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A methodical approach exists based on the Shaw patented method - Customer-Inspired Process Deployment®. The methodology starts with how an external customer experiences your organization and creates the structure of your organization as an assemblage of processes. This approach will most likely look quite different than your traditional organization chart. In fact, the organization chart really has little to do with how work gets done, in most cases. 

This ethnographic study investigates how a project group deals with the contradiction between distributed knowledge in boundary-spanning collaborative processes and the expectation that software systems will provide unified, codified knowledge. Group and individual activities were observed over a period of 18 months, to examine the ways knowledge was presented, recognized, shared, or otherwise managed during joint design of business process and IT systems change. The study explores how knowledge and expertise were translated across organizational boundaries, and identifies four stages in the development of group understanding of how to manage sensemaking and expertise across knowledge boundaries: focus on defining shared goals; acknowledging and sharing tacit knowledge about organizational practice; identifying external influences; and explicit knowledge generation.

For Nonaka (1991) tacit and explicit knowledge are not separate but mutually complementary entities.  They interact with each other in the creative activities of human beings.  Nonaka calls the interaction of these two forms of knowledge the knowledge conversion process. This conversion process consists of four stages: socialization, externalization, combination and internalisation. 

Generic training that can aid in dealing with unanticipated complex terrorist activities is needed. Terrorist acts can create stressful situations involving volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and delayed feedback and information flow (“VUCAD”). Strategic management simulation technology, based on complexity theory, can be used to assess and train personnel who must deal with the threat of terrorism.

Yet we also need more generic training to handle the VUCAD of terrorism

A more applicable technology is known as “quasi-experimental simulation.”17 While the quasi-experimental approach is a compromise between the free and experimental simulation methods, it tends to combine the advantages of both and mostly eliminates the disadvantages of the other two. In a quasi-experimental simulation, preprogrammed information is restricted to only part of the information: incoming messages that assure that all participants experience the same flow of events. On the other hand, many additional computer-generated responses (typically one-half of the incoming information) to participant actions allow realism (and maintenance of high motivation levels). Yet, because of the constant flow of pre-programmed information that keeps significant events and timing constant for all participants, performance can be numerically scored against established criteria of excellence or can be compared between different participants (or participating teams). The observer (who was necessary in the free simulation) has become obsolete. Performance is computer scored, both in terms of how any participant processes information (for example, is strategy developed?) and in terms of the appropriateness of the actions taken to deal with scenario-generated events

The goal? To identify where institutional complexity is an issue, where complexity caused by factors such as a lack of role clarity or poor processes is a problem, and what’s responsible for the complexity in each area. Companies can then boost organizational effectiveness through a combination of two things: removing complexity that doesn’t add value and channeling what’s left to employees who can either handle it naturally or be trained to cope with it.

In this article, we review the experience of a multinational consumer goods manufacturer that applied this approach in several regions and functions and consequently halved the time it needed to make decisions in critical processes.

Armed with the survey data, the manufacturer constructed several “heat maps” to help senior managers pinpoint where, and why, complexity was causing trouble for employees. Each map showed a particular breakdown—a region or function, for example—and how much complexity of various kinds was occurring there, as well as the level of coping skills employees possessed.

Sankey diagrams are a specific type of flow chart, in which the width of the arrows is shown proportionally to the flow quantity. They are typically used to visualize energy or material transfers between processes. The flow arrows can be color-coded to indicate the type of the flow (energy, mass, costs, etc).

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Varying the types of skills you work on in practice sessions engages a different part of the brain than the one you use when focusing on a single task, researchers say. The finding explains why variable practice improves the brain's memory of most skills better than working on just one type of task, according to the research team from the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.In their study, published online recently in Nature Neuroscience, the investigators divided 59 volunteers into different groups. Some were asked to practice a challenging arm movement, while others did the arm movement and related tasks in a variable practice structure.The participants in the variable practice group learned the arm movement better than those who practiced only the arm movement, the study authors found.Among those in the variable practice group, the process of consolidating memory of the skill engaged a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with higher level planning. Among those who practiced only the arm movement, the engaged part of the brain was the primary motor cortex, which is associated with simple motor learning, the authors explained."In the variable practice structure condition, you're basically solving the motor problem anew each time. If I'm just repeating the same thing over and over again as in the constant practice condition, I don't have to process it very deeply," study senior author Carolee Winstein, a professor of biokinesiology and physical therapy at the University of Southern California, said in a university news release.

The systematic review of published research studies is a major method used for evaluating particular treatments. The Cochrane Collaboration is one of the best-known, respected examples of systematic reviews. Like other collections of systematic reviews, it requires authors to provide a detailed and repeatable plan of their literature search and evaluations of the evidence. Once all the best evidence is assessed, treatment is categoried as "likely to be beneficial", "likely to be harmful", or "evidence did not support either benefit or harm".

