The Nature of Knowledge Work
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The Nature of Knowledge Work Keith D. Swenson VP R&D, Fujitsu America Tech Committee Chairman, WfMC April 15, 2010
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This talks about knowledge workers, what they look like, what the qualities of knowledge work are, some background in where mass production and scientific management came from, and then ultimately what technology that will support knowledge work will need to look like.
Transcript of The Nature of Knowledge Work
The Nature of Knowledge Work
Keith D. SwensonVP R&D, Fujitsu America
Tech Committee Chairman, WfMCApril 15, 2010
KnowledgeWorkers
Why do they need special treatment?
What does a knowledge workerlook like?
Maybe…
(Few expect a KnowledgeWorkers to look like this)
People who “figure out”what they need to do.
People who weigh manyfactors and determinecourses of action
People whose actions are basedon many sources of information.
People who gather cluesfollow up, and discoverthings.
People who set the rulesor think outside the box
People who face uncertain situations and courses that are not fixed.
Knowledge Work Everywhere• Rescue work• Complex Insurance or Bank Transaction• Police / Legal Investigation• Financial Audit • Coordinating a meeting• Exception, such as a Billing Dispute • Medical Treatment• Help desk• Management of a start-up company• Hiring Talent• Executive Management
Qualities of knowledge work
(1) Non-Repeated
No two financial audits lead to the same results or action plans
No two news stories are gathered from the same placesNo two company mergers are identical
Qualities of knowledge work
(1) Non-Repeated(2) Unpredictable
The course of a legal case can take many unexpected turns
Crime investigation is a classic example of unexpected events
Executives need to weigh many conflicting factors to lead their organization
Qualities of knowledge work
(1) Non-Repeated(2) Unpredictable(3) Emergent
A doctor runs a test on a patient leading to a treatment plan which is monitored & additional tests which leads to modified treatment which is monitored ….
Qualities of knowledge work
(1) Non-Repeated(2) Unpredictable(3) Emergent(4) Robustness in the face of variable conditions
High velocity, and highly reliable organizations run on knowledge work
Industrial Revolution
– Define exactprocess
– Run 1000’s times– Initial investment
spread over manyidentical copies
1800 1900 2000 2010
MassProduction
Assembly Line
Henry Ford
MassProduction
1800 1900 2000 2010
Frederick Winslow Taylor
• Time and Motion Studies• Apply mass production
techniques to office work
1800 1900 2000 2010
RoutineWork
Taiichi Ohno
• Mass customization• Excess production is
waste• Lean & Pull-Based• Responsive to Change
1800 1900 2000 2010
Just-in-TimeKanban
MassProduction
A knowledge worker is “someone who knows more about his or her job than anyone else in the organization.”
- Peter F Drucker
Knowledge worker jobs are unique
1800 1900 2000 2010
KnowledgeWork
Manufacturing Office Work
Unpredictable
Predictable MassProduction
RoutineWork
KnowledgeWork
Just-in-TimeKanban
Knowledge is different from all other resources. It makes itself constantly obsolete, so that today's advanced knowledge is tomorrow's ignorance.
KnowledgeWork
And the knowledge that matters is subject to rapid and abrupt change … - Peter F Drucker
Knowledge worker jobs change
From 28% to 50% of all workers are Knowledge WorkersThis number is growingThe most highly paid segmentKnowledge work is thekey area of growth in the economy.
Tom DavenportHarvard Business Review
KnowledgeWork
System to systemProcesses
Routine HumanProcesses
Knowledge WorkerProcesses
Value
$
$$
$$$
More Predictable
LessPredictable
RoutineWork
KnowledgeWork
2010 2020+
1990 2000+
2000 2010+
Business Process Spectrum
Easier to Implement
Harder to Implement
• Within organizations, knowledge workers tend to be closely aligned with the organization's growth prospects.
• Knowledge workers in management roles come up with new strategies.
• Knowledge workers in R&D and engineering create new products.
• Knowledge workers in marketing package products and services in ways that appeal to customers.
• Without knowledge workers there would be no new products and services and no growth.
-Tom Davenport
BPM is a Mature Market
• BPM is– Making a precise definition
of the work to be done– Investing a lot in set up– Recoup investment by
running process thousands of times.
BPM is Mass Production!
It only works if the process is predictable.
.RoutineWork
New Approach Needed• BPM is based on the idea that you can:
– Predict and define a fixed process– Implement an automated process– ROI comes from scaling up, repeatability
• To handle knowledge work, a fundamentally different approach is needed. We call that:
Adaptive Case Management
Scientific Management vs. Lean• Taylorism – Scientific Management
– Mass production ideas applied to market place– Large initial cost to developing processes– ROI only after many identical, repeated– Decreases an organization ability to respond– Separation of “brains” from the “brawn”– Classical BPM is based on these principles
• Lean and Agile Processes– Process is not center! Case data instead!– No process is carved in stone at any time– Like TPS, tap the worker for improvement– Like Kanban, holistic view on production,
instead of isolated processes.– Adaptive Case Management follows this
Process
Data
Data
Process
Modeling
Created ahead of timeby specialist crafted to automatically respondto many situations.
Created when needed, by the person doing the work.Manually adjusted forchanging situations.
For Routine Work For Knowledge Work
• Creative and innovative forms of business processes cannot be predefined or "flowcharted" in advance.
• They are "organic". • That is to say, they represent "emergent
processes" that change not only their state, but also their structure as they are born, and then grow and evolve.
• Process definition is an intrinsic part of the process itself, and this happens continually throughout the life of the process. – Peter Fingar, 2007
“Knowledge worker productivity is the biggest of the 21st century management challenges. In the developed countries it is their first survival requirement.
In no other way can the developed countries hopeto maintain themselves,let alone to maintain their leadership and their standards of living.” - Peter F Drucker
Mastering the UnpredictableThe new book on how Adaptive Case Management will revolutionize the way that knowledge workers get things done.
http://www.MasteringTheUnpredictable.com
This was an excerpt from the book:
