THE SHOCKING VALUE OF DEVELOPING MINDFULNESS

Solve this puzzle as quickly as you can: A man purchases a baseball bat and a ball for $1.10. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball.  How much does the ball cost? Was your answer 10 cents? If so, you answered like 80% of college-educated individuals,and you also answered wrong. Check again. If the ball costs $0.10, then the bat would cost $1.10, bringing the total to $1.20. The correct answer is actually 5 cents. If the ball costs $0.05, then the bat would cost $1.05, bringing the total to $1.10. [1]WHY DO PEOPLE GET THIS PROBLEM WRONG? OUR DAILY DECISIONS BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS HOW TO BECOME MORE MINDFUL 1.    MEDITATION2. SELF-MONITORING 3. FOCUS ON ONE TASK AT A TIMECONCLUSIONDo not feel bad if you answered this problem incorrectly the first time around. Even Ivy League graduates only answer correctly on this problem 50% of the time!So why do so many intelligent people get this problem wrong?The answer lies in the part of our brain that is doing the problem solving. When you were thinking about the problem the first time around, you were using a completely different part of your brain than when you thought about it the second time.Because you were asked to solve the problem quickly, you subconsciously delegated the task to your brain's limbic system; or as I call it the "primitive brain". The primitive brain is responsible for all of our automatic decision-making. It responds to traffic signs, reminds us to brush our teeth, and tells us to check our email when we get into the office. [2]It takes care of these easy tasks so that we do not use up as much mental energythinking about each trivial decision. This allows us to conserve our mental resources for more important thinking like planning, communicating and using our creativity. However, as you can see, the primitive brain is not very smart. It picks up bits of information (a total of $1.10 with $1.00 for the bat) and comes to the easiest answer (the ball must be $0.10!) without questioning other factors.Why does he want me to answer quickly?If the answer is this easy, why is he even asking me?Maybe I should add my prices for the ball and the bat to see what I get before deciding on my final answer.These questions call upon our modern brain. This part of our brain is responsible for a higher level of thinking. It is what we use for abstract thinking, creativity and exerting our willpower.We like to believe that our daily decisions are made from a process of well-informed decision-making. We believe that we are investigating every angle of the problem and choosing our best option.Unfortunately this is completely false. About 45% of the decisions that we make come from our primitive brain. We naturally want to conserve our mental energy, so we default to making the easiest decision whenever possible. [3]This works well when the task is simple, like remembering to brush your teeth, but problems occur when we start to use our automatic decision-making in pursuit of our higher goals. As you can see from the problem at the beginning of this article, our primitive brain’s decision-making is flawed. If we default to using the logic of our primitive brain to make decisions about what food to eat, when to exercise, or how to prioritize our to-do list, we will be thinking with the same logic as “the ball equals 10 cents”.We will make poor decisions without realizing it. We will not double-check to make sure we are on the right path, or question the consequences of our choices. This is a natural flaw in our genetic makeup, but one that can be easily corrected with a simple idea – becoming more mindful. Mindfulness is one of the most underrated skills in our society. Studies have shown that people who are more mindful of their decisions have: [4]·      More happiness·      More success in relationships·      More success in school·      More success in work·      Less stress·      Better physical health·      A better ability to adapt to change·      A better ability to deal with setbacksThe list goes on. The reason that people who are more mindful see this kind of success is because they use their modern brain for more of their daily decisions. They use the logic that the ball actually costs 5 cents when they decide what they will eat, what they will spend their money on, and what tasks require their attention.Rather than being on