THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 17:11:19 -0800
04 00074 61 02112901
Mr. Garold L. Johnson
dynalt@dynalt.com
Dynamic Alternatives
PO Box 59237
Norwalk, CA 90652
..
Subject:
Weblogs Foster Culture of Knowledge for Using SDS
Dear Gary,
Thanks for good news in
your letter
today discussing K-Logs,
for using the Internet to keep a journal of
daily work, thoughts and ideas that are fast and easy to share
with others, called variously klogs, blogs and weblogs. This
research, showing interest in good
management, supplements your letter on November 26 reporting
other software is starting to support customers who value the
things SDS does. These changes in work practice
foster a culture of knowledge that helps people understand SDS.
..
Your
analysis of weblogs taking hold in government, industry and
education aligns with
Mike Poremba's
report on March 1, 2002 comparing
weblogs and SDS. The good news is that people
are getting back to the basics. Good management called out by
Stephen Covey,
to keep a journal strengthens memory and
sharpens understanding, reviewed on December 5, 1992.
Peter Drucker reviewed on November 30, 1993, makes a similar point
about the need for analysis. The era of
"feel good" management
discussed on November 23, 1991, where people do whatever they feel like at the
moment, and hope somebody else can be talked into paying for it, may be
receding from the halcyon days of executives
failing to invest time for thinking to understand content and relying
instead on style, reported on January 3, 1996
The move toward weblogs to capture a greater share of daily working information
in journals shows transformation to good management from
realization that doing good is ultimately
better than
looking good
making a Powerpoint presentation, as reported on
February 4, 2002 relating the Enron case.
..
A few months later, after Mike observed SDS being used, he commented on
May 31 that SDS has more
efficient functionality
than he has experienced using
weblogs. Similarly, Morris Jones reported a year earlier on April 25, 2001
that SDS is a
utopia
because everything is in the right place at the right
time. Then, on September 24, 2001 Morris explained SDS has
unique capability for improving management.
Jack Park summed up several years of research in association with Doug
Engelbart and SRI, saying on November 30, 2000 that SDS has the
right design for Knowledge Management
and the user interface that makes the design useful to people.
.. Weblogs, email, the Internet, cell phones, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and
other IT solutions are strong enabling forces that grow cultural awareness
about
things SDS does that people care about
to get work done
correctly, on time and within budget, which Morris asked about on April 26,
2001. You pointed out separately a few days ago on November 26 that
SDS makes
good management fast and easy
by empowering people to work intelligently. Otherwise high priced
lawyers must be hired to perform
case management preparing
for trial when people fail to get things done correctly, on time
and within budget. Without SDS, nobody has time to work intelligently, because
good management seems like gold-plated overkill that is unncessary and too
expensive,
as reported on March 24, 1989.
.. Another condition that may be evolving on the job is the new
practice of
paying people to use good management capturing the record of
daily working information for organizational memory, which has been adopted
for the sales force at Intel, cited by Morris on July 30, 2002.
.. As the practice of paying people to use good management expands to
engineering, operations, the executive suite, legal, admin, personnel, IT, to
permeate the entire enterprise, old attitudes of doing just enough to get by
and hoping that working intelligently is unnecessary overkill, will crumble
under the
weight of evidence,
listed in part on October 3, 2001, that shows
good results cannot be sustained by
bad management that eschews accountability
under a false, shallow masquarde of risk management, reported widely on
February 4, 2002.
..
Every year the mountain of evidence rises supporting
Drucker's view
that good management is the only way to sustain good results.
.. Enabling forces, like paying people to use good management, and people
getting used to performing good management by creating a record of daily work
in a weblog, foster habits that grow the market for disruptive technologies
like SDS, discussed with
Doug Engelbart on November 20, 2001.
.. Everyday email, klogs, blogs, weblogs, Powerpoint and other IT methods
make bumbling faster and easier,
turning communication into the biggest risk,
rather than the biggest asset, in enterprise under reasoning in POIMS.
Growing losses, illustrated by the
Enron case,
will overwhelm long-standing
barriers caused by
fear of learning and by
fear of accountability, so that people are no longer prevented from
using SDS to create organizational memory for saving
time and money, also reported on March 24, 1989.
.. Morris discussed this attitude more recently on December 11, 2001
explaining that many people ignore the cardinal rule of good management...
.. I called Morris this afternoon and later called Bill DeHart to ask if
they have seen indications that weblogs are being used in light of fears about
accountability from email? Morris and Bill both indicated having seen no
evidence so far that weblogs are being used at Intel and PG&E respectively.
So, the revolution still has some challenges ahead.
..
None-the-less your report today shows that brick by brick a path
is being constructed to escape the trap of "information
overload" by embarking on a new way of working that leads to a
culture of knowledge,
as explained in POIMS.
..
Sincerely,
By copy am asking Eric Armstrong who works at, or with, Sun, which is another
technology bell weather firm, and, am asking Dave Snowden and Ross Armstrong at
IBM, along with Bill DeHart at PG&E if they are familiar
with weblogs, as
related in your letter today. Also, giving
Mike Poremba a chance to comment about the representation of his report on SDS.
.. Copy to: