Archive for July 2013
Creating Knowledge Every Day
Tony, a senior staff, was reviewed by his manager. The
results are not so good. Even John is better than Tony. John is junior staff. The reviewer said that John is better and smarter than Tony.
The senior staff, of course have a lot of experiences, more
than their junior. Why some of them not so smart? Why are some staffs being an expert while the
others are still the novice? Some of them have more experience but their
quality is different. Why?
Well, experiences are a collection of data/information.
Experiences are not knowledge. Experience are not represent the quality,
knowledge are.
Experiences are only the raw materials. Every man needs to
process the experience in order to create knowledge in their mind. That process
is called as "Learning".
How to process an experience becomes knowledge? To answer
this question, David Kolb has formulated "Learning" Cycle (a.k.a.
Experiential Learning Cycle).
(Experiential) Learning Cycle
For instance, a staff has an experience on something. Having
experience is just the first step. The experience needs to be reflected (2nd
step) and conceptualized (3rd step). A new knowledge is created
after the third step.
Next, you should test the new knowledge. You will find, may
be some parts of it are true and some else are false. Then you have a new
experience again (or at least new point of view). The experience should be
reflected and conceptualized again. This cycle should always be performed.
Each cycle creates new knowledge and new quality.
Now imagine, John performs learning cycle every day. He
creates new knowledge every day. Of course, his quality increases.
Tony, never do that. He just repeats the same job with the
same way. If he has worked for 10 year, actually he is only has a day-knowledge
that is repeated 3650 times. Nothing is new.
John is better than Tony because John always learn, changes his experience to knowledge.
Knowledge Cycle
In the 8th Habit, Stephen Covey describe that now we are in knowledge era. Take a look at the picture below.
Thanks God, we have passed the 'Hunting and Gathering' era. An era when we should sharpen our knives, then go to the jungle for killing wild animals and cutting the trees!
We have passed the Agricultural era too, so all of we did not have to plant and grow crops. Just let the modern farmer perform these jobs.
We also just left the Industrial era behind us! The legendary 5Ms (Money, Machine, Material, Man, and Method) are no longer the most important things. Now, we can not say that human is equal to machine, money or materials.
What is the most important thing now? Knowledge! Of course, we are in the knowledge era! Anyone can be rich if they have knowledge and utilize it in the right way.
In this era, the inventions are very fast. A good product or service will be replaced by a better one, only in a short time. Company and its employees have to think and act fast to win against their competitor... or die.
The problem is 'smart' employee is very rare. Event they are exist in your company, they easily being stolen by competitors who can pay them much better. If their go, so do the knowledge in their head.
Well, it is not easy to develop a smart employee. Although information is everywhere, but information is information. The abundance information can not make an employee become smart. Knowledge will make them smart.
If knowledge is a dress, data are the fibers, and Information are the fabrics.
Data - are the materials (facts, measurements, statistics) that have not been interpreted and thus, have no meaning.
Information - are the organized data with a meaning. Like data, information can be saved on computer, paper, tape, cloud, other media.
Knowledge - information that has a purpose or intent attached. Emergent, socially constructed, and exists in the head of a person.
In knowledge era, a company should manage the knowledge. Any creation of knowledge should be captured and refined. Then knowledge should be stored in the repository, not only in the smart-employee's head.
These knowledge have to be reviewed periodically for its accuracy and relevance. And of course, company have to make the knowledge are available at all times to anyone.
Okay, this is only a theory. Managing knowledge is not as simple as the KM cycle above, but remember, Knowledge Management is a must. So we must start now!
We have passed the Agricultural era too, so all of we did not have to plant and grow crops. Just let the modern farmer perform these jobs.
We also just left the Industrial era behind us! The legendary 5Ms (Money, Machine, Material, Man, and Method) are no longer the most important things. Now, we can not say that human is equal to machine, money or materials.
What is the most important thing now? Knowledge! Of course, we are in the knowledge era! Anyone can be rich if they have knowledge and utilize it in the right way.
In this era, the inventions are very fast. A good product or service will be replaced by a better one, only in a short time. Company and its employees have to think and act fast to win against their competitor... or die.
The problem is 'smart' employee is very rare. Event they are exist in your company, they easily being stolen by competitors who can pay them much better. If their go, so do the knowledge in their head.
Well, it is not easy to develop a smart employee. Although information is everywhere, but information is information. The abundance information can not make an employee become smart. Knowledge will make them smart.
If knowledge is a dress, data are the fibers, and Information are the fabrics.
Data - are the materials (facts, measurements, statistics) that have not been interpreted and thus, have no meaning.
Information - are the organized data with a meaning. Like data, information can be saved on computer, paper, tape, cloud, other media.
Knowledge - information that has a purpose or intent attached. Emergent, socially constructed, and exists in the head of a person.
In knowledge era, a company should manage the knowledge. Any creation of knowledge should be captured and refined. Then knowledge should be stored in the repository, not only in the smart-employee's head.
These knowledge have to be reviewed periodically for its accuracy and relevance. And of course, company have to make the knowledge are available at all times to anyone.
Okay, this is only a theory. Managing knowledge is not as simple as the KM cycle above, but remember, Knowledge Management is a must. So we must start now!
Training Needs Analysis
What is Training Needs Analysis? How to conduct TNA? Please find them at the video below.
Thank you!
Thank you!