autopilot, they have developed the natural ability to see problems through the lens of the modern brain, leading them to make better decisions.This trait is powerful. Think about the fact that if you simply approach the bat and ball problem in a mindful way, you will have answered the question with more logic and reasoning than 50% of the people at Harvard! [1]Powerful indeed. And, unlike Harvard, you won’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop this trait.So how do we become more mindful and develop the natural ability to apply our modern brain to our daily decisions? Researchers have found 3 simple ways to train your brain to become more mindful.Most of the time that we are on autopilot, our minds are completely lost in thought. We are thinking about what we’re going to do in the future, or reminiscing on something in the past. This means that our modern brain is lost in thought and not focusing on the present decision. So our primitive brain is called into duty.Meditation trains the modern brain to be present. Practicing meditation for as little as 10 minutes a day will help develop your natural ability to focus and let go of the worries of the future or past. Simply by training the brain to be present in the decision-making process, you will naturally begin to think about the decision with your modern brain. [5]To get started meditating, check out this article which will list all of the benefits of meditation and give you the step-by-step guide to getting started.Something odd happens in our brains when we look at ourselves in the mirror. The part of the brain that would say "hey, that's me in the mirror" is not activated. Instead it is a part of the brain that says "I wish I was taller, skinnier, more muscular, etc." [4]In other words, rather than seeing see who we are, we see who we want to be. This is not because we are shallow, it is because we all have an ideal self that we want to live up to. With this ideal self in our mind, we begin to think and act more like them. And, as you can probably guess, this ideal self is mindful and uses the modern brain to make its decisions. The best way to keep your ideal self in mind is through a process called Self-Monitoring. This involves keeping track of as much information on yourself as possible. Like with the mirror, you will look at the information on yourself and compare it to what you really want. This will turn on your modern brain and train it to take over in your decision-making process.To get started, check out the list of ways to begin self-monitoring at the bottom of this article.Ready for another puzzle? See if you can write down a list of all 50 states. When you have listed 10, see if you can continue writing them while also figuring out the answer to 17 x 24. Were you able to do it?Both of these problems require our modern brain to solve. If I were to ask you to write the 50 states and do a simple problem like 10 x 5, you would have had no problem doing it. 10 x 5 is easy. It only requires the primitive brain to solve, so we can successfully multi-task.The modern brain, however, does not like to multi-task. Because it requires a higher level of thought than the primitive brain, it works best when focused on one problem at a time.The more you try to multi-task in your life, the more you are training your primitive brain.Despite your best intentions, you will unknowingly be applying the primitive brain's flawed logic to your multi-tasking.So resist the temptation to multi-task and remain focused. This will train your modern brain and help you become more mindful. [1]There is a big difference in the intelligence of our primitive brain and our modern brain. Our primitive brain is lazy. It wants to get things done quickly and does not stop to make sure that it is making the right decision. And 45% of the time, we are naturally using this part of the brain to make our decisions!We can overcome this natural tendency by becoming more mindful. Simply by becoming more mindful of our daily decisions, we begin to use our modern brain. Our modern brain is intelligent. It applies logic, reasoning and questioning of possible consequences; leading to better decision-making.By practicing meditation, self-monitoring and focusing on one task at a time, you can train your modern brain to become the dominant decision-maker. This will lead to better decisions, better habits and a better chance of reaching your goals!

