Author: 162325266

Professor’s findings suggest focused initiatives to provide direct support to customers and front-line staff can quickly deliver multiple objectives

General, costly and protracted improvement programmes in many companies need to be replaced by fewer but more focused and affordable initiatives that can simultaneously achieve multiple objectives according to Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas speaking in Prague at a conference for those leading change, improvement and transformation programmes in the energy sector. “Less really can be more” argued the professor “fewer activities focused upon supporting key work groups in demanding front-line roles can result in large returns on investment within a few months.”

According to Coulson-Thomas “Policies and priorities can and do change while many expensive and costly programmes struggle to deliver tangible benefits. Life is too short to burn up precious time on corporate wide change initiatives that have a low probability of delivering. Customers usually have little or no interest in a supplier’s structure, systems, processes or culture. They usually just want to competent, quick, safe and effective response from the front-line staff they deal with.”

The professor believes “Too often corporate bureaucracies are getting in the way. There is little point trying to improve them or change the behaviour of middle managers when increasingly lower cost learning and performance support can help customers and the front-line staff who deal with them to increase their understanding and help themselves. Rather than try to change structures, systems, processes and cultures corporate leaders can simply by-pass them and reduce them.”

Coulson-Thomas has identified critical success factors for vital corporate activities. He believes the key to success is to help people undertake key tasks and important jobs as a top performer would: “Winning more business can be a matter of submitting winning bids rather than re-engineering a bid process and its supporting systems. You cannot re-engineer a process to submit a bid before it is prepared. Key tasks are getting an invitation to bid, preparing a winning response and negotiating a successful conclusion. Our Winning New Business and related reports set out how to do this.”

The professor gave examples of how success can be achieved and support delivered by simple and widely available technologies: “The mobile devices one’s people and customers have bought for themselves can often be a readily available means of providing 24/7 learning and performance support. Speed is important as windows of opportunity quickly open and close. The costly mega-projects advocated by so many external providers would be too late even if they delivered”.

The results of a five year investigation into more affordable routes to building high performance organisations undertaken by Prof. Coulson-Thomas are being set out in a series of reports. They suggest it is possible to simultaneously deliver multiple objectives and benefit people, organisations and the environment. Learning and performance support can enable average people to excel, ensure compliance, increase performance, cut costs, speed up responses and reduce risk and stress.

Dr Colin Coulson-Thomas, an international Change Agent and Transformation Leader Award winner, has the been Process Vision Holder of successful transformation programmes when energy markets have opened up in the UK and Austria and advised on the implementation of certain of the largest change programmes undertaken in the utilities. He was the world’s first Professor of Corporate Transformation and can be contacted via www.coulson-thomas.com.

Publications based upon investigations led by Prof. Coulson-Thomas to identify and develop more cost-effective approaches, including Winning New Business and other reports on how to win business, reports on talent, knowledge and key account management, pricing, purchasing, creating and exploiting know-how, and Winning Companies; Winning People which provides an overview of what high performers do differently in areas examined can be obtained from www.policypublications.com.

Prof. Coulson-Thomas was speaking on Simultaneously Achieving Multiple Objectives at a conference on Advanced Business Process Management and Operational Excellence for the Energy Market. The event was concerned with building sustainable and profitable operational capability and held at Le Palais Hotel, Prague in the Czech Republic.

 

25 May 2013
Colin Coulson-Thomas

Transforming Knowledge Management

Speech to Dubai Global Convention on Business Excellence
Burj Al Arab, Dubai, May 1st 2013

Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas* – Keynote 2
University of Greenwich

How can we transform knowledge management to increase its impact on business performance?

Knowledge is increasing at an exponential rate. Some of it is trivial and mundane. Some of it is innovative and profound. Some of it is useful. Some of it is potentially harmful.

Much of the knowledge that is available can be accessed in seconds via a search engine. Should we be delighted or concerned? How much of what is found is relevant to current challenges and opportunities? Does it increase our understanding?

People with issues used to discuss them and select what was felt to be the best course of action for resolving them. Now people stare into screens and go-online. This may or may not be helpful depending upon what is found and its relevance and value. Are people just browsing and interacting rather than thinking and acting?

