knowledge workers and context construction

Emerging Roles for Knowledge Emerging Roles for Knowledge & Innovation Workers& Innovation Workers

Arthur Harkins, Ph.D.John Moravec, Ph.D.

University of MinnesotaUSA

This Presentation…Is intended to help transition all

professions and organizations toward developing Innovative Knowledge Workers.

First, some background… Pre-Agriculture Age (-3M years

hunting/gathering)

Farming Age (-12K years sedentary farming)

Early-Mid-Late Industry Ages (-300 years factories/standardized parts/wage jobs)

Background… Information Age (-150 years beginning with

telegraphy)

Institutions are attempting to cope with this change through adaptation to Internet 1.

Background… Knowledge/Innovation Age (-15 years to

++ years)

Information appliances & networks require routine creation of new contexts, cultures, and languages.

Institutions and organizations are gradually responding to this change.

What are the Impacts? 'Postmodern' Drivers:

rising complexity "new sciences” science fiction myths replacing old

images of human potential media becoming de facto mass

education systems rise of ubiquitous diversity and choices attempts to manage chaos

And -- ?Societal Impacts :

webs replacing pyramids walls and barriers tumbling down situational selves replacing character individuals/groups able to catalyze or

destabilize large entities.

Anything Else? Workforce Impacts:

loss of moral and institutional authority threatened replacement by

electronics/software industries and other competitors

lack of workable professional retraining alternatives

fundamental dichotomy between emphasis on delivery systems vs. focus on value to customers.

Today and Toward the Horizon …Now - 2012:

Near-term economy-of-scale impacts though technology, making lifelong re-education mandatory and ubiquitously available.

On the Horizon …2012 - 2022:

personalized, point-of-need learning through early artificial intelligence, neuro-circuitry implants, language/dialect translators, etc.)

Offices/classrooms obsolete as primary information centers.

Over the Horizon… 2020 – 2030 - 2040:

'Brain-In-a-Box‘: Artificial Intelligence replaces virtually all current (2007) professional functions in human labor forces.

Back to the Present

Who are today’s Knowledge Who are today’s Knowledge Workers, and how do they Workers, and how do they

accomplish their work?accomplish their work?

An Ordinary Knowledge Worker …

…transforms information into forms that permit expanded decisions (knowledge). Such knowledge workers now make up about +50% of the U.S. workforce.

An Innovative Knowledge Worker …

…helps create receptive contexts for expanded knowledge bases and decisions (e.g., within a bureaucratic organization).

Putting Knowledge to Work Contextual innovations are essential

if Knowledge Worker output is to be: Understandable Practical Profitable

1945-1990 Reign of information/non-cybernetic

service workers, who were superceded by the very rapid emergence of digitally enhanced Knowledge Workers.

Knowledge Worker Growth < 10% in 1985

> 40% in 2001 (Drucker)

>90% in 2015 (Harkins)

Knowledge Worker Growth Information workers transform data,

supplying the results to Knowledge Workers. Problem: this is now being done by software.

This growth is driven by informatics and intelligent appliances and networks.

Knowledge Worker Growth Knowledge Workers are transforming information

into decision options, to help format new products/results, to solve problems, and to create opportunities.

Problem: the knowledge is often rejected within under-evolved contexts.

Knowledge Worker Growth Innovative Knowledge Workers are

required to interface decision options by altering the receptivity of the work context.

Opportunity: this is Context Design, (Mode IV knowledge production), an associated skill area.

Knowledge Worker Growth Context Design is the use of altered

language to affect individual and collective cultures in the action context.

Context Design is the very soul of education (and story-telling and advertising and worker collaborations and daily living).

Overcoming Knowledge Management Problems The difficulties and failures of Knowledge

Management have driven the search for innovative approaches to the utilization of Knowledge Workers.

We believe the most important recent development is that of context preparation, via Innovative Knowledge Worker who apply Context Design skills and interventions.

Universities: Lagging Indicators Currently, our universities are producing

graduates with information worker skills, language and mentalities.

For example, professionals are being encouraged to develop IT skills without knowledge creation and synthesis skills.

Contextual innovation is just beginning to receive sophisticated attention driven by new awareness/language (i.e., Context Design, with emphasis on culture construction).

