The Welch Company
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111 2496
415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net




April 13, 1989
Rev November 14, 1994
Rev May 17, 1998
Rev March 21, 2001
Rev April 26, 2004
Rev August 8, 2004
Rev April 5, 2005




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P O I M S

 PLAN, ORGANIZE, INTEGRATE, MEASURE

The Art of Automated Management For the 21st Century

Faster, Better, Cheaper Intelligence

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By: Rod Welch

1. Technology Improves Leadership
.....Alphabet Technology Can be Improved
.....Intelligence Organizes, Analyses, Aligns, Summarizes Details
.....False Knowledge from Meaning Drift, Information Overload
.....Communication, Secrecy Biggest Risk in Enterprise
.....Knowledge Management Uses Intelligence Process
.....Culture of Knowledge Advances Civilization
2. Limits of Technology - Good Intentions are Not Enough
.....Prepare for New Realities of 21st Century
.....Information Overload Overwhelms Span of Attention
.....Murphy's Law, Crisis Management Solved by Intelligence
4 The New Vision - Automated Integration
.....Investing Intellectual Capital Takes Intelligence
.....Intelligence Melds a Critical Mass of Professional Practices
.....Convert Plans into Action - Test of Leadership
.....Controlled Visibility Manages Context
5. Management Cycle - Producing Intelligence
.....Plan - Good Results Require Investing in Good Management
.....Perform - Actions Yield Experience
.....Report - Investing Intellectual Capital Adds Value to Experience
.... Intelligence Integrated Management Builds Knowledge Space
6. Communication - Understanding and Follow up Can be Improved
.....Chronology Context Connection Create Knowledge
.....Communication Metrics - Feedback Alignment Measure Accuracy of Listening
.....3-layer Architecture Transformation to Culture of Knowledge
.....Documents Linked to History and Analysis Create Knowledge Space
.....Clear, Concise, Complete Communication via Internet
7. Productivity - Managers Must "Debug" the Work
.....TQM and ISO 9000 - Faster, Better Cheaper Intelligence
.....MBO - "Organic Subject Structures" Help Organize and Analyse
.....Time Management - Automated Experience Machine
8. Think, Remember, Communicate - Improved by POIMS
9. Command and Control of the Record - Better Results
10. Objections - Leadership Must Overcome Ignorance, Fear, Denial
......Management is Complex - Need for Improvement Ignored and Denied
11. Conclusion - POIMS Empowers Stronger Management






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INTRODUCTION


Technology Improves Leadership
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The "art" of management is integrating time, information and people to achieve objectives. But the pace of modern life invites shortcuts to "expedite." Shortcuts on good management cause mistakes. People work longer and harder, taking more shortcuts to catch up, but this causes more mistakes, loss and conflict. Murphy's Law is blamed, however, the real culprit is an Information Highway that overloads human span of attention. "High tech" is denying leadership needed "intelligence" while leading management to implode. Downsizing and bankruptcies are common solutions for reducing the burden on human intellect to a level people can manage. A better solution is a better partnership between leadership and technology that strengthens the synergy between people and organizations for managing a more complex world -- hence POIMS technology...
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Personal and Organizational
Integrated Memory and Management

POIMS strengthens personal and organizational memory to manage complexity by augmenting human reasoning.
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This objective requires a threshold definition of intelligence and knowledge that permits technology to meaningfully and routinely lift personal and organizational performance above the limits of information technology (IT), which currently overwhelms mentalese, causing confusion, error, loss, crisis and calamity. Thus, the first step is to understand information, knowledge and intelligence in relation to tasks people perform. How are these mental constructs different, and how do they relate to human performance that can be augmented by tools?
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Managers are both leaders and technicians. People lead using "people skills" to motivate, and provide guidance by aligning communications with organizational objectives. Managers use techniques aided by tools to plan, organize and control the work through specially designed business metrics. These nominally separate tasks of leadership and technology must be integrated into a whole, or single, process that yields more than the sum of its parts. Thus, plan, organize, integrate and measure convey a traditional view of POIMS that is enabled by a stronger foundation for personal and organizational memory and management that leverages human intelligence.
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Designing computers to augment intelligence requires integrating common tasks with efficient usability. Like human design that complements mental connections from sensory capacities with facile dexterity using hands, eyes, ears and talking, computers must be configured with software and ergonomics to support efficient complementarity. The natural synergy between people and organizations can be leveraged with a better partnership between leadership and technology using a 3-layer architecture for transformation from information to a culture of knowledge. In turn, technology requires a 3-layer architecture that enables people to use good practices consistently by integrating tasks and expanding span of attention on the core ingredients of management....
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P O I M S
3-layer Architecture

People
Information
Knowledge
Communication
 		Process
 Plan
Perform
Report
 		Time
 Past
Present
Future
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Day-to-day executives, engineers, managers, marketing folks, indeed all of us, do not think of our work in these terms. Most of our time each day is driven by a constant stream of information, particularly when the "boss" gives orders. It is not evident that the constant flow of information we receive and create is, also, constantly being converted into knowledge by our mental faculties that strive to align actions with objectives, policies, law, regulation, contracts, commitments, schedules and budgets, in addition to specific daily details of professional disciplines, personnel relationships, machines, buildings and travel.
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The complexity of knowledge work and the art of management, which are fundamentally cognitive processes, are hidden by the mind's ability to summarize a lot of information into simple "common sense" rules of thumb, or paradigms, for solving daily problems and acting on opportunities. People naturally focus on the present because that is where information is derived from action that occurs in the moment, and where threats to safety and life itself must be met by taking immediate action and reaction. These dynamic imperatives of existence spawn biological drives that limit span of attention to here and now, the past few minutes or hours, i.e., information from this meeting, this call, this email. What happened yesterday is gone. "It's history; water under the bridge"; what will happen tomorrow? "We will deal with it!"
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The biology of human cognition applies an intelligence process that automatically uses "knowledge" from past experience to predict future impacts, without conscious effort, time or expense. This mental process of continual feedback loops verifies accuracy for taking immediate action, and is accomplished by guessing about correlations of cause and effect between perception of current circumstances and memory of relevant history stored in the mind as personal experience. However, guessing about alignment between perception and experience necessarily presents a knowledge management dilemma.
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Limited time and complexity cause incorrect correlatons that are hidden from the conscious mind, resulting in false positive feedback that makes communication misleading. Mistakes are avoided by the tradition of documentation which people can check to verify accuracy of first impressions. However, the biology of cognition that makes alignment to construct knowledge seem fast and easy imparts a natural belief that listening to understand and follow up on communication is accomplished through innate gifts of hearing and observing. People therefore feel that intelligence to convert information into knowledge is free under the common rule: seeing is believing. As a result, the core issue of quality control that separates good management from bad management (see also TQM) is whether to invest time for deliberative analysis to verify momentary "guesses" about cause and effect. People can choose diligence to check alignment of new information patterns relative to experience and controlling authority from objectives, requirements and commitments; or, forego deliberation, and simply react by guessing about alignement of information that flows from meetings, calls, email and other experiences of daily life. (see for example Drucker on the difference between information and communication)
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 Bad management eschews deliberation to make communication effective, and, instead, acts on momentary, sensory perception from seeing and hearing what transpires in constant meetings, calls and documents, which are largely designed to convey convincing style and image that feels good . Spontaneous reaction to information based on "common sense," a "gut feeling," guessing, hunch and hope, is a powerful asset of human cognition in many situations, but is very misleading in handling complex management issues, because the intelligence process of identifying relevant experience from personal and organizational memory is entirely subconscious. This is a recipe for continual bumbling, loss, conflict, crisis and calamity because decisions and action based on style and image impart only cursory understanding that is disconnected from relevant details about objectives, requirements and commitments essential for accurate knowledge that makes management effective. For example, summaries created for Powerpoint presentations are ticking time bombs waiting to explode because there are no connections to context that maintain alignment with objectives and requirements. (see for example Enron reviewed on February 4, 2002)
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 Good management requires proactive intelligence support. Adding energy to "connect the dots" of cause and effect yields the power of knowledge that controls the future (see locality principle). This begins with an accurate record of organizational memory on daily work, sometimes called history, experience, knowledge, and in some cases intelligence. People readily grasp that timely, accurate memory is better than forgetting, or worse - remembering incorrectly (see false knowledge).
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Accuracy requires tools and practices to quickly construct a well ordered record explaining chronology, and to also add...
  1. Connections of cause and effect across the expanse of time that aligns new experience each day with history, and with objectives, requirements, and commitments; and further...
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  2. Context managed with flexible, organic structure for precision access to find knowledge on relevant history in time to be effective.
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Diligent capture, context, and connection refine accuracy for continual learning, planning, and decisions so that people can take complementary action, commonly called...
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working intelligently

Complementary action through teamwork avoids conflict and magnifies individual potential, which is the essence of management, communication, coordination, collaboration and organization that makes command and control of the work a meaningful reality.
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Good management practices are well established by experts like Stephen Covey reviewed on December 5, 1992, by Peter Drucker reviewed on November 30 1993; and by management standards published by PMI and by ISO reviewed on July 21, 1995. Good management reflects the accumulated wisdom from thousands of years learning hard won lessons by people who struggled with the tension between acting on impulse, and planning to make action effective. An example is the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) reviewed on May 4, 2002. FAR requires organizational memory and alignment of the work with objectives, requirements and commitments essential to save time and money by working intelligently, as called out by Covey, Drucker, PMI and ISO.
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However, the hidden, spontaneous character of innate, biological intelligence creates an overwhelming tendency to ignore regulations, experts and professional standards for management practice, because responding immediately to information from sight and sound through seeing, talking and hearing always seems faster and easier than investing time to check the record. Under the rule that talk is cheap, using common sense to forage on information in-the-moment requires no cognitive overhead. Acting on impulse is an overwhelming biological drive for survival that presents an illusion of progress by failing to invest time for deliberative analysis to get things done correctly, on time and within budget. When time is short, good management seems unnecessary. This slippery slope leads to bad habits of ignoring good managment altogether, even when there is plenty of time. People are drawn by the false promise of cost savings from discovering that bad management costs nothing in-the-moment, because it requires doing nothing.
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Soon laziness is excused as "expediting" that ignores future consequences, like the story of the ant and the grasshopper. The common sense appeal of momentary cost savings from ignoring requirements for good management, however, conceals cause and effect in a maze of complexity (e.g., the fog of war) that tricks the mind into feeling safe and secure. These feelings, driven by ignorance of future consequences, create a powerful false positive to reject investing time and expense for deliberation in favor of relying on style and image that entertains to influence spontaneous, impulsive conduct. Ultimately, the critical difference between information, that brings immediate emotional satisfaction, and knowledge, that brings larger rewards by being prepared for future consequences, forms a powerful cognitive dynamic that lures the unwary to avoid good management, as unnecessary overkill, under the always plausible excuse that there is not enough time to understand content,, because, as the saying goes, when time is short, future consequences are out of sight and out of mind.
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Law, regulations, professional standards, training and, most importantly, leadership, empower people to overcome the overwhelming tendency to use bad management that is driven by mental biology and by powerful, near-term cultural forces of peer pressure to act on information delivered with style and image. Laws, regulations and standards are designed to force deliberation for analysis of future consequences that are not evident in the moment, but threaten the long term survival of the larger culture. If civilization could survive without good management, there would be no need for laws and regulations. Accordingly, the price of survival is eternal vigilence to ensure performance of requirements for effective intelligence, as the cheapest, and only, way to avoid the horrendous cost that people pay for bad management, as shown by events on September 11, 2001. (see also NWO on the price people pay for failing to pay the cost of good management.) Vigilence and leadership are powerful remedies for innate biolgical drives to avoid good management, reported, for example, on October 26, 1995, and more recently on May 22, 2002 showing more time, hard work and ingenuity are invested to dodge and circumvent requirements than are needed to simply implement regulations and standards for saving time and money.
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POIMS forms a stronger partnership between leadership and technology by making good management faster and easier. Enabling people to save time and money with less effort overcomes fear and denial that resists improvement, because tasks that require less diligence and discipline expand the pool of people willing to try a new way of working. More people trying to improve increases the number who discover that investing time for good management saves time and money. In the same way that a backhoe excavates faster and easier than using a pick and shovel, and driving a car is faster and easier than walking, so, too, empowering people to handle more information faster and more accurately overcomes fear of accountability for mistakes that causes people to deny and ignore laws, regulations and standards for good management. Leadership must, however, in the first instance, be the engine of improvement. Support and guidance through education and pilot testing overcome ignorance by providing experience to discover that investing time to learn and use technology for working intelligently strengthens human mental biology. Vigilence to cultivate enabling forces that grow the synergy between leadership and technology can achieve a breakthrough that empowers people to follow laws, regulations and standards for saving time and money by using good management. The first step is understanding the science of management.
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Management combines science and art with professional diligence that enables a proactive, forward looking process, noted above, under the common rules...

Look before you leap, ...and... Be prepared ...that endeavor to understand cause and effect for making action effective.
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Understanding requires diligence for deliberation to study background, history and experience that expands span of attention so that planning is aligned with objectives, requirements and commitments. An audit trail of daily work enables both alignment and accountability that together are the foundation of good management. Getting credit for good results and avoiding blame for mistakes requires good management. Deliberation necessarily is the antithesis of spontaneous, impulsive reaction based on whatever pops into the mind at the moment, as occurs in ordinary speech during meetings, calls and email that dominate the practice of management, first to save time and later to avoid accountability. However, bad management increases mistakes and so increases the slippery slope of ignore, cover up, conflict, crisis and calamity that increases accountability. Thus, scurring to use bad management in hopes of avoiding accountability can only succeed in compounding tragedy, as befell the storied grasshopper.
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By definition, rewards of good management are always in the future, and so are easily overwhelmed by the excuse of expediting, because bad management requires doing nothing by simply reacting in the moment to continuous information, and avoiding organizational memory in order to create wriggle room for deniability that avoids accountability. Since cost savings for working intelligently occur in the future, while savings from avoiding the time and expense of good management accrue immediately, it always seems faster and easier in-the-moment to make people say yes by making people feel good with communication that is entertaining, rather than use intelligence to align daily work with objectives, requirements and commitments.
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Only express requirements with incentives and sanctions in contracts, laws, policies and procedures can overcome the powerful paradigm of common sense that prevents people from discovering time-bombs in time to avoid explosions days, weeks, months and years in the future. In other words, good management for saving time and money is a cultural artifact at constant war with human mental biology that is driven to sacrafice the future in order to feel good in the moment. This fundamental dynamic necessarily requires express support, particularly in the modern age that accelerates events. Technology that increases physical strengths by compressing time and distance, in fact creates a continual fog of war that reduces the traditional art of management for listening, deliberation, understanding and follow up to mere cliches.
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As a result, since good management urged by experts and mandated by law and regulation, as discussed above, is easily avoided as "overkill" under the excuse of saving time, and since bad management is easily induced by entertaining pictures and sounds that appeal to common sense in the moment for saving time, and since laziness is easily excused as expediting to save time, then technology that takes less time for using good management to work intelligently is the only way to help people be more effective. Therefore....
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POIMS technology empowers people to quickly...
  1. Understand complexity by capturing and connecting cause and effect to work intelligently, and check alignment with objectives, requirements and commitments to work accurately.
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  2. Plan follow up to work comprehensively and within budget.
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Learning occurs from synergy between thinking and doing. Tools and functions that harmoniously balance and integrate these complementary human tasks significantly leverage natural intelligence. Capturing a greater share of daily experience optimizes productivity from investing intellectual capital. Knowledge of chronology, context, and connections to understand cause and effect compounds effectiveness, yielding a powerful asset that controls the future. (see locality in NWO)
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Daily work that relies primarily upon spontaneous reaction to information in the moment from meetings, calls, and documents increases complexity causing continual bumbling, loss, conflict, crisis and calamity, as ticking "time bombs" reach critical mass.
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Investing time to deliberate for understanding experience and planning follow up by writing a coherent report on current activity yield "knowledge" by continually "connecting the dots" that reveal cause and effect. This form of intelligence makes knowledge a more powerful cognitive resource than merely using information for guiding daily work. History, therefore, shows that continual learning to grow knowledge yields a higher reward than continual foraging on information in constant meetings, calls and email. However, deferred rewards from investing are counterintuitive, because taking time for learning and deliberation delays action. Delayed action is inherently a potential threat to safety and survival, and so is inimical to, and therefore torments, the conscious mind that is biologically wired to use information absorbed through the senses (sight, sound, oder, touch, rythm, etc.) for navigating through life by reacting spontaneously moment-to-moment. This biology is effective for bucolic life, aided by the subconscious mind that automatically creates connections of cause and effect. However, modern society requires investing time for deliberation to verify the accuracy of connections and plan for future consequences. Therefore, enabling people to overcome the emotional urge to graze on information, requires an architecture that fosters a culture of knowledge by leveraging the power of thinking for pattern recognition, and strengthening the weakness of thinking due to limited span of attention.
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The architecture of human cognition is driven by thinking and doing, capabilities that "feed" each other through the binary structure of subconscious and conscious mental processing. This is largely manifested in daily life through "communication." People take action to satisfy "needs" arising from sensory perception of evolving circumstances, e.g., seeing, talking, hearing. Awareness of context recognizes repeatable situations based on memory of experience, i.e., knowledge of prior action and results, called "causation."
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 Situational awareness of context and relevant experience is a limited capacity. We can have a lot of information, but limited span of attention is the weak link in mental biology that prevents using most of our memory to distinguish nuance that separates one context from another. (see also New World Order... on limiting capacity to find critical details) Limited span of attention and limited time also limit understanding correlations that impart implications from matching patterns of new information with relevant experience, which is critical for "connecting the dots" of cause and effect in order to determine what needs to be done. In short, information that comes too fast overwhelms limited span of attention and so is misunderstood or ignored. The result is false knowledge under Murphy's Law that causes continual mistakes, delay, rework, crisis, conflict and loss. Faster information causes continual bumbling, rather than continual learning.
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In simplest terms, better management is largely a communication function. Communication, however, requires more than traditional speaking and listening skills, honed from natural gifts of human biology for seeing and hearing information. In today's high speed environment, "listening" requires proactive effort to understand and follow up so that things get done quickly and accurately, without endless cycles of rework that escalate problem handling into loss, crisis, conflict and calamity. To strengthen natural "listening," POIMS initially requires technology for capturing a larger share of daily experience that builds shared meaning through personal and organizational memory. Relevant experience can then be accessed quickly at the time it is needed by people collaborating on common objectives.
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POIMS technology expands span of attention beyond the limits of human biology in the same way that the slowest runner can use an automobile to reach the store much faster than the fastest runner. Similarly, a backhoe is a construction technology that leverages natural, physical strength, so that one person can excavate 100 times more than when relying on innate biological gifts. This same principle leverages cognitive strength to manage more information. As information piles up each day, technology can help people work intelligently. "Connecting the dots" into "knowledge" of cause and effect helps get things done accurately and on time. This is accomplished by combining traditional "time" management with "information" management, or, more simply: integrating time and information. Since technology makes integration practical, it is useful to describe the process as automated integration of time and information to produce knowledge.
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In sum, POIMS supports transitioning from information technology (IT) to a culture of knowledge.
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Information is processed by the mind's "thoughts" to obtain understanding, and support follow up, i.e., taking action. This innate mental process, commonly called "intelligence," is overwhelmed by information overload, as technology moves information faster and faster. Limited span of attention in human mental biology cannot process information fast enough to correctly understand connections of cause and effect that constitute knowledge. When information moves too fast, more information does not make people better informed; it makes everybody mixed up, because the biological thinking process cannot keep up with the flow of information.
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The practice of literacy uses alphabet technology for constructing a physical, analog of internal human thinking about information, commonly called "writing." Giving external, objective form to, otherwise, fleeting internal thoughts, permits crafting and organizing information, which greatly aids innate cognitive capabilities that create knowledge by constructing small meanings into different patterns that form larger understandings. Letters are connected in a linear model of memory segmented by spaces and punctuation for flexibile, expansive representation. Words form sentences, then paragraphs, yielding an unlimited range for a powerful mind to shape and refine context in order to strengthen ordinary thinking about the world, including the mind itself. The alphabet is therefore an explosive technology for connecting cause and effect that yields the power of knowledge. Creating, preserving, and retrieving connections with alphabet technology to accurately understand cause and effect drives the advance of civilization by making people superhuman, (see Havelock, Lenat, Drucker reviewed on November 8, 1999).
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The traditional linear model using alphabet technology in documents makes information legible, permanent and transferable; and, it connects related information in different documents through a system of references to a bibliography. Over many, many centuries industry developed technology and highly specialized crafts that enabled publishing documents to become a powerful engine for learning that grows civilization all around the world. Today, wordprocessing makes editing to construct, shape, revise, craft and present information with pleasing appearance even faster and easier for everyone. Powerful technologies like the Interent and email enable people to routinely publish and distribute high quality documents quickly and cheaply throughout the world, which previously could only be done by big companies using expensive equipment, trained specialists and complex marketing infrastructure.
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However, making everyone a publisher does not enable anyone to use information quickly and effectively. Indeed, the powerful phenomenon of universal publishing, which accomplishes important goals for democratic and egalitarian empowerment, also, creates information overload that overwhelms human cognition. Nobody can find anything because nothing is in the right place at the right time. Too many people having too many problems finding information when needed paralyzes productivity, which reduces earnings and stock prices (see report by ABC News in the record on December 7, 2000). Solving this problem, by turning a fast growing liability, of too much information, into a powerful new asset, requires a new and different kind of technology, one that helps the mind process information faster and accurately to create connections that yield knowledge, wisdom and vision. Some people say the effort to improve information technology is called Knowledge Management, as a logical extenstion of literacy that advances use of the alphabet. It could just as easily be called knowledge technology, intelligence tools, knowledge spreadsheet, or anything else. The name is less important than the actual process for improving information technology.
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Thinking is the engine that transforms information into knowledge! People innately use intelligence to connect information into patterns of cause and effect for understanding how the world works. Experience and education on the natural order, structure, and patterns of cause and effect enable logical reasoning to predict future consequences. As a result, energy invested to construct connections of causality yields the power of knowledge that lifts civilization. However, the new reality of 21st century technology brings mountains of information faster than the mind can "connect the dots" to dia use and effect within a contextual frame. Complexity overwhelms the mind with erroneous assumption. Without accurate knowledge, management devolves into bumbling and eventual entropy. (see also cognitive overhead in New World Order...) The biology of human thinking that turns water into wine needs a boost in the new world order of the 21st century.
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How then does the architecture of human intelligence convert information into knowledge that can be aided by technology?

