The Culture Aspect of Adoption

Theres an excellent post by Stan Garfield about Culture and Values in the organization, with the context of KM. This is one of the most important aspects, to to my mind, one of the trickiest, too. It is one thing to espouse values, and totally another to be able to actually get the people in the organization to actually live those. Lets face it ... Each one of us have a set of values. Values we grew up with, and values which are closer to us, than values which a company might want us to espouse. Which is why, there is usually the disconnect to be found. This is compounded by the legacy that the company might have fostered. In relatively younger companies, it is relatively easier to get adoption of a set of values, than in a company where there is a legacy which hinders the change.

This is probably the reason why there is typically a disconnect between the managers, and the people on the field. For example, when there is the adoption challenge being addressed in the organization, managers usually love the idea of KM (of course, there are lots of them who dont), but by and large ... But, on the field, which is where the work is being done, and value delivered to customers, people have a different set of thoughts. In an era where managers want their people to do more with less, the pressure on people is huge, and this is one sure hindrance to adoption of KM as a tool to develop a better business. I have written about this before, and I think adoption is the challenge that needs to be addressed. To put it in a Chicken-and-Egg situation: People wont adopt KM till they see value, and KM wont generate value till people adopt KM. This is the scenario which needs to be addressed. This is happening, definitely, but are we in the direction where this is becoming pervasive? I dont think we are even close, even with CEO bloggers, who are few and far between.