How could knowledge management contribute more to the delivery of key corporate objectives? What needs to change? Is a different approach required?

I explored these questions for a new report – Transforming Knowledge Management. It follows a five-year search for quicker, more affordable and less disruptive ways of creating high performance organisations. I will briefly summarise some key findings of this and related reports.

Knowledge management needs to be transformed. The achievements of traditional approaches have fallen short of expectations. Many organisations have failed to derive anticipated benefits from knowledge management initiatives. Their focus, justification and returns on investment need to be addressed.

Is knowledge management just another fad put about by consultants to drum up new business? Its use has often been more limited than their rhetoric suggests. Widespread references to knowledge management have given it a profile and standing that may not be justified in terms of the extent and value of its adoption.

Yet the sharing of useful and relevant knowledge can increase understanding and be a source of competitive advantage. When relevant know-how is made available as and when and wherever required, it can increase performance and contribute to the delivery of multiple objectives. So what is going wrong and what needs to be done?

Many organisations just load information and knowledge onto a corporate intranet or other central repository. Assembly of knowledge sometimes takes priority over its utility and deployment. More information per se does not necessarily increase understanding.

What is captured and shared is often ‘commodity knowledge’ that is available to others. It does not differentiate or represent a source of competitive advantage. It is hard to stand out, innovate and become a market leader by copying everyone else.

Last week I addressed a corporate learning summit in Chicago. Corporate learning has much to answer for. Investigations for my Developing a Corporate Learning Strategy report revealed that people are offered general programmes rather than the specific and personalised support they need to be effective in their jobs.

Training and development inputs are not giving rise to intellectual capital outputs. Many people draw from the wells of corporate knowledge. Far fewer add to them.

I also led the investigation for the Managing Intellectual Capital to Grow Shareholder Value report. We looked at 20 areas of intellectual capital and found that even the best companies were only effectively managing a few of them. Categories of know-how managed are not always the ones offering the biggest potential for additional income.

Some companies could be many times their size if they fully exploited their corporate know-how. Imagine what these companies could achieve if they also properly exploited what their best people knew.

We need to step up from information and knowledge management to knowledge entrepreneurship. Thirty seven possible revenue generating services using readily available information are listed in my book The Knowledge Entrepreneur.

Many potentially useful categories of know-how are not fully exploited because they are thought to be in formats that cannot be easily managed. No company need have this problem. There are knowledge frameworks that can handle a variety of formats from visual images and animations to audio and film recordings. They enable people to work with know-how and they can support applications on a range of mobile devices.

When people tell me how much they know, my immediate reaction is often “so what?” Can you get hold of it when you need help? What does it enable you to do differently? How relevant is it? Is it up-to-date? Is it job-related?

Relevance is critical. People, work groups and organisations need access to knowledge that is relevant to what they are seeking to accomplish and relevant to particular challenges, decisions and opportunities they face.

We are drowning in information. Yet obtaining help as and when it is required is often a problem. Ideally, people should be able to access personalised knowledge and support that is relevant to a particular job, case, issue or situation wherever they might be, including when on the move.

A crucial distinction is that between ‘knowledge about things’ and ‘knowledge of how best to do things’. There are people who know a great deal about the theory of accounting who I would not ask to prepare a set of accounts.

Many knowledge management teams focus on meeting the information support needs of people in central departments. ‘Walking overheads’ in corporate head offices use this information to justify their roles.

Reporting a problem is different from dealing with it. Action – whether winning more business or building better customer relationships – is often in the hands of certain key work groups in ‘front-line’ roles. These are the people that knowledge management should be supporting.

What do high performers do differently in these important and often difficult jobs? It’s not a state secret. I’ve led investigations for over 20 reports that set out critical success factors for key corporate activities.

There is considerable upside potential. Superstars may be only very effective at less than half of the identified critical success factors. The performance of every organisation examined could be greatly improved.

