Juha-Matti Arola’s blog

 I was participating into Kites-Symposium in Kouvola, Finland on Oct 23, 2008.

 Klaus Oesch

Kites started based on the results of the Fenix program funded by Tekes, a research and development fund financed by the Finnish state. The results were that the following areas are very important for the future: knowledge management incl. semantic web, social media services incl. web 2.0, games and edutainment incl. synchronous - synchronous, crossmedia as well as hybridimedia incl. attitude change from paper into electronic form.

As another result we should be aiming towards intelligent working socities in knowledge management, Internet technologies, value-added societies as well as learning & sharing practises. This is meaning a virtual powerfication as a driver of understanding including virtuality and actualization. This needs multidisciplinary research around IT, communication and educational sciences.

Now we should aiming for a new type of research structure, because discipline-oriented approach is not any more working. Company-oriented and user-based research projects are important.

While positioning ”understanding” technology and in point of view linguistic technology, it will be linked for example into intelligent services, interactive multimedia, ontology development, learning technologies, web 2.0 participation, multicultural, multimeaningfullness etc. This should be researched at the living lab testbeds.

We should be preparing the understanding research programme in Finland.

Reach-programme, Juha Pöytsiä, Finnish Chemical Industry

The REACH-programme is the most compligated project and process in EU. The companies should be clarifying the following: 1. Clarifying the chemistry substance in co-operation of EU-based manufacturers and importers, 2. Instructions should be created, 3. Dangerous chemicals to be informed for the end users, 4. Permits for all the dangerous chemicals.

REACH is changing the responsibility from the manufacturer, importer into the full chain. Currently the semiregistering in progress, then substance identity confirmation and data transfer & classification. In practise the base of REACH initiative includes about 8000 pages, which guides identification of the substance.

Currently 40000 chemicals registered, so there will be 40000 forums among the manufacturers and the importers for working together, but remembering the EU competitive legislation.

Challenges still existing as follows: system unclarity, unclarities of substances, lack of expertise and common language.

Reijo Heinämäki, Metso Corporation 

 

Metso is a global technology company, now truly organized globally. Asia is growing and at the same time Europe is stable, so recruitment is more happening. For the first time the knowledge has been raised into the strategical thinking. Now shift to 50/50 between white/blue collar workers, so knowledge should be kept up-to-date.

Metso will be launching a new strategy at the beginning next year. Still a lot of guidance/decisions made in Finland, not in other parts of the world. Now we should be concentrating more into Asia, where Metso has been having a presence for a long time. Currently expats amount transferred from Finland has been descreasing, as the skill/knowlege level is increasing in China. The local languages are definitely needed. 

A lot of processes are shifted from Europe and Asia, so more communication and interactions are needed. The needed automation knowledge has been doubled/tripled, although the window for training has not been widened. Explicit knowledge is still a challenge, so content management systems are still needed. We are still making too much formal training about 80000 hrs, but the most important is the informal trainings.   

Kaija Pöysti

 

What is included in Enterprise 2.0, email and intranet: different combinations of these tools create a virtual workplace. 95% of company’s team work is done via email. Intranet is not working as there is a handful of admin persons, so it does not work.

Wikis started already 1995 by Ward Cunningham, WikiWikiWeb, a set of web pages can be edited by multiple persons, blogs, RSS feeds (when page changes, it sends alerts)

Why enterprise 2.0 will be marketed? Globalization is now here. Speed is to way how to work it, we need now the tools that are simple and easy to use. Getting the new ideas, look at the Cisco, IPrize games as a example

Email load becomes impossible to manage (young generation does not use in IM instead of email)

Google enterprise is going well as search needs within the companies grow

Wiki facts: 1 % contributes, 10 % edits and 90 % reads, better figures in corporations found, great benefits in efficiency 

What’s new here: Enterprise 2.0 does do the same issues as KM solutions used to try, Enterprise 2.0: bottom up, emerging structure, small tools which can be implemented quickly and with small budgets

Advantages of social media

- reducing the amount of email

- accumulating and sharing information

- “enriched corporate phone book” using facebook application

- evaluating expertise (banking/ranking: evaluating contributions from others like Amazon book ranking)

- creating ideas, innovations, shared views (innovation, problem solving)

- including customers and partners e.g. lead user/customer innovation like Lego

the  biggest challenge is multilingual enterprise 2.0 is language: English is still the biggest language in social media, other languages Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, French, Arabic and Portuguese - one remedy to build separate discussion forums for different languages - relevant parts could be translated into English or using Machine Translation (MT), not perfect but enough useful

Folksonomies will be important as a result of consumer-developed content

The third important factor while making business decisions was to consult the peer comments on the net

I was participating on Sep 3 at TKK in VMStan Seminar, in which I was also lecturing.

