Capturing Significant Projects? #lessons-learned
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ruby549 <Rebecca_A_Winter@...>
Hello
As many of you know, Whirlpool has just completed a significant acquisition. Our Project Management Office (group managing the acquisition) team has done a tremendous amount of work and we'd like to capture it/the learnings. Does anyone have suggestions/best practices about how to go about documenting a significant project such as this? As you can imagine, there is sensitivity around some of the knowledge - and there is a tremendous amount of information with 100's of different projects spanning all functions of our two organizations. Any suggestions/feedback that you can share is appreciated. Cheers, Rebecca ------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Winter Global Director Knowledge Management Whirlpool Corporation 269-923-7633
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Chris Riemer
Greetings, Rebecca...
In my experience, the artifacts that would naturally be
associated with such an effort (memos, presentations, spreadsheets, etc.) are of
limited use with a narrative to thread them together. If you have the narrative
clearly, whatever else you might collect can be slotted into some kind of useful
context. Without that, it's very hard to make sense of the individual bits and
pieces. I have a favorite David Weinberger essay on this topic, which you can
read at http://www.hyperorg.com/backissues/joho-feb5-99.html#narratives.
As far as capturing the narrative, you need to find those
people who were associated with the project who can tell the story as a story.
If you can record them doing so -- telling the story to a small group -- you'll
have a video or audio record that can be the backbone for whatever else you
might do.
Just a thought,
Chris
Chris Riemer
Principal Knowledge Street LLC
+1 973 292
2949
From: sikmleaders@... [mailto:sikmleaders@...] On Behalf Of ruby549 Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 10:56 AM To: sikmleaders@... Subject: [sikmleaders] Capturing Significant Projects? As many of you know, Whirlpool has just completed a significant acquisition. Our Project Management Office (group managing the acquisition) team has done a tremendous amount of work and we'd like to capture it/the learnings. Does anyone have suggestions/best practices about how to go about documenting a significant project such as this? As you can imagine, there is sensitivity around some of the knowledge - and there is a tremendous amount of information with 100's of different projects spanning all functions of our two organizations. Any suggestions/feedback that you can share is appreciated. Cheers, Rebecca ------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Winter Global Director Knowledge Management Whirlpool Corporation 269-923-7633
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Wallace, Richard <RICHARD.B.WALLACE@...>
Rebecca
The best approach that I have seen for a capture like this is a Retrospect that we use extensively within SAIC and Kent Greenes (who pioneered it) uses as well. We have looked a disparate things such as Hurricane Katrina response for the GAO and the US Navy, ammunition operations after the Gulf War, and product development for Frito lay. We capture the learnings and the context that they/it was learned in and the context for future reuse. We also tie the artifacts to the relevant parts of the capture. Would be happy to walk you through the process if you want to see if it fits. Cheers
From:
sikmleaders@... [mailto:sikmleaders@...] On Behalf Of ruby549
Hello
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David Snowden <snowded@...>
For projects mass narrative capture is one of the best ways
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People encounter knowledge by asking many people questions and synthesising the resulting anecdotes in the context of their need to create new knowledge This is more natural than case studies, or allowing experts to review stories and decide what is or is not appropriate The other useful thing in M&A work is that you can extract from a body of stories (using the people themselves) under lying values, themes and archetypes than can account for and provide an intervention device to reduce the impact of different cultures coming together. A purely explicit knowledge approach would miss this. This is our core area of competence and we have supporting software (to declare an interest) but happy to talk you thought it if you want Dave Snowden Founder, The Cynefin Centre www.cynefin.net
On 3 Apr 2006, at 15:55, ruby549 wrote: Hello
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Stan Garfield <stangarfield@...>
This reply is from Steven Wieneke of GM:
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-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Wieneke Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 10:21 AM To: Rebecca Winter Rebecca, Here is one of many websites focusing on After Action Reviews http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/knowledge_management/km2/aar_toolkit.asp that may prove helpful. This pdf file http://www.kminstitute.org/The_KM_Domain_October_2003.pdf contains suggestions for documenting best practices (Section 6, pp. 13-15). Section 6 describes types of best practices as well as sections within a best practice. Suggest dropping the word "best' and using product practices and process practices, or product knowledge and process knowledge. Getting started... 1. Suggest first splitting the knowledge topics into 2 categories - process and product. 2. Creating a "domain view" of topics under processes and another under product. The above pdf file contains an example of a domain view for KM. 3. Comparing Whirlpool's taxonomy to Maytag's would be very useful in this endeavor. The domain view can be used to create a taxonomy if one does not already exist. 4. Once the topics are identified, need to identify who the subject matter experts (SME) are for each topic. Publish a roster of SME by topic. May wish to refer to them as "subject manner responsible person/engineer" rather than "expert". 5. Now you need to decide how to best capture the knowledge, as well as who will be capturing "them" or "your staff", suggest "them" with "you coaching")- a) peer assists, b) action reviews, c) retrospects, d) interviews, e) videos, f) etc. 6. Other content categories: a) rosters, b) practices, c) key learnings, d)stories or vignettes, e) checklists or guidelines, f) procedures g) etc. 7. Create a communication package, coaching material and schedule 100's of sessions. Sounds like a great opportunity. Best of luck!
