Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

62 | Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water Utilities
plan to stakeholders and the project team, which must be managed, motivated, informed, encouraged,
empowered and supported. After start-up, the project moves into an expansion and growth
phase where the processes and approaches needed to sustain the project are established, and implementation
gets under way.
Leading and Managing
With the emergence of knowledge leadership over the past several decades, new relationships
between leaders, followers, and knowledge have also emerged. In the past knowledge was
held tightly at the higher levels of an organization and used to maintain control. Today knowledge
that is essential to the success of the utility resides in people at all levels. Further, because knowledge
needs shift and change in response to new demands and ideas from the environment, no single
individual or group of individuals can have all the knowledge necessary to run a utility. In this
new world, there is some shift in authority from upper and middle management and leadership to
the workforce, which essentially means that management and leadership give employees more
freedom while still maintaining responsibility—something that is difficult for some line managers
and supervisors to do! Yet, for leaders and the utility to take advantage of worker’s knowledge and
experience for organizational improvement, the context, direction and authority to make local
decisions should be at the point of action where the best knowledge resides.
Thus the role of leaders is much that of a gardener. Leaders are available for advice; for
integrating the efforts of knowledge workers; for nurturing an atmosphere of trust, collaboration,
confidence and integrity; for listening and being a sounding board; and for overriding knowledge
workers (only) when they believe that a fatal mistake is about to be made. Mistakes will happen.
They are a necessary part of living in a turbulent environment, and having the freedom to make
mistakes is the price for creativity, agility, learning, and optimum complexity. What is critical is
that knowledge workers learn from all mistakes. Leaders recognize that there are some areas and
times, when workers must follow exact procedures and deviating from the rules cannot be allowed.
A clear example is safety procedures or high risk areas. Thus modern leaders have to work with
their utilities under both conditions, perhaps at the same time, encouraging new ideas and exploration
to improve efficiency or effectiveness in one area of operations while ensuring rigid discipline
and training in another.
In addition to providing resources and guidance to their team, a primary job of the project
(team) leader is to monitor and assess project progress. Information on progress must be evaluated,
comprehended and acted upon. Variations should be investigated, and adjustments made when
necessary, while keeping the entire project team informed. While an in-depth treatment of project
management actions is beyond the scope of this project, included here is a quick synopsis of management
actions during the expansion and growth phase and sustainability phase.
• Check the progress of activities against the plan and make adjustments where necessary,
ensuring that all stakeholders are informed of any changes and, where possible,
included in the decision-making process.
• Review performance regularly and at the pre-planned review points, and confirm the
validity and relevance of the remainder of the plan.
• Adjust the plan if necessary in light of performance, changing circumstances, and new
information, but remaining on track and within the original terms of reference.
• Use transparent, pre-agreed assessment measures when judging performance.
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