 

Renate Fruchter, Stanford University via video on-demand.

 

-         how to work together while personnel located in Asia, Europe and Americas

-         what is the nature of collaborative team workers?

– collaboration technology & services

– theory & ethnographic

– practice in education and industry

– iterative approach

- global teamwork ecosystem

– people

— vertical markets

—- students

—- faculty

—- industry

– places

— private

—- home

—- office

— local

—- coffeehouse

—- meetingroom

— regional

—- lab

— global

—- PBL-Hubs-Network

– collaboration technologies

— informal

—- talking paper

—- ReCall

—- Divas

—- BrainMerge

— formal

—- ThinkTank

—- ProMem

—- CoMem

– devices

— XXS Cell

— XS PDA

— S Tablet PC

— M Desktop

— L Smartboard

— XL iRoom

– network infrastructure

— fixed

—- LAN/WAN

—- internet-2

— mobile

—- WiFi

—- GSM/GRPS

-         bits (virtual), bricks (physical) & interaction (social)

– all of these has been built by different persons

– knowledge workers are forced to be between these elements, therefore it is important to look at this holistically in order to start discussion in your organizations

- fusion of physical, digital and virtual

– cases: physical labs linked with the telepresence with other sites (videoconference meeting) in Puerto Rico and in Germany

– case: three Smartboards in a room

– case: virtualworld – bringing 3D model handled by avatars used by persons in different locations

– case: social interaction aspect socializing in Second Life

questions:

- cultural issues in virtual collaboration?

- Avatar-utilized simulations like Forterra (dark hotel evacuation example)

- Second Life demo while TKK (Aalto university) establishing a new island etc.

Virpi Ruohomäki, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University

Integrated workplaces for new ways of working - case: Sun Microsystems from Silicon Valley, CA

- cases: HP, Cisco, Sun done

- places, people and technology

– in Finnish organizations these issues are handled in different departments or silos, meaning uncoordinated strategies and actions

- new ways of working seminar results

– integrated working initiative in Sun Microsystems already for 12 years (Eric Richter)

– pilot project in Great Britain, open work solutions now in 140 countries

– SUN = Stanford University Network, as well as HP, Cisco, Google etc. have been emerged from Stanford University activities

- working places

– in whereever and in whatever time

– flexible for visiting purposes or for longer time reservations

– one ID card does open the doors as well as the PCs + normal office suppliers + integrated VOIP telephony system following the person and guaranteeing the VOIP.

– teamwork rooms

– private offices

– cafe drop-in offices utilizing work/catering including single, team and private possibilities

– global reservation systems using the ID card reserving a room in Rome when at Santa Clara

– standing offices + also garden used for meeting

– 35000 utilizing the remote working + 20000 totally virtual (10 % totally working at home)

– personnel making the initiatives while 73 % totally satisfied for this flexibility

– all the managers are trained

– management principle: goal-oriented leading, availability based on the rules/the districts + participation should be guaranteed 

- egological awareness now rapidly grown in the Silicon Valley, which gives challenges towards to this model + virtual management will be continuously trained

- Voip + PCs integrated

 

Niina Nurmi, Visiting Researcher at Stanford University

- Context, job conditions, job demands -> performance

- contect, job conditions, job demands -> psychological well-being

– positive affect

– job engagement

– job satisfaction

– autonomy

– personal growth

- stress at work

– reduction in quality/quantity at work

– indecisiveness

– tiredness

– loss sense of humor

– stress is invisible at virtual work

Team Processes:

- 1 Group formation

– kick-off face-to-face -> role clarity, trust and responsiveness

– jointly developed goals, schedules, protocols and shared processes

– remember cultural differences (agressive culture are often dominant like EU/US not Asian)

- 2 Time management

– time separation due to timezones causing delays for the projects

– collaboration takes time due to timezones (effective time for meeting is limited)

– remember to clarify goals, roles and responsibilities as well as use subgroups

- 3 Performance management

– follow up, evaluations and feedback

– cultural differences in hierarchy as well as giving feedback

- 4 power tension management

– Risk in achieving the task compliance, missing due dates

– distance to HQ and cultural diversity (e.g. language, work behavior and attitude) increase power differences

– power will be increased: site visits, virtual visibility, access to information and resources (transparency), knowledge networks

- 5 conflict management

– conflicts often reflect power tensions

– language barriers, differences in behavior and misunderstandings

– understand cultural differences: avoidance vs. competitive stance

– remember to communicate and be patient !

Communications

- 6 knowledge sharing

– interpersonal trust (removing threat), interpersonal bond (stability) -> organizational commitment -> sharing info, ideas and knowledge

-> reaching the shared understanding -> team performance

- 7 Technology Utilization

– team selects its own communication technologies, ensure the selected technologies are flexible and ensure that everybody knows the technologies

- 8 Communication Risk Management

– risk 1: technical problem and non-response

— use multiple media, zip large attachment

— follow-up with phone call

— send the message to multiple recipients

— keep the manager in loop during interactions

– risk 2: risk of understanding

— ICT-enabled strategies

—- use digital meetings

—- use of email to document a conversation

— individual level strategies

— organize presentation

— adapt language into simple without a slang

— ask questions during the presentation

I was participating / presenting at the Tekes Liito-program seminar on August 26,2008 in Helsinki, Finland.

Here is my notes shared to all of you.

Janine Nahapiet, University of Oxford, UK

-   challenges today are linked to the connecting

-   organizations are working in other ways rather than a formal organization

-   how to resource a large organization?

-   A world of opportunity is there waiting for you

-   Sports as a starting analogy

– Around a gold-winner there are several other persons guaranteeing the success

– Ability to make connections like in relay competitions is vital

–  F1

— Individual championship – team championship

— 150000 parts with 750 vendors providing stuff for McLaren team

-  People, groups and organizations connected well together link to a success

-  Social capital is the value of social connections, more specifically the resources embedded within available through and derived from social networks

– If you have sailed together, I’ll reach a mutual understanding using no words or no commands

– As trusting relationship will provide more than browsing the Internet

-  Social capital affects

– Information flows

– Power and influence

– Solidarity and identity

– +access to other resources

- Social capital research deals directly with some of the major challenges facing global business

– Organizations do manage externals better than internals !

-  The globalizing professional service firm

-   The international biosciences organization

-   How to build innovation & highly linked into trusted issues

-   Fundamentally dependent on trust and partnering

-   Increasingly do depend on:

– What they know – their intellectual capital

– Who they know – their social capital

-  Three critical forms of capital:

– People- Human Capital

– Knowledge – Intellectual Capital

– Connections – Social Capital

- Social capital impact

– Influences career success

– Helps workers find jobs

– Facilitates inter-unit resource exchange

– Strengthens supplier relations

– Reduces turnover rates

– Enables innovation

-  even helps prevent the common cold !

-  network types: the importance of structure

– individual network better for fast implementation

– networked network better for better team work

– combines these will form a new complete network

-  3 dimensions:

– Cognitive – shared ways of thinking

– Structural – close or loose ties

– Relations – trust

-  What’s important:

– Trend towards the extended enterprise

– Innovation focused

– Globalization as a challenge

- Building social capital requires investment in

– Structure

– Quality of relationships

— Trust

— Shared identity

— Norms

– Ways of thinking

— Shared stories

-  Capitalizing on connections

– At individual level

– At organizational level

– At industry level

Leading project management globally. Osmo Härkönen Case: Wärtsilä Corporation

- business changing towards service business therefore a need for project management definition completed in the Liito program pilot

- creating a general project model for the whole corporation including

 

- unified job descriptions and competence requirements

- position descriptions could be done locally

- most of the job descriptions were completed within the project

- all the projects should be like these kind of projects

- all the major companies should have this kind of models in use

Professor Eero Vaara, Svenska Handelshögskolan

 

