^The APQC Blog

After spending close to a year working with financial processes, I am entering the realm of human capital management (HCM) at APQC. It is an interesting transition. Whereas most process improvements assume people will be there to make them happen, HCM is all about empowering people so they can.  As I learn more about how APQC’s HCM research helps people perform and improve, I will be sharing what I learn with APQC members.

“How can I get employees to learn from one another?” is a question I get asked at least once a month. And it makes sense that so many organizations are interested in peer-based learning as a way to transfer knowledge and close skill gaps. When an employee needs to get up to speed on a particular topic or skill, there is almost always another employee somewhere in the organization who could help that individual. And this type of learning has several obvious benefits over formal training. For starters, it is relatively low cost and less disruptive to normal work schedules.

In 2010, ExxonMobil began using cognitive interviews to uncover deep subject matter expertise and thinking from its HR experts. In 2014, a Policy Leadership Academy emerged that has transformed ExxonMobil’s policy world into a forward-thinking, highly influential, effective, and aligned global team. This program has created significant global alignment around some very key areas of policy related to corporate opinion, exceptions, interpretation, and change management.

As I mentioned a little over a month ago, I was pretty excited about the chance I was given to attend the Strata+Hadoop World conference in San Jose. It turns out that that anticipation was justified.

Turning a struggling organization around is a daunting challenge that many people would run from.  Sharon Price John, however, runs toward tough jobs and has a successful track record of turning around unstable brands and unprofitable businesses.

Two exciting breakout sessions at APQC’s 2016 Knowledge Management Conference April 28-29 will be from ExxonMobil and Novartis. Both speakers created short videos previewing their sessions. ExxonMobil’s session is “Transforming Cognitive Interview Learnings into Global Competency Development.” It will be presented by Bredow Bell Thompson, manager, global policy, compliance & communication, and will focus on how ExxonMobil was able to develop a process to transfer expertise and transform interview learnings into synthesized concepts and tools.

Integrated analytics key to strategy execution. Knowledge analytics, workforce analytics, process analytics, analytics in finance—all are topics featured on APQC’s analytics expertise page.

A tiny, unknown team at ADP had a mission: to get ADP associates working together across organizational silos to better serve their clients. To achieve this goal, the team had to face a legacy collaboration platform, severe resource limitations, and an environment where none of the usual rules about how to start a community were working. So how did they get from 10,000 to 44,000 users in a company of 55,000 employees in just one year? Laura Lerner, vice president, knowledge management, talked to us about how they did it.

Have I told you (lately) how excited I am about APQC’s 2016 KM conference?  If not, let me tell you now, I am JAZZED!  And so are my colleagues at APQC.  It’s our 21^st annual KM conference and we have been preparing to see you since last year’s conference.   

According to PWC’s 2016 CEO survey, more than half of the participating CEOs believe that due to the fast pace of change of the business environment—disruptive technologies, internet of things, more demanding customers, growing regulations, etc.—organizations see more threats and opportunities on the horizon than they did three years ago. However, most of the CEOs are concerned that their organizations lack the skills and flexibility necessary to identify and deal with new opportunities and threats.