What’s the value

‘Knowledge sharing’ improves performance, productivity and innovation by capitalising on the expertise and experiences of people in the organisation.

Modern rates of knowledge acquisition are measured by its ‘half-life’, just how quickly knowledge is becoming obsolete. To handle the explosion in knowledge and know-how requires different strategies from personal acquisition and ownership. With phrases such as “I store my knowledge in my friends” and similar sharing and network-based concepts – the technology, processes and most importantly the attitudes towards knowledge sharing have changed – and organisations are finding it necessary to adapt and adopt the new ways.

Why is it valid

By implementing knowledge sharing models and methods, organisations have been able to avoid wasteful reinvention, and to speed up the time to effective deployment of new ideas and technologies. This is particularly important in environments dependent on external resource, where there is a need to quickly align diverse work practices and provides an opportunity to acquire and assimilate new expertise.

What you will experience

A structured programme that identifies, manages and delivers the change required (on the levels of processes, systems and people) in order to maximise performance, gain competitive advantage and avoid waste. In a knowledge sharing organisation, individuals are aware, can access and build on available organisational expertise and experiences through taking an active part in communities of practice (knowledge networks) which values the two-way flow of knowledge.

CITI have worked with clients, both in the private sector (e.g. leading financial service organisations) and the governmental sector (e.g. high communication & security organisations) in establishing environments, where knowledge-sharing has become embedded in the culture and collaboration and communication of knowledge are an integral part of ‘the way we do things’.

How you might start

Organisations maps what is important, where it resides, who owns how it and it is accessed.
Working with CITI a new map is drawn in which boundaries are redrawn, interworking patterns set out, the half-life of knowledge and information established, and a value model that attributes ‘worth’ to the information held established.

Implementing knowledge sharing is a cultural change, it does require good change disciplines and leadership: visionary, political, action-oriented and at the personal interaction level.

Example models, methods & tools used

KM readiness
Programme toolkit (including SIPP)
CoPs
Gamification

Clients we have helped realise this value

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What’s the value

A clear view of the capacity and capability of change-related disciplines permits an organisation to be more confident in change delivery and to plan effectively for future demand for change.

Capability assessment uses a number of measures to identify the capacity of change professionals to approach and perform discipline tasks effectively.

Why is it valid

Research conducted by Cranfield IT Institute into the attributes of successful project managers, together with further analysis conducted at various universities, has identified a number of key attributes and relevant contributory dimensions to capability in project management; knowledge, attitude, skills and experience – known as the KASE model. This has been used as the basis for assessing over 37,000 project managers, and over the last decade has been extended to other change disciplines.

What you will experience

While change professionals can take advantage of corporate development opportunities presented by annual appraisal and HR / L&D processes, it is not usual that their professional capability is assessed other than by the results they achieve. Such an assessment can appear threatening, and careful management is required to ensure trust and co-operation. The profile approach adopted by CITI reduces this as it focuses on evaluation of competences and capabilities –not just achievement.

How you might start

The assessment uses a number of online questionnaires, but attitudes, and more especially skills, are best determined face to face, using case study-based structured interviews.

The capability assessment results are discussed with the individuals as one of a number of inputs to their personal development planning. In addition, by aggregating the results a profile of the competence of the community can also be presented to management, which is used to identify any generic weaknesses and to plan for, and match capability to the future demand to be made on it.

An understanding of both individual and community capability allows organisations to structure and allocate work with greater confidence of success, and to plan more effectively in preparing for future change demands.

Example models, methods & tools used

KASE (Kivit chart)
IMJ chart
Learning mix against capability
Sample group outputs (e.g. group capability against sector/overall)

Clients we have helped realise this value

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What’s the value

Expertise transfer (Secondment) enables organisations to gain access, on a short time basis, of an expert resource able to not only guide them through the change initiative, but also to help them to embed knowledge and expertise within the organisational change community.
CITI change consultants are a source of independent change expertise (based on IP developed over the last 25 years in project, programme and portfolio and change management). They adapt the approach to match the culture and situation, leading to the embedding of the changed behaviours and performance that were the basis of the change initiative.
Expertise transfer engagements are short interventions that speed up the adoption of change and to provide the skills necessary to plan, implement and successfully embed change.

Why is it valid

It has been found that there is no adequate substitute for experience in many fields of endeavour – and for directed change – change brought about through projects and programmes – this is especially true.
Expertise transfer has been found to be the most efficient way for organisations to gain a form of accelerated experience – access to an expert able to guide them through the change initiative and to embed capability within the organisational change community.

What you will experience

CITI will place a change consultant into the client organisation to bring independent change expertise based on our IP developed over the last 25 years in project, programme and portfolio and change management.

CITI experts work closely with the organisation to make its change initiatives safe and simple. We look to place a consultant within the client for short periods to help them with processes, tools and to provide benchmarked guidance and advice to accelerate the adoption process.

CITI experts will adapt their approach to match the organisational culture and situation, leading to the effective embedding of the changed behaviours and performance that were the basis of the change initiative.

How you might start

When the benefit case that sits behind the change initiative is not regarded as compelling, where there are pockets of resistance blocking the behavioural and performance changes that underpin he benefit case, and when the change plan is stalled – call CITI – these are all common launch pads for our services.

When organisations are undertaking directed change initiatives they are faced with some common threads of challenges and barriers. These organisational challenges may include, for example, the benefit case behind the change initiative is not regarded as compelling, or pockets of resistance blocking the behavioural and performance changes that underpin the benefit case, or the change plan’s rate of progress does not match the organisation’s or stakeholders’ needs and expectations. CITI is helping organisations to overcome these common issues and make change initiatives simple and safe.