Colin Robertson 

 February 18, 2015

10 SIMPLE EXERCISES THAT WILL STRENGTHEN YOUR WILLPOWERS

“Is there a way to strengthen someone’s willpower?”
That was the question on researchers' minds as they learned more about how the science behind this human virtue. Through many tests, they had discovered thatwillpower is like a muscle - it gets tired from overuse and requires food to replenish.
So, if it does act like a muscle, can it also be strengthened?
After several studies, we have our answer! With the right practice, willpower can be strengthened just like any other muscle in the body.
Fair warning: like all practice, these workouts can be challenging. After all, you will be exerting your willpower in the same way that you would exert your legs on a run. Butthey are scientifically proven to get you results. 
So although it will be difficult in the short-term, eventually it will be easier to say no to temptations, make it to the gym and stick with your long-term goals!

1.    10 MINUTES OF MEDITATION

Meditation will give you the fastest results of all of the willpower workouts listed. Bymeditating you are training the brain to focus and resist the urge to wander. Research shows that after just 2-3 days of practicing meditation for 10 minutes, your brain will be able to focus better, you will have more energy, and you will be less stressed. [1]
To get started with 10 minutes of meditation, check out this article.  It will provide you with all of the benefits of mediation as well as simple exercise designed specifically for beginners.

2.    WORK ON YOUR POSTURE

When testing if willpower could be strengthened, researchers asked a group of participants to work on their posture for a 2-week period. Every time they caught themselves slouching, they were to correct themselves by sitting up straight. This simple practice vastly improved their perseverance on various willpower tests like this one. [2]
To get started, simply correct your posture every time you catch yourself slouching at work or at home. It sounds extremely simple, but it takes willpower to sit up straight. Every time you do, you’re essentially doing “one rep” with your willpower muscle.

3.    KEEP A FOOD DIARY 

The same study also found that those who kept a food diary improved their willpower. Most of us don’t log all of the food we eat, so it takes willpower to keep track of it all. Any similar logging of information will also work, but I recommend a food diary because of all of its benefits listed here. [2]
To get started, I recommend downloading the MyFitnessPal App. It’s a simple food diary app that has a huge database of foods and nutrition information. Just keep the diary for 2 weeks, and it will increase your ability to resist temptations!

4.    USE YOUR OPPOSITE HAND 

Using the same methodology as with posture, researchers conducted further studies that tested other corrective actions. One that worked particularly well was to use your opposite hand. Your brain is wired to use your dominant hand, so it takes willpower to use the opposite. [3]
To get started, select a chunk of the day to use your opposite hand. It doesn’t need to be any more than an hour in order to get results. And from personal experience, if you aim for more than an hour, you will unnecessarily tire out your willpower muscle.

5.    CORRECT YOUR SPEECH

Another test that the researchers conducted was to change subjects’ natural speech. This includes resisting the urge to use swear words, or to say “hello” instead of “hey”. Again, it takes willpower to consciously go against your instincts. It doesn’t matter how you correct your speech, as long as you change your natural speech habits. [3]
To get started, select a chunk of the day to practice and choose the words you will change. Personally, I tried not using contractions (using “do not” instead of “don’t”, etc.) during work hours and it worked very well. Like all exercises listed above, doing this for just 2 weeks can vastly improve your willpower!

6. CREATE AND MEET SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINES 

Anyone who remembers their college days, remembers what it was like cramming for a test or doing a last minute paper. Your willpower gets taxed as you try to tune out distractions and become hyper-productive. Using this same principle, researchers found that by creating self-imposed deadlines you can work your willpower in the same way.
To get started, simply pick a task on your to-do list that you may have been putting off. Set a deadline for accomplishing it, and make sure you adhere to it. The participants who followed this process for 2 weeks not only got their old to-dos done, but also improved their diets, exercised more, and cut back on cigarettes and alcohol. [3] 

7. KEEP TRACK OF YOUR SPENDING

In the same way most of us don’t track the food that we eat, many of us don’t track our spending either. Even if you don’t cut back on spending – which would also be a willpower workout – researchers found that simply keeping track of where your money went will improve your willpower. [4] 
To get stated, try using a budgeting app like Mint. Mint can connect to your bank account, credit cards, etc. and automatically track your purchases. By simply reviewing this on a regular basis, you will see increases in your focus and ability to resist unrelated temptations like sweets.

8. SQUEEZE A HANDGRIP

For the truly determined who want to increase their perseverance, you can squeeze a handgrip until exhaustion. If you’ve ever squeezed one before, you know that it gives you a deep forearm burn. So it takes willpower to keep squeezing. [5]

To get started, simply get a handgrip like this one, and squeeze it with each hand until you’re exhausted. Willing yourself to continue squeezing even when it hurts will increase your perseverance on other challenging tasks.