Intelligence:   Organize, Analyse, Align, Summarize, Feedback

In Cognitive Science, intelligence is a process that captures a continuous stream of information from sensory perception through sight and sound from seeing, reading, talking and hearing, but, as well, from rhythms of movement for writing, walking, swinging a golf club, driving a car, etc. The mind innately and involuntarily connects patterns of sequential associations needed for survival. Jeremy Campbell describes connectionist theory in his book "The Improbable Machine" positing that the "Human mind cannot help but connect one thing it knows with another..." Mental sequencing forms chronology that applies the irreversibility of time. Since survival has multiple requirements, e.g., air, water, food, protection, shelter, etc., cognition (i.e., sentience) makes sense of complexity from multiple needs and dynamic circumstances by associating patterns of sequence into contextual frames that guide conduct. Biology of mental metrics (some authorities describe induction and dimension matching) for time and context grow experience from linking the story of daily life that "a" occurred before "b". This simple binary mechanism connecting cause and effect induces awareness from trails associating action with failure, loss, irritation, pain, and death, and alternatively with success yielding rewards, survival, satisfaction and pleasure. Thus, the brain enables survival by remembering chronology, context, and connection from performing action in the present so that later memory of the past can plan for the future. Memory that "a" occurred before "b" builds understanding (see NWO) "a" can be relied upon to yield "b".
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Repeated patterns connecting cause and effect build sufficient history for confidence and faith to transform mere awareness into "belief," a rule, a paradigm, a lesson learned. In a complex world, belief, rules, paradigms, and lessons can be learned incorrectly because "a" can occur before "b" under one set of circumstances, yet not under another. Therefore accuracy refining understanding of context is the price of survival, and death is the cost of error. This formula can be expressed by the proposition that truth of belief from memory of chronology and context, together with energy connecting cause and effect yields the power of knowledge to control the future. Some authorities in traditional philosophy describe transformation of information into knowledge as justified true belief, with antecedents in legal practice that relies on the weight of evidence to authenticate accuracy of communication, for example testimony at trial. Physical science grounds the power of knowledge in the locality principle based on the irreversibility of time. The finality of time as a condition of existence underscores the importance of accuracy linking cause and effect.
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Power discharged in every direction is a destructive explosion. Order focuses dispersed power like a magnifying glass turns benign rays of light into a productive force controlled by the human mind, i.e., knowledge. Similarly, "subjects" manage the power of knowledge by organizing connections of cause and effect into organic structures of context.
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 Subjects (also topics, categories, classifications) describe the context of cause and effect within boundaries that limit the reach of deciding to take action based on new information. Survival requires seperating action for eating from action for protection. So, for example we cannot farm the land to grow food using actions that blow up the enemy. To survive, the brain must seperate chronologies of experience for seperate needs. Therefore, knowledge of cause and effect within the limits of context drive decisions on immediate action, and further enables people to plan for future events by understanding past experience under the rule past is prologue. As a result, subjects describe needs, goals. objectives, requriements and commitments.
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Human needs occur along a continuum of scale, beginning at the molecular level, and grow continuously by assembling small meanings into larger objectives, like DNA grows life itself. Scalable knowledge expands personal memory, belief, confidence, and faith in the reliability of cause and effect to form organizational memory with mechanisms for common storage and precision access to solve problems and make discoveries beyond the originating individual.
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The organic structure of subjects (i.e., context) is necessarily fluid and so impossible for the conscious mind to distinguish at low levels of detail. Internal subjects, though complex, comprise a closed, consistent environment managed entirely by the subconscious mind. Nobody gives it a (conscious) thought. The external environment is open and dynamic, and can be managed by the conscious mind, however, most often this occurs by rote using subconscious processing. An example is putting a document in a file folder, putting dishes in the cupboard, etc. The burden of managing a vast range of subjects that represent needs and evolving context is assuaged by culture that provides guidance for taking action through habit, tradition, manners, and peer pressure. Civilization adds laws, regulations, policies, contracts, specifications, history, organizations, commitments, and planning for added guidance, but this, also, increases the complexity of managing knowledge by increasing the number of subjects. In other words, habit, tradition, manners and peer pressure require little conscious mental attention to organize information into subjects, and use those subjects effortlessly to find relevant experience for taking action. But these traditional technologies (e.g., laws, contracts, commitments, etc.,) require a lot of conscious effort to organize chronologies of cause and effect into the correct context for finding relevant guidance to make action effective. The growing gap between external guidance and failure to comply with guidance due to limited span of attention presents a growing knowledge management dilema that necessarily restrains the advance of civilization.
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POIMS is a new kind of technology that leverages mental biology for managing organic structures to quickly and accurately represent evolving context across the full range of subjects from daily experience, and provide precision access based on situational awareness.
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This is difficult to comprehend, because (a) existence is overwhelmingly complex to the conscious mind, and (b) the intelligence process that manages subjects occurs involuntarily in the subconscious mind, i.e., on "automatic pilot." Unlike information that accumulates consciously through the senses (seeing, hearing, touching, doing, etc.), mental processing that creates knowledge is hidden, so there is no conscious awareness of experience, time nor process to guide development of tools for creating knowledge independently from the human mind. This makes it difficult for traditional information technologies (IT) in wordprocessing, spreadsheets, email, filing folders, key words, DBMS, MIS, AI, and the rest, to support "intelligence" for managing evolving context. Management science over centuries has devised discrete techniques for handling complexity in performing professional practices. Experience in project management, law, accounting, writing and the military offer clues that unlock secrets for a theory of knowledge beyond IT that saves time and money.
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The mental process of connecting information into patterns of cause and effect that impact survival and related objectives can be likened to a form of Knowledge Space that establishes context, similar to engineering drawings that position physical objects in dimensional space. This evolving context is continually compared, again, along a continuum, from subconscious to conscious situational awareness, for pattern matching, and subject identification that drive decision making in relation to prior experience, i.e., history, and controlling authority from habit, tradition, manners, peer pressure, fashion, policy, contract and law. Consistent alignment of mental maps strengthens credibility, belief and reliance on cause and effect, leading to conviction. This makes context a critical dimension of knowledge for establishing accuracy and relevance.
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Information that does not align with history and authority reduces belief, and induces caution, rejection, and inquiry through feedback to verify and refine accuracy. This continual "intelligence" process of converting information into knowledge (modeled below as plan, perform, report) generates experience by creating connections that link cause and effect, which is the core resource for survival and improvement of the human condition. Information from daily experience can, therefore, be thought of as intellectual capital, which can be "invested" to improve a product, a community, a nation and civilization itself, by adding and checking links to verify accuracy and expand understanding of cause and effect based on context. Or, we can let information simply settle into links entirely on automatic pilot, like so much straw in the wind.
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Since time limits the ability to invest intellectual capital, technology that aids the mind's process of making connections, like the alphabet, boosts human performance by orders of magnitude, hence the observation that literacy makes people superhuman. The common term for summarizing the notion of "superhuman" people is "civilization." Prior to literacy, most people lived a very rudimentary existence, frought with perils close to the earth, like other species. In today's world most creature comforts are amply satisfied; yet, there remains a powerful drive for improvement. People want better health care, a bigger house, more personal time for family and liesure; some yearn to explore other planets. As with the advance from pre-literate times to civilization, technology that further lifts the capacity to think, remember and communicate is the only path for another great leap in human progress. Achieving this goal requires support for intelligence. How does it work?
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Mental connections of cause and effect are created from a continuous stream of information received through daily activity -- i.e., sensory perception from seeing, hearing, talking, smell, tactile and motion experience doing things, including hand/eye coordination, rythm, etc. -- and occur on a vastly complex scale in the subconscious mind. Multi-level processing supports a binary architecture of cognition for thinking and doing. Intelligence smoothly manages transitions between the conscious and subconscious mind for guiding action with continual feedback loops (commonly called thinking, pondering, deliberating) that verify accuracy of perception based on alignment with experience appropriate to the context of current circumstances. This 2-tier model of cognition presents a powerful, often perplexing, and sometimes deadly knowledge management dilemma endemic to the general model of binary structure that defines existence. (see New World Order...)
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Conscious awareness perceives the world through the prism of logic based on sequential action, i.e., chronology, where people can only do one thing at a time; the body can only go in one direction or another; can only read one book, one page, one sentence at time. Striking a nail with a hammer, the body cannot at the same time, also, saw, or measure. But, since needs and influences are dynamic and complex, subconscious "thinking," or "intelligence," uses parallel processing to connect information from walking, reading, hammering, sawing, measuring, and everything else people do into a more powerful cognitive resource, called "knowledge," that organizes chronologies of cause and effect across a wide range of subjects that impact survival, directly and indirectly, into a single resource...
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human experience.

This complex resource is summarized in the conscious span of attention to focus mental strength on serial processing of only a few subjects for guiding external sequential action on discrete objects from moment-to-moment. Summary in the conscious span of attention connects relevant details from an individual's total life experience in order to manage evolving context for taking action in the moment.
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Subconscious processing spawns creativity by making many connections (thousands, millions) essentially all at once in personal memory based on rules, sometimes called "paradigms," formed from experience. Parallel processing is extremely fast handling vast amounts of data to construct concurrent connections that make sense of everything the mind encounters moment-to-moment. This often leap-frogs the slow pace of conscious processing to perceive possibilities that defy logic, based on commonly accepted standards and practice. Benefits of parallel processing to quickly understand evolving context and to imagine powerful new, and counterinutitive solutions are balanced by reduced accuracy, because rule-based processing is highly prone to error. Variance between momentary memory of experience, and recognizing patterns from contextual boundaries of actual conditions that are processed with fixed rules, make error endemic to the subconscous mind. Jeremy Campbell explains that people pay a price of constant error remembering only fragments of events, and filling out the gist of the story with details that fit common sense rules and paradigms for understanding cause and effect. (see The Improbable Machine) Error from fixed-rule based judgments are often disparaged as prejudice, and discrimination. Paradoxically, subconscious mental errors are a powerful force for survival by quickly focusing conscious attention in the ballpark of correct understanding.
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Conscious processing of situations perceived by the subconscious solves the problem of error by investing time to verify mental connections against actual conditions, including organizational memory when a record exists that can be accessed in time. (see also situational awareness in New World Order...) Of course, sequential processing for accuracy is necessarily very slow, and is limited by span of attention. (see above) Limited time, impatience, laziness and indifference all encourage reliance on rigid rules, rather than consciously investigating actual situations to avoid error of prejudice.
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This 2-tier model of innate, biological cognition presents a constant dilemma of balancing speed and accuracy to work intelligently by constructing connections that convert information into knowledge for getting things done correctly and in time to be effective. In very stark terms, if all processing is subconscious, using only rigid rules and paradigms, then speed is optimized, but accuracy fails; so, we crash and die. If we consciously try to check everything, then we run out of time and die, before getting anything done.
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When time is available, introspective thinking, medititation and prayer are helpful for discovering critical connections by focusing conscious and subconscious attention on a single subject without interference from normal sensory perception. Synergy between conscious and subconscious processing can sometimes yield insight for solving problems and recognizing possibilities that are otherwise hidden by daily work. (see New World Order Needs Old Time Religion) Studying accurate history increases the chance for clarity of understanding leading to breakthroughs from meditation. These days, however, too few have time to think, to study, nor to capture a record, verify accuracy, organize and access the record that enable studing to be prepared for either meditative or written analysis.
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Information that comes too fast overwhelms span of attention. When mental biology is exceeded, comprehension declines because the mind cannot construct meaning by associating new information with experience. Confusion aligning cause and effect within contextual boundaries increases ambiguity, erroneous understanding and false belief. Without timely feedback, strong belief in false connections degrades productivity from the power of...
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false knowledge

Negative synergy compounds mistakes from compressing time and distance because information density overloads the mind. Without a well ordered record and tools for precision access to align daily work, meaning drifts gradually and inexorably away from original connections. Constant meetings calls, and documents incrementally change memory, understanding, and belief (i.e., what was previously "known" -- see New World Order...). Over time, cause and effect is changed or entirely lost. Worse, meaning that correlates cause and effect can be completely reversed in the human mind. Since this occurs incrementally and on automatic pilot, i.e., without choice or volition, mental processing of false knowledge is hidden. It is a "secret" in the subconscious mind that wells up into momentary feelings of assuredness, commonly called common sense (see again New World Order...), that succors the conscious mind's desire to avoid stress and conflict in order to feel safe in taking or avoiding action.
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Throughout history secrecy has been an important concern for government and enterprise in securing safety. The same tension arises between privacy and productivity. Doing nothing provides complete security; doing anything risks error and discovery. Life requires balancing values of security and productivity.
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Today, most risk comes not from disclosing secrets to enemies but from communication with friends that imparts false knowledge, leading to actions which conflict with objectives, requirements and commitments. Information overload makes connections of cause and effect, i.e., knowledge, from meetings, calls, email, related sources and history, a "secret" from participants. When there is no proactive "intelligence" effort to maintain alignment, called out by POIMS, "knowledge" from processing spontaneous, stream-of-conscious information that occurs in daily communication, for example, talking, listening and taking notes during a meeting, is often erroneous due to short term perspective of common sense, as explained in NWO. Incorrect connections form in the mind between new information that seems, in the moment, to align with prior experience, because a few elements of experience, that can be summoned into the conscious span of attention, before something else is said, or done, that diverts attention to a different task, have similar patterns, but are not sufficiently aligned to justify causal connection, based on the full range of relevant experience, i.e., history.
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When information is constant, there is not enough time to think of everything; understanding is impulsive, cursory, and, in the moment, makes common sense. Thereafter, the desire to feel good (e.g., safe) is manifested in daily life by urging others to hold in common our "knowledge" of the way things are. This biological drive to transfer momentary common sense by telling others what we believe we "know," and which is widely considered a powerful strength of "communication," actually conveys false knowledge from meaning drift that is hidden from ourselves, and from others, i.e., made "secret," by the noise of information density. Soon, leadership is blinded by common sense that appears safe in the guise of self-assurred and commanding communication delivered with entertaining style. These "people" skills, that enable entertainers to repeat lines carefully crafted and researched for selling an audience on saying "yes" to buying a car, or switching to a new brand of tooth paste, are devestatingly effective in spreading the contagion of false knowledge, like a virus, throughout an organization, when communication is not aligned with objectives, requirements and commitments from organizational memory.
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Since communication is a predicate to action, a harsh new reality has emerged from success creating faster information technology (IT) that enables large organizations in government and enterprise. This powerful combination of technology and leadership fosters a devestating paradigm shift that marks the dilemma of the millennium from making...
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Communication
the biggest risk in enterprise

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Error increases exponentially from faster flowing and unchecked information in large organizations unwittingly transferring meaning drift in the form of common sense. (see again New World Order...).
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Paradoxically, large organizations are essential for economies of scale and so require faster information technology. Yet, these powerful forces of success in the modern age create chronic information overload that overwhelms human span of attention, causing continual bumbling. (see for example Henry Kissinger's book Diplomacy reviewed on June 9, 1994). Without proactive "intelligence" to "connect the dots" by adding links for continual alignment that refines accuracy and builds shared meaning, from feedback and an audit trail of traceability to original sources (see PMBOK and ISO, reviewed on July 21, 1995), then, in the absence of any such "intelligence" process, (sometimes called continual learning, also, organizational memory, etc.), daily communication on the job degrades to entropy, euphemistically called the fog of war (see again NWO), where every call, every meeting, every email, document and discussion sows the seeds of error, loss, crisis, conflict and calamity that occurs days, weeks, even years in the future, far removed in time, place, and people.
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"Meaning drift" occurs routinely from the common practice of paraphrasing to aid memory, easily illustrated in the friendly after dinner telephone game.
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The human mind innately recodes (i.e., paraphrases) information absorbed through biological hearing to fit personal experience and paradigms, commonly called "interpretation." Small changes in phrasing give a story meaning and perspective. Mentally constructing context aligned with personal experience significantly improves memory. That is why people are much better telling a story "in their own words," rather than verbatim. Small changes to a story are harmless in the moment, because original context is clear. Meaning drift, however, multiplies, when information increases and flows faster without intelligence support for alignment to original sources. Stories re-told apart from original context therefore suffer significant change. Since the degree of deviation in the moment is small, there is strong denial that meaning drift is a significant problem. In fact, communication and common sense seem so fast and easy that talking and hearing dominate the practice of daily management, making it hard for people to admit the magnitude of mistakes and loss caused by meaning drift in the new reality of rising information density.
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Every person hired these days has responded to a call for good communication skills that expedite the work. That being so, people feel their competence, and thereby their livelihood, is threatened by admitting that the strongest part of their work practice, communication, is the biggest cause of mistakes, delay and extra cost. Recognizing this challenge is the paradigm shift of the millennium, because the most common solution for most problems is to have another meeting, make a phone call or send an email. For these long established practices to now be recognized as the cause of problems, rather than the solution, presents a seemingly insurmountable dilemma, leading to sclorotic denial. Andy Grove, Chairman of Intel Corporation, notes on page 128 of his book, Only the Paranoid Survive that even successful executives have difficulty admitting to themselves, much less to others, the magnitude of the problems they face. The only solution is to strengthen memory, context, experience, and inference, also, called alignment.
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Human cognitive capabilities can be aided by proactive intelligence to organize, analyse, align, summarize and obtain feedback that verifies information and refines accuracy of knowledge. This form of intelligence discovers the errors and secrets, that occur constantly in handling daily information, in time to avoid mistakes, delay, extra cost, conflict and crisis. Sometimes we call the work product of intelligence activity, for example by the CIA, simply, "Intelligence," and the worker is called an "analyst," who assesses information and "connects up the dots" of cause and effect. Someone who proactively seeks out "intelligence" is called a "secret agent" or "spy."
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Along the same vein, we simplify by saying POIMS technology enables a culture of knowledge that aids intelligence by enhancing alphabet technology, for deliberative analysis, as contrasted with spontaneous, cursory analysis that occurs in conversation, meetings, calls and email. Thinking through writing improves human memory by expanding span of attention. Since literacy is the driving force of civilization, adding power to this core competency lifts civilization to a new plateau, in like manner that alphabet technology and later the printing press lifted past generations. POIMS technology extends this lineage to integrate time and information that yields chronologies of cause and effect for guiding daily tasks and planning the future, based on past experience, more commonly called knowledge. Expanding further, organization, analysis, alignment, summary connected to details, and feedback provide proactive mental metrics for daily communication by refining accuracy of what we know, i.e., "knowledge" grows through continual learning. Timely, accurate understanding reduces the risk of "secret" mistakes caused by meaning drift in daily communications (explained above).
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Work to proactively create knowledge for discovering problems and opportunities in time to take effective action is called Communication Metrics, rather than "spying." Other common expressions include knowledge management, Context Management, analysis, or simply intelligence to focus on defining a new way of thinking, learning and working, by integrating computer science, management science, and cognitive science.
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A new way of working intelligently redresses the knowledge management dilemma caused by limited span of attention that is overwhelmed by information overload, commonly expressed as...

I can't think of everything at once!

I don't have time to think!

Why is this always happening to me?