Social construction of competence: It’s all about people

-         investing in competences

-         social, cultural and political issues

-         in research, “essentialist” and “rationalistic”

-         which factories/units could be still existing

-         focus on Finnish-based MNCs developing operations

-         struggles around strategy: different views on competence

– headquarter’s & local views

- HQs and subsidiaries

– control vs. autonomy

- competence development involves also people

Sami Saariketo, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Niina Nummela, Turku School of Economics

 

-         how to build the partner network and how they will be becoming an international network

-         enterprises do seek  similar knowledge-owning partners

-         software-intensive programs do globalize around the globe leaving less to Finland

-         leading international partnership network

–    overall view on company functions

–   multiple skills

–  defining the corecompetence

–   longlasting relations

– commitment in all levels of organization

–  crosscultural literacy

– communication readiness

-         Requirements for partners low vs product simple

– Partner selection

-         Requirements for partners high vs product simple

–  Partner motivation

-         Requirements for partners low vs product complex

– Network management

-         Requirements for partners high vs product complex

– Flexible development of network

-         Speed, cost & quality paradigm goes forward

-         Analysis, planning & control loop

-         Sales is the only true process of the company, others are support processes ! (that should be a salesman saying this)

-         Observation: more companies should utilize a global value chain

-         Also the software industry is very fragmented

Taina Tukiainen, Metropolia

 

 / Seppo Laukkanen, Nokia
-         Rendez: renewal and redirection

– new management models for supporting innovations

-  creativity, openness and discipline

– culture & values, vision&strategy

– people

– organization

– process

- case IBM: “innovation that matters for our company and the world”

– important due to transition made during this century

– issues:

— global

— multidisciplinary

— open

— innovative

-         innovation jam

– everyone could participate into the business competition, and then put into the system and then personnel could evaluate them and selecting them as well as in investing them

 

Case: Nokia Creating New and Opening up

-         New values

– Achieving together

– Passion for innovation

– Very human

– Engaging you

- Forum Nokia 1998 – driving mobile innovation

- New technology sourcing – Venturing (NVO)

- Nokia Growth Partners 2004 – Blue Run Ventures

- Collaboration & Co-creation – Alpha labs, beta laps

 

Creativity

-         strong vision and rich category descriptions aspiring design and product planning

-         culture supporting novelty and differentiation

Openness

-         innovation, renewal and openness driven by strategies

-         tradition of networking

Discipline

-         respect for processes and agreed ways of working

-         innovation roles delegated

-         organization set boundaries for innovation work

-         motivated, skillful and engaged personnel

 

-         renew your organization and processes innovation

- open innovation environments and social media will social media

Ilpo Ihanamäki, Tekes

 

 

 

 

I am just joining at the seminar at the Helsinki School of Economics, please see my notes here…

 

Digital Workstyle: The New World of Work

 

Stephen McGibbon, Microsoft’s Vision: The New World of Work

-         I do have a couple offices, but I never go there

-         Evolution of work

– Traditional work

– Home & Work

– The New World of Work

- Digital workstyle: Basics

– office productivity suite

– email

– single directory

– corporate intranet

– portable PCs for mobile workers

- Digital workstyle: Empowered

– online video training

– HR self service

– analysis & metrics

– surveys & workflow

– sales information in pivot from

– collaborative screen-sharing

– business info on mobile phones

— in three years most of the people could have business information

-         in transformation process getting softphone into the use

– extending Instant Messaging

- automatic phone changing possibilities

- digital workstyle: advanced

– rights mangements documents

– VOIP & Unified communication replacing PBX

– Digitized meeting including roundtable

– rich models for forecasting

– tablet computing

– video channel for community involvement

- the New World of Work is coming…

– always on, always connected

– workforce evolution

- increasing importance of cross company teaming

– working together in real time

— integrated communication, work places

-         increasing scrunity and ”flattening”

-         people and information connected, now what?

