Knowledge Matters™

In my 30 years of work in or around public service departments I have noted that seven attributes must be in alignment for an organisation to be effective. (Note I didn’t say efficient, which will be the subject of another blog). They are responsibility, authority, accountability, knowledge, experience, resources and systems, which I call the RAAKERS™ Framework.

The first three attributes - responsibility, authority, and accountability – are essential for individual and organisation success. Too often I see people given the responsibility for an outcome, but they don’t have the organisational authority to make it happen, or worse still are not accountable even if they have the authority. I have also seen the paradox where a sub-department is accountable for a series of outcomes, but doesn’t have the authority or agreement to implement them in other sub-departments, and so is not responsible for the foreign sub-department implementation. Equally one can be responsible to implement an outcome, but not have the authority to implement it, and ultimately not be accountable for the success or failure of the initiative. Task and outcome success are therefore dependent on responsibility, authority and accountability alignment, both at the individual and organisational level.

If responsibility, authority and accountability are in alignment then we are on the path to success, but the next four attributes - knowledge, experience, resources and systems - are also needed in various degrees. Now we can get into an argument about what knowledge is or is not, but that is a blog for another day. Suffice it to say I think one can have the knowledge to do something, but not the experience to do it efficiently or to understand the pitfalls. Equally one can have lots of departmental experience, but little knowledge of the task at hand. If enough and proper resources are not assigned failure is assured. And finally one can have the knowledge, experience, and some resources, but no system or systems to make it all happen.

Why am I writing about this today? Well I am aware of yet another restructure which is about to occur in an organisation I have had a long affiliation with. This organisation in the last 10 years has been down-sized, right-sized, and reorganised at least 5 times, and in my view has been largely emasculated. I think the latest proposal is doomed because authority, accountability and authority are not in alignment. The successive restructures and reorganisations mean few individuals understand the existing processes, so experience or rather the lack of it, is a factor. Some of us have the knowledge, dare I say the wisdom, but we no longer work in the organisation. From what I can see there are insufficient resources to meet the tasks at hand and the systems simply don’t exist. I pointed all of these out to the senior executive in charge, and saw a light come on for a millisecond and then go out – instead the ‘not invented here syndrome’ kicked in. It seems in this circumstance knowledge and experience simply do not matter!

All that said I think the RAAKERS™ Framework is a workable knowledge management framework, and can at least help in getting to shared understanding and common meaning (the subject of yesterday’s blog). I invite your thoughts and comments. In particular I am interested in how you think it might be improved, what its deficiencies are, and how it might be illustrated.

Regards, Graham.