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Limited time and span of attention limits ability to make sense of information by aligning daily work into patterns of cause and effect that enables effective action. Understanding fails when information density overloads mental biology. Meaning drift compounds complexity, which conceals context. Misunderstanding context paralyzes productivity with continual cycles of correcting mistakes, i.e., rework, called "problem handling" and "crisis management." POIMS technology expands span of attention by making it faster and easier to develop intelligence using chronology, context, and connection.
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What exactly are the "details" of human knowledge that intelligence strives to summarize, but which quickly get disconnected due to meaning drift. In fact, as seen below, even a partial list of subjects processed by human intelligence in the blink of an eye is overwhelming to the conscious mind, and thus presents the modern dilemma of knowledge management...
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Summary
 (Conscious Span of Attention)

Management Details
 (Subconscious Intelligence)

Alignment

Chronology
Commitments
History
Law
Regulation
Policies
Contracts
Procedures
Standards
Tradition
Manners
 Organization

Time
Subject
Cost
Schedule
Roles
People
Documents
Facilities
Location
Equipment
 Analysis

Risk of Action
Risk of Inaction
Action Items
Impacts People
Impacts Cost
Impacts Schedule
Impacts Earnings
Impacts Environment
Impacts Politics

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Clearly, there is a lot to think about everyday on the job; but, just as clearly, most of the details are on the "back burner," because consciously considering the entire array is overwhelming. People avoid worrying about "connecting the dots" to understand complex details of daily work, because managing "knowledge" is a lot of hard work, reported on March 7, 2000. Based on the military model of command and control, managers spend 80% - 90% of their time communicating in meetings, calls, and documents. Peter Drucker cites analysis as the core responsibility for management to make sense of constant communication, but further notes the tendency for people to give up. (see review on November 30, 1993) Research by the US Air Force Institute of Technology (USAFIT) found that constant communication overwhelms tools and best practices. (reported on July 7, 1997) Management then degrades to entropy (see also meaning drift in NWO) with everyone working from personal memory, because nobody has command and control of organizational memory. How then do people avoid mistakes from subconsciously processing a vast array of complex, interrelated information?
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Culture and bureaucracy provide helpful guidance on taking action in complex conditions. While culture and traditional command and control exercised through bureaucracy resist improvement, people benefit from constancy that resists changing tools and practices that have brought prior success. Established conditions and protocols with responsiblity divided, significantly reduce the burden of cognitive overhead for individuals to think of everything.
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Within this framework, accounting, cost and schedule control, forms management, records management, data base management, MIS, data mining, IT and other business systems help control critical details using documents. Today, technology can create, store and transfer documents using electronic databases, email, the Internet and other traditional modes in filing cabinets, file folders, 3 x 5 cards, books, printed and handwritten materials, postits, reminders, brief case, to-do lists, etc. But, documents remain largely isolated chunks of information disconnected from decisions that expedite daily work under the common rule that... Paperwork never catches up with the real work! (see telecon on January 7, 1997)
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What has been missing up until now is a common theory to augment intellignece for integrating the many and varied information streams in peoples lives and in organizations that create knowledge of cause and effect. Information technology (IT) offers a wide range of powerful contact programs to manage people and organizations. Email, wordprocessing, data base, graphics, spreadsheets and other programs accomplish important tasks. However, as noted in the USAFIT study, more information degrades management to entropy without "intelligence support" for "connecting the dots" into useful knowledge. The POIMS design, therefore, strives to advance information technology (IT) toward a culture of knowledge. The change from information to knowledge tools, however, is necessarily counterintuitive because there is no tradition for a proactive intelligence role in business, as there is in the military. (see also New World Order... )
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The only "intelligence" support for leadership and management comes from after-the-fact adjustments, when meaning drift causes work to drift off course. (see above) When damages occur that people are unwilling to absorb, they hire very expensive intelligence specialists, more commonly called lawyers. Attornies for both sides (sometimes many sides) spend years examining documents, interviewing people, and analyzing alignment with objectives, requirements and commitments. This very deliberate analysis eventually discovers the truth about what caused failure of events long since past, and further enables judgements for management to organize, analyse and align future conduct that avoids harm. (see again NWO) Until now, there have been no tools to make "intelligence support" for deliberate analysis a cost effective role for proactive problem handling in business to accomplish concurrent discovery, rather than wait for the law to discover the best course after-the-fact. (see NWO)
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Knowledge Management (KM) has the right literation for tools that make intelligence support a routine practice of daily management saving lives, time, and money, as called out by Drucker, who has long championed a concept of "knowledge work." (see review on October 25, 1999) This potential has proven elusive. While "knowledge" is a common term, building tools that are usefully distinguished from information technology (IT) requires an "out of the box" conceptual leap integrating computer science, management science, and cognitive science. Equally, routine exposure to knowledge of causation with better accuracy from precision access using links and feedback encounters resistance to transformation because cultural inertia resists change, discussed above. A Knowledge Management dilemma presents an innovation loop where inexperience with benefits of intelligence support engenders greater fear of accountability for mistakes than for damages caused by mistakes under the common rule from the Legend of Prometheus that ignorance is bliss. (see review on November 8, 1999)
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In the face of engineering and cultural obstacles driven by ignorance, fear, and denial, market forces have driven the banner of Knowledge Management (KM) in many disparate directions, largely for selling past initiatives that failed to improve communication through executive training on conversation, and technology that focuses on information (IT), discussed above. Review of IBM's announcement on February 26, 1998 to market services for Business Intelligence found little relation to either intelligence, knowledge, nor management, and found strong correlation with past initiatives to market IT under new names. IBM's experience with Lotus Notes in the 1990s, IBM's difficulty evolving Lotus Notes into Raven for Knowledge Management reported on November 30, 2000, and the subsequent report on August 22, 2002 that people are feeling some pain using Lotus Notes aligns with analysis of Peter Drucker's work in the early 90s, noting that people have given up, because the complex architecture of human thought makes communication vastly different from information, and therefore difficult to improve. Research sponsored by SRI found in a report on March 7, 2000 that Knowledge Management is a lot of hard work using popular information technologies (IT). This suggests that a different kind of technology is needed for KM. However, IBM later reported on June 6, 2000 that Knowledge Management failed to meet expectations, and was merely another name for information technology with no substantive improvement, which aligned with prior analysis in 1998, and with concerns cited by the team meeting at SRI who concluded on June 15, 2000 that there isn't enough knowledge to develop tools for Knowledge Management.
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The cultural leap from information to knowledge tools has seemingly imbued Knowledge Management in all of the following... Information Technology (IT)
Artifcial Intelligence (AI)
Management
Accounting
Documents
Filing
Records Management
Ontology
Library Science
Context Management
Project Management (PM)
Cost Control
Schedule Control
Integrated Cost and Schedule Control (CSCS/C)
Command and Control
Communication
Learning
Religion
Self-actualization
Meditation
Executive Training
Leadership
Salesmanship
Collaboration
Change Management
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Transformation from 20 - 30 traditional disciplines into a unified theory of Knowledge Management necessarily takes time. Presently, two (2) distinct camps have emerged, representing the binary structure of existence. Both groups aim to advance civilization by improving communication in daily meetings, calls, memos, reports, correspondence, books, etc. The popular term for this effort is "collaboration." Each group strives to improve different parts of collaboration, roughly divided between speaking and writing. Historically the division between orality and literacy can be summarized as a dichotomy between talent and tools. Other binary forms are instructive on foundational divisions in management under Theory X and Theory Y. (see again Drucker) For example notify or consult, command and control or creativity and empower, proactive study to deliberate, plan, and prepare or react spontaneously on impulse, accountablity or license all reflect competing benefits of expediency and accuracy. Best practices of leadership teach executives skills for relying on natural talent (i.e., intelligence) for speaking, hearing, and observing extemporaneously in continual discussions, and email, while tools strive to augment intelligence with alphabet technology, wordprocessing, and now POIMS technology for authentic conversation verified with alighment to original sources, as called out in management standards. (see review of PMBOK, and ISO on July 21, 1995)
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The traditionalist, orality, natural intelligence group "collaborates" and exercises "leadership" to make things happen in the moment with fantastic social networking. These social skills rely on talent for talking people into saying "yes," with convincing and entertaining speech, dialog, conversation, and discussion that demonstrate exceptional memory, wit, rhetoric, and charm. In classical times people were called orators who rose to prominence with strong communication skills for collaboration. Orality relied on poetry and pictures to aid human memory in delivering an entertaining story to hold audience attention. (see history of writing reviewed on November 11, 1999) Today, roles for people skills closely align with "salesmanship" and leadership, aided by executive training, and formal education that sharpens talent for speaking, debating and people skills to communicate with minimal use of tools. Powerpoint programs, for example, are used to prepare pictures that make speech convincing, and cell phones are embraced for extending the reach of natural talent for talking, both without pause about compounding the risk of error, loss, crisis and calamity due to meaning drift.
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The second group promotes KM for collaboration using tools that augment intelligence and strengthen cooperation, beginning with alphabet technology to produce documents. Later the printing press, typewriters and, today, wordprocessing have led to Information technology (IT) that empowers people to act in concert over time by preserving original understanding through literacy in documents that extend human memory beyond the moment.
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Time is the bridge between talent and tools in knowledge work. Talent using tools over time in particular ways augments natural intelligence (talent) for understanding causation that drives future consequences.
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At least from the time of Plato and Aristotle in 400 BC, advocates of orality, i.e., reliance on natural talent for speaking, and those working on tools for literacy, i.e., originally alphabet technology, and today Information Technology (IT), each distrusts the other, as evidenced by Plato's Phaedrus. This distrust presents another knowledge management dilemma that balances binary structure, since, talent for people skills, and tools for memory are both essential to civilization. As stated above in discussing thinking and doing, progress requires taking action, in the moment, based on accurate understanding of cause and effect derived from experience that is aligned over time, beyond the moment. However, still today, suspicion and fear manifest the ancient divide between talent and tools.
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One group advocates Knowledge Management for fantastic social networking to build personal "relationships." This important effort promotes traditional behavioral methods for verbal communications in leadership, teaching, and salesmanship, and is applied for mentoring, collaborating, expediting, change management, reengineering and TQM. The other branch of Knowledge Management comes from computer technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) and project management software tools for "thinking," and "planning" use flow diagrams that render relationships in abstract, logical mappings of network graphics. Examples are organization charts, work breakdown structures (WBS), cost control, schedule (CPM, C/SCSC), and computer aided design (CAD) software. Inventory, purchasing, accounting, and banking software further animate efforts to support general Knowledge Management with technology. This second group proposes computer networks to communicate, share information, and collaborate on preparing documents, like contracts, product specifications, books, letters, and so on. These tools enable people to prepare professionally formatted documents with security and version control. The Internet, and wireless technologies, enable a lot of people around the world, across the street, and down the hall, to contribute on preparing documents.
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Email merges perspectives of Knowledge Management as conversation and as technology (see the record on May 5, 2000). Making it fast and easy to create and send documents makes stream-of-conscious writing similar to speaking. This creates an impression that email merges strengths of speech for fast, easy communication to share information, understand, and collaborate, with accuracy of a written record, commonly called "documentation" that makes teamwork and coordination effective. Email lists of issued and received correspondence further remind people to follow up, as an Action Item system, and email Subject descriptions can organize the record to help find critical details. AI and web page engineers are working to add classification (metadata search criteria), and structure for documents through ontology, XML, SMGL, computational linguistics and other means to transform documents into a system of Knowledge Management that makes communication more effective, people more efficient, and enterprize more productive.
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This perspective has four (4) defects that make email an important part, but not sufficient for Knowledge Management...
  1. There is no record that AI and web page engineers can build an "engine" that automates the architecture of human intelligence. All of the successful models apply technology to closed systems with well defined and very limited boundaries that control variables. Human reasoning, intelligence, and knowledge occur in an open system with vast relational and hierarchial complexity, where variables are dynamic. (see example on May 23, 1989)
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  2. Email is less accurate even than speech, which is inherently prone to error due to limitations of mental biology, reported by Havelock reviewed on November 8, 1999.
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    1. Email is spontaneous, cursory, lacks summary, organization, and alignment with objectives, requirements, commitments, and history, and thus constantly sows seeds of error.
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    2. Email practice is additive, redundant, participatory, and normative for cordiality, comity, and leadership to entertain, persuade, cajole, instruct, and guide that occurs in speeches, dialog, conversation, and chatting. Accuracy is secondary.
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    3. Email assumes accuracy of factual representation, and forgives error; like conversation, verification through alignment with relevant context clutters relaxed communication that aims for persuasion through clever and entertaining presentation. (see report on August 20, 2002) Rigors of traditional documentation for analysis, accuracy, abstract, and objectively distanced deliberation are avoided as disruptive to conversation in email etiquette. (see report August 23, 2002)
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    4. Email omits words and referents that assume common understanding which are recognized in conversation through immediacy of gestures, expressions, and props, like pointing to a diagram, or experiencing a common setting, which are all missing from email. People assume that others understand cursory, incomplete writing that saves time based on association in a stack of prior emails, called a "thread." However, when distribution is expanded, new recipients are unaware of associations, and continuing participants often forget assumed referents due to passage of time, i.e, lack of immediacy that occurs in conversation.
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    5. Hurrying causes words to be omitted or entered incorrectly, endemic to email that satisfies human drives favoring speed over accuracy (see review on April 15, 2003) Typing errors can convey an opposite meaning of intended communication. This prevents collaboration and coordination, because people take conflicting rather than complementary action. Proofreading by the writer fails because the mind "sees" with continuity of context what was intended. Readers in a different context of time, location, and experience see only what is actually written.
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    6. Email is one-sided, and so cannot be corrected and clarified based on immediate contextual dynamics that occur in conversation. Lack of immediate feedback and context increases complexity that overwhelms span of attention, causing errors, delay, rising cost, conflict, and frustration. Feedback loops to refine accuracy are often resisted. (see NWO)
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    7. Email ease of Reply on impulse, together with instantaneous worldwide distribution give an illusion of productivity and progress. Like fools gold that raises hopes for instant riches, email fosters laziness and sloth that suppress deliberation and industry. (see review on September 8, 2001) Without command and control of the record, order and accuracy decline. Since damage is deferred, rising complexity gradually overwhelms span of attention. Little deviations mysteriously grow into major problems, crisis, and calamity under Murphy's Law. Fear of accountability paralyzes productivity, as seen from the Microsoft case reported November 10, 1999. Clearly, there is no incentive to maintain a lot of documents riddled with errors. In fact, email encourages people to destroy, rather than invest, intellectual capital.
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      Knowledge Management must therefore strengthen "intelligence" that avoids error and discovers opportunity in the growing mountain of information from meetings, calls, and email. POIMS architecture with flexible structure for intelligence support adds chronology, context, and connection to email and other information streams, yielding a source of investment to grow the power of knowledge rather than bigger mistakes.
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  3. Documents are a good medium for information, but a poor medium for knowledge; and, collaboration is a small, albeit, important derivative of Knowledge Management; however, the primary benefit of KM is intelligence for taking timely, effective action. Structure is important for organization and context, but flexibility is, also, essential for creativity. (see flexible structure reviewed on May 23, 1989)
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  4. Action Items are more effective based on "intelligence" using the context of objectives, requirements, and history for setting priority of all pending issues, rather than being driven by momentary demands of others received through email that crowd out time for accurate understanding. (see example of Action Items on September 22, 2000)
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Meetings

Organizational Learning

Organizational Memory

Presencing
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Some authorities search for a solution that advances beyond information technology by proposing a process of creating documents through collaboration on the Internet as a form of collective intelligence.
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Documents are a cultural modality for using alphabet technology that evolved in a manual world 2,000 years ago, and are only a small part of the factors that influence daily action. A more robust solution empowers people with technology that moves up the scale of cognition from information to knowledge. Knowledge Management (KM) captures the right flavor for improving the information technology (IT) paradigm, but has been implemented with familiar methods (e.g., email, wordprocessing, dialog skills) that are already comfortable to everyone. (see collaboration, discussed above) People have therefore lost confidence in this phrase (KM) for identifying meaningful advance. (see review of IBM's research on June 8, 2002)
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Knowledge tools (by any name) should significantly broaden the range of intelligence factors aided by technology for making action effective, i.e., accurate, on time, and within budget. Since accuracy, time and money are always in conflict, the only solution is to develop technology that strengthens the weakest link in the productivity chain. POIMS calls for expanding span of attention to continually align conduct along a broader range of objectives, requirements and commitments than the human mind can achieve on its own, so that people are better able to take complementary action, rather than cause conflict. (see meaning drift and secrecy). Enabling complementary action and reducing mistakes by using technology to work intelligently brings a sea change in productivity and earnings, similar to driving a car, rather than walking. (see discussion above) Today, we have an electronic world that permits, indeed now requires, moving beyond Information Technology (IT) that produces documents (e.g., books, memos, email, etc.), to a culture of knowledge that leverages intelligence in the microcosm of the mind to enable a new way of thinking, learning and working. (see New World Order...) Connectionist theory in cognitive science (see, for example, Jeremy Campbell's book, The Improbable Machine) opens the door to a new kind of technology that lifts civilization with a powerful modality of Knowledge Space that strengthens daily action by adding an intelligence process to integrate information in documents with experience, i.e., time. Knowledge technology must aim higher than mere collaboration and documents, by integrating cognitive science, management science and computer science.
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Intelligence support for knowledge is a significant step to lift civilization by lifting the capacity to think, remember, and communicate. Retooling basic literacy skills to read and write requires a more robust paradigm than traditional documents based on alphabet technology.
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Documents contain information at the time of publication. Knowledge is much more powerful. It occurs in the human mind from the intelligence process of organizing and integrating a continuous stream of information, including but extending well beyond documents, and received through sensory perception as an evolving context that forms connections of cause and effect in relation to human needs and experience. Most information is processed primarily in the subconscious mind. Since intelligence converts information into knowledge innately, people feel that documents contain the actual knowledge that guides daily conduct, because documents are external objects available to the conscious mind, while the millions of connections for managing context that comprise knowledge are hidden in the subconscious. As a result, people tend to describe creating documents on the Internet as "Knowledge Management," and assume, without any experiential evidence, that this combination somehow aids productivity through better collaboration, all without hesitation about the distinction between information and knowledge. This omission, that overlooks the binary structure of cognition based on conscious (information) and subconscious (knowledge) processing, conceals the larger opportunity to lift the capacity to think, remember and communicate by transitioning from information to a culture of knowledge.
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POIMS argues that Knowledge Management (KM) to improve accuracy of daily work while saving time and money requires technology, skills, and a professional role that enhance human life and enterprise by strengthening alphabet technology for maintaining a well ordered record that leverages human intelligence. Tools that integrate time and context convert information from meetings, calls, and documents into "knowledge," rather than merely create documents. Connecting cause and effect based on time and context yields the power of knowledge for working intelligently to plan for the future. "Intelligence" integrates continuous information with human experience by "connecting the dots" of complementary threads for chronology and context. Better comprehension of dynamic and evolving circumstances, combined with timely memory of relevant details enables people to makes sense of rising complexity from isolated meetings, calls, pictures and documents piling up on desks, in filing cabinets, libraries, and computers. Understanding documents and dialog in relation to experience organized with the organic structure of context into a well ordered record yields an effective Knowledge Space that aids personal and organizational memory and management, hence POIMS. Knowledge Management must therefore synthesize tools and practices from management science, computer science, and cognitive science. It is a complicated process.
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Until now, enterprise outside the military has avoided intelligence (see again New World Order...). and has relied, instead, on an amalgamation of ad hoc information systems, commonly called documentation, which, as reported by the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, necessarily degrades over time into useless entropy, that escalates cost and delay. In the vernacular: the paperwork never catches up with the real work! As a result, decisions are based on the stream-of-conscious component of "collaboration," i.e., conversation and email, guided solely by human memory, in the moment, which devolves into mere "guess and gossip" under Feel Good Management practice that aims more to avoid accountability than to meet objectives and align the work with requirements and commitments. Since stream-of-conscious communication lacks the metric of intelligence, errors mount causing escalating delay, loss, crisis and calamity, because people are working more on problem handling, i.e., expediting, than on moving ahead. Information gridlock turns energy and talent into a frenzy of self-protection, rather than an engine of progress. Productivity, earnings and stock prices implode, because too many people are having too many problems (see the report by Reuters on December 7, 2000).
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Improvement comes, not by reducing conversation and documents, but by adding intelligence that integrates time and information, as elements of Knowledge Space connected to human experience. This requires tools, practices and roles to speed up the process of investing intellectual capital so that the human mind can keep up with the pace of expanding information from collaboration through documents and conversation.
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As shown in the array, above, human intelligence summarizes details to fit within a limited span of attention. When the boss asks for the "bottom line" and the "big picture" the request is to summarize thousands of details into a simple yes or no calculation of the form...

Yes, proceed, let's do it! ...or... No, don't do it! Today, these ultimate decisions are based on hunch and hope due to the growing complexity of factors that influence results, and the compounding effect of reliance on dialog, as the dominant component of communication. Without intelligence from proactive metrics for communication, decision makers are forced to rely on personality and style. Management disconnected from substance is a voyage of continual bumbling that reaches its destination only after the most arduous journey. Since all managements are in the same environment, relative success comes to those best able to get others to pay for mistakes, e.g., customers, sureties, vendors, employees, taxpayers.
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Adding intelligence to management is a powerful advantage in the information age.
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POIMS technology ensures that alignment, organization and analysis of relevant details are accurately and timely summarized to produce good "intelligence," rather than "guess and gossip," "hunch and hope," that controls subconscious processing in the human mind.
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"Intelligence" work is normally not thought of in this way. People conjure up a CIA operative accomplishing daring feats, or a spy satellite taking pictures to discover far away secrets which foreign enemies are trying to conceal.
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Communication Metrics focuses on discovering secrets in the meaning, correlations, implications and nuance from meetings calls and documents everyday, all day long, by friends and foes alike. The rule that people use only 2% of mental capacity is not substantiated in the literature. But, clearly, as the number of management details escalate under the new reality of the Information Highway, more and more of what transpires in a busy day exceeds limited span of attention. This presents a huge opportunity to improve performance by adding "intelligence" to management to order to expand span of attention, i.e., to overcome limits of human cognition.
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Therefore, designing technology to improve management requires stepping back to look carefully at the mind's intelligence processes in relation to the tasks managers perform, even though it reveals a greater degree of complexity than is recognized day-to-day. The dual meaning of POIMS reflects the complexity of leading and planning, thinking and doing.
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Peter Drucker says that technology applies the art, craft or science of any organized human activity, and that advance toward a culture of knowledge work is the ultimate craft of civilization.
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POIMS technology aids advance toward a culture of knowledge by helping people consistently use good management practice on the theory that doing the "right things" faster, more accurately, more often, yields better results. Good management requires doing things in the right order and degree. This harmony, or balancing of forces, which managers bring to their craft is called "integration." It means more than a "suite," or series, of related functions like wordprocessing, spreadsheets and contacts. Synergy from complementarity between functions is critical to make the management process efficient, productive and effective. Like the design of a car, a building, or a satellite in space, key components of management (people, process, time) must work together smoothly so that each supports the other in order to meet the challenge of the 21st century.
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A better future begins with fundamentals. Management creates wealth by investing knowledge and ideas (intellectual capital) in people through communication. This investment occurs as a continual process of...

