Director, Innovation and
Information at McMillan LLP
www.DynamicAdaptation.com
Used to be Director of KM:
• PwC Canada
• Gov’t agency
Global lead (design / value) PwC
enterprise social network
15 years in public sector
No profit
Non-profit
Slide 2
4. Our agenda
1. The world has changed
2. The management response
3. Are our organizations sick and dumb?
4. Why?
5. What we can do about it?
6. If we get it right
Slide 4
6. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
The world has changed . . .
. . . Global hyper-competition
. . . Power shift from West to East
. . . Climate change
. . . Youth unemployment
. . . Public sector fiscal crises
. . . Aging population
. . .
Slide 6
7. Building smarter organizations
There are new demands on our organizations
New world
Complex
Discontinuity
Ambiguous
Slide 7
Old world
Stable
Repeatable
processes
Authoritative
knowledge
Adapted from Kent Greenes, “Knowledge Leadership, KMWorld 2011
8. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Meanwhile, the work has been getting “smarter”
Slide 8
Source: http://cdn.dupress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-01-at-9.20.13-PM.png?2b7236
9. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
It makes up 41% - and growing, everywhere
Slide 9
https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Preparing_for_a_new_era_of_knowledge_work_3034?srid=520
10. Building smarter organizations
What is smart?
“An organization's ability to learn,
and translate that learning into action rapidly,
is the ultimate competitive advantage"
Jack Welch Slide 10
12. Building smarter organizations
The typical response so far is
Plan “B” - keep on given’r
“Most of what
we call
management
consists of
making it
difficult for
people to get
their work
done”
Drucker
Slide 12
13. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
. . . rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Slide 13Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stöwer_Titanic.jpg
15. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Most workers are not engaged with their work
70%Of professional American and Canadian workers are
"not engaged" or "actively disengaged“
in their work
Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/165269/worldwide-employees-engaged-work.aspx
Slide 15
16. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Slide 16
Sickness absence, presenteeism and labour
turnover costs the UK economy yearly
. . . and that takes a toll on them, the companies
and the economy
£26bnSource: UK Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jul/15/happiness-work-why-counts
17. Building smarter organizations
. . . and our organizations seem to be dumb:
comparison Large
organizations
?
?
?
?
Slide 17
Sheep
Slow
Follow the flock
Not fun
Can’t fly
19. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Reason #1: Command-and-control culture
Slide 19
“In a healthy
system, information
flows are
unimpeded by clots
of power or the
sclerosis of
hierarchy.”
Philip Slater, The
Chrysalis Effect
20. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Reason #2: Organizational complexity
Slide 20
Source: http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-focused-company.aspx
21. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Reason #3: Email - hyper-siloed, push (spam)
communication “where knowledge goes to die”
Slide 21
Emailed
Knowledge
23. Building smarter organizations
Traditional Collaborative
Power From authority In the team
Info Control Share
Feedback
reward /
recognition
Annual SMART
goals with
carrots/sticks
Immediate feedback,
personal coaching,
intrinsic motivation
Roles Specific / rule-
bound
Flexible and
evolving
Solutions Provide them Seek them
Do #1: Leadership and culture renewal
Slide 23
Try it for free:
http://www.collaborativeleadership.org/pages/pdfs/CL_self-assessments_lores.pdf
24. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Do #2: Improved sharing technology
24
. . . information, ideas and
questions become isolated - they
only go to the people who received
the message
. . . trying to have a conversation is
really hard
. . . it becomes a guessing game
when working on a document
together (“who made what
changes to which version?”)
. . . the information disappears
over time so that anyone joining
the conversation late has a hard
time coming up to speed
With social networking . .With emails . . .
Source: http://www.pwc.com.ar/es_AR/ar/publicaciones-por-industria/assets/transforming-collaboration-with-social-tools.pdf
Try it for free: www.slack.com
25. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Do #3: Make things simpler
Slide 25
Source: Addressing general and administrative (G&A) complexity The next frontier in cost-cutting
28. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
Even the best of the best have far to go
65% Share my info & my ideas
openly
49% React to ideas of other people openly
30% Participate openly in developing new
ideas and innovations.
Source: Jane McConnell – Digital Workplace survey 2013
Slide 28
29. Gordon Vala-Webb
Building smarter organizations
If we get it wrong . . . extinction!
“It’s not the strongest of the
species that survives, nor
the most intelligent, but the
one most responsive to
change.”
Charles Darwin
Slide 29