9. CARRY AROUND SOMETHING TEMPTING

Again, for the truly determined out there, you can increase your ability to say "no" by carrying around something tempting with you all day. Researchers tried this with participants by teaching them how to resist cravings, then giving them a Hershey’s Kiss to carry around with them. Those who resisted the Kiss were much more capable of resisting other temptations in their lives as well! [6]

To get started, first learn how to resist a craving. This will be hard, so your will want to know how to deal with the craving. Then carry something small but tempting with you.It doesn’t need to be for an entire day, but for long enough that you will be truly tempted. By consistently saying "no", you will increase your ability to resist other temptations and ignore distractions!

10. BE MORE CONSCIOUS OF YOUR AUTOMATIC DECISIONS

A final exercise is to simply be more mindful of your decisions throughout the day. We are often so lost in thought, that our actions become automatic. Taking time to think about why you are making your daily decisions will increase your ability to focus and resist temptations. [3]
To get started, try to catch yourself in an automatic behavior and ask yourself why you are doing it. This may be questioning why you are eating cereal instead of eggs for breakfast, or it may be questioning why exactly you put 2 sugars in your coffee. Any way you can think consciously about a typical automatic behavior will increase your focus and self-control.

CONCLUSION

Like all muscles in the body, willpower can be strengthened with the right practice. Above you will find 10 practical and effective ways to strengthen your self-control, focus and perseverance. Do not try to do all 10 at once.
Think about training your willpower muscle like training for a marathon. Your first training run wouldn’t be the full 26 miles or even close to that. You would start small and gradually build up as your muscles got stronger. So choose just 1 of these workouts to add to your daily routine.

Determine which workout seems practical and effective for the goal you want to achieve and get to work. By simply following the steps laid out, you will be well on your way to becoming more mentally strong!

Colin Robertson 

 October 24, 2014

How to Search for knowledge

  As my blog title implies 'knowledge Quench' when you have a quench for knowledge search for it, since we live in a era of technically advanced  trending digital world as we name it. Finding  knowledge and information is on your finger tip if you know the typical road to it. Simply question yourself on simple actions, although it's rhetoric yet it's effective and immeasurably useful.

 yep! What do we do when when we feel thirsty? we resort the help of a fluid to satiate the need, particularly  glass of water or kind of juice that would quench our thirst. This is a simple fact that when we feel thirst, we look for any kind of potable fluid. Did we ever think why we became thirsty.. ? It's an undeniable fact that our body is becoming dehydrated and we need fluid to moisturise, this is the simple reason. But there are many medical conditions related to thirstiness. Your body needs water to function properly. For example, water helps to regulate your body temperature, lubricate your joints, and remove waste from your body. Adequate daily water intake is very important. Furthermore, it is important to increase your usual water intake when you are ill, exposed to hot temperatures, or engaged in physical activities. Thus if you find an answer for this question, you are somewhat knowledgeable. Apart from this, if you know  other elements or science of water you are infact really knowledgeable on the subject. 

In the similar manner seeking knowledge and know how solely depends on the individual person. When you know the real ways and means it's much easier in this digital world than our thoughts. Just click these words and find one of the ways.  Guacamol      potable  

The Science of a Meaningful Life Video Series

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.

Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.

Though it has its roots in Buddhist meditation, a secular practice of mindfulness has entered the American mainstream in recent years, in part through the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, which he launched at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. Since that time, thousands of studies have documented the physical and mental health benefits of mindfulness in general and MBSR in particular, inspiring countless programs to adapt the MBSR model for schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans centers, and beyond.

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Why Practice Mindfulness?

Studies have shown that practicing mindfulness, even for just a few weeks, can bring a variety of physical, psychological, and social benefits. Here are some of these benefits, which extend across many different settings.