Plan, Organize, Integrate and Measure
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...which can be automated into a simple management cycle:

Plan, Perform, Report
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The POIMS management cycle is an "intelligence" process that converts information into knowledge using an organic subject structure that combines TQM principles of quality and MBO principles for managing context with time for managing chronology. These ingredients applied with the speed and accuracy of technology can fulfill the promise: "time is money and knowledge is power. The irreversibility of time and the locality principle in a world of accelerating complexity require intelligence support adding energy to "connect the dots" of cause and effect that yields the power of knowledge to predict future consequences. (see review on March 12, 2004). POIMS extends this promise to meet new realities awaiting future generations by empowering people with the gift of time and the power of knowledge to control the future.


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LIMITS OF TECHNOLOGY

Good practices alone are of no help to busy people. For example, writing reports, attending meetings, making calls, reading and sending email all take time, and cause false hope that effective communication has occurred; or, fear that others are not "listening." Engineers, doctors, lawyers, executives, customers... everyone feels guilty about not reading a new report until the next report, call or meeting buries it with new information. Every day the disconnect grows between new information and what is understood and integrated into the work flow. Inaccurate information and limited time to understand context create false knowledge about what needs to be done, by whom, when, how and at what cost. Inaccurate understanding turns the awesome power of human memory into a loaded "time bomb." When people feel strongly that something is true, which is actually false, meaning drift sows the seeds of mysterious mistakes that are hidden from the conscious mind. Information technology degrades good practices into entropy. People simply give up on accuracy, allowing events to drive continual reaction fixing problems (i.e., rework). There is never enough time for planning to avoid problems when there is not enough time to think. Eventually a critical mass of bumbling explodes under the horrific rule of Murphy's Law, because constant meetings, calls and documents create chronic information overload. Without proactive intelligence to align information for accurate understanding, "time bombs" are ticking, ticking everywhere.
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People like computers for improving the appearance of information in documents; yet, realize that, like the Pied Piper who made the wrong path sound good, making bad information look good causes disaster. This is the path to Murhpy's Law. Still, the best selling applications for personal computers mainly improve appearance of documents, reflecting an obvious fundamental: pretty things sell because beauty is biologically attractive, like a bee selects pretty flowers for the best nectar. Since everyone is "selling" in one fashion or another, we demand ways to make our message attractive, and to distribute it quickly.
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So far, at the end of the 20th century, the marketplace has met this demand with stunning success, and that is the problem! The 21st century will require accuracy and comprehension making sense of complexity to understand cause and effect.
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Prepare for New Realities of 21st Century
Information Density Overwhelms Span of Attention
Murphy's Law, Crisis Management Solved by Intelligence

The new reality of the 21st century is overwhelming success of technology that compresses time and distance, while masking the true state of affairs with a "pretty face" of style and image pleasing a busy mind, when there is not enough time to look beneath the surface to question, to analyse, nor check for alignment. Good management practices mandated by standards, regulations and contract specifications are hidden in plain sight by the fog of war that occurs each day on the job in constant meetings, calls, and email where nobody has time to think. Without time to think, technology that only produces information piling up in computers fosters a new world order where communication is the biggest risk in enterprise. This new reality overwhelms span of attention every day all day long. Information overload causes chronic mistakes, a contagion of bumbling hidden from the conscious mind by Meaning Drift (see New World Order...). When circumstances eventually cascade into crises that force previously overlooked, forgotten and ignored mistakes into an overburdened span of attention, current mistakes are forced outside span of attention to await a future crisis.
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This cycle of crises from continual bumbling and problem handling is the source of Murphy's Law that provides a psychological safety valve to relieve and excuse stress, conflict and loss caused by too much information that exceeds span of attention.
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The human mind has always been susceptible to error when confronted with too much information. A battlefield commander, a foreman during a concrete pour, a doctor in the examination room, a traffic cop at rush hour, a quarterback on the field of play, all face the challenge which historically humans confronted in a harsh environment. Survival of life depends upon physical and mental capacity. Humans rely relatively more on mental capacity than do other species.
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Span of attention is more crucial to humans because physical capacities cannot make up for mistakes. We cannot outrun nor overpower our natural predators, so we use "intelligence" to plan for survival. The practice, or craft, of "management" evolved as a survival strategy that invests time for thinking, analysing and planning to prepare for future conditions. Being prepared overcomes limited span of attention and thereby reduces the frequency of crisis in accomplishing objectives. Of course today, the focus in business is on enabling prosperity rather than mere survival, but the value of investing time to be prepared is still critical to success.
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The management role of "thinking" and planning prepares the commander, the foreman, the doctor, the traffic cop and the quarterback to overcome limited span of attention, so that the chances of success are increased. The classic worry...

For want of a nail, a shoe was lost;
For want of a shoe a horse was lost;
For want of a horse a battle was lost... ... exemplifies the proactive role of management that positions leadership to succeed by planning ahead to anticipate for future conditions and providing the means to meet them.
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The Information Highway, however, is rapidly turning the traditional role of management to be prepared by "thinking ahead" into an oxymoron, because technology is rapidly reducing the time to deliberate for understanding the meaning of new information received each day, commonly expressed as...

I do not have time to think!


...and the corollary frustration...

Why is this always happening to me?

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Management is becoming an impulsive exercise that does not have time to think, to plan to prepare.
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The emerging business environment of information overload that drives emotional reaction from one crisis to the next is a huge change, a significant new reality which must be addressed with new skills and tools in order to restore a better balance between action and reaction, emotion and analysis, between doing and thinking, and between constant crisis and the mental process of deliberation, adding "intelligence" to information that creates knowledge and ideas, i.e., intellectual capital.
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High tech alone (wordprocessing, email, fax, cellular phones) merely multiplies the sea of details for which management is responsible. This conceals critical nuance, correlations and implications. Mistakes occur, people fall behind, take shortcuts and soon shun reports and fear high tech. Instead of the computer working for people, everyone is working for the computer! Management and technology are in conflict. The solution requires a better way to convert information into what managers really need: knowledge and ideas, i.e., intellectual capital.
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POIMS solves the dilemma of the millennium by empowering people to retool basic literacy skills that leverage human intelligence through the power of alphabet technology. Advancing beyond traditional information modalities to foster a culture of knowledge is a powerful paradigm shift, enabling a more robust foundation that lifts civilization to a new plateau.
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THE NEW VISION
AUTOMATED INTEGRATION

The future will bring more wordprocessing, copies, scanners, fax, voice mail, email, cellular phones, meetings, LANS, Quality Circles; more ways to increase information to be absorbed, processed and followed up. Under present management practice, increasing information reduces productivity due to superficial treatment, because there is...

not enough time to think

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The idea of POIMS is to: ..
This vision of automated integration to replace manual methods empowers people to accomplish tasks that are helpful to others, as a by-product of doing self-interest tasks for themselves. The incentive and timeliness of personal objectives, creates synergy that leverages knowledge and ideas throughout an organization, hence POIMS.
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Integration requires a system of controls for communication similar to traditional business metrics for cost and schedule (e.g., C/SCSC used in military procurement), because communication is the driving force of productivity. Before action is taken, there is a lot of communication in meetings, calls and documents that direct the work. When communication is not aligned, the work will not be aligned. Therefore proactive intelligence that aligns communication greatly increases the chances that cost and schedule will align with objectives.
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Communication combined with cost and schedule control provide a more robust control center to plan and manage the work.
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For example, the traditional, common sense focus on writing a letter uses alphabet technology to convice, persuade, and otherwise sell other people with effective presentation. Information technology (IT) for wordprocessing, email, Powerpoint, and the Internet are excellent for preparing, formatting, and distributing documents that look good. Programs to store and retrieve documents with key words, like PC Docs, provide excellent information management. However, a lot of cognitive overhead occurs in the mind to manage meaning and context of documents.
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Besides reading and writing a persuasive letter, report, article, book..., 8-steps of Communication Metrics complement traditional literacy practices with tools and methods for verifying accurate, comprehensive understanding. Strategy, purpose, and options for following up are often not set out within documents. Subjects, relationships, and connections between documents, meetings, calls, and work history usually only exist in the minds of people, and quickly fade as the next document, meeting, and call arrives. Intelligence support captures a well ordered record that "connects the dots" to transform mere information into the power of knowledge. Maintaining the correct order of chronology, context, and connections yields command and control of the record, which in turn enables accurate understanding in time to follow up with effective action.
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These common cognitive overhead tasks that typically occur as mental pondering and worry, actually comprise an effective Knowledge Space, for good management to save time and money, but are ignored by existing technology, or require input by support staff, which is neither timely nor accurate because the information explosion overwhelms human span of attention. Adding support for integrating information streams into a useful Knowledge Space provides precision access essential to make complex work history a resource for saving lives, time, and money, rather than a crushing liability. This powerful new way of working can be described as a practice of Knowledge Management, explained in NWO (see also transition from "documents" to "knowledge" explained above).
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POIMS technology enables capturing control criteria within the few seconds needed to identify a letter. Reducing the time needed to manage the record leverages the writer's desire to issue a letter. Organizational memory maintains an accurate record (see Report below) for accomplishing the purpose of the letter, even if the writer later forgets, or is not available, weeks, months, even years later, when action is needed.
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Integration can also be advanced with interoperability to widen the range of sources for "connecting the dots" in Knowledge Space by opening files for different software programs. (see work on October 20, 2003) Integration with other technologies leverages investment in training and existing work product, reducing the burden on people to learn new tools. Files supported by web browser technology enhance the power of knowledege by enabling access to links. Granular addressability and explicit links further expand benefits of interoperability by giving people instant access to precise locations that enable timely accurate understanding. Under Moore's Law, as more software supports granular addressability, direct access to specific locations will expand the power of knowledge for everyone to work intelligently.


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Investing Intellectual Capital
Organizational Memory Leverages Power of Knowledge

Intellectual Capital is the body of knowledge and ideas that connect cause and effect on the details of organizational memory from discussions, meetings, calls, email, documents and experience doing things, e.g., seeing a movie. hearing a concert, smelling a flower, throwing a ball, observing a sunset, camping, writing and reading a letter, software, a poem, report, book, a list of things to buy at the store, etc., digging a ditch, doing a scientific experiment, milking a cow, testifying at trial -- in other words, the whole of human experience absorbed by the senses that comprises memory of existence.
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Rather than forget valuable experience, as mere debris floating down the river to a sea of lost dreams, capturing a greater share of activity and communication that impacts objectives, requirements and commitments is the first step toward capitalizing on an extremely productive resource, which, up until now, has been hidden in plain sight. (see, for example, Jeff Conklin reporting contemporary organizations have weak ability to remember and learn from the past, reviewed April 20, 2001)
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POIMS is a new strategy to invest the time and talent of people in capturing, integrating and applying personal and organizational memory, as the core of enterprise management. For thousands of years pen, paper, mail, staples, desks, secretaries, etc., shaped the evolution of special professions for knowledge work. Today wordprocessing and email are helpful, but do not increase management productivity, because management practices are largely unchanged. Meaningful change to empower consistent use of good management requires a practical way to capture, organize, align and apply knowledge and ideas generated by daily work, as a new strategic resource for intellectual capital, also called "organizational memory," that extends the power of traditional practice for storing documents in historical archives.
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A new way of working supports an intelligence process that strengthens the Management Cycle to plan, perform and report on daily work. This design smoothly integrate a critical mass of complementary professional practices yields synergy that leverages innate personal capacities to think, remember, and communicate, with organizational assets of skills, experience, and tools, which together make proactive management practical and effective...

  1. Contracting provides a new vision of "Time" management that links the present with the past and the future.
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  2. Engineering uses thorough "Document" management.
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  3. Sales professionals use effective "Contacts" management.
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  4. Research scientists use alphabet technology for capturing each step of experiments so they can study cause and effect that enables discovering new knowledge. Similarly, test pilots report each task and results while flying. Back on the ground, pilots prepare deliberative analysis by writing a story that aligns data captured during the flight with objectives and prior understandings. Reconciling conflicts in analysis reveals issues not apparent while performing tasks, because the "heat of battle" requires full attention and energy, and the "fog of war" conceals critical correlations, implications and nuance. Investing time for deliberative analysis in science and engineering expands span of attention to deepen understanding.
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  5. Banking and ecology show that "investing" and recycling time and information, magnify knowledge and ideas.
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  6. Legal practice uses citations to discover and maintain alignment of cause and effect with controlling forces in law, regulation, contracts, commitments; alignment reduces errors and the time required to apply decisions consistently.
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  7. Detectives use 3 x 5 cards for organizing disparate facts of a criminal investigation and then move the cards on a display board to form multiple views, scenarios and theories for discovering patterns of cause and effect that solve the case.
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  8. Accounting uses organic, structured systems of identification, summaries, audit trail, and double-entry verification under the rule that little deviations cause big problems.
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  9. Computer programmers debug the work to improve productivity with quality control that corrects defective reasoning.
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  10. Journalism provides outlining, headlines and highlighting to report information that "connects the dots" from "data" into daily news stories about who, what, when, where and why events occur based on chronology that accumulates into history for understanding cause and effect. POIMS requirements for precision access strengthen traditional journalism with a dynamic model of organizational memory (see NWO) that facilitates working intelligently.
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  11. Intelligence experts analyse cause and effect, and summarize details so that a lot of important information can be absorbed quickly and accurately by decision makers.
Automating and integrating key aspects of professional practices permits generalized use without years of training. Using key practices in combination, so that each supports the other, lifts basic capacity to think, remember and communicate.
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Linking summary to specific details in a continuous stream of daily working information builds case studies that are organized and aligned for root cause analysis. Understanding cause and effect based on chronology and context develops proactive solutions to real-time problems, and, further, discovers new ideas and opportunities for saving time and money. (see examples of Decision Support in New World Order...) Adding "intelligence" to personal and organizational memory enables continual learning, which yields a practical form of Knowledge Space that guides and leverages daily work minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour for days, weeks, months and years. This strategic resource is aptly summarized by the notion of "investing intellectual capital," because rewards of investing are deferred, yet grow over time. Likewise, POIMS increases productivity and earnings by investing talent and time for converting information into knowledge.
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Convert Plans into Action

Implementation of POIMS technology starts as a personal schedule, like a desk calendar, except everything that needs to be done can be listed, so that priority does not default to "last in, first out" continual crisis on the Information Highway. This improves visibility of issues to solve limited span of attention that otherwise causes miscommunication, misunderstanding and mysterious failures attributed to Murphy's Law, which further cause hurt feelings, frustration, anger and mistrust that lead people, who become disconnected from critical details, to lash out pointing figures at others for not telling the truth. A popular solution is to hire psychologists, to soothe hurt feelings, and help people avoid "hostile" encounters. POIMS technology maintains connections of critical details (see also meaning drift), so that mistakes, frustration, stress, loss and conflict are avoided, along with the cost of the psychologist.
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Controlled Visibility Manages Context

POIMS technology enables assigning priority to planned tasks in a simple, direct manner based on current perspectives, and allows adjustments to priority, as events unfold. This design supports the scientific method of plan, perform, report, based on the innate mental process of intelligence that links summary to detail. Using software according to the design specified in POIMS drives productivity, illustrated by a case study reported on March 5, 2004. The study shows how people can quickly step deeper into details for planning and performing tasks, like meetings, calls, designing a bridge, performing a medical operation, and other common tasks listed in the record on July 8, 2002. Organic structures segment and classify information to quickly assemble chronologies based on context, over days, weeks, and years, that aid human memory in recognizing patterns of cause and effect. An "electronic notebook," shows a Diary of references, background and strategy that is linked to original sources, so that, when necessary, a chain of events can be quickly traced to originating cause. Increasing the speed and accuracy of obtaining relevant details for planning, performing and reporting improves productivity of daily work.
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For example a phone call about a contract change is a one line entry in the Schedule. Pressing a button opens a "plan" showing who is involved, and prior calls, meetings, research, and documents affecting the contract change. The "plan" shows issues to be discussed and position options, linked to prior events and analysis that can be opened to verify personal recall. While talking or whenever convenient, the results of the discussion can be entered into the planning record, like writing notes in a paper notebook. This converts the Schedule "plan" into a Diary "report" of action. Thus, converting information into knowledge is the intelligence process that converts plans into action.
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The Diary can in turn be used to schedule follow-up that is automatically linked to its history, so that at all times there is instant access to "what happened" and why. This scenario shows the smooth integration of the Management Cycle with time and information (i.e., Schedule and Diary). Automated tools that create and access linked information instantly, improve the basic human process of converting hard won experience into useful knowledge and ideas.
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MANAGEMENT CYCLE

Plan, Perform, Report


Human intelligence can be modeled as a plan, perform, report process. Waiting to cross a street, the mind forms a plan; consciously looking ahead, yet also looking back in time for experience with comparable conditions. "Let's see, the light is yellow; a car is coming. Can I make it in time? What about reward v. risk? Does the path have any obstacles?" So, a great deal of planning occurs before stepping off the curb, based on experience that imparts knowledge of cause and effect. "Oops, I step in a pothole while checking that oncoming car." Performing the plan yields information, which is reported as new experience. Subsequent reflection to organize, analyse, align and summarize new experience yields knowledge and ideas that impact future plans.
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 Will I remember?

How can I find relevant information when needed?
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POIMS posits that launching a satellite, building a dam, or managing a merger all entail the same basic elements of human cognition as the simple task of walking across the street. Only the scale is different. The "potholes" are bigger, often more subtle, and the "traffic" is faster, so we need better tools to plan, perform and report our experience on larger projects.
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Plan

"Planning" applies intellectual capital from experience performing daily work, i.e., history to decide who, what, when, where, why, and how things are done (see Report on results yielding lessons learned). Macro planning identifies strategic relationships of cost, time, staff, equipment, materials, as shown in CPM, WBS and Org charts. Most managements do this macro planning well, using specialists and modern team practices. Micro planning is identifying the detailed tasks performed by managers in order to accomplish the macro plan. New realities of modern life that compress time and distance make planning daily work very difficult, because information density increases complexity causing confusion about relevant history. Confusion accelerates meaning drift and hides critical knowledge of cause and effect. The solution is planning for proactive management that prevents small, seemingly inconsequential errors from growing into major problems.
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How does it work?

Daily planning identifies people, documents, objectives, commitments, options. It is traditionally performed on-the-fly, relying on personal recall, hand written notes, and visible reminders from stacks of paper, objects and entries in schedules. POIMS proposes technology that strengthens personal experience by instantly recycling information from prior related events, and organizing them in a Schedule of "things-to-do." In a manual world listing "things-to-do" is burdensome.
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Top managers know, however, that when there is a lot going on, critical details on organizational memory that impact objectives, requirements and commitments are overlooked, i.e., fall through the cracks, causing problems that delay completion and increase costs. As problems mount, crisis management creates endless cycles of correcting mistakes, then correcting the corrections. Management experts call this the rework cycle.
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Constantly fixing mistakes, with rework (see also NWO) is variously called "expediting," coordinating, and "problem handling" that is accomplished with strong communication skills for getting people to say "yes," in-the-moment, without any actual understanding nor alignment between the work and requirements. This pushes conflict into the future, hoping to avoid accountability, in-the-moment, by transferring responsibility to others. However, lack of alignment ensures continual bumbling that reduces productivity, rather than enabling continual learning that grows the economy. Accountants call the rework cycle "cost overruns" that reduce earnings and eventually stock prices. As bumbling becomes pandemic, organizations downsize to reduce the contagion of too many people having too many problems. When enough organizations have receded sufficiently to permit effective planning and decisions, the economy is able to grow out of recession.
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The problem with keeping a list of "things-to-do" is that the dynamics of daily management result in there not being enough time to maintain a useful list. In a very real sense, economic recession is the accumulated effect of a critical mass of people being overwhelmed, because limited span of attention cannot keep track of things to do, in what order, and with sufficient attention for the work to be done correctly. When things don't get done, when work is delayed and does not align with objectives, requirements and commitments, i.e., when planning fails, productivity, earnings, and stock prices fall.
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POIMS technology solves this problem using integration of time and information, so that planning is faster and easier.
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Perform

Doing "things" generates intellectual capital, also, called experience. Talking, listening, observing, taking physical action, all human activity constantly accumulates understanding in the human mind that is integrated with memory of related experience in the context of human needs, which arise organically in hiarchial and relational structures. The organic structure of needs appear to the conscious mind as objectives, requirements and commitments that give "meaning" to daily working information. Thus, groups, teams, projects, departments and organizations have shared meaning because they have common objectives and requirements based on mutual commitments. Context management defines shared meaning by setting boundaries in choosing conduct to perform the work. Managers plan, communicate and follow up to balance performance of objectives, requirements and commitments with limited resources. Diversity in culture and people meld through the prism of shared meaning. Knowledge from daily experience is largely formed involuntarily by the mind's automatic pilot of intelligence that connects performance with context, and is mostly hidden from the conscious span of attention. (see subconscious processing)
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There are rarely pat answers in performing daily management. Managers mainly use a leadership cycle of push, pull, prod, wait..., try again, rather than direct. This is a work of "art," performed by thinking and communicating.
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POIMS technology aids these natural mental process that integrates thinking and doing . People attend meetings, make calls, write and review letters, memos, specifications, books, email in line with common practice. However, rather than rely on personal memory, people can quickly find relevant history in an electronic data base of personal and organizational memory to verify accuracy of relevant experience. People can write notes to analyse calls, discussions, meetings, and why things were done, not done, and identify what still needs to be done when more time is available for follow up. Support for working intelligently helps people "connect the dots" with links in real time that align performance with objectives, requirements, and commitments. This new way of working integrates the traditional line between performing "work" and writing "reports," because "performing" work yields a "report," like crossing a street yields personal experience.
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Report