Knowledge management needs to re-focus upon helping key work groups to excel by adopting the superior approaches of high performers. This is the world of performance-focused knowledge support. This is where knowledge management can make a significant contribution to business excellence. Re-focused and personalised it can help us to create high performance organisations that remain current, competitive and vital.

A related report Talent Management 2 also shows that multiple benefits for individuals, organisations and the environment can be quickly obtained by working with one’s existing people and without requiring a change of corporate culture or structure.

Even if culture change could be achieved, it might not be desirable. Why should an organisation with employees and customers from a variety of nationalities, religions and cultures want a common corporate culture? The creative culture of the advertising team may not be right for those preparing annual accounts.

The Transforming Public Services report shows advantages such as low barriers to entry and cost-effectiveness also apply to the public sector. Performance support can enable people to cope with new requirements and changes of policy and priorities that occur at different stages of a transformation journey.

Talking of journeys – Many corporate initiatives promise jam tomorrow rather than a measurable contribution to key corporate objectives today. Speed of impact can be vital. Competition is relentless. If today’s problems are not addressed, and new windows of opportunity are not quickly seized, a company may not have a tomorrow.

Business excellence and other management approaches sometimes lead to restructuring and the loss of knowledge. They do not result in the provision of better support which can lead to a wide range of benefits, including greater flexibility, faster responses and lower operating costs.

A period of slack can be a good time to take stock and re-focus. When the world economy is booming – and competitors are fully booked- almost any fool can make money. During recessions and economic down-turns smart companies take steps to differentiate and secure competitive advantage.

Appropriate support can have a quick and direct impact on performance by focusing on knowledge of how to do things and – in particular – how to excel at difficult jobs. It requires a shift of emphasis from ‘knowing’ to ‘doing’ and the provision of relevant help. It can enable average operators to access and adopt relevant critical success factors and the superior approaches of high achievers as and when and wherever required.

The benefits of performance support also include higher productivity, bespoke responses, reduced stress and evidenced compliance. It can also eliminate certain traditional trade offs. For example, it may be possible to simultaneously improve quality, cut costs and save time. Adopters have also achieved returns on investment of over 20, 30 or 70 times within months rather than years.

Some users of business excellence models initiate too many projects. People end up confused and are pulled in different directions. Performance-focused knowledge support works best when applied to key work groups – such as people who win bids or buy.

Boards need to break free from the embrace of C-suite executives and ensure that those in important front-line jobs are a priority and properly supported. Boards should challenge initiatives rather than assume their desirability.

Knowledge management, talent management, change management and corporate learning can all be transformed. Performance support can complement business excellence – in some cases rescuing it and in others increasing its impact. For its benefits to be fully realised, director and board leadership may have to change.

‘New leadership’ shifts the emphasis from motivating and managing people to helping them. It is less focused upon ‘command and control’, planning and top-down approaches and more concerned with implementation and ‘bottom-up’ support. Rather than hope that something will turn up, ‘new leaders’ ensure key workgroups that deliver priority corporate objectives are better supported.

There is uncertainty and insecurity in many boardrooms. Personalised performance support can help people to cope. It can prepare vital workgroups for an unknown future.

Performance support can make things happen by helping people to do what is needed to succeed. Smart boards ensure that people are equipped and enabled to do what is required in a winning way.

To compete and win one rarely needs to be excellent at everything. Many areas are neither visible to customers, nor sources of competitive advantage. One should prioritise and focus. Success usually depends on certain critical success factors in particular areas and not the widespread adoption of general competences.

‘New leadership’ is characterised by focus. Assembling corporate knowledge can create a potential. Whether or not this is effectively used will depend upon the quality and relevance of the knowledge collected and how it is used and deployed.

In themselves management approaches, methodologies and tools also represent potential. They offer possibilities. The extent to which they help us or harm us depends upon how we use them – what we apply them to and for what purpose.

Knowledge-based support could be applied to a fundamental problem or to a trivial issue. It should be focused upon core activities and key jobs that deliver priority corporate objectives.

Performance support can also be conducive of social networking across communities and within work groups. People should be encouraged to share insights, hints and tips – particularly about better ways of doing things.

