{"id":1404,"date":"2015-04-02T13:06:22","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T12:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:30:30","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T07:30:30","slug":"quality-standards-risk-emerging-km-drivers-from-km-mid-east-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=1404","title":{"rendered":"Quality, Standards & Risk: emerging KM drivers from Dubai"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was great to be back in Dubai last month for KM Middle East 2015 <\/a>where I was running a Masterclass on Day One and giving the Keynote closing address on Day Two.<\/p>\n

\"Chicago<\/a>When I went there in 1984 the only hotel in Jumeirah was the Chicago Beach Hotel and that was an isolated spot some 30 minutes drive from Deira on empty roads and across desert. You went there for a bit of R & R after a tour of duty in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Today the emirate is home to hundreds of thousands of \"jumeirah_beach_resort-485x325\"<\/a>expats and foreign workers all of whom are bringing knowledge to help Dubai develop into one the world’s premier tourist destinations.\u00a0 Here’s how the same piece of coastline looks 30 years on and you can get there today via a metro system!<\/p>\n

Few in 1984 predicted Dubai would grow to be such a diversified economy: limited dependency on oil, increasingly reliant on the knowledge and competencies of its expanding (predominantly foreign) workforce and having the world’s busiest airport.<\/p>\n

The underpinnings of such progress are people, process (and of course) technology. The disparity in numbers of indigenous Emirati to Expatriates (who are transient by nature) means that there is greater relience on process and technology to ensure continuity.\u00a0 It is no surprise that the Knowledge Management activity in the region should be more of an operational\/tactical nature rather than strategic.\u00a0 This was evident for me at KM Mid East.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Event – Day One<\/h2>\n

Held over two days at the very luxurious Park Hyatt Dubai the event comprised a series of workshops on Day One and a Plenary Conference on Day Two.\u00a0 My workshop Unlocking the true value of Knowledge Management: identifying and assessing your organisation\u2019s Knowledge Assets <\/em>took place in the afternoon from 2pm-6pm.<\/p>\n

\"Agenda\"<\/a>There were 20 people, a nice mix of gender, age and experience.\u00a0 This was the agenda for the afternoon:<\/p>\n

My aim was to get the participants to think about why KM mattered and to begin to develop an understanding of the Knowledge Assets they had in their business.<\/p>\n

I was also keen to look at a few different ways to identify and assess their value and what might they then do to mitigate potential loss.<\/p>\n

\"Team<\/a>

Team A at KMME Workshop displaying their ccompleted Analyser.<\/p><\/div>\n

Session 6 An exercise in mapping <\/em>was particularly revealing.<\/p>\n

Focusing on a recent decision ‘Team A’ used the Event Analyser to describe how they had saved a substantial amount by drawing on the internal knowledge of their organisation which they were then able to pass on for others to use.<\/p>\n

It was an enjoyable afternoon (the opening Ice Breaker<\/a> helped to<\/p>\n

\"Everyone<\/a>

Everyone got involved<\/p><\/div>\n

lower barriers) and I made sure each session had a mix of informing and doing with plenty of interaction, stories (and humour). And we finished at 6pm with a full contingent!<\/p>\n

The Event – Day Two<\/h2>\n
\"IMG_3109_2\"<\/a>

John Girard and Dave Snowden in the foreground<\/p><\/div>\n

The slide deck has been made available for each presentation by the organisers and can be found here<\/a>. There was also a twitter feed #kmme with a few interesting comments thrown in as the day proceeded.<\/p>\n

The event was well attended and the presentations informative. Being at the end of the day I had the opportunity to hear everyone.\u00a0 My attention was stimulated by some of the local presentations especially since so many focused on measurement and frameworks.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3113\"<\/a>

EFQM Model adopted in Dubai<\/p><\/div>\n

One which caught my eye which was how Quality Standards such as EFQM<\/a> are becoming the drivers and measurement yardsticks for KM implementations.<\/p>\n

This adherence to standards of excellence fits with the way Dubai and the UAE are measuring progress across a wide spectrum of activities. It was even evident in the surplus food discussions I had while I was there.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3123\"<\/a>

Cascading the EFQM model – KM Business Results<\/p><\/div>\n

People understand that to win environmental and sustainability awards you have to be able to demonstrate effective reuse so the measure is based on sustainability and environmental impact not on the social impact.<\/p>\n

Here’s just one of the slides by way of an example of how the framework is being cascaded down in KM.<\/p>\n

While entirely logical It poses a number questions for me:<\/p>\n