"Reporting" improves the traditional practice of "documentation" by continually investing intellectual capital that strengthens both time and context management. Modern technology significantly extends the model of the ancient scribe with a new way of working by writing with a practice of deliberative analysis. Today's tools enable people to capture contemporaneous work history with connections to objectives, requirements, and commitments. This new form of literacy provides a comprehensible story of personal and organizational memory that routinely makes sense of daily experience. Traditional study, analysis, and deliberation are transformed from rare moments of cognitive overhead, when people can steal some time to think (see NWO...), into a routine practice of intelligence that connects the dots to discover powerful secrets of cause and effect. An expanding history of daily experience along the continuum from simple to complex tasks in discussions, meetings, calls, and documents can be further connected for precision access to sources and authorities, e.g., publications, policies, procedures, regulations, and laws. These expanded connections provide an audit trail to understand causation, i.e., why things happened. Links further show the context of actions aligned with objectives, requirements and commitments. Routinely constructing organizational memory on the story of daily work fits the model of human cognition presented by Jeremy Campbell in his book The Improbable Machine, reviewed on March 3, 1990. Campbell correlates human reasoning with experience, rather than logic. This design places a premium on accurately understanding time and context illustrated by the common question: Then what happened?
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Reporting that integrates time and context provides instant access to verify accuracy and expand span of attention for performing future work. In turn, creating links forward and backward in time triangulates the record with cross-checks that continually refine accuracy, while providing constant reminders that strengthen innate memory. (see NWO) As stated, all human tasks entail a single, simple intelligence process for driving a nail, mowing the lawn, fixing the car, going to the doctor, setting up the computer, revising the organization chart, planning a project, promulgating policy, resolving a dispute, creating a software program, designing a bridge, etc. Work product from investing intellectual capital is described variously as intelligence, analysis, reporting, knowledge, personal and organizational memory, the "record," the "story," history, experience, information, or, even, a "knowledge repository." Conventional writing and wordprocessing for documentation can therefore be aided with new tools for adding organization, alignment, structure and summary that converts information into knowledge.
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For the most part, the story of daily life is only reported in the human mind as implicit knowledge comprising loosely connected chunks of conversation and experience that associate cause and effect (see intelligence ). Implicit knowledge is also called "tacit knowledge." "Reported" in this context refers to the biology of human memory that is recorded and stored in the brain throughout life, and ends with death. As noted, doing things creates experience that generates impressions about cause and effect. Tacit knowledge is refined and honed into expertise and craftsmanship by repetitive experience, and mentoring, coaching, etc., but not by written analysis that correlates and distinguishes different experiences. Examples include eating, mowing the lawn, hammering a nail, performing an experiment or a heart operation, playing the piano, throwing and catching a ball, driving a bus, tying your shoes, etc. Implicit knowledge occurs through thoughts, thinking, hunch, guess, gossip, gut feelings, warm fuzzy feelings, and memory, all processed instantly by the subconscious mind. Complex hand/eye coordination, or in the case of playing musical instruments, hand/hearing coordination, and for driving a car hands, feet, eyes and hearing all combine for coordinated action responding to changing traffic conditions. Thus, understanding through tacit/implicit knowledge enables immediate action reacting in the moment to evolving dynamics. Skills and confidence grow primarily through repetitive experience, demonstration and conversation with coaching and mentoring.
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Writing transforms implicit into explicit knowledege ( see literacy and alphabet technology) Of course, aspects of writing are implicit and creative, involving hand/eye/hearing coordination applied with "unexplainable" skill and imagination to construct lucid prose, or in the case of a novel to formulate interesting plots, and sub-plots with attractive description, and fascinating, lively dialog. Writing also manipulates external objects. Editing rearranges words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs. Deliberation by the conscious mind applies diligence to authenticate accuracy with links that connect the dots to original sources. Storage in external media using documents, libraries, file folders, and computer files and disks increases accuracy of memory by orders of magnitude. Better memory aids constructing comprehensive analysis. Synergy between the quality of writing for rendering explicit knowledge, and accurate memory arises from external storage segmented by chronology, and organized by subjects into an organic structure of context. Assembling knowledge into contextually bound chronologies, i.e., integrating time and context, enables precision access to find relevant details quickly.
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Managing knowledge quickly and accurately helps people discover trails, links, and associations that connect cause and effect without expense and painful experience of trial and error. Adding energy to construct connections yields the power of knowledge that controls the future (see good management, citing the "locality principle"). Explicit knowledge therefore lives and grows, beyond individual life to improve work, avoid problems, and advance civilization across generations. (see chronology, context, connection)
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Some implicit knowledge is hard to transform into explicit writings. It is a lot easier learning to tie your shoes, drive a bus, or hammer a nail by watching someone, and getting help rather than follow written explanation. Same is true for frying an egg. Try writing up how to flip an egg "over easy" in a frying pan. Some people feel that, since not everything can be reduced to writing, knowledge management seems beyond reach, leading to calls for sole reliance on mentoring and conversation. On the other hand, baking a cake, frying eggs with peppers, cheese, onions, and sausage to make an omelet usually yields better results following a cookbook. Similarly, hammering a nail is hard to convey in writing, and is easy to learn with the aid of a mentor or teacher; however, building a house, bridge, or a factory is faster, easier, cheaper, and turns out better with written plans and specifications, rather than merely having a mentor or teacher explain everything.
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Telling stories that convey implicit knowledge in conversation sitting around a camp fire can be fun and personable in building relationships, like The Canterbury Tales from the 14th century. Writing stories to produce history improves accuracy making sense of complexity by orders of magnitude, and derives knowledge of lessons learned. Written stories survive through the ages, rather than die with the original participants, shown by Chaucer, Homer, Plato, Peter, Paul, John, etc. These venerable experts discovered that attending a meeting is made much more productive by writing up the history of what transpires in order to make sense of complex stories, rather than trust to fungible memories.
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Since the human mind is wired to think through stories, writing a coherent story is a big part of analysis that makes history a powerful "intelligence" asset for creativity to solve problems and discover new ideas. Written analysis aids memory of daily work in meetings, calls and documents so that people can draw correlations, implications and nuance from the context of objectives, requirements and commitments that give information meaning. Distributing the story provides feedback that gets everybody on the same page, and checking the record empowers people to be prepared for productive communication and collaboration by aligning discussion in the next meeting with commitments, objectives, feasibility, scope, and requirements. These dynamics of explicit knowledge enrich understanding and build shared meaning beyond innate biological capacity of implicit (tacit) knowledge to remember only the gist of the story, about 5% - 10%. Deliberative analysis under POIMS strengthens thinking through writing by leveraging personal and organizational memory.
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New computer functions for crafting, finding, connecting, organizing and summarizing information enable people to discover opportunities and mistakes in reasoning, and to recognize conflicts with objectives, requirements and commitments in time to take effective action, which otherwise are overlooked during discussion and personal thinking due to complexity that exceeds span of attention, often described as the fog of war. As a result, the POIMS process of improving personal and organizational memory significantly augments intelligence by leveraging the ability to remember the gist of the story.
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A report using common practices of literacy, enhanced with new functions for "intelligence," improves listening to understand and follow up communication well beyond the limits of innate biological gifts for hearing, seeing and reacting to information in the moment. Feedback refines accuracy of knowledge about critical details from daily work by reducing errors and conflicts in memory. Better listening makes communication effective so that people and organizations take complementary action that makes collaboration productive.
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Writing in a flexible structure of Knowledge Space expands span of attention that aids personal and organizational memory. Better memory improves both writing and reading comprehension. Traditional literacy is strengthened by quickly creating controllable action items linked to original sources so that time invested in reading and writing can be directly applied to taking action for getting things done on time and within budget. A flexible structure strikes a balance between speed and organization so that people can capture a greater share of personal and organizational memory, and can add intelligence that saves time and money.
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A format with routine, established elements for people, documents, time and organization positions narrative in a powerful context of flexible structure for Knowledge Space originally developed in 1985, and reviewed on May 23, 1989. Outlines, lists and headings that summarize meaning, and organic subject structure strengthen literacy by ensuring relevant history is continually considered for "connecting the dots" between current, momentary, and cursory understanding and the actual record of prior related events. These connections enable people to discover critical correlations, implications and nuance in time to take effective action. In other words, "reporting" crafts the story that makes sense of complexity by adding organization and analysis showing alignment with history, objectives, requirements and commitments. Making sense of complex work-in-progress by continually expanding the record of important history reveals actions needed that are otherwise not evident, i.e., hidden, due to the fleeting, discursive character of human mental biology that controls speech and hearing, again, solving the fog of war problem. Despite the benefits of literacy, only fragments of daily experience (i.e., the "dots" of life) are reported in written notes, memos and reports, because traditional documentation is slow and bureaucratic. This is evident from the common lament that managers do not have enough time to think using conventional technology for creating useful "intelligence" from endless meetings, calls and documents (e.g., email). Therefore, we need a better technology. POIMS recognizes "time" is an integral dimension of knowledge, that forms a powerful working environment of Knowledge Space where people can routinely connect the dots of fleeting information into timely "intelligence."
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POIMS technology is a practical way to capture a larger share of daily experience, and to analyse, organize, align and summarize organizational memory with links to history, objectives, requirements and commitments that make human memory the most powerful force on earth. Unique organizing structures provide faster access than retrieving documents in filing cabinets, email and wordprocessing programs. This eliminates the paradigm of analysis as "paper work" that stifles initiative. Instead, intelligence provides support to create and preserve knowledge and ideas under the POIMS paradigm of investing intellectual capital.
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Capturing the record of who, what, when, where and why events happen helps a busy mind "connect the dots" in organizational memory to understand correlations, implications and nuance through the common process of thinking through writing. Technology makes this self-dialog process fast and easy and fun through the prism of flexible structure. Writing things down, linking things up, and adding organic structure for context management expands span of attention to strengthen the weak link in management because continually constructing and using traceability to original sources verifies accuracy of root cause analysis. Flexible structure positions people, objectives, requirements, commitments, laws, regulations, contracts, policies and procedures, i.e., everything that influences action, in the context of time. The resulting chronology yields a spreadsheet for knowledge of cause and effect, essential for decisions that make action effective by leveraging the power of human thought.
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Computer aided thinking under POIMS adds intelligence to daily information that yields "knowledge" about related events, called "history," which can be accessed on any subject along the chronology in seconds, rather than hours, days and months required by conventional information technology. Instant access to history, combined with automated tools to quickly organize, analyse, align and summarize the record, enhances the synergy between time and information that occurs in the mind. This means crafting and connecting the record (i.e., "reporting,") to convert information into knowledge is a practical way for people to invest intellectual capital every day for effective Enterprise Management. Some people refer to this investment as a Knowledge Repository, Organizational Memory, Case Studies, Root Cause Analysis, Intellectual Capital, Continual Learning, Organizational Learning, Business Intelligence, or simply Knowledge Management. By any name, the core process is "intelligence."
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Intelligence
Integrated Management Builds
Organizational Memory in Knowledge Space

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New realities of a faster, more complex world require technology for seamless integration of the intelligence cycle that drives daily management...
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P L A N



P e r f o r m R e p o r t

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The POIMS plan, perform, report process, sometimes called the scientific method, strengthens the innate 2-tier structure of cognition with a 3-layer architecture that integrates people, process, and time. (see also Deming on quality) A composite design helps people generate knowledge and ideas with an integrated continuum for managing time that inherently augments human intelligence. Work can be continually aligned with objectives over days, months and years by "connecting the dots" from daily experience into a record of organizational memory. Common tasks, that are complementary (each supports the other), helps overcome biological drives to use bad management, by making good management fast, easy, and fun, even when the mind is burdened by complexity and limited time.
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Constructing an external rendering of knowledge that people can shape, craft, improve and manage significantly improves technology that piles up mountains of useless information. (see due diligence in New World Order...). People are forced to rely on guess and gossip, because nobody can find anything, which presents a constant challenge: Will I remmeber what happened today, when I need it next week, next, month, next year? The new reality of chronic bumbling (see Kissinger reviewed on June 9, 1994) grows from technology that increases information density beyond biological capacity for situational awareness (see again New World Order...). Intelligence support converts a crushing liability of constant information overwhelming span of attention, into a strategic asset of organizational memory for getting things done with precision access. Intelligence makes good management routine, rather than the rare exception, by converting useless information into the power of knowledge. How then to advance from information to a culture of knowledge?
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A common storage strategy integrates the inherent granularity of time with a continuous information stream from daily experience, where everything is in the right place at the right time. The intelligence process of plan, perform, report grows natural chronologies of cause and effect based on the organic structure of context for objectives, requirements and commitments. Expanding Context Management to apply organic structure in greater detail and scope than currently occurs for records management, filing, accounting, scheduling, and WBS (work breakdown structure) methods, increases command and control of the work. In turn, the power of knowledge using low-level DNA-like structures for subjects strengthens accuracy and access to organizational memory, and opens a path for transformation from documents to Knowledge Space. Replacing traditional documentation, now causing management to fail because faster information technology (IT) overwhelms limited span of attention, is accomplished by extending traditional methods of locating physical objects in dimensional space. (see productivity paralyzed, and case study on Economy Implodes When Information Overwhelms Mental Biology reported on October 3, 2001)
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 Knowledge Space extends the familiar practice of dimensional space to provide a physical framework (see New World Order...) for integrating time and information. This combination yields a flexible spreadsheet for knowledge that advances the power of alphabet technology for performing common literacy. Expanded grammar for granular addressability, references, and explicit links significantly increase precision access into the vast and expanding record of daily work (see discussion of firepower on February 4, 1995). Dimensionality of mental coordinates applies flexible structures of time, context, and connection within a framework of linear nodes that triangulate accuracy. (see discussion on May 23, 1989) Better accuracy and precision access add value by transforming traditional documents into contextually organized case studies that continually grow lessons learned, based on the evolution of objectives, requirements and commitments. A stronger literacy model makes traditional study, analysis, and deliberation a more rigorous and routine part of daily life by reducing time and effort to write diary narrative connecting cause and effect into the power of knowledge that makes sense of expanding complexity. Leveraging the innate "plan, perform, report" intelligence process with technology optimizes human potential by growing personal and organizational memory into a dynamic Knowledge Space. Computers become a powerful Operating System for People and Organizations. "Paperwork" decried for slowing productivity is transformed by precision access into useful experience that drives command and control to expedite the work minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, every day.
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A spreadsheet for knowledge expands the traditional linear model of information in documents. Knowledge requires both flexible structure and multi-dimensional axes. A user interface with integrated functions builds synergy from self-interest dynamics that drive individual effort for capturing daily experience to invest intellectual capital. Reciprocity between performing personal tasks, including reading, writing, analysing, collaborating, sharing and testing ideas and plans through communication that relies on the record all day, every day to save time and money, is reinforced by tangible reward for investing time to grow knowledge within a time frame that builds personal and organizational commitment to sustain the process over days, weeks, months and the years of a lifetime. POIMS technology augments human thinking by providing speed, accuracy and integration performing a critical mass of tasks that fuse cognitive processes for creating an experiential record. Without an integrated critical mass of support, technology yields little benefit to management. POIMS therefore strengthens personal and organizational memory that enables a culture of knowledge.
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Intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, experience, chronology, memory, history are all integrated in the mind. Fusion of cognitive processes (see the chart of organic mental structure in NWO) drives continual learning that resolves confusion in complexity by adding alignment in organizational memory to discover and understand causation based on context. Understanding relevant experience from working intelligently guides the constant flow of decisions in the unfolding story of life that expands history every day. POIMS architecture strengthens these natural cognitive gifts by focusing technology on command and control for managing objectives by building a continuous history of case studies, which are organized and accessible based on the context of evolving needs.
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Knowledge Space extends the concept of a general purpose, static encyclopedia into a dynamic source of personal and organizational memory by automatically creating chronologies of related events that give instant access to relevant history based on situational awareness. School children commonly use an encyclopedia to find information for their homework assignments. Adults use Knowledge Space to find critical details for performing daily work on the job to save lives, time, and money. Chronologies comprise an "audit trail" of alignment based on sequence that imparts knowledge of cause and effect, essential for understanding the context of why things happened. Case Studies, Lessons Learned, Continual Learning, Traceability to Original Sources and Root Cause Analysis all derive from command and control to construct and access chronologies of cause and effect based on the organic structure of context. (see "reporting" in New World Order... for scope and use cases) Integrating the plan, perform, report cycle with conventional methods and tools for time management (past, present, future), creates synergy that grows ideas for strategy and planning based accurate knowledge of relevant history. Time saved by eliminating multiple handling of information in traditional documents can then be invested to get things done correctly. This dynamic continually expands the record of organizational memory that leverages the natural power of knowledge.
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In the late 19th century, the philosopher, scientist and humanist, Charles S. Peirce, developed semiotics that recognized the need to continually refine the accuracy of knowledge based on experience. (see review on May 15, 2000). Albert S. Einstein is equally credited with recognizing knowledge requires continued verification through experience. (see review on November 24, 1999)
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These authorities suggest that useful technology requires a design that can be routinely used for capturing and constructing a greater share of personal and organizational memory. (see Communication Metrics) The design must further enable people to quickly and accurately construct connections that grow knowledge of cause and effect; and, there must be a means for access in time to be effective solving daily problems. In other words, useful information requires both timely construction of an accurate experiential record, and later finding the details relevant to current needs by remembring only fragments of the original story, as occurs on the job in the real world.
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Access on demand using situational awareness for finding the full story at the precise location in Knowledge Space that is relevant to current context helps solve the dilemma of cognition. Better accuracy and faster access defines innovation that improves productivity by augmenting intelligence.
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Technology that supports intelligence applies the power of the microcosm where the subconscious mind makes sense of complex information by automatically making connections with past experience, noted by Jeromy Campbell in his book The Improbable Machine, reviewed on March 3, 1990. Campbell further explains there is a tradeoff between speed and accuracy, as noted above explaining the binary architecture of cognition (2-tiers). Subconscious connections are very fast in order to process massive amounts of data by relying on rules of thumb, paradigms and common sense to calculate a summary impression on danger and opportunity, and then passes control to the conscious mind for action. The conscious mind is much slower, but more accurate in refining first impressions by customizing connections to actual conditions. Campbell describes the knowledge dilemma of trading speed for accuracy. People pay a price for relying on common sense, rather than investing time to ensure accuracy, but, also, suffer when action comes to late to be effective.
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POIMS design for Knowledge Space, fits the 2-tiered model of cognition that balances competition between speed and accuracy. A special set of critical links are automatically constructed based on simple rules of chronology and context. This design follows the natural architecture of subconscious processing that is very fast, actually transparent to the user. However, accuracy degrades over time, as context evolves, causing meaning to drift away. Like the subconcious mind, while not entirely accurate, automatic links quickly place people in the ballpark of relevant context, where specific links can then be created at will, based on situational awareness that one thing should be connected to another. This significantly increases the speed of consciously constructing an accurate record of organizational memory, because custom links take only seconds to create, and then can be accessed instantly.
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Custom links are created by marking a location, and then moving to another location in the current record, or in another record, or in an external document, i.e., anywhere in Knowledge Space, and pressing Enter or double clicking. If an anchor exists, it is used; if not, an anchor is automatically created. This takes less than one (1) second, reducing construction of links to a matter of volition. "Connecting the dots" to discover cause and effect for working intelligently can be thought of as stitching the frabric of life into a continuous mosaic. Meaning is discovered and understanding is preserved of correlations, implications, and nuance, which otherwise are lost as mere fleeting and blurred impressions each day.
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In 1965 Gordon Moore proposed a formula for increasing computer power. Using this power to expand span of attention narrows the gap between conscious and subconscious processing by expanding span of attention. Strengthening the weak link in the dilemma of cognition increases both speed and accuracy on an expanding scale. This means that expanding computer power under Moore's Law, including interoperability, makes "intelligence" a highly leveraged asset, where a few people construct organizational memory that grows the power of knowledge for everyone. (see NWO)
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POIMS requirements enable people to routinely externalize the innate intelligence process of triangulation that refines accuracy of knowledge acquired through traditional literacy (i.e., reading and writing, explained below), both from communication, and from ordinary experience in daily life. Linking one source to another constructs a persistant web of external connections in the framework of Knowledge Space (see again New World Order...) that leverages mental metrics for understanding cause and effect, based on alignment in relation to chronology and the organic structure of context. Like alphabet technology that externalizes connections to construct information, expanding support for the power of knowledge has dramatic benefits for proactive management to take action in time to be effective.
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User interface efficiencies make constructing connections fast and easy by linking immediately at will based on situational awareness, i.e., mere volition. (see explanation in New World Order...) Reporting complements linking by enabling people to find sources quickly in organizational memory that verify accuracy, and expand span of attention. Expanding fragmentary memory beyond the gist of the story increases productivity with integrated design responsive to human needs understanding chronology, context, and connection. Ergonomic tools optimized for efficiency apply left and right hands equally with eyes and ears sensing the natural flow of tasks using keyboard, mouse, and computer screen. Executing commands with both hands necessarily applies a greater share of left and right brain power (see The Hand reviewed on January 21, 1999). Synergy between computer power and brain power optimizes mental biology smoothly applying a critical mass of integrated, complementary functions so that each supports the other. Efficient usability adding intelligence to information makes the structure of knowledge "connecting the dots" of cause and effect useful to people. Without efficient application, computers remain a mere appendage of wasted potential (see Larry Ellison, CEO Oracle, remarks at professional event in Paris, France, February 22, 1997; and see Bill Gates, CEO Microsoft, remarks on Charlie Rose television broadcast, November 8, 2002) Working intelligently with everything in the right place at the right time transforms the drudge of diligence into a paradigm of discovery. Working intelligently becomes fun, like playing a piano. Quickly executing complementary computer tasks that make sense of dynamic, complex events increases satisfaction and rewards through increased effectiveness. Command and control of the work seems like conducting a symphony in perfect harmony. While perfection is never reached, ergonomic, efficient usability optimizes human potential for continual improvement.
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 Eight (8) steps apply the plan, perform, report design that leverages the power of knowledge for working intelligently. Tools with efficient usability for personal and organizational integrated memory and management (POIMS) generate synergy between practices of chronology, context, and connection and principles of locality and complementarity (see Schombert on 21st Century science March 12, 2004). Routinely adding intelligence to "connect the dots" from daily meetings, calls, and documents increases productivity through command and control to get things done correctly in time to be effective...
  1. Report -- like a journalist, write the story of who, what, when, where, and how events transpired, and with traceability to original sources - see "Align." Routinely capturing the record invests intellectual capital from meetings, calls, and documents (e.g., correspondence, laws, regulations, books, articles, movies, specifications) within the flexible structure of Knowledge Space that integrates personal and organizational memory showing the natural chronology of cause effect that empowers command and control of the work through a "plan, perform, report" intelligence cycle.
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  2. Organize -- 1st element of triangulation to strengthen accuracy; develop and assign organic structure for objectives, requirements, and commitments (similar to practices in accounting, planning, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and library Dewey Decimal systems) for managing context; constructing and organizing the record expands span of attention to discover correlations, implications and nuance used for steps 1, 3 and 4. Investing time to organize enriches intellectual capital that enables people to be prepared for finding information quickly when needed by remembering only the gist of the story; finding critical details quickly aids analysis and alignment to refine the story and verify accuracy.
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  3. Analyse -- refine the story to make sense of complex information by crafting correlations with prior related history that explain why events transpired; refining and aligning (see step 4) the record discovers subtle, hidden meaning, i.e., nuance, that is otherwise overlooked, so that understanding cause and effect is comprehensive and consistent rather than fragmentary and conflicting relative to history, objectives, requirements and commitments.
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  4. Align -- 2nd element of triangulation "connects the dots" of cause and effect that yields the power of knowledge to control the future; checking alignment verifies accuracy and expands span of attention by linking details of daily work into trails of associations to relevant history that empower people to accurately remember why events occurred, and consequences, which are otherwise hidden by the fog of complexity from compressing time and distance with constant meetings, calls, and email; adding alignment to the record applies and expands existing chronology, context, and connections. Synergy from checking and adding connections makes sense of complexity by discovering correlations, implications and nuance that disclose gaps and and conflicts in understanding which can be corrected in time to avoid mistakes performing the work, and discover opportunities for saving lives, time and money.
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  5. Summary -- craft headlines for perspective with multiple views that save time by enabling people to quickly understand the meaning of complex information, and decide when to pause for studying more detail, based on situational awareness.
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    Executive summary prepared from headlines covers three (3) elements....

