I am not a good project manager. There, I said it! Even 5 years in IBM could not drill the organised thought processes required to manage a big project into me. I'm just not wired for that. That being said however, I don't believe that all projects (I won't go so far to say no projects) lend themselves to being managed with structured, deterministic so-called "Waterfall" methodologies that are so popular in most IT companies. Agile methodologies like SCRUM are [...]
KM (or Knowledge Management) is quite a hot topic nowadays. There seem to be two factions, 1 believes that KM in it's existing form is a dying discipine, the other refuses to believe that. These discussions get quite emotional, which I guess is a good thing as it shows the passion for the subject on both sides of the spectrum. Personally I believe that most decision makers have developed a level of cynicism toward traditional KM, mostly I believe because [...]
This is fascinating! One of the first things I remember hearing Dave Snowden speak about is how people make decisions. According to cognitive science we only have a very small percentage of what's in our visual range in sharp focus at any given time. We see through a series of spot observations and fill in the rest based on past experience. This often leads us to physically not see things that don't fit our expectations or patterns. I remember when [...]
Sonja and I are in Cape Town tomorrow for the Unashamedly Ethical conference on Friday and Saturday. Since the release of the King 3 report on corporate governance earlier this month, there is increased pressure for Board's and Directors to report on and manage the ethical performace of their companies. Managing ethics? The reality is that the realm of ethics is a profoundly complex problem, a problem that escapes direct management ... added to this complexity is the problem of human nature [...]
I will be guest blogging on www.cognitive-edge.com for the next two weeks, so feel free to follow my "musings" there. I'll be discussing some of our current and forthcoming opportunities here in South Africa. Remember also to catch Dave Snowden @ the CSIR on the 19th of August where he'll be talking about "Making KM strategic to your organisation".
We do so much work in the mine safety arena, that I couldn't help but chuckle at the truth that Jeremy Nell has uncovered in this recent cartoon:
Last week Monday through Wednesday we hosted the 2009 Cognitive Edge Accreditation course in Sunninghil. Steve Bealing, CEO ofCognitive Edge came over from Singapore to present the session. It was his first time in South Africa, and he was probably exhausted after a visit to the De Wildt Cheetah breeding project, watching the Conferation Cup semi-final at Ellis Park and rounding off his visit with a weekend in the African bush. The course was a resounding success, with an eclectic mix of attendees from a [...]
Dave Snowden is in the country early in August and will be giving a public talk for the Pretoria chapter of the KM Practitioner Forum at the CSIR on the 19th. I've attached the invite for your convenience The topic is "How to make KM strategic to your organisation". Dave's talks are always challenging and entertaining. Seats are limited and registrations are coming in quickly, so make sure you register soon to ensure your spot. I hope to see you there! Attachment [...]
Our friends at Kaizania are hosting a SCRUM trainingcourse at the end of this month, and for those who don't know, it has nothing to do with rugby! We've long been interested in the SCRUM methodology, an AGILE approach to project management. It has a solid foundation in complexity and makes use of narrative techniques to ensure effective communication and delivery, especially on complex projects where the end goal is not narrowly defined. It is most often used in the software development space, but we [...]
This blog entry onOpen Forum got me thinking. Specifically this paragraph: "Find some truth tellers. The first thing every CEO must realize is that everyone is lying to him (her too). It just happens. They didn’t coin the phrase “shoot the messenger” for no reason. There are many wonderful organizations out there for CEOs that provide truth-telling services. Vistage is an international group whose tag line is something like “Have your answers questioned.” It’s pretty clear that their ideal customer is the CEO who [...]