– time and task management

– data visualization

– search

– business performance management

— KPIs delivered as well as proposals how to make an affect

-         the death of distance

– 60 km away controlling a drill machine why not remotely guiding Chile drill machine from Zambia…

– the first transplant completed last year remotely

– remotely guided airplanes – unmanned fighters (no worries about the G-forces)

- Transforming business strategy

– consulting, BPO, Aircraft (knowledge content high, high labour) -> financial derivatives, software, on-line ad (knowledge content high, low labour)

- talented people do not need organizations, because they will survive

- Moore’s law

– 10 years = 7 doublings  = 128 times more capacity

– 2,7 Gigaherz was not able to go forward, so we have reached the limit (Intel cancelled)

– chip size halves

- software has benefitted from capacity increase, now it is more challenging

- power consumption dropping into half every 18 months

- 3,1 terabytes disk in 2010

- 10 km WAN 3,5G does exist

- UK citizens are not calling helpdesk clerk in India, but in South Africa, then going forward to Zambia, Angola and etc…

- technology megatrends

– performance of hardware

– ubiquitious broadband

– mobility of new devices

— when mobile device becomes nearer then like camera into PC asking to transfer the pictures, or you bring mobile into car, it is changing it into the audio environment, like Ford does have got cars in which you can play your favorite audio for just announcing it.

– unlimited storage

– high fidelity displays

– natural user interface

- prediction horizons

– 3-5 years in planning face

- abstraction to be reached (like car driving, not need to know how motor and brakes are working)

- converts tacit & implicit into explicit knowledge

– value-creating knowledge – take the knowledge that provides some value is important

- unlimited computation, unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth

– able to rewind your life backwards as a possibility

- human-like interaction and simulated realities

- model-based knowledge and decision processes

- coming singularity

– improving your vision by chips

– robotics combined into human bodies

- wikipedia asking the words – how does it affect the education systems….

- tacit knowledge value will decrease

- CES conference demonstrated

– mobile phone will be knowing the angle and video showing a menu of a restaurant into the video camera

 

Eric van Heck, RSM Erasmus University

-         Worlds of Work

-         not just one world, but multiple worlds are working even in your organization

-         younger generation is not interested in bureauratic organization under the rules and the regulations.

-         what is work?

-         how to make people happy?

-         how work changes

– early car manufacturing vs. advanced car manufacturing – fully automatized and processes

– psycial meeting vs. telepresence technology (Rotterdam – Shanghai)

– surgeon vs. ”Da Vinci” robot (surgeon remotely and automatically)

- why you are going to work?

- the Dutch productivity is not raising

- CO2 matters in the Netherlands, but still there is a lot of traffic

- driving forces:

– division of labour – Adam Smith 1776 still continuing

– creative destruction – transformation due to radical innovations – Joseph Schumpeter 1942

– transaction costs and role of technology – Tom Malone 2004

— decentralized – discrete

-         new media impact

– digitization

– connectivity

– globalization

-> agile temporary networks and distributed organization

- future of work – you are working in which

- dimensions of work

– workplace

– technology

– willingness to change

– trust

– empowerment

– job motivation

– work/life balance

– modularity

– task characteristics

– communication & cooperation

– mobility

– reward systems

 

-         productivity in the Netherlands in a very high level – De Unie, Rabobank were compared into Microsoft and identified to be at the same level

-         correlations — mobility linked to job flexibility, but context matters

-         6 personas showing characteristics shown from clusters based on the data

– two extremes: secretary and sales manager

- balancing art

– control – freedom

– working place – working space

– individual – team

- next generation knowledge

– mobility

– empowerment

– work-life balance

 

Matti Pohjola, Commentary

 

-         in order to have an impact of ICT, we should also invest in the organizational change

– like incentive systems, low hierarchies, networking and new ways of working

- productivity origins:

– multi-factor productivity growth in manufacturing of the new technology

– labour productivity growth

– spillovers from the reorganization of work

- not many enterprises using the ICT fully at the work

- we have yet seen the reorganization of work or factories, so the biggest change still lays ahead…

- productivity is going down therefore reorganization is needed…

 

 

 

 

