Strategic Profiling is a knowledge work productivity

Knowledge work productivity

right|200px|Knowledge work productivity is the measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of the output generated by workers who mainly rely on knowledge, rather than labor, during the production process...

 and enterprise reinvention improvement tool, used in conjunction with the Action Planning workshop, and is a registered trademark of Brand Velocity, Inc. The survey-based tool was designed based on the work of Peter F. Drucker, Gibson Burrell, Gareth Morgan, Talcott Parsons

Talcott Parsons

Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927 to 1973....

, and Norbert Wiener

Norbert Wiener

Norbert Wiener was an American mathematician.A famous child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher in stochastic and noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems.Wiener is regarded as the originator of cybernetics, a...

 to help accelerate knowledge work, in particular when applied to large enterprise projects.

The Strategic Profiling tool was developed by Jack Bergstrand

Jack Bergstrand

Jack Bergstrand is an American business consultant, author of a book endorsed by The Drucker Institute on enterprise reinvention, and founder of Brand Velocity, Inc....

. Dr. Ozgur Ekmekci, from George Washington University, has also been a key collaborator on the tool, focusing on the tool's evolution from a social science perspective. The Strategic Profiling tool is designed to help individuals and project teams make individual-functional-organizational knowledge

Knowledge

Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

 work characteristics more visible and, as a result, help organizations accelerate Enterprise projects more productively

Productivity

Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...

.

Focus

There are many survey-based tools grounded in psychology which focus on understanding and managing individual preferences and differences . Strategic Profiling, and its use in "Action Planning" workshops for large enterprises was designed to accelerate the individual, functional, and organizational nature of knowledge work to help project teams systematically accelerate large enterprise projects. Previously designed instruments include:

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions...

 

• Kolb's Learning Style Model

• Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument

• Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model

• Apter’s Reversal Theory of Motivational Styles

• Jackson’s Learning Styles Profiler

• Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles Questionnaire

• Allinson and Hayes’ Cognitive Style Index

• David Keirsey Temperament Sorter

• John Lopker Pictures of Personality

Many of the psychologically-based surveys concentrate on matching individual teaching styles with individual learning styles , and Strategic Profiling specifically focuses on improving Enterprise knowledge work productivity . In addition, the underlying framework for Strategic Profiling can be used to unify many of their underlying characteristics .

Unification is important to knowledge work productivity because holism is a key ingredient of the work itself. For knowledge work productivity and enterprise reinvention it has proven useful to apply the same framework across multiple levels and situations. With respect to psychologically based surveys, there are several classification systems that are logically consistent with the Envision-Design-Build-Operate knowledge work landscape of Strategic Profiling. For example:

Strategic Profiling	Myers-Briggs	Keirsey	Herrmann	Lopker
Envision	Intuiting	Idealists	Visualizers	Clarifier
Design	Thinking	Rationals	Analyzers	Unifier
Build	Sensing	Guardians	Organizers	Stabilizer
Operate	Feeling	Artisans	Personalizers	Activator

Source: Reinvent Your Enterprise, by Jack Bergstrand

Jack Bergstrand

Jack Bergstrand is an American business consultant, author of a book endorsed by The Drucker Institute on enterprise reinvention, and founder of Brand Velocity, Inc....

Using Strategic Profiling to improve knowledge work productivity

With the unique nature of knowledge work, even when different people have the same goals they will commonly take different paths to reach those goals – based on their preferences, priorities, abilities, and life experiences. If this isn’t specifically managed it will impair productivity because these paths are, by their nature, invisible and can oftentimes be incompatible. Strategic Profiling was developed from a business, psychological, and sociological perspective. It was designed to make individual, functional and Enterprise preferences, abilities and priorities more visible – so that they can be managed more productively.

Manual Work Productivity	Knowledge Work Productivity
Work is visible	Work is invisible
Work is specialized	Work is holistic
Work is stable	Work is changing
Emphasizes running things	Emphasizes changing things
More structure with fewer decisions	Less structure with more decisions
Focus on the right answers	Focus on the right questions

Source: Reinvent Your Enterprise, by Jack Bergstrand

Jack Bergstrand

Jack Bergstrand is an American business consultant, author of a book endorsed by The Drucker Institute on enterprise reinvention, and founder of Brand Velocity, Inc....

Strategic Profiling is not a test where certain results are better than others. Every answer and every result is equally good and bad. While it is common for people to favor their own profiles, doing this is unproductive – especially within Enterprise project teams. It is more productive to view and manage knowledge work profiles as part of the larger knowledge work productivity system. Since every knowledge work profile has its own pros and cons, the key is to understand and then capitalize on each individual-function-organization’s unique set of characteristics.

The invisible nature of knowledge work needs to be made more visible for Enterprises to accelerate their projects and reinvent themselves better and faster. The personal version of Strategic Profiling has 35 questions and the group version—focusing on the individual-function-organization—has 65. The personal version is free, and provided on www.strategicprofiling.com. Each knowledge work profile has distinct advantages, disadvantages, and a unique path for increasing knowledge work productivity. Their labels are:

The Visionary	The Analytic Coach	The Active Visionary
The Designer	The Structured Worker	The Thinking Builder
The Builder	The Spontaneous Worker	The Active Designer
The Operator	The Enterprise Thinker	The Thinking Operator
The Strategic Organizer	The Enterprise Worker	The Holistic Worker

For example, The Visionary profile emerges when there is unusual strength in the Envision work-behavior area. This profile—with individuals, functions, and organizations—produces a knowledge work orientation that solves problems through new and creative ideas. The Visionary prefers focusing on the question of: Where do we intend to go and Why. However, for The Visionary profile to be more productive, it is important for these individuals-functions-organizations to engage other team members and use management routines to emphasize and integrate: What work needs to be done When; How that work should best be done; and Who should be responsible for which tasks. From a knowledge work productivity perspective, if all four areas aren’t integrated, The Visionary will be unproductive because their creative ideas will not be implemented effectively, efficiently, or sustainably.

Strategic Profiling in use

In May 2010, Defiance Technologies Ltd., an engineering, IT and enterprise resource planning service provider, announced a partnership with Brand Velocity, Inc. to develop a global reinvention consulting practice based on Bergstrand’s work and the Strategic Profiling knowledge work productivity

Knowledge work productivity

right|200px|Knowledge work productivity is the measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of the output generated by workers who mainly rely on knowledge, rather than labor, during the production process...

and enterprise reinvention improvement tool. The new practice has access to the organization's resources in 30 countries and its 40,000 associates.