hutchinson associates services

Consulting Services
Knowledge, Innovation, Networks, and Collaboration

We have unique expertise and experience in collaboration and marketing practices, disciplines, and methods.

We take an integrated approach to consulting and delivery, which means that we address all the factors essential to a successful result: business model and goals, culture, organization, processes, and systems. Our industry experience includes work with companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Nortel Networks. We have discovered that the rich experiences of these companies has produced insights that are valuable to companies of all sizes.

We are committed to continuous learning for and with clients, staying on the leading edge of our key practice areas.

Leveraging Context, Knowledge and Networks
Most companies have multiple knowledge repositories and a smattering (or a host) of knowledge management systems, tools, and initiatives. It all adds up - but to what? How do you know whether employees are using the systems as they were intended, or using them at all? Have you really addressed the behaviors, attitudes, and actual work practices that support the knowledge work in the organization? Using a combination of organizational scan techniques and "deep dive" interviews focused on specific user populations or communities, we develop a set of models that represent current pathways for knowledge exchange and combination. The models and insights accrued provide the basis for a workshop of managers and stakeholders to identify the most useful points of leverage to stimulate change and transformation.

Fast Track to Collaboration for High-Performance Communities and Teams
Managing across boundaries - functional, organizational and geographical - has emerged as a fundamental requirement for 21st century businesses. Technology, process change, and personal commitment to collaborate need to be co-designed and to evolve, quickly, to ensure rapid and consistent transfer of communication and created and stored knowledge. Companies that embark on this change path must have successful pilot programs. We have been introducing technology — including SharePoint, eRoom, and Groove — to distributed teams for over 15 years and approach the development of collaborative communities systemically. The work includes assessment, requirements analysis, technology recommendation, and pilot design and implementation, including change management, coaching and facilitation.

Organizational Network Analysis (ONA)
Knowledge flows along existing pathways in organizations. If people are not connected, not communicating, or just don't know each other, they miss the benefit of leveraging each other's ideas, experience, and expertise. Social network analysis is a proven method for mapping the quantity and quality of connections in organizations; recent applied research by the Institute for Knowledge-Enabled Organizations has proven its effectiveness in understanding knowledge flow across organizations. We use this method to diagnose the current state of the people-to-people in a business and use consultative interviewing to validate the findings and work toward a set of action programs that will strengthen connections in those parts of the business where it matters most.Link to more information on Organizational Network Analysis.

Knowledge Systems Audit
Most companies have multiple knowledge repositories and a smattering (or a host) of knowledge management systems, tools, and initiatives. It all adds up - but to what? If a client is missing a strategic architecture for how knowledge management disciplines, tools, and processes benefit its business, then it's time for an audit. We use a combination of management interviews and interactive workshops with leading KM practitioners to build a map of the existing KM infrastructure - process, technology, and programs - and the relationship of its contours to the business value chain. In a final consultative workshop, I review these results and work with clients to develop an effective strategy that includes a balanced, integrated mix of programs that leverage explicit, tact, and emergent knowledge.

Emergent Knowledge and Learning in Action
Explicit knowledge is captured, codified, written, indexed, and stored. Tacit knowledge is inarticulate, experienced, and understood rather than said. Emergent knowledge occurs in dialogue, in discovery, and disruption. Learning that occurs in this space sparks innovation, improvement, and invention. To help companies understand and apply methods that derive from recent work in communities of practice and complex adaptive systems theory applied to organizational learning, we begin with a half-day educational workshop on the management mind shift needed to operate successfully in an increasingly complex environment and a review of specific practices that have proven effective in stimulating continuous learning and business improvement. Subsequent consultative consulting will help clients identify the key business areas to apply emerging knowledge practices, design the right programs for these areas, and train and coach staff in managing these practices.

Knowledge Management (KM) Strategy
Because the field of KM is so broad, it is important to establish a strategic context for the sum of activities that can be called "knowledge management" and to bring the practitioners of key knowledge disciplines and the owners of processes and systems into a collaborative unit with a shared understanding. We have a wealth of experience in designing, managing, and coaching global cross-organizational and cross-functional groups whose shared mission must be balanced with individual, project, and group goals. We bring a systemic approach to the design of a knowledge management strategy, with a focus on bringing programs, systems and tools, and practices into balance with business needs and priorities. My experience base includes eight years in a professional services environment.