This is a five part series about working out loud and engaging people across multiple organizations in order to tackle tough problems in knowledge management.
Showing Up and Working Out Loud
-
Show up whenever possible.
- Ask to speak with senior leaders, chances are they will see you.
- Advocate for yourself and others.
- Speak to the heart and mind.
- Have faith and courage.
Part 1 “Show Up” In you We Trust
If you are invisible, no one can see you. If you are quiet, no one can hear you. If you aren’t present, you can’t be felt.
After 9/11 the Pentagon had a lot of work to be done beyond just rebuilding the walls. The impact of the attack had disrupted what we held as fact and truth. It took an emotional and psychological toll on many people and it reshaped the reality of war at home. Something interesting happened during and after this event that changed the way I understood leadership. Some leaders that I expected strength from chose to step back and become quiet, while others gained clarity, focus and resolve and chose to step up.
Stepping up meant showing up, making yourself visible was risky and took courage. The war on terrorism is still a hot button topic by 2005 we were still seemingly reacting and responding with a great deal of emotion. People are very passionate around this subject and passion may not always convey to good decision making. This being the case, any approach to help with this subject area had to be carefully examined and measured. As my old friend Vince said “Cohen, attacking a nat with a baseball bat may not get you the desired result you seek.”
Trust is Tied to Knowledge
When I first stepped inside the Pentagon, I could see the damage that was left over from the devastating attack on our country, our people. I had this feeling that overwhelmed me and I was overcome by feelings that I didn’t understand or have words to describe. As I tried to contain myself I was reminded verbally by my Chief Division Officer why I was there at the Pentagon in the first place. He said “The men and women of this nation make critical decisions for the safety and well-being of our warfighters here in these walls; I understand how you feel and this is why I brought you.”
Walking through the small passageways of the Pentagon, I thought about our long drive, sitting through traffic. It could be 4 hours or more each way on a good day. He did this drive at least a few times a week just to make sure he was physically present.
We walked into a room filled with defense leadership and supporting cast members end to end, there was a large long rectangular wooden table with senior leaders sitting and most others standing up against the wall. After general practice and introductions there was silence. I was looking around at the fine grain wood, paintings and designations on the walls. There is history in every nook and corner of this building. It is almost like going through a museum and art gallery at the same time. Being in the room itself makes you feel as if you are part of this history.
They introduced my senior leader to the group with natural formality and gave him the floor to speak. I can share the spirit of what he said in that room on that day.
We understand that there are things that we don’t know and we don’t ask. We make the same mistakes over and again with assured confidence and certainty. We make the same mistakes over again because even when we have our lessons learned, we don’t use them to prevent us from making poor choices. Our great service men and women deserve better. They deserve our willingness to say that we don’t know. We have to make both informed and uninformed decisions but we have a responsibility to them, to ask the questions and gain as much knowledge as we can. We have to work together and be a joint force to accomplish this and we have to build trust across the services. We can do these things with enterprise architectures. We can do these things with knowledge fed to us with and for purpose for reuse across all of the services.
In his presentation and discussion his only request was for people to use our architecture tools and approach to pull together and share content in context for operations, decision making and analysis.
We were there to build trust and build knowledge through these trusted relationships. The high level objective was to learn and share in order to raise awareness with partners. The knowledge would then be used and reused to help reduce risk, save money and increase opportunities for operational and mission success. My Chief didn’t stop here, he traveled and spoke with hundreds of people. His message was known by all of his team and we were all encouraged to share information and help build a coalition with partners from various domains.
We seek to “Help those who eat the MRE’s.” (MRE= Meals ready to eat)
Showing Up is
Showing up is a critical first step in the knowledge management practice. Most leaders don’t have time to read. I know how that sounds but it is true. Chances are they will make time to meet if they are given a good reason. That meeting is critical to both you and leadership. It could be an opportunity to move forward with your ideas or fail fast and move on.
Part 2..
“Senior leadership isn’t interested in what I have to say.”
“They (leaders) don’t care what we think.”
“We are just the hired help here.”
“I don’t have time and I am not really motivated”
“I have tried before and it didn’t work.”
Sound familiar.. will talk more about this next week.
The Cohenization Project 
Trust is earned, not given.
LikeLike