Reality, expectations, management, fear

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The Working Group on the themes of reality, expectatios, managment and fear reflected back these points:

• interesting topic because the reality and expectation is a problem within CARE ie. pilot project, limited resources, lack of understanding on costs, same now on a global level - how to articulate what it will cost
• common problem - here is a good idea, go out and do it
• making a large change from the middle
• assigned to a project to introduce systematic learning, KM in the organisation
• asked to produce a KM plan (the silver bullet); clear that it isn't going to provide the answers to problems
• no one plan can work, different contexts require different approaches
• KS was pushed by Management in one case, different set up
• struggling in countries with high hierachies
• fear/trust issues come back time and time
• haven't seen any valuable exchange without trust
• creating a culture
• learning from the learning approach (where KM has tended to be) vs adopting a learning posture ie. being ready to learn; the latter is an OL approach
• tend to apply KM literature in all situations; could find yourself in archetypical situations ie. you have to produce a KM plan in an unrealistic timeframe with little support; the world back scenarios
• top dog has just learned about KM but real interest is wafer-thin; shaky level
• senior management level is taking orders
• middle managers want nothing to do with it and have seen it all before
• workers have little support
• barriers at all levels
• people who come into the roles are enthusiasts and optimists which makes sense because there are apparent gains
• short term is a tool to help understand your context (situational analysis) and longer term to develop a self-assessment matrix

• authority structure
• time line

• archetypal situation where different tools have a different successes
• describe the organisational setting; leadership, workers setting ie. the hand that you are dealt

• People
• environment

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