Evidence-based medicine categorizes different types of clinical evidence and ranks them according to the strength of their freedom from the various biases that beset medical research. For example, the strongest evidence for therapeutic interventions is provided by systematic review of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials involving a homogeneous patient population and medical condition. In contrast, patient testimonials, case reports, and even expert opinion have little value as proof because of the placebo effect, the biases inherent in observation and reporting of cases, difficulties in ascertaining who is an expert, and more.

etadata is the “data about the data”: all the habitat data, SOPs and abiotic data that is in dire need of the standardization Kyrpides writes about.

Metadata is the “data about the data”: all the habitat data, SOPs and abiotic data that is in dire need of the standardization Kyrpides writes about.

In 2005 the Genomics Standards Consortium was formed to address this problem. Renzo Kottman from the Max-Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany  talked about software development within the GSC, and specifically about his own project: the Genomic Contextual Data Markup Language, or GCDML. GCDML is an XML-based standard for describing everything associated with a genomic or a metagenomic sample: where it was taken from , under what conditions, which protocols were used to extract, sequence, assemble, finish and analyze the metagenome.

The Directorate for Engineering’s Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships’ Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs invites all active SBIR/STTR Phase I grantees to participate in the Phase IB supplemental funding opportunity. Phase IB supplements to Phase I grantees are intended to foster partnerships between strategic partners and investors and the SBIR/STTR companies.

Through this supplemental program, small businesses will be able to effectively leverage funding and investment from interested outside parties on the technology funded in Phase I that could lead to successful commercial products and processes and at the same time provide some of the gap funding required to carry the grantees' effort from Phase I to Phase II.

The objective of the Phase IB option is to extend the R&D efforts beyond the current grant to meet the product/process/software requirements of a third party investor to accelerate the Phase I project to the commercialization stage and enhance the overall strength of the commercial potential of the subsequent Phase II project. The Phase IB option extends the Phase I grant for six months, and the combined Phase I and IB project will typically not exceed one year in duration for the SBIR grant and one and one half years for the STTR grant.

The visible dimension of an organisation consists of its structure, stories, spaces and its core values. These are the building blocks of the cultural aspect of any organisation. The authors quote an example of how stories can form and affect the culture and way people think about their work within the company. At Lotus there was a well circulated story of how an employee logged into her notes to work from the hospital bed. This highlighted her motivation to work and set an amazing example for the rest of the organisation to follow. Stories can effectively communicate what actions are in bounds or out of bounds and sets the tempo for the organisations working culture. The authors club all the above mentioned “artefacts” into a single object and look at these artefacts as the visible part of an organisation’s culture.

Obstacle Planning at Corps, Division, and Brigade Levels Commanders and staffs consider the use of obstacles when planning offensive, defensive, and retrograde operations. This chapter describes obstacle planning as it applies at corps, division, and brigade levels. At these levels, concentration is on granting obstacle-emplacement authority or providing obstacle control. At corps and division level, commanders focus on developing obstacle zones and restrictions. At the brigade level, commanders focus on developing obstacle belts and restrictions. At all three levels, commanders may plan obstacle groups, but this is rare.

Complex Event Processing (CEP) is a technology which has been used for many years in the Aerospace and Defence Industry for Situational Awareness and Data Fusion modules in Command, Control, Communications, Computing and Intelligence Systems (aka C4I).   Currently CEP is being rediscovered as a foundation for new class of extremely effective Business Intelligence, Security and System/Network/SCADA Monitoring solutions in industries like Financial Services, Telecommunications, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Logistics etc.

By leveraging the proprietary data in Delphi™, the world’s largest database of industrial system vulnerabilities, Wurldtech has created a solution specifically designed to help reduce the cost and complexity of mitigation activities for process control networks by integrating specific vulnerability intelligence into common security enforcement devices such as firewalls and intrusion detections systems. This allows common IT infrastructure to be tailored for industrial network environments and continuously updated with specific rule-sets and signatures, protecting control systems immediately, substantially reducing the frequency of patching activities and reducing overall costs. This update and support service is called AchillesINSIDE™.

New Technology Evaluation and Implementation Hospitals and healthcare systems are under greater pressure than ever to improve patient care, increase staff satisfaction, control or reduce costs, and meet insurance and government regulations and live up to industry watchdog best practices. To help meet these demands, providers must continue to implement new technology as part of the solutions or risk obsolescence.

We provide web-based tools and consulting services to support organizations and consultants. Our purpose is to help teams make decisions based on shared data, resulting in increased alignment and faster implementation.. Here are several standard organization needs, and how we can add value to your work   Your need Our value-add Surveys Shared results lead to group learning. Identify your areas of strength and weakness. Meetings Interactive meetings provide opportunities for buy-in and for gathering the group's intelligence. Hear from everyone.   Brainstorm or Delphi process Create better solutions and build improvement by using fast-cycle brainstorming to increase group understanding.

STAN (short for subSTance flow ANalysis) is a freeware that helps to perform material flow analysis according to the Austrian standard ÖNorm S 2096 (Material flow analysis - Application in waste management).

Sankey Helper v2.4 helps you design Sankey diagrams from Excel data ... in Excel !