• Mindfulness is good for our bodies: A seminal study found that, after just eight weeks of training, practicing mindfulness meditation boosts our immune system’s ability to fight off illness.
• Mindfulness is good for our minds: Several studies have found that mindfulness increases positive emotions while reducing negative emotions and stress. Indeed, at least one study suggests it may be as good as antidepressants in fighting depression and preventing relapse.
• Mindfulness changes our brains: Research has found that it increases density of gray matter in brain regions linked to learning, memory, emotion regulation, and empathy.
• Mindfulness helps us focus: Studies suggest that mindfulness helps us tune out distractions and improves our memory and attention skills.
• Mindfulness fosters compassion and altruism: Research suggests mindfulness training makes usmore likely to help someone in need and increases activity in neural networks involved inunderstanding the suffering of others and regulating emotions. Evidence suggests it might boost self-compassion as well.
• Mindfulness enhances relationships: Research suggests mindfulness training makes couples more satisfied with their relationship, makes each partner feel more optimistic and relaxed, and makes them feel more accepting of and closer to one another.
• Mindfulness is good for parents and parents-to-be: Studies suggest it may reduce pregnancy-related anxiety, stress, and depression in expectant parents. Parents who practice mindfulnessreport being happier with their parenting skills and their relationship with their kids, and their kids were found to have better social skills.
• Mindfulness helps schools: There’s scientific evidence that teaching mindfulness in the classroom reduces behavior problems and aggression among students, and improves their happiness levels and ability to pay attention. Teachers trained in mindfulness also show lower blood pressure, less negative emotion and symptoms of depression, and greater compassion and empathy.
• Mindfulness helps health care professionals cope with stress, connect with their patients, andimprove their general quality of life. It also helps mental health professionals by reducing negative emotions and anxiety, and increasing their positive emotions and feelings of self-compassion.
• Mindfulness helps prisons: Evidence suggests mindfulness reduces anger, hostility, and mood disturbances among prisoners by increasing their awareness of their thoughts and emotions, helping with their rehabilitation and reintegration.
• Mindfulness helps veterans: Studies suggest it can reduce the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the aftermath of war.
• Mindfulness fights obesity: Practicing “mindful eating” encourages healthier eating habits, helps people lose weight, and helps them savor the food they do eat.
• to be continued...............
• Credit to:  http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/

How to Cultivate Mindfulness?

Jon Kabat-Zinn emphasizes that although mindfulness can be cultivated through formal meditation, that’s not the only way. “It’s not really about sitting in the full lotus, like pretending you’re a statue in a British museum,” he says in this Greater Good video. “It’s about living your life as if it really mattered, moment by moment by moment by moment.”

Here are a few key components of practicing mindfulness that Kabat-Zinn and others identify:

• Pay close attention to your breathing, especially when you’re feeling intense emotions.
• Notice—really notice—what you’re sensing in a given moment, the sights, sounds, and smells that ordinarily slip by without reaching your conscious awareness.
• Recognize that your thoughts and emotions are fleeting and do not define you, an insight that can free you from negative thought patterns.
• Tune into your body’s physical sensations, from the water hitting your skin in the shower to the way your body rests in your office chair.

To develop these skills in everyday life, you can try these exercises used in Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR program and elsewhere:

• The body scan, where you focus your attention along your body, from the toes to the top of your head, trying to be aware and accepting of whatever you sense in these body parts, without controlling or changing those feelings.



• The raisin exercise, where you slowly use all of your senses, one after another, to observe a raisin in great detail, from the way it feels in your hand to the way its taste bursts on your tongue. This exercise is intended to help you focus on the present moment, and can be tried with different foods.



• Walking meditation, where you focus on the movement of your body as you take step after step, your feet touching and leaving the ground—an everyday activity we usually take for granted. This exercise is often practiced walking back and forth along a path 10 paces long, though it can be practiced along most any path.



• Loving-kindness meditation, which the GGSC’s Christine Carter explains in this post, involves extending feelings of compassion toward people, starting with yourself then branching out to someone close to you, then to an acquaintance, then to someone giving you a hard time, then finally to all beings everywhere.

Over the years on Greater Good, we’ve identified successful programs for cultivating mindfulness; here are some highlights.

• Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR), in which students meet for two-to-three hours per week for eight weeks, practicing at home between classes; it has helped tens of thousands of people build mindfulness.
• Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) adapts the MBSR model specifically for people suffering from depression and chronic unhappiness. Developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale, MBCT combines mindfulness practices with practices from cognitive therapy, and it has been backed up by a great deal of research.
• Megan Cowan, founder of the Mindful Schools program, offers tips for teaching mindfulness to kids in this Greater Good article.
• In another Greater Good article, Margaret Cullen, founder of the SMART-in-Education program, explains how she uses mindfulness to help teachers take care of themselves and keep from burning out.
• Nancy Bardacke’s Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) program offers mindfulness training to expectant parents; her book Mindful Birthing describes her program and also offers detailed instructions for cultivating mindfulness in everyday life.
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• Page reviewers: Leah Weiss, LCSW, Ph.D., Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education; Steve Hickman, Psy.D., UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness.

Knowledge Management Systems

The issue of knowledge management systems has probably always been the most discussed and debated topic within knowledge management (KM). Even though knowledge management systems are not the most important part of KM (with some arguing that they are not even absolutely necessary), this is still the subject that generates most interest.

On this site, I have considered the impact of IT in all the knowledge management strategy subsections, with particular emphasis on its role in knowledge sharing. From this point on, the discussion will be organized as follows:

• This subsection will discuss the theoretical implementation of knowledge management systems and its impact on the organization.
• The section titled "KM Tools" will look at some of the main categories of systems available.

What are Knowledge Management Systems?

Knowledge management systems refer to any kind of IT system that stores and retrievesknowledge, improves collaboration, locates knowledge sources, mines repositories for hidden knowledge, captures and uses knowledge, or in some other way enhances the KM process.

If my explanation above makes the definition of these systems seem vague, that is because there is no consensus as to what constitutes a knowledge management system, much like there is no consensus regarding KM. Furthermore, since KM is involved in all areas of the firm, drawing a line is very difficult.

James Robertson (2007) goes as far as to argue that organizations should not even think in terms of knowledge management systems. He argues that KM, though enhanced by technology, is not a technology discipline, and thinking in terms of knowledge management systems leads to expectations of "silver bullet" solutions. Instead, the focus should be determining the functionality of the IT systems that are required for the specific activities and initiatives within the firm.

I fully agree with his reasoning. However, for the purpose of this site (intended to be useful for those people that do search for terms like knowledge management systems), I will break these down into the following general categories (adapted from the work of Gupta and Sharma 2005, in Bali et al 2009):

• Groupware systems & KM 2.0
• The intranet and extranet
• Data warehousing, data mining, & OLAP
• Decision Support Systems
• Content management systems
• Document management systems
• Artificial intelligence tools
• Simulation tools
• Semantic networks

These categories will cover the vast majority of the systems that people will normally link directly to KM.

Problems and Failure Factors

Too often, the effects of technology on the organization are not given enough thought prior to the introduction of a new system. There are two sets of knowledge necessary for the design and implementation of a knowledge management system (Newell et al., 2000):

• The technical programming and design know-how
• Organizational know-how based on the understanding of knowledge flows

The problem is that rarely are both these sets of knowledge known by a single person. Moreover, technology is rarely designed by the people who use it. Therefore, firms are faced with the issue of fit between IT systems and organizational practices, as well as with acceptance within organizational culture (Gamble & Blackwell 2001).

Botha et al (2008) stress the importance of understanding what knowledge management systems cannot do. They point to the fact that introducing knowledge sharing technologies does not mean that experts will share knowledge - other initiatives have to be in place.

Akhavan et al (2005) identify several additional failure factors including: lack of top management support, organizational culture, lack of a separate budget, and resistance to change.