    1. Purpose/objective of meeting in relation to purpose of project, i.e., the project objective is "x" and we are meeting today to get this part done.
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    2. Major problems blocking progress and major goals achieved that advance progress or that show problems are being solved/addressed.
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    3. Major action to be taken and by whom (typically showing your customer is waiting for something from you, or you are waiting for action by the sponsor, etc.)
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  6. Action Items -- analysis and alignment yield comprehensive awareness of situations in context for planning new tasks and follow up.
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  7. Schedule -- implement planning for timely follow up to get things done, core metric of communication.
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  8. Feedback -- 3rd element of triangulation continually refines accuracy of knowledge. Feedback loops are closely related to follow up and notice practices Both proactive and post action feedback are critical for timely, effective intelligence support.
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Intelligence support to routinely add organization, analysis, alignment, summary and feedback to new information from meetings, calls and documents meets Peter Drucker's call in an article reviewed on October 25, 1999 for technology to "routinize" support for human cognition in using good management practices. Unlike conventional methods where work usually begins with a blank page, POIMS aids the mental process of analysis by recycling prior records of related events, which need merely be edited to reflect new subjects, substance and alignment. Since from one event to the next relatively little is truly new, the plan, perform, report intelligence process saves a lot of time generating useful knowledge.
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Scheduled tasks are converted into diary records that align work with plans. Diary records are converted into Scheduled tasks that align planning with work experience. As in the human mind, information is simply transformed into alternate forms, yielding the true power of conservation...
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recycling knowledge and ideas to create new wealth

...saving time, treasure and tragedy. Since literacy is the foundation of civilization, POIMS requirements for advancing alphabet technology, which made people superhuman beginning approximately 2,000 years ago (see Havleock on the Alphabetic Mind, reviewed on November 8, 1999) necessarily portends a rise in the quality of life by strengthening the ability to cope in the new realities of a faster, more complex world. Better ability to cope in this new world order is essential for any notion of Enterprise Management that strives to remain viable and effective over time. Organizational memory integrated with intelligence support yields continual learning through case studies reap a rich harvest of lessons learned and innovation.


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COMMUNICATION

Everybody worries about communication. Telephones, fax, email, meetings, beepers, speed information in all directions aimed at improving productivity under the theory that "more is better." However, people need more than information! Effective communication requires understanding cause and effect, i.e., background, correlations, implications, and alignment with objectives, commitments and the chronology of prior events. This requires fast access to a record of background so that new information can be fit into a new array of knowledge. Thus, communication only occurs by converting information into knowledge.
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Chronology, Context, and Connections
Convert Information into Knowledge

Writing a diary using the eight (8) steps for intelligence support converts the complex story of daily work into a well ordered record that makes finding relevant history fast and easy. Timely, accurate knowledge connecting cause and effect from daily experience optimizes the management process (plan, perform, report). Links connect order, pattern, and structure for proactive management to verify accuracy and discover opportunity in time to be effective. While no technology can "automate" context management for the jumble of meetings, calls, and documents (e.g., books, articles, reports, endless email) encountered on the job everyday, the design of POIMS technology leverages time and energy to routinely create the correct order "connecting the dots" of cause and effect that yields the power of knowledge to control the future (see Command and Control). A few people with specialized skills constructing a well ordered record enables a lot of people to save lives, time, and money.
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Granularity organizing organic structure of context makes complexity an asset for increasing productivity, rather than a liability that overwhelms span of attention (see review on March 12, 2004). Chronology of a diary provides common storage that maintains sequence for understanding the logic of cause and effect. Automated links "connect the dots" that augment intelligence with precision access to relevant history, documents, objectives, requirements and commitments based on situational awareness.
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Constructing chronology and connections within contextual frames (called variously subjects, categories, classifications, issues...) reveals correlations, implications, and nuance that drive discovery through analysis. Assigning the organic structure of context to daily work enables finding relevant history quickly and easily when needed for root cause analyis and decision support. Linking further augments intelligence by connecting summary to details, which routinely expands span of attention. Benefits of writing daily communications increases with time, because chronology, context and connections add powerful new dimensions to conventional literacy for converting information into knowledge, i.e., understanding, ideas, innovation, productivity, and progress. Adding intelligence support to manage daily experience therefore yields a discipline of Knowledge Management that adds value to documentation in traditional email, reports, articles, and books.
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Communication Metrics
Accuracy, Alignment, Access

"Experts" teach better listening to improve communications. The cognitive process of "listening" offers an alluring shortcut for leadership to expedite the work with dialog, personality, and memory under the common sense rule: talk is cheap. Today, a new world order of high speed technology bombards people with constant information that compounds complexity. This faster paced world overwhelms human mental metrics for ordinary sensory capacity to speak, see, hear, and remember. Mistakes that occur in communication during meetings, calls and email often go unnoticed, because, when the mind is engaged continuously, little deviations are beyond span of attention. (see research on March 3, 1999) Misunderstanding compounds over time as meaning drifts away into chronic bumbling until entropy reaches critical mass and explodes into conflict, crisis, and calamity, with loss of lives, time, and money. (see NWO on Aristotle's rule, and Murphy's Law) This new reality requires a method of Communication Metrics using technology that augments intelligence for maintaining alignment to strengthen listening.
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Accuracy is the common sense mental metric for communication (see research on February 5, 1995). People use innate intelligence to "connect the dots" that calculate alignment with relevant experience. Traditional practice in accounting and management constructs an an audit trail to "connect the dots" showing traceablity to original sources, called out by professional standards. (see review of ISO on July 21, 1995) The legal profession has evolved a method of citations that rigorously link information to maintain alignment between sources over time. In today's world, however, citations, alone, are inadequate for accurate communication to avoid mistakes on the job. An effective system of Communication Metrics requires technology that makes the work fast and easy to support natural intelligence by creating connections for accurate alignment, based on situational awareness. Equally important is the ability to access links into organizational memory for verifying accuracy and contextual relevance in time to take effective action. If access is not fast and easy, accurate knowledge in organizational memory is of no use.
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Despite laws, regulations and professional standards, people naturally gravitate toward work habits of least effort. Reliance on assumption from remembering the gist of the story is a lot easier than rifling through the filing cabinet to get minutes of the last meeting for sending an accurate letter to verify understandings. Therefore, common practice on the job varies dramatically from professional standards, because information technology (IT) makes pressing the Send button fast and easy for spreading error throughout an organization and all around the world in email, without the bother of verifying anything in the record. Reliance on assumption (see New World Order...) without verification "kills" productivity and earnings, as error spreads like a virus using email for fast and easy easy distribution. The only solution to killer applications is to make intelligence, i.e., accuracy and access, fast and easy.
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Linking support for intelligence makes possible a practical system of Communication Metrics where an accurate record is both permenant and instantly accessible for maintaining an audit trail that "connects the dots" to understand causation over days, weeks and years. Organizational memory routinely constructed and integrated with personal memory in Knowledge Space thereby transforms faster information technology (IT) into a strategic asset rather than a debilitating engine of continual bumbling.
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Communication Metrics that strengthen accuracy and access through chronology, context, and connections leverage the power of shared meaning in organizational memory. Better memory makes collaboration effective by enabling complementary action, rather than everyone relying on personal memory that yields conflict, error, bumbling and loss. In turn, collaboration plays a powerful role to refine accuracy of communications with feedback. Distribution through the Internet is fast, easy, and less expensive than traditional methods by several orders of magnitude. Secure intranets protect vital interests of confidentiality. Low cost, timely distribution of understandings from calls, meetings, and documents dramatically improves productivity through feedback loops that reduce rework, because people can refine first impressions and correct misimpressions by providing clarification in time to avoid mistakes. As a result, synergy between routinly distributing the record and obtaining feedback continually refines accuracy of organizational memory, and expands span of attention with reminders of alternate interpretations for investigation and taking action in time to be effective. (see New World Order...)
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Alignment with history and sources (e.g., requirements, policies, regulations, contracts, etc.), together with feedback to and from people, disclose small differences in meaning, intent and understanding that can be adjusted with little effort, time and expense to avoid delay and extra cost that time multiplies into conflict, crisis and calamity. (see for example Managing Toward Accountability reviewed on Aug 29, 1997) Accurate understanding and timely follow up to get things done correctly, on time, and within budget improves productivity and earnings through collaboration.
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Since communication occurs in the mind, the mind must be tested (see debugged) to discover understandings from discussions, meetings, calls and documents, including email.
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POIMS argues that computer aided reporting, i.e., adding intelligence to information, is the most direct way to measure accuracy of communication.... ..
Thus, understanding and follow up are practical and essential business "metrics" of communication. In other words, adding "metrics" to communication by adding "intelligence" to daily working information measures whether useful listening occurred, based on alignment with the record of organizational memory. When intelligence fails, the likelihood of future error causing follow up to fail due to false knowledge caused by erroneous understanding, miscommunication and meaning drift is 100%. This high risk of error causes continual bumbling that reduces productivity and earnings, because in a faster paced world, communication is the biggest risk in enterprise without metrics implemented with tools, practices and a work role.
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3-layer Architecture Transformation to Culture of Knowledge

Technology for intelligence support developed with a 3-layer architecture (see above) is, also, deployed with a 3-layer architecture for transformation to a culture of knowledge, without investing a lot of time and expense learning a new way of working. (for context see outline on intelligence support in NWO)
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People use existing skills working with familiar tools on familiar things to create information in meetings, calls and documents (layer 1); granular addressability and explicit links (discussed below) strengthen accuracy by adding connections to verify alignment with organiztional memory (layer 2). Taking a few seconds to verify accuracy based on situational awareness enables many people to work intelligently so that everyone benefits from reducing mistakes, without everyone investing additional time. Like accountants, CAD engineers, pilots, bus drivers and others, who leverage specialized skills and technology that help a lot of people, a few people use skills and tools that implement POIMS requirements to organize, analyze, align, summarize, and provide feedback. Only a few people using eight (8) steps that add intelligence to information can construct, and refine accuracy of organizational memory in Knowledge Space (layer 3) that makes access to critical details fast and easy for everyone. Since granular addressability and explicit links are constructed automatically, everyone can access organizational memory quickly to collaborate, and get things done correctly that saves lives, time and money.
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This solves the Knowledge Management dilemma by striking a better balance between speed and accuracy that enables people to improve productivity by quickly learning to use powerful new tools that leverage existing skills and training.
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Some will object:

I don't want to write, and click anything to expand span of attention, because talking is fast and easy.

I'm a good listener; I know what I heard; I want to expedite by relying on whatever pops into my head at the moment.

Doing the work shows what I understood; if problems occur, I'll adjust. ..
Thoughtful practitioners have learned, however, that "talk is cheap" means that good hearing does not yield accurate communication, when there is no feedback loop. Biological hearing is not "listening." Hearing must be tested with questions and aligned with what has been said before, with contracts, policies, law, regulation and other controlling forces in order to enable effective listening through accurate understanding and timely follow up that gets things done on time and within budget. Experienced managers and executives also know that pounding the table and providing memo pads inscribed "Don't say it. Write it," does not overcome the allure of relying on conversation, because conversation is fast and easy, and doing anything more takes time that is in short supply.
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To get more intelligence, POIMS says lower the cost and increase the benefits. This requires automated tools that make possible a new paradigm for knowledge work. It means a shift from isolated "documents" to a continuous Knowledge Space where writing, linking, analysing, aligning, and distributing information is faster, more flexible and useful than traditional documents and reports. In particular the ability to retrieve specific information from a sea of details at the moment it is needed, increases the incentive to create it. These utility and self-interest dynamics make testing communications by the metrics of feedback, alignment and analysis a viable new management practice.
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Documents Linked to History and Analysis
Produce Knowledge Space

POIMS links intelligence from organizing, analysis, alignment, summary and feedback metrics, with traditional "documentation" in correspondence, reports, memos, email, and publications in books, magazines and newspapers. Common storage for organizational memory in Knowledege Space gives timely access to all formal and informal communications, because everything is in the right place at the right time. Timely access is supported by context management to construct and navigate multiple paths with organic structure without expending noticeable time and effort, so that people can find information quickly when needed based on contextual understanding of circumstances in the moment, i.e., situational awareness. Common storage and timely access to organizational memory accomplish popular goals for a paperless office, where "filing" is a mere mental exercise of volition (see also a virtual office reviewed, for example, in an article on June 13, 1998)
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Formal correspondence requires features to differentiate issued and received documents, and capture control criteria that impacts management and legal obligations, e.g., is a response needed, who should respond and when?
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Creating correspondence must therefore automatically post a Document Log that shows accountability, context, and schedules follow up. Similarly, publications are captured in the context of actual work flow. This provides clarity of application. Linking tools connect analysis to documentation, so that original sources can be accessed based on organizational objectives and relevant history. Often the most important aspect of a letter is what is left out, so POIMS links this information automatically, when correspondence and documents are prepared within a POIMS environment.
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Integrating document management with intelligence that is organized by chronology and organic structure, and which links summary to detail, creates a dynamic working environment of Knowledge Space for both personal and organizational experience. Some experts variously call this integrated environment for enterprise management a Virtual Office, or Paperless Office,, that provides an automated history, with names like Repository of Experience, Lessons Learned, Case Studies, or more simply a Knowledge Repository.
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POIMS extends this concept by integrating history with communication, planning, and performing daily work, i.e., technology enables people and organizations to take timely action, by augmenting intelligence to make getting things done faster and easier.
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Clear, Concise, Complete Communication via Internet
Builds Shared Meaning
Intelligence Collaboration Powerful Synergy

The Internet can deliver vast amounts of information anytime, anywhere. However, people do not need more information. We need precise information on specific subjects, and we need knowledge of correlations with related scenarios, and alignment with requirements and authority. People need intelligence.
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POIMS requirements support analysis with (1) organization using flexible structure, (2) connections that maintain accurate alignment, (3) summary linked to details, (4) organic structure with granular contextual boundaries to access relevant research, and (5) feedback that refines accuracy. Integrating these elements harmoniously in a structure of Knowledge Space yields a common resource of organizational memory for clear, concise, complete communications. Networking on the Internet and with secure company intranets enables everyone to exercise due diligence to avoid mistakes without investing more time. Systems that rest on diligence for accuracy benefit greatly from intelligence support, because good intentions to work harder invariabily founder on limited time. Integrated tasks accomplish more work in the same time with greater diligence supported by technology.
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Another dimension of Knowledge Space is the contribution of people who receive the record of organizational memory for intelligence support on the Internet or a secure intranet.
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POIMS requires automatically constructing granular addressability with anchors on every location where links are needed (e.g,, paragraphs - see automatic and custom linking above). In addition, explicit links are generated to make anchors visible using a system of highlighted double dots (e.g., see the first character of each paragraph throughout POIMS). Applying explict links on the Internet, or a secure intranet, makes "connecting the dots" to work intelligently fast and easy for everyone (place the mouse on the double dots and right click to open a menu; click the "Copy Link" option; the link address can then be pasted into an email - takes about 5 seconds).
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Web browser technology enables everyone to create connections into Knowledge Space using explicit links, but without the burden of learning and using specialized technology. (see 3-layer architecture for transformation) Instead, people can capture connections of their own choosing, using familiar tools and skills via email, and deliver useful intelligence to anyone, anywhere in the world at any time. These evolving dynamics show great promise for expanding the power of knowledge. Creating a connected record in seconds rather than hours, days and weeks with other methods is a significant gain in productivity realized from efficiencies of a paperless office or virtual office model, which have previously proven elusive. (see review on April 18, 1991) Productivity gains from only a few people are multiplied many times over by empowering millions of people with command and control of the work, because finding critical details to get things done is no longer a frustrating exercise of looking for a needle in a haystack, but now is accomplished quickly by clicking links based on situational awareness (see also Documents Linked to History and Analysis)
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Increased accuracy from the precision access using granular addressability and explicit links make the goal of clear, concise, complete communication a practical new reality. (see New World Order Needs Old Time Religion) Expanding the power of knowledge to everyone for constructing links at will, which in turn enable instant access to precise locations for everyone scales up to save enormous time and frustration looking and hunting to find critical details, and saves even more time, when people don't take time to find the right things, and so spend much more time correcting mistakes from relying on assumptions and remembering only the gist of the story. Productivity grows quickly switching from negative to positive synergy relying on accurate information in time to be effective.
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The Internet and secure intranet networks support uniform and timely distribution of intelligence to a wide audience. Uniform, timely delivery builds shared meaning. This form of delivery avoids the common problem of people not reading a large report because it appears too imposing at the time it is received, and so is put off to another time, when it is too late to apply "intelligence," or is ignored altogether. Clear and concise communication avoids the problem of information overload, where meaning is lost or misconstrued due to the vagaries of interpreting a large amount of information. Delivering "intelligence" anytime, anywhere via electronic networks maintains shared meaning over the period of time required for coordinated action, which is the goal of leadership.
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Clear and concise communication enable timely follow up, and complete communication enabled by links to "connect the dots" ensures accurate understanding for making action effective. These ingredients for a system of Communication Metrics form a stronger partnership between leadership and technology that improve management productivity by working faster and more accurately.


