Knowledge Discovery

When we try to create or discover new knowledge, it is easy to waste our personal time and energy. We can spend hours, days and even months working on a project or attending a course, only to realise that the actual market value is limited. Think of the last time you attended a training course. Although you might have looked at the objectives and considered how they might help perform your job, did you really undertake a time/value analysis to consider how the acquired knowledge (rather than the certificate) would grow your personal worth? Even more, did you map this against the time you would invest and how this time might be better spent elsewhere?

There are two key questions that need to be considered about the discovery process:

	How much time should I allocate to the discovery stage?
	· How much value will the discovery yield?

Your answer to these questions should readily map onto the matrix shown.

Ignore – If your response sits in this box then don’t even think about it. I have seen so many people go into the discovery process without the faintest clue as to why they are spending time on the activity and don’t have any idea as to how it will enhance their market value. Just look at your diary for the next 3 months – there is probably an entry in there that says ‘attend conference’, ‘go to workshop’ or ‘ attend a training course’. Now ask yourself, how much real value will I be able to create in the market as a result of spending this time? If you don’t know, then it behoves you to either find out, or find a better way to spend that time.

Inquire – The inquire box is the marginal activity. It is the time you spend where the payback might not warrant the initial investment. For the high value – high time quadrant - clearly the need to generate high value knowledge return is necessary, but the question must always be could I have achieved this value without spending so much time. If you are about to invest three days of your time to learn a new management technique, question if you need to go on a course to learn it, or do you have the capability to gain the information from a book. This way the time/value ratio is maximised, such that you can spend time on other value enhancing activities. The alternative is the low value-low time quadrant. Although the time is only limited, you still might question if there are alternative activities that you can undertake to generate increased value. Alternately, can you change the outcome such that it will become a high value gain?

Invest – finally, any response in this matrix is almost certainly something worth investment in. If you can spend minimal time on an activity that will enhance your personal value, then unless there are hidden downsides, time should be allocated.

Although this is a simple model, the idea is more about the thought processes that drive the decision making than the model itself. For example, you might be about to go on a course that has been poorly received by colleagues. The assumption is that this would sit in the ignore quadrant, but you have the choice to reframe the time investment. If the course will include people who you would like to meet or network with, then you can start to reconsider what value you might derive. It might be that the value you derive is not the value that the course designer envisaged, but that is OK. The essence is always to question the time/value relationship. If there is no clear personal gain for you in investing time, then you should question what is the point of doing it.

For example, I regularly try to go on courses even if I don’t believe that the content will be of any real value to me or my business. As a consultant, part of my Delivery value is the ability to build effective relationships with other people in a learning environment. Now, one of the problems that trainers can face is a disconnect from the role of delegate. If I spend all my time delivering courses, I forget what is feels like to be in a room to learn from someone else. As such this can create a sense of arrogance and un-professionalism in the way that I present my programmes. By attending courses, I get to re-discover what it feels like to be a delegate, sometimes a delegate in a situation I don’t really want to attend. For me, this creates real value in the Explicit and Tacit Heart part of the K-Profile.

One example of the way that companies are investing the discovery process can be seen in the way that the learning process itself is being enhanced. Many companies now offer a flat figure of several hundreds of pounds for employees to undertake a course of their choice. This can be sewing, horse riding, playing the bongos or even skydiving. The more astute organisations have realised that investing in the process of learning can be as big a reward as growing the content of people’s knowledge base. Interestingly, people are often critical of this process because it is seen as investing in areas that will not add value to the business. The trick is to understand that knowledge discovery is a rich and complex process and as such we need to be very clear as to what is being gained and what ultimately the end value will be.

Remember, you have choice about where you sit in the matrix. If you find that much of your discovery time is spent in the Ignore or Inquire quadrant, then ask yourself why. It might be because colleagues, peers or partners are pressuring you, or it might be that you get to sessions only to find that they offer little value. The reality is that you have to take action to get into the Invest quadrant because no one else will. The good news is that this quadrant is like a muscle: It will grow and expand as you spend more time working in it. As you become effective in acquiring high value knowledge, so your peers will recognise a growth in your personal value and will aspire to spend more time in your company. The end result is that you get to choose whom you want to spend time with and how much value can be derived from the time.

Finally, the idea of knowledge discovery can be viewed at many levels. If it makes sense for an individual to manage the knowledge discovery process, then it also makes sense for a team or company to follow the same ground rules. Consider how many companies spend time on developing new strategies but fail to consider what knowledge will be necessary to deliver the end strategy. Just consider the fashion business, the whole basis of a company’s survival will depend upon the capability to forecast what will be in fashion and to then deliver against this projected knowledge. So consider the trouser manufacturer company that decides that flares will be the next big thing. They make the decision to launch a distinctive bell-bottom product. If the strategy works, 1 million consumers would forgo strait leg trousers when they next buy a pair of jeans and instead go for the flared look. The fashion business is ruthlessly competitive. Winning depends on predictive knowledge. The development of the new flared trouser will be the culmination of an elaborate knowledge process of development and testing by designers, buyers and production engineers. Part science, part art and a little bit of luck, the new style is crafted by a team of industrial knowledge workers - men and women applying their special skills, their accumulated experience and knowledge of fashion - to the challenge of inventing the next 1 million-seller hit. This is the discovery process acquiring knowledge that will have end value, not knowledge for the sake of it.

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(c) Mick Cope

	Ignore – If your response sits in this box then don’t even think about it. I have seen so many people go into the discovery process without the faintest clue as to why they are spending time on the activity and don’t have any idea as to how it will enhance their market value. Just look at your diary for the next 3 months – there is probably an entry in there that says ‘attend conference’, ‘go to workshop’ or ‘ attend a training course’. Now ask yourself, how much real value will I be able to create in the market as a result of spending this time? If you don’t know, then it behoves you to either find out, or find a better way to spend that time.
	Inquire – The inquire box is the marginal activity. It is the time you spend where the payback might not warrant the initial investment. For the high value – high time quadrant - clearly the need to generate high value knowledge return is necessary, but the question must always be could I have achieved this value without spending so much time. If you are about to invest three days of your time to learn a new management technique, question if you need to go on a course to learn it, or do you have the capability to gain the information from a book. This way the time/value ratio is maximised, such that you can spend time on other value enhancing activities. The alternative is the low value-low time quadrant. Although the time is only limited, you still might question if there are alternative activities that you can undertake to generate increased value. Alternately, can you change the outcome such that it will become a high value gain?
	Invest – finally, any response in this matrix is almost certainly something worth investment in. If you can spend minimal time on an activity that will enhance your personal value, then unless there are hidden downsides, time should be allocated.