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Tom Short <tom.short@...>
I would second Steve's thoughts regarding an AAR approach as well as
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his step-by-step approach to establishing roles/ownership/ responsibilities. This highlights the notion that knowledge transfer is an energy-intensive activity, and can incur substantial costs. Regarding AAR's, I've recently become acquainted with the Wildland Fire organization and their work (link to it may be found at the bottom of the site Steve provided on AAR). I think AAR would be worth investigating further, given your stated objective. It provides a direct path to capturing lessons learned in a straightforward, scalable fashion. The Wildland Fire organization has done quite a lot of work rolling out after action learning - one of the more developed efforts on this front I've seen outside the military. Their lead has been invited to join this group - so perhaps she will chime in. Good luck, -Tom Short
-----Original Message-----that may prove helpful.in this endeavor. The domain view can be used to create a taxonomy ifwell as who will be capturing "them" or "your staff", suggest "them"
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Kaplan Bill <Bill.Kaplan@...>
If this is Pat Nasiatka, I spent much time with her a couple of years back discussing this model and we shared with each other the best ways to address the learning before, during, and after model to improve fire fighter performance. They have a great program that also brings in training and simulation. The fire fighters and their teams fully appreciate the value of getting the current experience from fire fighting to their team mates and into the training programs
Regards
--Bill Kaplan
From:
sikmleaders@... [mailto:sikmleaders@...] On Behalf Of Tom Short
I would second Steve's thoughts regarding an AAR
approach as well as
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven Wieneke > Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 10:21 AM > To: Rebecca Winter > > Rebecca, > > Here is one of many websites focusing on After Action Reviews > http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/knowledge_management/km2/aar_toolkit.asp that > may prove helpful. > > This pdf file > http://www.kminstitute.org/The_KM_Domain_October_2003.pdf contains > suggestions for documenting best practices (Section 6, pp. 13-15). > Section 6 describes types of best practices as well as sections > within a best practice. Suggest dropping the word "best' and using > product practices and process practices, or product knowledge and > process knowledge. > > Getting started... > > 1. Suggest first splitting the knowledge topics into 2 categories - > process and product. > > 2. Creating a "domain view" of topics under processes and another > under product. The above pdf file contains an example of a domain > view for KM. > > 3. Comparing Whirlpool's taxonomy to Maytag's would be very useful in > this endeavor. The domain view can be used to create a taxonomy if > one does not already exist. > > 4. Once the topics are identified, need to identify who the subject > matter experts (SME) are for each topic. Publish a roster of SME by > topic. May wish to refer to them as "subject manner responsible > person/engineer" rather than "expert". > > 5. Now you need to decide how to best capture the knowledge, as well > as who will be capturing "them" or "your staff", suggest "them" > with "you coaching")- > a) peer assists, > b) action reviews, > c) retrospects, > d) interviews, > e) videos, > f) etc. > > 6. Other content categories: > a) rosters, > b) practices, > c) key learnings, > d)stories or vignettes, > e) checklists or guidelines, > f) procedures > g) etc. > > 7. Create a communication package, coaching material and schedule > 100's of sessions. > > Sounds like a great opportunity. Best of luck! >
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