A Pan-Professional Situation Is this a problem only within certain

circles? Absolutely not! It is pandemic across all professions, including the military.

Problematic Because… It difficult to combine knowledge work

with effective contextual integration.

Because people try to do new things using old languages.

Professionals are rewarded for using obsolete organizational and linguistic models.

Want Some Examples? Think of doctors.

Think of teachers.

Think of lawyers.

Think of engineers.

Where are the Rewards? Who rewards the majority of these

professionals for continuous integration of their knowledge work into the work context itself? For inventing new models and languages for use in transforming the work context?

KM is not MIS! The difficulties and failures of Knowledge

Management tell us much: KM systems do not work when they are modeled after management information systems. The organization and language are inappropriate.

Formatting is in Reverse... KM services are formatted to fit MIS

realities.

Effective Knowledge Management fits organizational, personal, and customer needs by creating cross-functional languages, cultures, and contexts.

From MIS to KM: We argue that creative actions should take

the lead in developing and supporting Innovative Knowledge Workers among themselves, their colleagues, and their external customers.

This will require more than learning about IT and the latest search engine.

From MIS to KM: Can We Do It? It will require creatively upgrading the conceptual

and synthetic skills of the professionals.

It will require cross-function Context Design.

It will require the use of new language to interface knowledge products within the work context.

It will require the construction of new and modified cultures

MIS to KM: The Role Effects Modern professions -and professionals-

must evolve from delivering procedural services to offering continuous, creative R&D.

Old service functions are being assumed by technology, technicians, and consumers.

It’s now de rigueur

EVERY MODERN INDUSTRY ON THE PLANET IS GOING THROUGH THIS

TRANSFORMATION.

FOR EXAMPLE… Architecture

Engineering

Health/Medicine

Education

Biotechnology

Internet

AND… Automobiles

Aircraft

Appliances (recorders;lawn mowers)

Wearable/implantable electronics

Cats, dogs, and domestic robots

Technicizing IT MOST INDUSTRIES ARE DE-

PROFESSIONALIZING IT, BASING IT ON TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNICIANS SUPPORTED BY CONTINOUS AUTOMATION AND UPGRADES.

Or, If Not, Woe Is Us… In any industry today, failures to

automate information result in failures of service, growth, efficiency, cost reduction, and lost creative destruction and innovation cycles.

Q. What basic technologies are involved in the automation of old information services?

A. Devices with help-me, show me, advise-me and do-this-for-me features.

Q. What do the technologies behind old services automation actually do?

B. They move capabilities through space and time.

C. They amplify and upgrade learning and performances.

Now Is the Time… It is critically important for professionals

to leave IT and MIS to automation and internal and external customers.

Why? Just assess the new technologies and ask yourself: ”Why humans should be paid for what machines can do?”

Let All Good Machines Do Our S___ Work…

We should be doing what machines cannot do.

And we should continue to champion the growth of machine capabilities.

..and Come to Our Aid! This is the historical model for Context

Design advancement to facilitate the production of new knowledge and its application to innovation.

It is similar to the prehistoric evolution of DNA, but much, much faster.

We Shall Prevail

To understand and leverage these changes to produce value is the task of Innovative Knowledge

Workers.

Is There Opportunity for ALL?Bottom Line: There's a world of

opportunity for every country on Earth.

CAVEAT First, please remember: The future of your

profession and mine is neither more nor less secure than any other being impacted by technology and software-driven changes.

That Said… We can choose to continuously adapt, or

we can elect to lead by establishing a ‘Continuous Innovation’ response to change and opportunity.

The Only Vector is Forward! Such a strategic response can include

news collaborative leadership in the development of Innovative Knowledge Workers for all organizations.

Such a strategic response can also include news leadership in the development of ‘Intelligent Contexts’ to support Innovative Knowledge Workers.

The Reality Picture: Media One final observation: arguably, politics is too slow

for the effective management of chaotic, unpredictable change.

Increasingly, the media (Web, TV, satellites, games, etc.) are demonstrating their relative superiority at informing the on-going Human Innovation Revolution. All social institutions will need help to develop this potential.

We’re the Leaders,Are We Not? So…

Let’s Get About It!

THANK YOU!THANK YOU!

Art and John

Now We Have Time to Now We Have Time to TalkTalk

What are the most important next steps?

Who should take them?