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PRODUCTIVITY - DEBUG MANAGEMENT

"Experts" agree (e.g., Drucker, Grove) that management productivity requires making better decisions that avoid mistakes, including avoiding denial that mistakes have been made, which require correction. If speeding up the assembly line causes more defective widgets, Quality Control will catch them. If QC costs less than the additional widgets, productivity is improved. That does not work for management. Its defective "output" flows far into the future. However, when the "boss" errs, inexperience and social pressure endemic to organizational hierarchy, impede subordinates from sounding an effective alert. Therefore, managers must challenge themselves.
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The software industry provides a helpful model for how managers can challenge themselves by applying the "debugging" process that computer programmers use to discover their erroneous instructions executed deep within the architecture of computers. Managers must likewise "debug" their work product before disaster strikes by constantly asking... ..
These steps to "debug" management require analysis (see again Peter Drucker) of personal and organizational memory, which, in turn, requires tools and skilled people to capture daily experience in the context of controlling authority in law, regulation, contracts, industry standards, policy and procedures.
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The POIMS process of adding intelligence to information strengthens traditional analysis by routinely organizing the record and "connecting the dots" into chronologies of cause and effect. Intelligence produces intellectual capital that improves accuracy of communication, listening, understanding and follow up throughout the organization. Accuracy is improved by applying common binary structures to cross-check personal perceptions, similar to "double-entry" verification in bookkeeping. As with the tradition of bookkeeping in financial management, adding metrics to communication enables people to discover little deviations (i.e., errors and mistakes) in alignment between daily work and controlling forces (e.g., contracts, objectives requirements, commitments), at a time when correction can be made without significant time and expense to prevent events from cascading out of control into major cost and delay. In other words, paying the price of good management to reduce mistakes saves time and money otherwise expended on endless cycles of correcting corrections, commonly called rework. The same process, also, discloses opportunities and ideas from discovering patterns and associations for improving work processes that are overlooked in the absence of intelligence support.
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A variety of ways to find information using complementary functions and practices for manipulating integrated data bases provide multiple views based on the organic structure of context. Granular division of subjects, granular addressabilty, and the innate granularity of time provide multiple paths for fast, often instantaneous, precision access. This makes finding the proverbial needle in a haystack fast and easy, based on situational awareness. (see also New World Order...) The biology of subconscious mental metrics enable people to readily remember the gist of the story that is usually in the ballpark of relevant context; however, innate memory is often incorrect and incomplete on details. For example, reporting on September 27, 2000 indicates people typically remember only 5% - 10% of the actual story, and then fill in the remaining 90% -95% with assumptions based on common sense. The worry people feel about the devil in the details underscores the price people pay for fragmented memory under new realities of chronic information overload (see New World Order...).
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Accurately remembering critical details of organizational memory presents a significant opportunity to improve performance using POIMS requirements for reporting in a framework of Knowledge Space. Rather than rely on a fragment of truth and use common sense to fill in the gaps (see The Improbable Machine by Jeremy Campbell, reviewed on March 3, 1990), POIMS technology leverages ability to remember the gist of a story to get the full story from organizational memory. The power to find 100% of the story, by remembering only 5% - 10%, significantly augments cognition by expanding span of attention. Research on March 3, 1999 shows that expanding span of attention aids human memory; earlier research on March 19, 1990 found better memory augments intelligence, i.e., aids human reasoning. The key is that we don't have to write everything down in order to improve. Just remembering 10% to 20% doubles performance so that people can find the right information in time to save time, money and lives.
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Fast and easy retrieval, means more information will be generated, because it is more valuable. Since doing more of a task improves performance, users get better and faster at capturing the record. Thus, under POIMS technology, automated tools for investing intellectual capital empower managers to achieve the TQM objective...
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faster better cheaper

i n t e l l i g e n c e

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Total Quality Management and ISO 9000

TQM transcends the bureaucracy of traditional hierarchical organizational models by applying "quality metrics" to leverage individual spirit, energy and talents of cross-functional teams. This yields better planning and communication that improves performance. Another way to describe TQM is improving productivity by constant review of work practices, including teamwork, planning and communication. ISO 9000 and 10006 provide specific criteria for accomplishing a lot of the aims attributed to TQM, yet improvement through quality control to reduce mistakes in daily management remains elusive. Managers are under constant pressure to cut corners and take short cuts in hopes of saving time and money. TQM, ISO, PMBOK, FAR and all standards recognize that short cuts on good management cause continual bumbling, which increases the time and cost of rework, more commonly called "expediting." When investment for quality management falls, entropy rises under the second law of thermodynamics, leading to error, loss, chaos, conflict, crisis, and calamity.
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Deming's plan-do-study-act" work model has become a management standard cited in various forms by ISO and the Project Management Institute's body of knowledge (PMBOK). These standards recognize that study and planning are processes for adding "intelligence" to information, which is essential in order to make action effective. Andy Grove, president and chairman of Intel Corporation supports Peter Drucker's call for managers to analyse and to study. But information overload from constant meetings, calls and email reduces the time to think. There is no time to plan nor to study before taking action, when the mind is constantly absorbing information. Deliberation, analysis and alignment are ignored in hopes of saving time to expedite the work, which leads to a spiral of correcting mistakes, i.e., continual bumbling and escalating costs of rework. Therefore, POIMS technology uses automated integration of the management cycle, plan, perform, report, as the only viable means of empowering managers to consistently implement TQM and other good management practices. Consistent use of good practices to analyse, plan, understand and follow up improves earnings, and is the best form of proactive risk management for reducing mistakes, stress and conflict.
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Context Management
Management by Objectives (MBO)
Organic Structure Constructs Multiple Views

Technology that integrates Managing by Objectives (MBO), with time, and information makes Context Management (see New World Order... for scope) a routine business practice. Records management, library practices with the Dewy Decimal system, accounting systems, and network planning with CPM and WBS methods create a framework for organic structure that positions everything in the right place at the right time in Knowledge Space. Fast and thorough identification of context with subject indexing (also, topics, categories, classifications, taxonomy, epistomology, ontology, etc.) breaks down chronological events into vertical and horizontal relationships that define granular boundaries for objectives, requirements and commitments which guide performance of daily work. (see also Perform explaining shared meaning)
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People can construct, access and manage context with unlimited refinement using relational and hierarchial boundaries. Command and control of the microcosm in the organic structure of knowledge (see New World Order... on the DNA for the Garden of Knowledge) makes finding specific details fast and easy to discover, study, and learn cause and effect. Synergy between precision access based on granular indexing of context, and dynamic linking based on granular addressability makes dynamic contstruction of Knowlege Space a practical reality for finding critical details on the job in time to save lives and money.
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This design expands comprehension of meaning beyond biological limits for span of attention, reported in research by Professor George Miller, reviewed on March 3, 1999. Organic structures can be quickly assembled into multiple views, similar to the way DNA creates vastly different organisms by assembling common building blocks into a multitude of life patterns. Accuracy of human memory is strengthened through greater command and control of complex knowledge structures, which are normally hidden from the conscious mind.
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Navigating through organic structure to assign subjects begins with mere fragmentary memory of related context. Hierarchial indexing expands span of attention by orders of magnitude. Leveraging innate mental capacity to recognize many correlations, implications, and nuance from initially understanding only the gist of the story (see above) is a powerful Communication Metric that refines comprehension by constructing a comprehensive record connecting cause and effect. Clearly, a practice of context management that continually grows a data base of reminders, and further presents all relevant subjects in an orderly manner yields better results than relying on momentary memory of a busy mind necessarily focused on events of the day. Records can be segmented and tagged with multiple subjects to manage evolving context, reflecting the real-world fact that information has different meanings over time due to the fluidity of life (see explanation of intelligence). Context management requires skill and attention, like tending a garden of knowledge, in order to enable people to understand connections of cause and effect in time for taking effective action. The skill, time and rewards of context management at lower levels of organic structure support a new professional role.
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The POIMS design enables people to align daily work with organizational needs, and to draw support from others without taking up valuable time in meetings, phone calls and documents. Managing context with granular divisions of organic structures continually evolves new subjects and associations. Investing time to manage the garden of knowledge yields big rewards by enabling effective intelligence support, described above.
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Personal privacy must be protected within a framework of shared knowledge. "Filing" requires mere intellectual volition. Instant linking to related information, and outlining and highlighting, are essential to control the details of daily business life in a faster paced world. Automated integration of time and information makes it practical to adopt this new paradigm of investing intellectual capital.
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Managing Time - "Experience Machine"
Chronology Intelligence Connects the Dots of Knowledge

Traditional practice managing time centers on scheduling things to do. The irreversability of time presents an elemental paradigm of intelligence applying the mental faculty of linking the past and the future with the present. People "know" the "In Box" contains pending tasks to prepare and review documents for getting things done correctly. The "schedule" has appointments for meetings and calls to discuss issues. However, few people can recall what they did yesterday, last week, or two years ago that relates to unfolding events today in ways that control the future. Since experience is the primary source of decision making, better access to an accurate record of experience improves productivity by eliminating errors of assumption about the sequence of cause and effect that makes sense of complex problems. The 8-steps of Communication Metrics construct a diary that combines time and context. Simply maintaining chronological order of a diary record goes a long way toward intelligence support that yields knowledge of cause and effect for predicting the future.
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Investing time to understand the past in order to see the future rests on the principle...

past is prologue
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Management requires an efficient space where people can invest a little time each day to think, analyse, review, research and plan, rather than merely react to unfolding crises. Thinking through writing the story of daily work makes analysis a practical reality using the intelligence cycle of plan, perform report. Soon, the story of daily work grow into a rich history of who, what, when, where, why and how things get done, problems to avoid, and knowledge of solutions for moving ahead. Organizational memory enables looking back in time at past experience that influences present actions and future plans. Tools that link, organize and retrieve information make this investment pay off by emulating the mind's ability to instantly draw only relevant information, but without the mistakes that time and emotion inflict on faded memories.
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Technology that provides a Knowledge Space for organizational memory places people at the controls of a powerful Experience Machine that looks forward and backward in time with equal speed and accuracy.
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Some people feel there is not enough time to "write everything down," and do not want to spend all of their time behind a computer. People are already writing notes on important matters. This is the key! Technology is helpful to track important information, so it can be used when needed. Since integrated scheduling and reporting make writing more efficient, more can be done within the time already devoted to writing and thinking.


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THINK, REMEMBER, COMMUNICATE
LISTEN AND LEARN

Integrating time and information advances the traditional linear model of alphabet technology with a multi-dimensional plan, perform, report process that significantly augments intelligence. Technology to routinely organize, analyse, align, summarize, and verify with feedback a greater share of daily experience lifts innate capacity to think, remember and communicate through better synergy between personal and organizational memory. Thinking through writing in the flexible structure of Knowledge Space maintains chronology for remembering causation based on context. Better memory of chronology and context improves listening to understand complexity, and follow up to get things done correctly. Case studies drive continual learning with root cause analysis to discover lessons learned. These dynamics lift civilization with the power of knowledge through better use of experience and academics.
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This phenomenon occurs because....
  1. Alphabet technology was an explosive invention that has lifted civilization for 2,000 years by converting the story of daily life into history with analysis that strengthens innate thoughts. Writing is a process that makes sense of complexity by investing time to craft, shape, and understand correlations, implications, and nuance through the medium of documents, which can be studied, and improved through alternate renderings, because documents preserve accuracy of otherwise emphermal memory by several orders of magnitude. Writing constructs linear connections that form words, sentences, and paragraphs into stories that aid human thinking by connecting information with time (chronology) and context (organic structure of knowledge), based on objectives, requirements, and commitments. Formal rules of punctuation and grammar enable consistent interpretation among disparate people, and across generations. These core tools of literacy for constructing writings that accurately convey cause and effect, i.e., knowledge, comprise an essential foundation that lifts civilization by augmenting individual and cultural intelligence. (see, for example, 11 rules on commas, reviewed September 24, 2004) Since the world is multi-dimensional, people often struggle with the linear model of text to represent context in writing. The struggle to write discloses gaps, errors, and confusion. Andy Grove points out in his book Only the Paranoid Survive that ambiguity is easily forgiven by a busy mind until failure occurs, or opportunity is lost, absent the struggle to "discover what we think" by writing it down. Of course writing takes time, and complexity makes thinking through writing hard under the rule: "If you can't write it down, you don't understand it." The mental struggle to find the right words, phrasing, and support reveals weak understanding. Error, conflict, crisis, and calamity loom when misunderstanding is not corrected before taking action. (see Management Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices..., Peter Drucker, reviewed November 30, 1993) Writing engages both hands, eyes, and hearing faculties from mentally saying words, as they are crafted. These physical and mental dynamics of human biology strengthen both analysis and innate memory by virtue of increased cognitive resources applied to writing. Using alphabet technology to expand and correct human thought before taking action has proven to be an effective Communication Metric that lifts civilization by leveraging intelligence to make people superhuman (see Havlock reviewed on November 8, 1999)
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  2. Automated editing with a computer enables quickly changing the organization of thoughts into alternate forms. This significantly augments intelligence for crafting, expanding, and refining thoughts by choosing the best form among several choices quickly constructed with facile technology, because people are good at exercising judgement for matching patterns in the mind with patterns observed as objects on a computer screen or on paper. Information technologies for wordprocessing, email, and presentations (e.g., Powerpoint) significantly improve publishing documents with better prose and appearance, and so are important improvements to alphabet technology for augmenting intelligence.
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  3. Instant access to links has many benefits for verifying accuracy and expanding span of attention that are missing from traditional documents. Information technologies for wordprocessing and the Internet make good use of electronic forms prepared interactively for transactions that automatically post sales data. This is a significant boost to productivity from applying the model of a virtual office that reduces "paperwork."
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  4. The flexible structure of Knowledge Space increases command and control of the work by expanding the virtual office model. Instant access to links in a structure of chronology imparts situational awareness of cause and effect based on context. Automatic links and tools make "connecting the dots" fast and easy with custom citations to original sources. This reduces the level of diligence required to create alignment for verifying accuracy, discovering error, expanding span of attention, and for understanding and preserving causation. Deliberative analysis and triangulation continually expand connections that refine accuracy to reduce meaning drift. Synergy from continual exposure to sources, when creating and accessing links, augments intelligence with increased cross-fertilization of ideas that increase creativity. More verification resolves ambiguity so that less writing yields more communication and better productivity by avoiding rework to fix mistakes.
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  5. Automated tools for Context Management augment intelligence with fast and supple assembly of chronology that reveals historical and emerging patterns of cause and effect for related context, and prompt, comprehensive consideration of objectives and related subjects, both of which are otherwise overlooked, until error occurs. Early discovery of impacts avoid future mistakes, and disclosure of patterns aids innovation and creativity. (see scope of Reporting in NWO)
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  6. Integrating time and information with the Management Cycle builds chronologies that connect cause and effect into a continuous Knowledge Space for the story of daily experience. Command and control of organizational memory to construct and access accurate, relevant history enhances human intelligence that reasons based on chronology and context, i.e., the sequence of time. Integrated functions for creating and manipulating complementary data bases transform remembering the gist of the story into pointers that reveal accurate history to guide conduct based on understanding the complete story relevant to the current context. Better personal and organizational memory augments human thinking that enables clear, concise, complete communication.
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Conventional writing uses wordprocessing, email, pen and paper for criteria 1, 2, and 3 that aid analysis and study. Paradoxically writing is used sparringly by management, yet results in mountains of useless information that reduce productivity by overwhelming span of attention. (see New World Order...) Since doing more yields less productivity, the life cycle of alphabet technology has been optimized for the underlying design to create information set 2,000 years ago. Improving productivity therefore requires a new foundation that begins a new "S" curve based on criteria 4, 5, and 6 that expand the original linear model of alphabet technology. A modern design adds a continuous intelligence process to routinely construct chronology, context, and connections in a multi-dimensional, common storage space that converts information into knowledge for saving lives, time, money (see NWO). Advance to a culture of knowledge may therefore prove to be another significant lift for civilization, comparable to the alphabet.
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At this time in the age of information, people mostly rely on conversation and personal memory to "expedite" getting things done. Conversation requires effective listening to understand and follow up. However, listening is limited by human biology, just like, seeing, running and lifting. Accurate understanding relying on "listening" is therefore tenuous and suspect, because the biology of of hearing and memory is fragile.
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Limited span of attention is easily overwhelmed, making listening and memory the weak link in management because new realities of technology compress time and distance that compounds meaning drift due to increased frequency and severity of information overload, leading to common complaints....

Doesn't anybody around here listen?
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Listen to me!

Nobody ever listens to me!

You didn't listen! I distinctly remember saying...

...change the "title," not the "tidal" information.

...deliver 6 pounds of 10 penny nails, not 10 pounds of 6 penny nails. ..
People either don't understand, and take the wrong action; or, do understand, but forget to take action. Additionally, people can understand in the moment, but interceding events cause meaning to drift away before action can be taken, resulting in false knowledge that causes follow up to fail. More devastating is telling a slightly different story, illustrated by the friendly "telephone game," that expands and spreads error like a virus throughout an organization, causing incorrect actions to multiply, commonly called bumbling.
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These limitations of natural listening and learning can be improved by technology that speeds up the historical process of thinking through writing, called variously literacy, study, analysis, intelligence, knowledge and organizational memory.
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POIMS technology enhances traditional writing to reveal critical details and relationships, commonly called analysis, through a "double entry" check of daily impressions from dialog and documents, that are linked back to original sources and forward to future tasks. Peter Drucker notes that analysis is a core responsibility of management, that is often ignored due to limited time. Technology helps solve the time problem, and the "audit trail" that aligns facts and reasoning significantly enhances the quality of analysis to make leadership effective.


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COMMAND AND CONTROL
COMMUNICATION, CONTEXT AND INTELLIGENCE

Management entails an evolving cast of people, organizations, projects, subjects, and other variables that require constant decisions and communication. Daily work produces a large, complex written and verbal record. These dynamics present a growing challenge of comprehension and memory, sometimes called the fog of war, because technology that compresses time and distance compounds complexity that degrades order. Proactive management maintains a well ordered record to discover opportunities and problems in time to be effective. This requires both....
  1. command of the work using accurate and timely knowledge of cause and effect derived from precision access to relevant work history, and...
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  2. control of the work converting experience into the power of knowledge for accurate judgement of future consequences.
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Command and control using experience and judgement requires timely notice to take action, which, if not performed, causes delay, extra cost, and loss of life and property. Directing the work has traditionally been based on situational awareness (see NWO...) of conditions in relation to objectives, requirements, and commitments (e.g., law, regulation, contracts, policy, custom, standards), and communicated through meetings, calls, and documents.
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Throughout history, beginning with the rise of bureaucracy in the Roman Empire, command and control offered the best chance to manage complexity. Order, structure and communication that connect cause and effect leverage the power of people through teamwork. Control maintaining order enables predictability that is the foundation of good management. However, events cascade out of control, when there is not enough time to align communication with relevant experience. Without tools for command and control of organizational memory, people are overwhelmed by information density using tools that compress time and distance (e.g., email, meetings, calls). Without precision access to relevant history, judgement is reduced to impulse - whatever pops into the mind at the moment.
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Management degrades toward entropy, relying solely on momentary memory, hunch and hope, because in the modern era...
communication is the biggest risk in enterprise
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The irreversability of time drives organization toward disorder under the second law of thermodynamics. Meetings, calls, and documents traditionally maintain order. However, these methods degrade order, when people do not have time to think, because technology that compresses time and distance increases complexity beyond comprehension. Without tools and practices for deliberation, faster information overwhelms span of attention. Faster information technology, therefore, requires adding energy to "connect the dots" of cause and effect that yield the power of knowledge for predicting the future, under the locality principle (see review on March 12, 2004).
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Tools and practices of Knowledge Management provide intelligence support to discover and maintain order that makes sense of complexity using the 8-steps of Communication Metrics. Command and control converts the jumble and chaos of hectic meetings, calls, and documents into a well ordered record that "connects the dots" of cause and effect into an audit trail by triangulating seven (7) elements of order (explained in the record on May 23, 1989)...
  1. Writing tells the story
  2. Links connect cause effect among multiple stories
  3. Time and dates keep chronology of cause and effect in order
  4. Subjects identify granularity of contextual boundaries
  5. Record segments create Control Fields to manage time and context
  6. Line numbers shallow outline linear nodes lowest level of order
  7. Outlining headlines summarize and structure meaning
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Timely, accurate understanding of chronology, context, and connections enable communication in meetings, calls, and documents to leverage diverse skills and experience for getting things done efficiently, i.e., quickly and accurately.
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Without intelligence support for precision access, management, communication, command, and control all implode. When cause and effect are not connected, entropy rises; complex organizations that should increase productivity through synergy of complementary operations, and efficiencies of scale, instead devolve toward chaos, conflict, crisis, and calamity (see again review of Schombert lectures reported on March 12, 2004). Profit centers become cost cows.
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Today information comes so fast in constant meetings, calls, and documents (e.g., fax, email, specifications, procedures, advertising), that capturing a comprehensive work history with connections of cause and effect is impossible using information technologies (IT). On November 11, 2002 Bill Gates with Microsoft Corporation noted a growing pandemic piling up mountains of useless information in computers with documents that are not connected to objectives, requirements, and commitments for guiding daily work. Authorities describe a tsunami of information overload. (reported June 13, 1998)
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A tsunami piling up mountains of useless information paralyzes productivity (see case study on October 3, 2001).
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When people cannot find information on critical details, pressure builds to just "pull the trigger" and "wing it" by relying on momentary impulse remembering the gist of the story, rather than check the record to verify accuracy. When there is not enough time to think people are unable to organize, analyse, align and summarize the record, nor is there enough time for feedback to issue timely notice. Without intelligence support, limited time forces people to get by on assumptions driven by hunch and hope. Little deviations from reality creep into the work. Mistakes on seemingly small, inconsequential details spread and compound into crisis, conflict, and calamity through continuous communication streams in meetings, calls and documents that overlook error due to limited span of attention. (see again meaning drift)
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Under these conditions, command and control degrades into guess and gossip where daily work becomes an Alice in Wonderland of continual bumbling, noted by Henry Kissinger, reviewed on June 9, 1994. Kissinger's view is supported in a study issued by the US Air Force Institute of Technology (USAFIT) explaining that when span of attention is overwhelmed by the flow of information, management degrades to entropy and the work fails.
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POIMS technology supports the practice of Knowledge Management with 8-steps of Communication Metrics for working intelligently using deliberative analysis that links controlling issues into trails of associations for understanding of context, essential to effective command. Complexity of context management requires efficient usability for synergy between complementary computer commands that harmonize capturing events in written records, and assembling chronologies to discover causation in relation to objectives, requirements and commitments. Context management of dynamic work history makes the reasons for decisions, which are apparent at inception, also, available much later when those not involved (i.e., judge and jury), may well view conduct as "unreasonable," if the reasons are not readily available.
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Command and control of the record provides intelligence that increases the chance of success by discovering new ideas and persuading people on the best course of action. Timely discovery of correlations, implications and nuance reduces mistakes and, also, reduces damages through mitigation. When disputes arise, resolution is aided by a connected record showing cause and effect based on context and alignment with objectives and requirements. This body of knowledge fosters common understandings on potential controversy before attitudes harden.
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Of course there is no single "solution" to the work-a-day world of management. Results depend on people whose interests and perspectives change over time. The ability and experience of decision makers differ according to venue. These variables create conflicting agendas that make "success" a moving target. Manager's must anticipate this evolution, and apply the best mix of available resources in the manner of an artist reaching to express a vision that is never fully formed. Personal and organizational integrated management (POIMS) is a simpler, more powerful way to perform this art, and so improves the chances of success under the new realities of a faster paced world in the 21st century.