Example models, methods & tools used

Our consultants and our associates have full access to CITI’s IP that has been developed over the last 25 years.

Clients we have helped realise this value

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What’s the value

Reflect – Learn – Apply embeds improved practices and consistent behaviours within a community of practice by exposing and building on the experiences and expertise within the group. It provides a form of accelerated experience.

Education and change research proves that real management development occurs when individuals translate their intuitions into judgemental understanding. This comes about when they recognise the clear and immediate relevance of what they are considering to their work experience.

Why is it valid

True learning occurs when views are exchanged. Critical thinking, the reflection on what experience has taught, is used as the basis for subsequent actions.

CITI’s format for causing sustained behavioural and performance change provokes active engagement from participants as they work through a series of challenges. These are generated from the use and differing interpretations of common internal processes. Many individuals have a wealth of experience and CITI’s approach explores, evolves and enriches this through a series of conversations and challenges.

When the participants return to their workplace, they can immediately see how to adapt and adopt the tools and techniques they have talked through with their colleagues. They will also benefit from critical networks of support; those people they can call to discuss and extend the use and value of what they are doing.

What you will experience

Learning done this way accelerates experience. When learning to ride a bicycle, first you may watch others riding and think, “I’d like to do that!”. Having observed others, you need to get involved by doing; you get on the bike (sometimes with training wheels, mostly not) and experience the ‘feeling’ of balancing and peddling. We get feedback on our progress; perhaps physically as we fall, perhaps through verbal encouragement and advice. Through this process we get better at riding. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you reflect on the experience. Understanding what you did and what it felt like allows you to make further attempts and master the process.

How you might start

In a Reflect-Learn-Apply programme, the starting point is an opportunity for members of a project community to share views and observations. All contributors are on an equal footing and ideas and experiences are pooled. A ‘map’ of the subject under debate is established. Points of interest, i.e. difficulties that occur in the managing of projects, are structured as challenges. Becoming involved in solving a challenge is like getting on the bike: it is the point when knowledge and theory is confronted by the realities of ‘uneven surfaces’ and ‘uncertain balance’.

Through working with peers; the various suggested approaches and solutions are exposed to rapid and varied feedback. These include critiques from an expert whose value lies in the width and depth of previous exposure to the challenge. This widens the basis for the examination of the ideas and focuses attention on possible omissions – those things not thought of that are nonetheless worth consideration.

At the conclusion of the programme – usually 8 -10 weeks and perhaps 4 workshops with work-based effort – the learning is converted into artefacts, procedures and processes. More importantly, there are shifts in attitudes and behaviours that are enduring.

Example models, methods & tools used

Various CITI models, methods & tools

Clients we have helped realise this value

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What’s the value

Why is it valid

What you will experience

How you might start

Example models, methods & tools used

Clients we have used this method for

The post Communities of practice appeared first on CITI consultancy solutions.

What’s the value

The appetite for delivery and for change by the Board of an organisation is no longer constrained by unknown or unanticipated lack of competence or capacity.

By focusing on disciplines expected to be most involved in future change plans, investment in corporate capability has more rapid payback and is better directed.

Why is it valid

Strategy affects and in some cases even determines the competences an organisation needs. It is also known – and well described in the 7S model – that the strategy of an organisation is affected by – and often determined by – its competences and capabilities. Being unaware or what needs to be built can frustrate the implementation of strategy and may subvert it.

What you will experience

The description of organisational capability and competence involves both job profiling and people profiling. In job profiling, analysis of ‘touching roles’ establishes how and to what extent responsibilities are distributed across processes and across the organisational structures. Individuals in roles are interviewed and RACI workshops are run and results are mapped against any defined job descriptions.

Competency evaluations are made and these are also mapped against the job profiles.

How you might start

The impetus for this type of review commonly comes from the introduction of a new system or new line of business that disturbs the operational governance model, or when an operational managers role is split between two people.

Example models, methods & tools used

RACI workshops
Profiling to base line capability levels
CHIP to establish detailed change demands and to assess resilience of functional units in the face of planned change

Clients we have used this method for

The post Corporate capability building appeared first on CITI consultancy solutions.

What’s the value

For the right types of projects, deploying Agile development techniques will give significant (up to 30%) reductions in cost and time and improvement in quality. To deploy it with safety requires a different, and in some ways more sophisticated, application of project management disciplines.

Why is it valid

Project management is a risk management vehicle. If an entity is to be managed, it must be measured, and the measurement compared with expectations. To act otherwise requires management to underwrite speculative developments which many senior managers will find unacceptable.

What you will experience

Implementations of Agile are many and varied, and the initial step is to establish the principle methods and mechanisms that have been adopted.

There follows a negotiation involving Agile practitioners and management which allows management to effectively measure and apply control to Agile development while not constraining the methods to the extent that the undoubted advantages they bring are lost.

How you might start

When a candidate for using Agile is identified, the PMO should establish the appropriate project strategy to cope with the different needs of this product development life cycle.

Where the PMO or development shop has little history with the use of these methods, it is sensible to invest in acquiring measurement and logging tools and techniques to cope with the lack of a plan or schedule to monitor progress and testing cycles against. This is where CITI most often starts – developing ways of assuring that the technical teams are tracking towards project rather than technical objectives.

Example models, methods & tools used

Agile methods
Agile training
Project management monitoring tools
Test management metrics

Clients we have used this method for

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