Endeavouring to avoid all risks can lead to stagnation and missed opportunities. Building checks into performance support can allow business leaders to both liberate people and prevent unwanted actions. It can enable policy implementation and responsible innovation. People can be set free to develop bespoke responses to individual customer requirements.

Support has to address the realities of busy people working in dynamic contexts. Automatic updating ensures they have the latest version and comply with changing policies, regulations and laws.

‘Top-down’ leadership may not deliver the advantages which a change of emphasis and focus could bring. We need to transform knowledge management. We need ‘new leadership’. We need an alternative ‘bottom-up’ approach to creating high performance organisations. With these in place we could simultaneously achieve progress on several fronts. Business excellence could become a reality.

*Prof Colin Coulson-Thomas, an experienced Process Vision Holder of successful transformation programmes, chairman of award winning companies and a Change Agent and Transformation Leader award winner is author of ‘Transforming Knowledge Management’, ‘The Knowledge Entrepreneur’ and over 40 other books and reports. He has helped over 100 boards to improve director, board and corporate performance and spoken at over 200 national and international events in over 40 countries. He was the world’s first professor of corporate transformation and now has a part-time role at the University of Greenwich. His latest reports are available from www.policypublications.com and he can be contacted via www.coulson-thomas.com.

 

09 May 2013
Colin Coulson-Thomas

Advantages of focus upon helping key work groups outlined at Process Excellence 2013

Many approaches to business process management and process excellence are costly, time consuming and disruptive according to Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas, speaking at Central Hall Westminster at the Process Excellence 2013 conference. The author of Winning Companies; Winning People believes “there needs to be a greater focus upon helping people to excel at key jobs within important processes.”

Coulson-Thomas believes: “The adoption and implementation of business process management (BPM) needs to reflect current issues, priorities and concerns. In a business environment characterised by innovation, uncertainty and insecurity speed of impact, flexibility and affordability are increasingly important.”

The professor’s report Talent Management 2 shows that providing job-focused performance support to key work groups can quickly deliver multiple benefits for individuals, organisations and the environment by working with one’s existing people and without requiring a change of corporate culture or structure.

His Transforming Public Services report shows advantages such as low barriers to entry and cost-effectiveness also apply to the public sector. Performance support can enable people to cope with new requirements and changes of policy and priorities that occur at different stages of a transformation journey.

Coulson-Thomas reported that: “Companies need to be more selective in their adoption of new BPM initiatives. Some adoptions of process excellence approaches result in the initiation of too many process improvement and/or re-engineering projects. These can be a source of confusion and pull people in different directions.”

The professor suggests: “Prioritisation and focus are increasingly important. Endeavouring to be the best at everything can be unaffordable when customers are only willing to pay for improvements that impact directly upon them. Priority should be given to process excellence projects that have a direct impact upon the customer and are a source of competitive advantage.”

Coulson-Thomas believes “The customer is the source of all value. BPM needs to be driven by customer as well as corporate interests and also reflect the requirements of other stakeholders. Too often they appear to be motivated mainly by corporate priorities. Front-line work groups in direct contact with customers and prospects should be the first to be better supported.”

He also finds: “Integrity and trust can be vital for building longer-term and mutually beneficial relationships with customers and other stakeholders. Process excellence initiatives should deliver clear benefits for customers and employees as well as an initiating organisation.”

Coulson-Thomas investigations have revealed that “some companies adopt a mechanistic rather than a thinking approach. They work through the various stages of BPM methodologies without considering their relevance and applicability to local issues and a particular context. Process excellence approaches should be adapted by an adopting organisation to suit its own requirements and circumstances.”

The professor argues that “BPM approaches should be regularly reviewed and modified in the light of experience and changing requirements and priorities to ensure that they are still affordable, current and vital. Continuous improvement itself needs to be continuously improved to ensure a focus upon affordable routes to high performance organisations.”

Prof Colin Coulson-Thomas, a Change Agent and Transformation Leader award winner, is author of Winning Companies; Winning People, Talent Management 2, Transforming Public Services and over 40 other books and reports. He has helped over 100 boards to improve director, board and corporate performance and spoken at over 200 national and international events in over 40 countries. He was the world’s first professor of corporate transformation and is a member of the business school team at the University of Greenwich. His latest reports are available from www.policypublications.com and he can be contacted via www.coulson-thomas.com.

Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas was speaking at Process Excellence 2013 held in London at Central Hall Westminster. His presentation drew upon his recent reports Talent Management 2 and Transforming Public Services, and a forthcoming report on knowledge management which draw upon a five-year investigation of quicker and more affordable routes to high performance organisations.

 

06 May 2013
Colin Coulson-Thomas

Five-year investigation reveals advantages of key job-focused performance support

Too many people are offered general learning programmes rather than the specific and personalised support they need to be effective in their jobs, according to Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas speaking in Chicago at the 2013 Corporate Learning Summit. He believes “corporate learning needs to re-focus upon helping key work groups to excel by adopting the superior approaches of high performers.”

The professor was critical of many contemporary approaches: “What is being shared is often ‘commodity knowledge’ that is available to others. It does not differentiate or represent a source of competitive advantage. It is hard to stand out, innovate and become a market leader by copying everyone else.”

Investigations for Coulson-Thomas’ report Developing a Corporate Learning Strategy revealed that many organisations could obtain a higher return on their expenditures on corporate learning if a different approach were adopted. “There needs to be greater prioritisation and focus upon quickly delivering tangible improvements to performance and other corporate objectives.”

The professor’s report Talent Management 2 shows that integrating working and learning and providing job-focused performance support can deliver multiple benefits for individuals, organisations and the environment by working with one’s existing people and without requiring a change of corporate culture or structure.

His Transforming Public Services report shows advantages such as low barriers to entry and cost-effectiveness also apply to the public sector. Performance support can enable people to cope with new requirements and changes of policy and priorities that occur at different stages of a transformation journey.

Coulson-Thomas also led the investigation for the Managing Intellectual Capital to Grow Shareholder Value report. The investigating team looked at 20 areas of intellectual capital and found that even the best companies were only effectively managing a few of them. Categories of know-how managed are not always the ones offering the biggest potential for additional income.

He finds: “Training and development inputs are not giving rise to intellectual capital outputs. Many people draw from the wells of corporate knowledge. Far fewer add to them. Corporate learning should result in the creation of know-how and competitive advantage.”

The professor feels that “some companies could be many times their size if they fully exploited their corporate know-how. Imagine what these companies could achieve if they also properly exploited what their best people knew.”

In short Coulson-Thomas believes: “We need to step up from information and knowledge management to knowledge entrepreneurship.” Thirty seven possible revenue generating services using readily available information are listed in his book The Knowledge Entrepreneur.

The professor’s investigations reveal that: “Many corporate initiatives promise jam tomorrow rather than a measurable contribution to key corporate objectives today. Speed of impact can be vital. Competition is relentless. If today’s problems are not addressed, and new windows of opportunity are not quickly seized, a company may not have a tomorrow.”

Coulson-Thomas stresses that “corporate learning needs to reflect current issues, priorities and concerns. In a business environment characterised by innovation, uncertainty and insecurity speed of impact, flexibility and affordability are increasingly important. Performance support can satisfy all these requirements and simultaneously contribute to multiple objectives.”

Prof Colin Coulson-Thomas, a Change Agent and Transformation Leader award winner, is author of Developing a Corporate Learning Strategy, Developing Directors, Winning Companies; Winning People, Talent Management 2 and over 40 other books and reports. He has helped over 100 boards to improve director, board and corporate performance and spoken at over 200 national and international events in over 40 countries. He was the world’s first professor of corporate transformation and is a member of the business school team at the University of Greenwich. His latest reports are available from www.policypublications.com and he can be contacted via www.coulson-thomas.com.

Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas was speaking at the 2013 Corporate Learning Summit held at the Hotel Sax Chicago in the USA. His presentation drew upon his recent reports Talent Management 2 and Transforming Public Services, and a forthcoming report on knowledge management which draw upon a five-year investigation of quicker and more affordable routes to high performance organisations.

