Thoughts on Knowledge Workers

In my last post I wrote about learning from what not to do. Over the last few years I have become distinctly aware of how employees are demoralised when not seeing them as knowledge workers. Right now I'm studying how knowledge workers have been defined in the last century. This will be essential as I build a successful professional service firm.

I'm reading "Management Challenges for the 21st Century" by Peter F. Drucker

From the book...

...knowledge workers must know more about their job than their boss does—or else they are not good at all. In fact, that they know more about their job than anybody else in the organization is part of the definition of knowledge workers.

Altogether, an increasing number of people who are full-time employees have to be managed as if they were volunteers. They are paid, to be sure. But knowledge workers have mobility. They can leave. They own their "means of production," which is their knowledge.

We have known for fifty years that money alone does not motivate to perform. Dissatisfaction with money grossly demotivates. Satisfaction with money is, however, mainly a "hygiene factor"....What motivates—and especially what motivates knowledge workers—is what motivates volunteers. Volunteers, we know, have to get more satisfaction from their work than paid employees, precisely because they do not get a paycheck. The need, above all, challenge. They need to know the organization's mission and to believe in it. They need continuous training. They need to see results.

On my last job there was a lack of mission. As a matter of fact there was no mission at all. At times I did wounder why I was not satisfied at the job because the pay was good. My learning from Drucker is giving me good indication as to why.

Read the book for yourself and find out!

Learning from what not to do and my new venture

My best learning experience in the business world has come from what not to do. My previous job was a great opportunity for that, although it was very frustrating at times too.

I've set out to create an innovative information technology (IT) company. When I left my previous job, or I should say I was dismissed for poor reasons, I didn't think I would ever get back in to IT. I was disillusioned because of being part of a very dysfunctional environment, disappointed at not able to make a difference.

I have a number of innovative ideas that I plan on executing over time in my company and becoming a leader in the IT industry. Much of this will be based on what I learned not to do.

A description of my new venture can be found here http://www.iversa.ca/

Here on this blog I will write about day to day challenges and business development issues at Interaction Versa Inc. I will also write about other business and personal topics in general.

Happy reading!

Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic

Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic is an excellent book! It mostly is about the history of one of the world's most admired service organizations. At the end of each chapter the authors have a a section for management lessons.

Since my work is in information technology I found the following section helpful and it also speaks to why ROI's (return on investment) is a waste of time if done for no other reason then saving money or before the savings are realized. I wrote more about ROI's here.

From the book...

Use technology to support values and strategy. Technology is a tool to help an organization be what is wishes to be. Its purpose is to benefit its users, to enable their success, to make life better. Technology investments that do not benefit users, that thwart their success, or that make life worse are destined to cost the investing organization dearly. Technology designed to strictly to save money usually result in an excessive waste of money and a mountain of heartache. All technology should solve real problems in the context of an organization's core values and strategy.

Mayo Clinic has benefited enormously and durably from major technological investments. These investments have in common their direct link to the Clinic's core values and strategies....Saving money trough technology has frequently been the result, but rarely, if ever, the goal.

The authors point out that health care is one of the most complex services organizations. They say that if it is possible to create and sustain an excellent brand as Mayo Clinic it is even more attainable in other service organization.

It is an inspiring and hopeful story.

Read it and find out for yourself!

Why I want to be an Entrepreneur

My last post speaks to why I want to be an entrepreneur. Over the last three years I have learned to live without certainty. This has served me well! It mostly came about because of an important spiritual change in my life. Making decisions without certainty is not that difficult for me anymore.

I'm still trying to find out what motivates me to be an entrepreneur. I don't think it is a desire for fame, or perhaps it is. I sure don't want to become a guru or to be known as one.

One of the reason that I'm driven to be an entrepreneur is because of curiosity. I love to learn and it is a big part of my life. I always have one or two books that I'm reading at the time. I also like other creative ways of learning, going on retreats to monasteries, traveling, exploring spirituality, religion, leading an active life style and other ways.

The other reason is that I want to create value and capture it as well. Creating value to me is being resourceful to people and companies I work with and I also do this on a personal level. Capturing value is how I pay myself and price the professional services I render. So money is part of it too.

From the book Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker

They [entrepreneurs] are not content simply to improve on what already exists, or to modify it. They try to create new and different values and new and different satisfactions, to convert a "material" into a "resource", or to combine existing resources in a new and more productive configuration.

Are You An Entrepreneur?

I'm reading Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker

In the book Drucker explores Entrepreneurship and states what it is. Up until now I have always thought of Entrepreneurship as a personality trait. He says it is not!

From the book...

Entrepreneurship is thus a distinct feature whether of an individual or of an institution. It is not a personality trait; in thirty years I have seen people of the most diverse personalities and temperaments perform well in entrepreneurial challenges. To be sure, people who need certainty are unlikely to make good entrepreneurs. But such people are unlikely do well in a host of other activities as well...

...decision have to made, and the essence of any decision is uncertainty.

But everyone who can face up to decision making can learn to be an entrepreneur and to behave entrepreneurially. Entrepreneurship, then, is behavior rather than personality trait. And its foundation lies in concept and theory rather than in intuition.

According to Drucker I'm an Entrepreneur. I knew that before reading this but I had the "concept and theory" wrong about Entrepreneurship.

This is a highly enjoyable book and I look forward to learn more and finish reading it. I've been wanting to read Drucker for a long time but for some reason I just had not made it a priority. I'm on it now!

More to come...