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OBJECTIONS


There are two main objections to saving time and improving earnings with computer aided management:
  1. Management is complex; good practices are hard to use consistently day-to-day.
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  2. Talking and cursory notes from meetings and calls may not be good practice for getting things done correctly and on time, but it always seems fast and easy in the moment; good management requires analysis, but analysis is a lot harder than talking, and can be easily avoided by saying that good management is overkill, because there isn't enough time to write notes twice
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Since good management converting information from daily communication into useful knowledge is hard work, it seems easier to formulate a business model that generates enough revenue to buy off mistakes so that executives can get by using meetings, calls and email, rather than improve the work. On the other hand, Peter Drucker points out that favorable market conditions are only temporary.
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Drucker says enterprise succeeds only by management continually improving to meet changing business conditions. The most powerful change impacting daily management is the accelerating pace of information that overwhelms human mental biology. This new reality requires new tools, skills, roles, practices and processes that avoid mistakes, because rework to fix mistakes causes delay and extra cost that destroy earnings. Therefore, improvement through continual learning (i.e., using a continual process of intelligence) is the only formula for continual success. Analysis is a more common term for working intelligently in business, and Drucker maintains that analysis is the core competency for the practice of management.
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Andy Grove, Chairman of Intel, concurs.
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Grove maintains that, since communication is the dominate activity of management, analysis by taking copious notes and getting feedback to verify understandings help avoid the inherent ambiguity of mental maps that cause continual bumbling in the fast paced, complex environment of the 21st century. However, Grove says in his book, Only the Paranoid Survive, that trying to get executives to admit the magnitude of problems they face, because new realities have outdated work practices that formerly brought success, is like....

Walking through the valley of death!
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Overcoming ignorance, fear and denial that good management is essential requires technology that makes intelligence fun, fast, and effective. Using hands, eyes and hearing to create a physical form of mental arrangements that can then be crafted to align daily work with objectives, requirements and commitments increases the chance that power will be effective. Landauer points out in his book The Trouble with Computers that effectance converting ideas into action drives human behavior. Like playing a piano, or turning stone into sculpture, POIMS makes working intelligently fun. Playing the music with balance and harmony connects the dots of cause and effect for discovering correlations, implications and nuance in time to bring success.
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However, like the wheel, the alphabet and a messy substance called "oil," acceptance of fundamental advance adding "intelligence" to daily management is tentative. For thousands of years, the contractor built the bridge, the accountant did the books, the lawyer made the arguments and the journalist wrote the story. It is a big leap across this cultural divide, to suddenly adopt special tools of the professions. Can a complex world be organized in a single concept? Does POIMS infringe on personal prerogative and style? Like CPM and TQM, fears of heresy against convention can only be overcome by experience using POIMS.
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Management is Complex


Better productivity requires integrating a critical mass of business practices with new ways to organize information. This initially seems complex because it exposes a process that occurs without conscious effort: thinking.
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Creating and applying objectives and relationships between people, information, and time, mostly occurs automatically beneath the conscious mind. These connections are charged by emotion, but fade with time. This capacity to convert information into knowledge has worked well for the slower pace of life prior to the modern era. However, errors increase, as the flow of information exceeds the capacity of human mental biology to process new information. In other words, new realities of modern technology, which are helpful in many respects, have a residual effect of "information overload" that overwhelms limited span of attention.
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When rushed, mistakes are hidden, because the mind imposes order at the conscious level of awareness, so that people can function in a hectic world. This causes Murphy's Law. People at first are shocked by the organizing structure that manages context and details needed to solve "Murphy," because the complexity of mental metrics in human cognition is normally hidden from the conscious mind. But, soon the mind welcomes the chance to discover misconceptions and knowledge overlooked by the automatic pilot that guides us through a busy day. POIMS helps a mind shaped by evolution, deal with a world shaped by the mind.
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Some fear that new realities requiring organizational memory inhibit Feel Good management, where the Boss does what he wants, and deals with the problems later....

Why bother with all this linking, analysis and audit trail stuff? I hate all these connections that waste time going on and on cross-referencing til the cows home. It boggles the mind having to worry about which link to open and being accountable for knowing every little thing that saves time and money and lives. That's a big responsibility! My people are responsible for telling the truth about what I need to know, so I am not responsible for knowing anything, because, frankly, I don't have time to know everything.
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I am intelligent enough. I know what I want; that's why I'm the boss.
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Besides, I'm a good talker. I don't want to write everything down because then I can't talk my way out of accountability for mistakes, and talk my way into credit when luck brings good fortune.
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All I need to succeed is to be a good talker and deniability! ..
So, goes the argument that converts a powerful asset for "connecting the dots" to accurately understand cause and effect, and, provide instant access to relevant context, when needed, into a liability of unwanted responsibility and burden to open every link all at once. The paradoxical perspective that instant access to relevant "intelligence" for expanding span of attention to avoid mistakes by verifying accuracy and understanding context that saves time, money and lives is a liability, reflects paralyzing fear of accountability that encourages people to work hard at getting by with bad management that imposes arbitrary authority to avoid organizational memory in hopes of avoiding accountability, even when mandated by government requirements, as in the case of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) requiring traditional documentation of work history for decision support.
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Ignorance and fear that turn a powerful asset into debilitating liability spawn equally powerful social dynamics of denial that argues good management is unnecessary overkill. Holding that technology to make good management fast and easy is "unnecessary," poses a dilemma from the implication that people are actually seeking technology to make bad management successful, which is an impossible dream. Bad management requires doing nothing by relying solely on innate memory, which is inoordinately fungible over time. (see meaning drift)
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Reliance on remembering only the gist of things and on common sense that together guide spontaneous communication in meetings, calls and email is a strong solution at the personal level, because talking is a powerful method for building personal relationships. Organizations, however, require good relations balanced with investing time for accurate understanding that aligns communication with objectives, requirements and commitments and enables timely discovery of correlations, implications and nuance that are not evident during events, but for the exercise of linking back to original sources. Too often on the Information Highway of today this balance is lost, because communication occurs at the personal level and so is entirely under the control of individual people whose personal interests conflict with needs for organizational memory.
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At the individual level, good talking skills enable good relations with people that bring recognition, maintain good standing, win promotion for higher pay and avoid accountability for mistakes that occur later when communication turns out not to be aligned. This presents an inherent conflict because individual communication in meetings, calls and email places a premium on entertainment (see distinctions between literacy and oral communication reviewing the history of writing on November 8, 1999) that succeeds in-the-moment based on style and image which avoid content and accountability. However, organizations need accountability as the core and essence of good management, because the impact of communication is deferred, occurring days, months sometimes years later, and therefore the success of communication for an organization depends on accurate understanding of work history, i.e., organizational memory, for effective decisions that enable complementary action and avoid mistakes, loss, conflict, crisis and calamity.
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Obviously, a morass of errors implied by feel good management leaves the organization in ruins (i.e., productivity falls, followed by loss, crisis, conflict and calamity, as earnings and stock prices fall - see Enron reported on February 4, 2002). The incipient demands of increasing information caused by faster technology pose a growing danger that nobody truly "knows" what the boss wants, including the boss, because nobody has command of evolving context. Impulse is not knowledge. So, just as traffic rules evolved in earlier times for efficient use of a complex roadway system, POIMS is the navigator for a faster, more complex Information Highway of the future. Personal and Organizational Integrated Memory and Management (POIMS) balances this natural tension between personal perspective and organizational requirements, by making it faster and easier to work intelligently so mistakes are reduced and opportunities are recognized in time to take action.
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Managers, however, properly fear, based on experience using conventional methods, that investing time to organize, analyse and check alignment for discovering mistakes and opportunity takes too much time. Fear, caused by ignorance due to lack of experience using tools designed for POIMS technology, causes denial that adding "intelligence" to information saves time and money. Mistakes, delay and losses are accepted on the grounds there is not enough time for writing notes twice to analyse communications.
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Resistance to augmenting intelligence by strengthening literacy is largely caused by fear of investing time for learning new skills. Since these new skills primarily entail pressing buttons on a computer, people are not worried about arduous physical tasks. Rather, there is enormous fear of frustration from learning new hand-eye-memory coordination to press buttons on a keyboard and click a few spots on a computer screen that accomplish the 8-steps of Communication Metrics. These skills for Knowledge Management add new dimensions of chronology, context, and connection that significantly enhance the power of 2-dimensional literacy applied with information technology (IT), which people begin learning in infancy, continue in the first years of formal education, and are commonly implemented with pen and paper, and with software for email, wordprocessing and spreadsheets. People are generally familiar with documentation, filing, cross-referencing, and footnotes for accuracy (alignment), but use occurs infrequently because most communication day-to-day is spontaneous stream-of-conscious discussion, and email. As a result, nobody has reason to think about an integrated process of thinking through writing. The fact that alphabet technology has been stable for thousands of years, and there is never presentation in school of connectionist theory explaining the power of knowledge, makes any mention of leveraging intelligence by enhancing alphabet technology seem odd, alien, foreign, and funny. These cultural conditiones makes mere mention of "alphabet technology" a shocking experience of fear and denial.
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Learning an expanded set of tools for literacy takes a few days to a few weeks, about like learning to drive a car. This investment necessarily delays getting things done while "re-tooling" from information to a culture of knowledge. Investing time to transform fundamental skills using alphabet technology that have been ingrained for 30, 40, or 50 years is strongly resisted because human mental biology avers delaying action, as noted earlier. These powerful cultural dynamics drive denial that improvement is needed, as reported on May 27, 1999.
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Compare, for example, learning new integrated skills of hand-eye coordination pressing buttons on a computer for Communication Metrics, with investing weeks and months learning to drive a car. Motivation learning to drive comes from experience that shows driving works better than walking and running for going places and carrying things, i.e., benefits are self-evident. Additionally, driving is a cultural imperative because everyone drives to school, to the store, to work, to the ball game. Peer pressure and desire for recognition as a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood further encourage learning to drive. Young adults are therefore highly focused on learning to drive, devoting large blocks of time for practice; some study driver education in school for several months.
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People, as well, readily recognize that POIMS technology defines a unique and powerful spreadsheet for knowledge with self-evident benefits. Navigating through organizational memory to find the right information at the right time saves everyone time and money. Here, however, the analogy quickly breaks down. Even though benefits are self-evident, since POIMS is a new capability, the larger culture must necessarily continue to reward old skills for information technology. This presents a Hobson's choice between investing time to improve, or getting by with existing skills. As a result, unlike driving a car, cultural imperatives and peer pressure work against learning new skills that are different from what everybody is doing, i.e,, working intelligently seems funny and alien on the job, because intelligence is not a common practice in business.
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Motivations to conform with prescribed and accepted practices in order to make a living present powerful cultural forces against improvement; or, more precisely, against being the first to try new tools and methods, and opting instead to wait for others to experiment and verify that proposed change is in fact an improvement. Additionally, working intelligently delivers deferred rewards by preventing mistakes downstream, days, weeks, months and years in the future, whereas driving a car brings immediate rewards.
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Finally, people on the job have a lot of meetings, calls and email that reduce the time for learning new skills; and, further, this learning must supplant existing skills for doing the same tasks, which is very demanding in the following sense. Learning to drive a car is entirely separate from using other skills for getting things done. However, learning new skills for getting things done on the job is always at war with the old skills. Think of it this way. When things go bad while learning to drive, mom is always there to drive you home, drive you and your friends to the movies, etc. But, when a glitch occurs using new tools on the job, there is no one to solve the problem, so that things can get done. Avoiding this risk, encourages people to revert back to old skills that are comfortable, rather than incur the frustration and potential harm of delay in getting things done. Andy Grove summarizes attitudes that eschew re-tooling skills on the job by observing in his book, Only the Paranoid Survive, that people like to work on familiar things in familiar ways.
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These conditions lead to tools that are fast and easy to learn and are entertaining in order to motivate learning. A common standard is that people must be able to learn business software in 20 minutes in order to be successful. Since good management takes more than 20 minutes to learn, business software that people like because it is easy to learn often does more harm than good; however, as Landauer points out, the sense of effectance people experience from learning something in 20 minutes drives sales. Bridging the gap between these two (2) worlds of software that is fast and easy and entertaining, and investing more than 20 minutes for learning tools that are productive, requires analysis.
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As a result, transformation to a new way of working in the new realities of the 21st century requires a new work role to align communication that complements the traditional work of accountants to align daily finances. Adding a new professional role reduces the burden on everybody to learn new skills, while improving performance and productivity to grow earnings.
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Despite published management standards mandating traceability to original sources to maintain alignment (often incorporated into express policy and procedures to show compliance with good management practices in order to obtain work), and despite incorporating published standards and regulations (e.g., (FAR) into contracts, and despite Grove's call for copious notes to avoid mistakes caused by the ambiguity of mental maps, and despite Drucker's call for analysis, and despite Covey's call for a diary to sharpen understanding, executives feel good management is overkill, because conversation is fast and easy.
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Requesting approval of budgets for adding an "intelligence" role, by strengthening, for example, the Communication or Public Relations Department, is difficult, because explaining "intelligence" and calculating cost savings in 30 seconds or 25 words, typically allowed for considering ideas to improve earnings, is not easy, even when the government has published a study showing cost savings from return on investment (ROI) is in the range of 10:1 and even when government regulations require organizational memory, as with the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Additionally, trying to explain the benefits of adding an "intelligence" role to implement POIMS, exposes fears about personal competence. Often the Boss is ignorant of studies showing information overload impacts everyone, and that "intelligence" saves time and money, (see, for example, CBS News 60 Minutes broadcast on April 12, 1998).
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Ignorance about "information overload" is abetted by the powerful intelligence process in the human mined that automatically converts information into useful knowledge. Since intelligence seems to take no time, it therefore seems to be free. The tradition of not paying for intelligence in business understandably breeds denial that people need help for working intelligently, leading to the charge that adding this role is unnecessary overkill, and that problems are caused by staff who don't tell the truth, who do not work hard enough, nor with the diligence, discipline and communication skill that the Boss uses each day.
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As a result, lack of knowledge leads to the reply....

If we need intelligence, we will hire smarter people!

We'll advertise for people with good communication skills! ..
The fundamental error is fear that creating organizational memory that enables precision access navigating in Knowledge Space entails "writing notes twice." Far from duplication, the 8-steps for Communication Metrics add "intelligence" once to "connect the dots" that discover mistakes and opportunities overlooked when information is hurriedly and partially scribbled during events. Ignorance of sound advice from Drucker, Covey and Grove breeds fear that there is not enough time to capture organizational memory, and consequent denial that good management saves time and money, because, in the moment, experts, standards and regulations requiring people to work intelligently are all ignored as overkill.
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The forces of ignorance, fear and denial make asking about adding intelligence support to avoid mistakes and discover opportunities through a system of Communication Metrics, seem like admission of incompetence that can be remedied through traditional means of hiring someone to replace the person proposing a new role, who would be competent to accomplish Communication Metrics without support. Even though hiring someone else increases congestion that compounds information overload, the fear that this remedy would be chosen, rather than use tools, roles and practices for working intelligently under emerging new realities, creates a perception that threatens personal job security. This does not feel good, and so is a big incentive to forget about improving earnings by adding "intelligence" to management.
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Since the cost to fix mistakes caused by lack of "intelligence" usually occurs in the future, and, since talking and hearing seem effective at the moment, then, because limited span of attention and the discursive character of conversation conceal errors and incomplete consideration, and, further, because emotion, skillful speech, commanding demeanor and hierarchy suppress awareness that dialog does not align with objectives and requirements, then people are, therefore, encouraged to avoid adding an "intelligence" role to improve daily work, and instead rely on style and confidence to talk their way into credit, and talk their way out of accountability by blaming Murphy's Law for mistakes, delay, extra cost, loss, crisis and calamity. This makes everybody feel good, until earnings go down, and stock prices fall, because too many people are having too many problems. (see report on December 7, 2000)
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These powerful cultural dynamics make it difficult for people to discover that POIMS technology makes it cost effective to invest intellectual capital that lifts the capacity to think, remember and communicate, and which, in turn, saves time, improves the work, productivity, earnings and stock prices.
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Overcoming the powerful allure of Feel Good management on the one hand, and, also, overcoming the fear of accountability, in order to enable people to discover that "intelligence" saves time and money, requires strong leadership.
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Leadership is More Than
Giving Orders and Persuasive Speech

Some observers fear that POIMS replaces leadership with bureaucratic reports. This is incorrect. POIMS is a technology to ensure effective listening by accurately understanding and following up to get things done correctly and on time. Effective listening makes leadership effective.
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Such concerns, however, are deeply rooted in traditional reliance on telling people what to do and persuading them to do it. People feel that realtime communication through persuasive information based on style and image in-the-moment, as occurs in speech, email, publications and television is precisely how they make a living. Suggesting that investing time for deliberative analysis improves leadership, seems counterintuitive. They are right! Mere analysis is not enough. The mind is an integrator. Thinking through writing must be integrated with the Management Cycle in order to get better results.
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Speech is a dominate cultural force. Military leaders, politicians, movies, music, meetings all rely heavily on speech. Business must sell; selling requires salesmanship, i.e., a "smooth talker." Thus, most interpersonal communication is through talking. Writings that cause disappointment are resolved by "talking it out" with the boss, vendor or client, and if that fails, then by telling the story in court. This gives the illusion that better "talking" improves management. But, since management controls the future, convincing speech that is not aligned with requirements, objectives and commitments causes harm a week, a month a year later, because critical details overwhelm span of attention and just "fall through the cracks." The solution to avoid deferred harm that grows into crisis and catastrophe is intelligence that aligns conversation with original sources to verify accuracy. However, investing time for deliberation to improve accuracy is constantly at war with the ease and immediacy of speech, hence the notion of diligence to save lives, time, and money.
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Speech is spontaneous, and sound, like light, demands attention, as seen even in other species. Leaders from the earliest times have barked orders that were backed by force, creating a strong genetic impulse to speak to cause others to act, which is a primary aim of managers. In recent times persuasion has replaced force as the animating characteristic of leadership.
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People promoted into management are good communicators. Communication that counts most, is telling people what to do, and persuading them to do it, which today includes being a good listener. Those who cannot do this lack "people" skills. Those who can, however, often lose the balance between leading and figuring out where to lead; so, like the Pied Piper, they sound good enough to lead people down the wrong path. Finding the right path through a thicket of competing issues and conflicting information is the central challenge of the modern era.
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Feel Good management ignores organizational objectives and factual history to indulge impulse in the hope that whatever happens can be "talked out." Some cry out: "Don't put me behind a computer, I make my living by talking. I have the gift!" This feeling, founded in genetics and culture, is of a simpler time when needed actions were clear. With few choices and little information, leadership by spontaneous communication works well. Indeed, it has brought us to today.
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But today is different; there is a new reality. The management environment is no longer shaped solely by the elements; the mind has changed the equation. There are many more choices and much more information than the tradition of spontaneous leadership evolved to serve. This complexity is at war with the mind's desire to summarize; we embed mistakes and then blame Murphy's Law when they mysteriously rise up!
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This does not argue for less speech, but for more support. Sometimes we forget that our heroes in the movies are speaking very finely crafted lines that require considerable effort and rehearsal to impart the correct impression of spontaneity. Similarly, politicians give moving, but carefully written, speeches, in order to avoid mistakes. POIMS empowers managers to do the same, so when they speak, it is both effective and properly directed to ensure we go down the right path.


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CONCLUSION


As the new millennium dawns, the world we have made will grow less amenable to the tools we have inherited for "knowledge" work. Personal and Organizational Integrated Management and Memory (POIMS) transcends this dilemma with technology that harmoniously integrates primary forces of management so that each supports the other...
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people

 process

 time

Communication Intelligence Chronology


Integrated Management

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The practice of management is driven by communication that brings a constant stream of information in meetings, calls and documents. This necessarily makes managers the most prolific of all "knowledge workers," based on Peter Drucker's proposition that analysis is the primary responsibility for understanding, planning and directing the work.
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People therefore need a flexible structure to initiate, collaborate, coordinate, expedite and empower creativity. POIMS leverages human intelligence that connects people to their knowledge and ideas; it connects planning, performing and reporting into a single, dynamic process; it connects the present to the past and future. This leverages intellectual capital to lift the ability to think, remember and communicate, and so portends a new era of progress in the coming knowledge revolution of the 21st century.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


This paper drew support from Jeremy Campbell's book on the human mind, "The Improbable Machine," Simon & Schuster, 1989. Gio Wiederhold's article "Mediators in the Architecture of Future Information Systems," Computer, March 1992 pp 38-49, added to indications that automated management should leverage human acuity, rather than try to replace it.
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Morris Jones, V.P. Chips & Technologies, facilitated the creation of a prototype to test and develop automation concepts; Welch clients made it possible to test and guide development under "live" conditions. PMI and others provided research on the need for a better solution. My mentors, Bill Lord and Pat Welch, provided the chance to absorb the exigencies of "management" at an early enough age to mature with the surging technological wave of the 1980s. My wife, Millie, made it possible for POIMS to come into being.