This document summarizes a presentation about making organizations smarter by improving the flow of information, ideas, and decisions. It discusses how the modern digital world requires organizations to be more adaptable and responsive. Traditional command-and-control cultures and siloed structures inhibit these flows. The presentation advocates for building an enterprise networking platform to facilitate open sharing, using a learning mindset to constantly evaluate new information and ideas, and adopting a "gardenership" leadership model to nudge change. It emphasizes that organizational change is difficult but important for thriving in today's volatile, uncertain environment.

1. Out of Sight / Mind
Knowledge in Faster Decision-making
Gordon Vala-Webb
September 2018 KM Forum
World Bank
Gordon@BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com
@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com

2. Two key questions
Is your world . . .
Volatile
Uncertain
Complex
Ambiguous
Is your team . . .
Smart enough to
handle it?
@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 2

3. About me . . .
@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 3
Brocksway Information Technology

4. About you . . .
•Region?
•Familiarity with KM?
•Feedback on ideas?
•Too many emails?
@BuildSmarterorg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 4

5. Why smarter organizations?
Old vs. VUCA-Digital world
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6. VUCA-Digital world
cc: frogthroat - https://www.flickr.com/photos/22980078@N04
“The Specter of an Accidental China-U.S. War”
“Sears tanked because the company
failed to shift to digital.”
6

7. Our organizations optimized for “old” world
@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 7
Old world
Grow big
Reliably repetitive
Control
VUCA – Digital world
Grow adaptable
Radically responsive
Predict

8. Volatility = Obsolescence squeeze
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https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/why-lean-enterprise-transformation-hard

9. Uncertainty / Ambiguity / Complexity =
What is happening?
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Classifying Experimental Designs
Source: https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/expclass.php

10. Smarter work
Source: http://cdn.dupress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-01-at-9.20.13-PM.png?2b7236
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11. #ChangeIsComing
• Predictions & Bets
• Flows of info, ideas
decisions
• Designing / Nurturing
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12. Symptoms
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13. One change: 125 different people, 700+ interactions
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Gottfredson, M. (2012, June 28). “The focused company.” Bain & Company. Bain Brief. Retrieved from http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-focused-company.aspx
Slow flow of decisions

14. Slow flow
of
ideas
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Source: Fishbrne, T. (n.d). “Helping GrowthCloud Communicate Ways To Grow With Their Clients.” Image. Retrieved from
https://marketoonist.com/campaigns/all/growthcloud

15. Diagnosis
Sclerosis of the information arteries
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16. Flow of information, ideas and decisions
http://www.squ.edu.om/Portals/20/PDF/World%20Water%20Day%202011/Adrian%20Bejan_%20The%20Constructal%20Law%20of%20Design%20in%20Nature%20.pdf
“For a finite-size system to
persist in time (to live), it
must evolve in such a way
that it provides easier access
to the imposed currents that
flow through it.”
Constructal law, Adrian Bejan
16@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com

17. Silent brainstorm and group discussion
1. Silent brainstorm (4 minutes – 4 ideas):
What are the barriers your team / organization to flows:
Information
Ideas
Decisions
2. Group discussion: Top three most common barriers
3. Report out
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18. Flow constraint: Silo-based decision-making
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19. Flow constraint: Command-and-control culture
Do as I say
Don’t think too
much
Don’t make
mistakes
Don’t be too
different
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20. Flow constraint: Disengagement
• Taylor - Scientific mgmt
• Multiplicity of rules and
procedures
• Surprising number of
psychopathic leaders
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21. Flow constraint: Email!
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Memorandum to Secretary Walcott re: his son Stuart’s grave site; as found in “Evolution of the Memo, 1849-2011.” (2011,
November 17). Smithsonian Institute Archives. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/SIArchives/evolution-of-the-memo
Closed
Connects
few-to-few
Random info
structure

22. Smart organizations
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23. Smart teams, smart organizations have . . .
• Poll Everywhere: Teams / Organizations
• Smart teams / organizations
o Use a broad range of information:
• More sources, faster processing
o Constantly learning
• Make predictions / bets; rethink and redo
o Make good decisions quickly
• Especially cross-silo, complex ones
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24. Smart teams / Org
Key component
Situational awareness
•Broad range of info
•Fast signal and the
noise sorting
•Precedents don’t
help – figure stuff
out!
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25. @BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 25
• Pull what and when you need info
• Info and ideas are openly available
• Working together in a document
• Info has structure and context
Source: http://www.pwc.com.ar/es_AR/ar/publicaciones-por-industria/assets/transforming-collaboration-with-social-tools.pdf
Fast flow info / ideas: Enterprise networking platform

26. Fast sorting:
Mindset
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• Shift to connected-
and-contributing
• Aim for mass
spontaneous
alignment
• Encourage
vulnerability

27. Fast learning:
Model testing
•Building and rebuilding
models to understand
the world
•Experimentation
•Unlearning
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28. The change challenge
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29. Group discussion:
How hard is it to make change in your organization?
“There is nothing more difficult to
take in hand, more perilous to
conduct, or more uncertain in its
success, than to take the lead in the
introduction of a new order”
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
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30. Shifting the equilibrium – polarity management
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Source: Koller, R. (n.d.). Oversimplifying Change Management. Blog post. Retrieved from
http://www.howtochangemanagement.com/2012/12/oversimplifying-change-management.html
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31. Influence: feeling creatures that think
David Rock, “SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others”;
NeuroLeadership Journal, 2008
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/thurs_georgia_9_10_915_covello.pdf
@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 31

32. Gardenership – a new model for leaders
Shape an organization’s internal ecosystem using its own energy
Managing Gardening
Order Nudge
Correct Coach
Tell and confirm Observe and reflect
Plan and execute Probe and seek
feedback
32@BuildSmarterorg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com

33. “Try or try not. There is only do not with no try."
Gordon Vala-Webb – Building Smarter Organizations 2016 Slide 33
“Try or try not.
There is only
do not with no
try."
33
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34. Wrap up
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35. “The soft stuff is the hard stuff”(Chris Cool)
•Find what is fun for you
•Build your own support network
•Start before you are ready to
being
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36. Questions?
Old org
Slow flow, looking
in and backwards
@BuildSmarterOrg
www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 36
New org
Fast flow, looking
out and forward
36