Jim Holincheck, Gartner Group
-         Demographics shifts happening
– “Baby Boomers” near retirement
– `Digital natives` enter workforce
— 48% of teens visit social networking sites at least daily
— 55 % have created a personal profile on-line
– Cultural, Ethnic diversity rises
- Globalization: Workforce options expand
– Service Industrialization
– Regional Economic Clusters
– Into untapped markets
– Into reaching talents
- Future Worker 2015: Individualizing the Appeal
– potentially 20 organizations working for during the working life
– from mass customization into extreme individualization
– strategic planning assumption 90% of the tools will be tailored
- HCM Drivers
– Attract/Retain talent
– Develop next gen leaders
– pay for performance
– link HCM to Bus Results
- Human Capital Management (HCM) Systems Landscape
– Integrated Talent Management talked around 2003/04
— the first results published 2005
-.web 2.0 and the “Next Generation Web”
– technology
— principle: WOA, data-driven, syndicated content, rich semantics, mashable, rich client, build by example, aspects: architecture & platforms
– community:
— principles: participation, collaboration, social, transparent
– business:
— principles: long-tail, continuous innovation, collaborative offerings, open business models
— aspects: “ecosystem”, process,value
-         non-routine behaviours
– discover
— simulation, communications, search, predictive analytics
– innovate
— automatic contextual search, agents, professional communities
– team
— social software, expertise location, social network analytics
– lead
— web conferencing, group project management, employee performance management
– learn
— e-learning suites
-         case: Procter & Gamble
– transforming innovation strategy doubling its market capitalization
– moved from research and develop to connect and develop
— internal research no longer sufficient for growth. new goals: 50 % external innovations
– this is not outsourcing innovation: collaborate and leverage internal skills
– proprietary networks and technology entrepreneurs
– open networks: ninesigma etc.
- a model for workforce analysis
– decision support focused
— 1. Improving Controllable Contribution at a Retailer
—- employee perceptions linked to business outcomes
—- aggressive case: 210 million USD improvement in CC
—- managers target workgroup engagement behaviours to ensure high employee engagement
— 2. Sun Microsystems
—- performance data analysed, diversed participants
—- performance metric: salary grade changes, promotions
—- assumed a dollar increase in compensation equalled a dollar of value for the company
—- results: 25% of mentees had salary grade increases vs. 5 % in control group
—- results: 28 % of mentors had salary grade increases vs. 5 % in control group
—- mentoring results better in lower end that in the higher end
—- continuous investing in mentoring program
— 3. Improving sales leadership programme at a pharmaceutical company
—- correlated behaviors with sales performance
—- identified seven differentiating behaviors
—- develop profile for top performers
—- determined ROI
—- top performers contributed 25%-50% more than others
—- found correlation between a few key behaviors and high performance
—- 5% improvement in key competence increasing 40 million USD
-         “Skate to where the puck will be” – Wayne Gretzky

 

Amar Dhaliwal, SVP of Product Operations, Saba
-         discontinuity is opportunity
– chaos is the opportunity
- workforce engagement is critical
– critical for success
- informal learning and web 2.0 are in your thinking
– social networking
- developing leaders remains a challenge
- building the right talent is your key priority
- the HCM conversation is gaining traction
- globalization and flattening is changing everything
- FedEx is the largest airline in the world !
- shift happens
- the adaptable workforce
– survey of 400 organizations
– 75 % concerned with ability to develop future leaders
– 33 % employee skills are not aligned with business prorities
– 47% employee turnover has increased in last two years
– 52% ability to rapidly build skills in primary challenge
– 14% workforce is capable to adopt the change
– 13 % have a clear understanding
– 13% capable of identifying individuals
– 8% companies who think they are good at fostering collaboration
- learning 2.0
– embrace informal learning
— user generated content
— network effects
— collective intelligences
– engage users
— compelling experiences
— edge of network
-         learning shift
– ILT, WBT, virtual, blended  -> blended blogs, wikis, Q&A, search
– command and control, top-down -> bottom-up; peer to peer, pull
– delivering training programmes -> mentoring, knowledge networks
– expert intructors -> experts (discoverable)
– instructional designers creating content -> everyone contributing content
– content in notebooks and powerpoints -> content in blogs etc.
- enabling architecture
– the adaptive enterprise will have an architectural blueprint for their entire people strategy
- the adaptive enterprse
– adaptable processes
– workforce insight
– learning 2.0
– enabling architecture