 

06 May 2013
Colin Coulson-Thomas

Keynote address advocates action to deal with fraud, corruption, miss-selling, false labelling and abuses of power.

More integrity, heart and soul are required in corporate boardrooms according to Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas in a keynote speech to the world congress on leadership and the quality of governance in Bangalore, India. With newspapers reporting a succession of scandals the author of Developing Directors, a handbook for building effective boardroom teams, called for individual, corporate and Government action.

Coulson-Thomas believes “integrity is necessary for establishing relationships of trust, within the boardroom and with stakeholders. A true heart and honest soul can engage and connect with people who want to work for, invest in, buy from or collaborate with companies they feel will be open with them and treat them fairly.”

However, the professor suggests that “despite its importance, integrity cannot be assumed. Misrepresentation, distortion, deception and dishonesty abound. People exaggerate their achievements on CVs. They miss-sell and falsely label offerings. They claim credit for other people’s efforts. They talk up stock they would like to sell. Athletes take drugs to enhance their performance. Fraudsters embezzle funds.”

Coulson-Thomas calls for realism: “Some people are invariably honest or dishonest. Others will do something they know to be wrong if it will benefit them and the risk of discovery and penalties are low in relation to what they might gain.”

“For organisations and societies the cost of monitoring, compliance and policing can be high. Instituting, managing and reviewing various controls and methods of prevention and detection can be time consuming. ‘Traditional’ controls considered essential can also constrain freedom, inhibit creativity and slow progress.”

“The costs and benefits of a lack of integrity are sometimes unequally shared. For some the payoffs from underhand behaviour can appear attractive, while its negative consequences can have a smaller impact upon a much larger number of people.
When illegality and corruption occurs a great many people can pay the price. False insurance claims by the few can mean higher premium payments for the many.”

Coulson-Thomas argues that “Pious statements are not enough. Directors can protect brands by supporting those who act with integrity. They can identify and mitigate risks, and deploy counter fraud strategies. They can adopt cost-effective ways of preventing abuse and ensuring compliance that do not restrain freedom, creativity and innovation. They can select people who instinctively ‘make the right call’.”

The professor called for a shift of emphasis from top-down management to helping people. “As well as boosting productivity, reducing cost, speeding up responses and ensuring compliance, performance support can enable people to act in desired ways and prevent actions that would contravene a law, regulation, policy or code. Miss-selling, a lack of trust and penalties imposed by regulators can be avoided. People quickly adopt support which makes it easier for them to do difficult jobs.”

When board appointments are made Coulson-Thomas believes that directorial competences such as strategic awareness are no longer enough: “In a complex and uncertain business environment ensuring that people with the right personal qualities serve on corporate boards has never been more important. Other candidates might be cleverer and more socially skilled. But when faced with difficult decisions and moral dilemmas will they assume responsibility, think for themselves, question and make fair, balanced and defensible decisions? ”

The professor suggested to world congress delegates: “It is in our long-term interest that we bring into corporate boardrooms people who act with integrity and instinctively do the ‘right thing’ – the ‘right thing’ by their individual consciences in particular circumstances, the ‘right thing’ for the reputations and prospects of their companies, and the ‘right thing’ for all our futures.”

Prof Colin Coulson-Thomas, author of Developing Directors, has helped over 100 companies to improve director, board and corporate performance, and spoken at over 200 national, international and corporate events in over 40 countries. An experienced board chair he is a member of the business school team at the University of Greenwich and has held professorial appointments in various countries and national and local public appointments. His latest publications can be obtained from www.policypublications.com and he can be contacted via www.coulson-thomas.com.

The keynote speech of Prof. Coulson-Thomas on the subject of Integrity: Regenerating Boards for Quality Leadership was delivered at the 23rd World Congress: Leadership & Quality of Governance held at the Hotel The Lalit Ashok, Bangalore, India. The world congress was organised by the Institute of Directors of India which is dedicated to building tomorrow’s boards. A news item on the event can be found on: http://www.timesnow.tv/The-23rd-World-Congress-on-leadership/videoshow/4420773.cms

 

17 Feb 2013
Colin Coulson-Thomas