Building upon all this, and incorporating previously discussed elements, failure factors of knowledge management systems are as follows:

• Inadequate support: managerial and technical, during both implementation and use.
• Expecting that the technology is a KM solution in itself.
• Failure to understand exactly what the firm needs (whether technologically or otherwise).
• Not understanding the specific function and limitation of each individual system.
• Lack of organizational acceptance, and assuming that if you build it, they will come – lack of appropriate organizational culture.
• Inadequate quality measures (e.g. lack of content management).
• Lack of organizational/departmental/etc fit - does it make working in the organization. easier? Is a system appropriate in one area of the firm but not another? Does it actually disrupt existing processes?
• Lack of understanding of knowledge dynamics and the inherent difficulty in transferring tacit knowledge with IT based systems (see segment on tacit knowledge under knowledge sharing).
• Lack of a separate budget.

Promoting Acceptance and Assimilation

According to Hecht et al. (2011) the process of successful implementation has three stages: adoption, acceptance, and assimilation. Based on recognized models and theories, the authors identified three comprehensive sets of factors affecting these three elements. The resulting model organized the KMS implementation factors into the following categories:

• Adoption:
  • Influenced by design: Innovation characteristics, fit, expected results, communication characteristics.
  • Not influenced by design: Environment, technological infrastructure, resources, organizational characteristics.
• Acceptance
  • Influenced by design: Effort expectancy, performance expectancy.
  • Not influenced by design: Social influences, attitude towards technology use.
• Assimilation:
  • Influenced by design: social system characteristics, process characteristics.
  • Not influenced by design: Management characteristics, institutional characteristics.

Step 1: KMS Adoption

Some of the key factors identified by Hecht et al (2011) are: characteristics, commercial advantage, cultural values, information quality, organizational viability, and system quality. To promote KMS adoption:

• Start with an internal analysis of the firm.
• Evaluate information/knowledge needs & flows, lines of communication, communities of practice, etc. These findings should form the basis of determining the systems needed to complement them.
• Make a thorough cost-benefit analysis, considering factors like size of firm, number of users, complexity of the system structure, frequency of use, upkeep & updating costs, security issues, training costs (including ensuring acceptance) etc. vs improvements in performance, lower response time, lower costs (relative to the previous systems) etc.
• Evaluate existing work practices and determine how the systems will improve - and not hinder - the status quo.
• One very interesting rule of thumb presented by Botha et al (2008), is that "the more tacit the knowledge, the less high-tech the required solution". For example, expert knowledge is often best supported by multimedia communication technology and by expert finders. Beyond that, it is about human interaction and collaboration.

Step 2: KMS acceptance

Some of the factors outlined by Hecht et al. (2011) include: anxiety, ease of use, intrinsic motivation, job-fit, results demonstrability, and social factors. Promoting acceptance can be improved by:

• Involve the users in the design and implementation process when possible (Liebowitz 1999).
• Involve the user in the evaluation of the system when applicable (Liebowitz 1999).
• Make it as user friendly and as intuitive as possible (Frank 2002).
• Support multiple perspectives of the stored knowledge (Frank 2002).
• Provide adequate technical and managerial support.
• Use product champions to promote the new systems throughout the organization.

Step 3: KMS Assimilation

Some of the factors identified by Hecht et al. (2011) include: knowledge barrier, management championship, process cost, process quality, and promotion of collaboration. Assimilation can be improved by:

• Content management (Gamble & Blackwell, 2011): In order for the system to remain useful, its content must be kept relevant through updating, revising, filtering, organization, etc.
• Perceived attractiveness factors (Gamble & Blackwell, 2001): This includes not only the advantages of using the KMS, but also of management's ability to convince users of these advantages.
• Proper budgeting: i.e. planning expenses and implementing a KMS that is cost efficient.
• Focus on collaboration. In particular, consider the adoption of enterprise 2.0 / KM 2.0systems, which by design promote collaboration while generally being inexpensive and often quite popular.
• Management involvement: The system must be championed by management at all levels.

Naturally, these factors do not apply to all systems. Some are fairly straightforward and accepted in today's society (e.g. email). However, the strategic implications of implementing knowledge management systems that significantly aim to change the way things are done in the organization requires proper consideration and careful planning.

by Alan Frost. Free paper released Jan. 2014.