conversation matters
Nancy Dixon focuses on the people side of knowledge management. Our most effective knowledge sharing tool is conversation. The words we choose, the questions we ask, and the metaphors we use to explain ourselves, are what determine our success in creating new knowledge, as well as sharing that knowledge with each other.
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Assessments and Lessons Learned
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My Published Articles
Intellipedia Study: A DIA Knowledge Lab Project, 2008
How A-Space is Shaping Analysts' Work: A DIA Laboratory Project, 2009
The Hallways of Learning, Organizational Dynamics, 1997
Struggling to Invent High-Reliability In Health Care Settings, Health Services Research, Vol 41, 2006
Does Your Organization Have an Asking Problem?, KM Review, Vol 7 2004
The Neglected Receiver of Knowledge Sharing, Ivey Business Journal, March 2002
The Responsibilities of Members in An Organization that is Learning. The Learning Organization, Vol 5, 1998
The Stages of Development In Communities of Practice, Develop, NR-3 2006
Don't Just Capture Knowledge - Put It To Use. HBR, May 2008
CompanyCommand: A Professional Community That Works, ASK Magazine, Summer 2007
nancydixonblog.com by Nancy Dixon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Can Democracy Survive in America Without Organizations Becoming Democratic?
"Democracy is a tough way to live. With all its flaws, I think it beats the alternatives. I do not wish to have someone else, no matter how educated, well intentioned, wealthy, or wise, decide unilaterally what is best for me. Unless we are deeply involved in our work, we cannot feel good about ourselves. Unless we work with others toward valued goals, we cannot infuse hope and aspiration into our lives. Unless we treat one another as equals, we cannot find dignity, meaning, and community in work. Unless we make our own mistakes, and learn to forgive ourselves, we cannot learn at all. Unless we cooperate we cannot survive." Marvin Weisbord, 1996
Each time I read Weisbord's quote, it brings to mind a question, "How can we have a democratic society, when most of our working lives are spent within organizations that are far from being democratic?" Even within western cultures, which have overturned monarchies and reduced the impact of class, organizations remain places where hierarchy and privilege closely resemble the monarchies or class-based societies of the past. Consider that most organizations are places where:
organizational policy and strategy decisions are made by CEOs, whose actions have too often revealed that their primary interest is in lining their own pockets and that of their shareholders, with little concern for the environment, the well being of employees or the communities in which those organizations function. (Buybacks of company stock rather than increasing employee salary from the tax cuts; inappropriate use of Covid 19 emergency fund)
the disparity of income between those at the top of organizations and workers is excessive and unconscionable. (The average S&P 500 CEO earned $14 million in 2017, 361 times the average worker's salary; compared to a ratio of only 42 in 1980. From 1979 to 2018, net productivity rose 69.6 percent, while the hourly pay of typical workers increased only 11.6 during that same 39 year period.)
employees frequently find themselves in an adult/child relationship with their managers, reducing their ability to make use of the knowledge and insight they have gained to address the work problems they face. Rather they are told what to focus on, how to do it, and how long it should take.
employees suffer from a competitive culture that too often results in depression, heart attack and disengagement. (The health website WebMD reported that work was the number one source of stress. The American Psychological Association's 2015 report Stress in America noted that the top two sources of stress were money and work, with almost one-quarter of all adults reporting extreme levels of stress. Sixty-one percent said that workplace stress had made them physically sick, and 7 percent said they had been hospitalized because of workplace stress and its physiological effects. The prevalence of heart attacks on Monday morning has caused hospitals to staff emergency rooms to correspond to the increased risk.)
those at the top control information. The resulting secrecy leads to damaging and even illegal organizational behavior, which if employees had full awareness, they would not support, indeed would feel ashamed. (VW emission control scandal, the Wells Fargo Bank customer deceptions.)
No citizens of a democracy would allow their government such control over their lives in the way organizations exert control over their employees. Mary Parker Follett* once said, she could not understand how people could complain about small freedoms taken away, like helmet laws or seat belts, yet were willing to function as surfs within the walls of an organization. I echo that sentiment. In answer to my own question, "How can we have a democratic society, when most of our working lives are spent within organizations that are far from being democratic?" I believe we cannot have a democratic society unless we rethink the governance of our organizations.
Writing as early as 1989, in "Reassessing the Divine Rights of Managers," Edgar Schein said, "soon we will need to develop a new picture of what a manager should be. Hierarchical authority will probably play a much small role in that picture, while coordination skills will play a much larger role." But he cautioned "Our thinking about these matters is hampered by one major, deeply embedded cultural assumption so taken for granted that it is difficult even to articulate. This is the assumption that all organizations are fundamentally hierarchical in nature, and that the management process is fundamentally hierarchical." He said, "We need models, but we may have difficulty inventing them because of the automatic tendency to think hierarchically."
The first step, in bringing about this much needed change is the recognition, as Schein reminds us, that the items in the above list are not "givens." We now have the models that Schein said we were in needed of. There are now numerous organizations that have developed new approaches to organizational governance, although few would use the term democracy. Instead they are called, Deliberately Developmental Organizations (Kegan), Self Designed, Learning Organizations (Dixon), Holocracy (Robertson), Teal Organizations (Laloux), Conversational Firms (Turco) as well as a host of other terms. Whatever the label, they are organizations with little, if any hierarchy, in which employees make the decisions about what work they do and how they do that work, and in which employees influence the overall strategic direction. And there are many more organizations that are moving in that direction, as seen by the increase in self-directed teams and Agile teams.
I have many ideas about what is propelling this change, as well as, specific examples of how governance is being implemented in different organizations because indeed, these examples differ by size and context. But those topics are for other posts. In this post, I only wanted to lay out my concerns about the problems that result from our current model of governance and acknowledge the growing movement toward a revisioning of how organizations might governing themselves in a way that acknowledges respect for employees, community and the environment. I would be very appreciative to hear from you either in the comment section or through email,(nancydixon@commonknowledge.org) about what thoughts this post as sparked in you?
*Mary Parker Follett, was denied a Doctorate at Harvard on the grounds that she was woman. She was one of the first women ever invited to address the London school of economics, where she was invited to address the London school of economics, she distinguished herself in the field of management by being sought by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt as his personal consultant, on managing not-for-profit, non-governmental and voluntary organizations. Peter Drucker identified her as his guru.
Posted at 06:26 PM in Effective Conversations , How We Learn in Organizations , Collective Intelligence | Permalink
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