Knowledge Management Studies

"In life, change is inevitable. In business, change is vital." Leadership expert Warren Bennis implies in his famous quote that in business, change is something that can be initiated and driven to completion. Much along these lines, change in business is usually divided up into two theories: planned approaches and emergent approaches. Planning Change If change is something that we can plan and drive to completion, then it would reason that a process model could be put in place for change management. There are several theories about which steps are part of the change process and how many steps to include in the process. While this approach might seem logical and well structured enabling us to measure steps along the way to completion, it doesn't seem to fit change. Ultimately it assumes that "organizations act under constant conditions that can be taken into consideration and planned for."(Barnard, M. & Stoll, N., 2010) This is simply not the case. Change ...

"The consultant's primary purpose is to enable the client to figure out and make sense of what is really worrying her." (Shein, 2016) When we look at how it is that we determine the client's needs, this sense of help that is delivered by Shein must be always considered. Engaging the client as a partner or a sounding board is the best approach to determine need. Jumping right into an assessment or prescribing the solution before we actually get to the problem at hand is not only like a doctor/patient relationship as is stated in the slides for this week, but I would argue that it is more like a veterinarian/animal relationship. The vet must get to the root of the concern with out much help from the animal. The animal can not tell the vet what is wrong, so they make an educated guess based on narrative from the owner, reactions of the animal, and test results. The diagnosis may be correct or may be totally wrong, but it is the vet's job to make their best educated...

This week was a challenge to say the least! I have written many gap analyses and risk analyses in my life for work, but I have never done one introspectively. It was difficult to not focus on a "thing", such as a facility or a project. I found myself starting over several times so that I could re-focus on just my credibility and not other aspects that might be found in my consulting business (and even now I think I still overlapped a bit). My complete gap analysis can be found here:  Full Gap Analysis I am going to focus this writing on the areas that I found I would have the most work to be done to improve my credibility. The first area that I will focus on is that of passion. I segmented passion into three categories: passion for the organization passion for tasks passion to drive toward betterment As Jim Whitehurst reminds us, "people are drawn and generally want to follow passionate people." (2015) I pride myself in the amount of passion that I have t...

All of the articles were very closely related this week and they all struck a nerve or two. The article I get paid to do nothing  could have been a short essay on my life while working at one of my most recent employers. I was an employee for a fortune 50 company who was "lucky enough" to work from home and "hug my dogs". I had the same feelings as the woman in the article, but just thought that I was either not doing enough or I was doing something wrong. As a result, I found myself working 80 hour weeks and yet not really getting anything more done. Then about three years ago, I remember walking up the stairs and my legs began burning like I had just completed a major workout. Soon, my arms started getting tired from brushing my hair. I had mentioned these things to my doctor who told me that it was odd but we would just wait it out and see if it went away on its own. When my jaw started getting too tired during a meal for me to eat, I knew it was time to seek o...

What is Work? Work is that which must be done! I came across this definition at some point in my life and I do not remember the source, but it has always stayed with me. To me, this is the ultimate definition of work and can be read in so many different ways. The most important word here is "must". The word must can be read in a variety of ways and it is in those slight variations that we find most of our contemplation, confusion and conflict. Some would read "must" as "need" - work is what needs to be done. I would agree with this to some degree. For me, this depends on who is determining the need. If I am determining the need, then I am more likely to find it value added. I will support and work based on what I believe in. Therefore, if I determine that the work is needed, then I will be diligent in the work. The problem comes when we are not the ones who determine what is needed. If we do not see the need for the work then we are more likely not t...

Week 5 - Taking Stock I did do some serious reflection this past week. As always, I think of the effort that I am putting into the class and think of ways that I could be more efficient and productive and use my time more wisely. As, I have said before, this class and it's structure are very different than other classes I have taken in my graduate studies so far. I am finding it difficult to shake the precedent that has been set before and the schedule that I had developed in my life for school work. I find that, due to this, I am not experiencing the details of the class as much as I would like. I have decided that I will take the time to look up extra information on topics that I find particularly interesting to expand my knowledge. I have also been thinking of the quantitative measures as they pertains to this class. Obviously, the first thing that I think about is grading. Honestly, I have never had a problem with grades in courses that I have taken so far. This grading is...

Brainstorming as Consulting? I can see where it might seem like Schein is describing a brainstorming exercise as he talks about his consulting strategy. His strategy and brainstorming share some commonalities, not least of which is that both require a trusting relationship in order to succeed. Schein describes in depth how after forming this trust with a client, it is his job to help the client define and sort out the "messy problems" that they might have. He states that after some inquiry in the situation, often the true reason or problem emerges and it is then that new solutions might emerge (Schein, 2016). This is close to one of the fundamental reasons that we brainstorm - to "open up possibilities and break down incorrect assumptions." (Mind Tools, n.d.) However, there is a definite difference between the two approaches.  During brainstorming we throw out any an all possibilities - no matter how crazy. Possible solutions can come from anywhere and we tak...