Singapore's thinking cop
(February 9, 2004)Singapore Police is doing away with the command and control structure, and using KM concepts instead
THE last century was the era for manufacturing. Techniques of modern day manufacturing began with the assembly line; then its high point came in the post-1970s era of Total Quality Management and, later, Anticipative Management. As we move on to the service-driven economies of the 21st century, the next frontier is Knowledge Management (KM). It is to the 21st century, what Quality was to the later part of the 20th. People like Nonaka, Thomas Davenport and Thomas Stewart are beginning to shed light on this subject that is part science, part art and part witchcraft.
Last month, I went to attend the Asian Knowledge Conference in Singapore to learn more about the subject and, importantly, to see what others are doing in this area at a ground level. Though the concept of KM has been around for a while, unlike Quality, for the most part it is still being explored. Real life managers look at it with more curiosity than respect.
The Singapore Conference was an eye-opener for me. It drew the usual mix of rhetoric peddlers - from academicians to corporate soothsayers. But the high point was a presentation by an officer from Singapore Police Force. He explained how Singapore Police is reinventing itself, using the core principles of KM. The traditional police organisations are based on command and control. But the evolving nature of law and order management requires them to deconstruct hierarchy. Faced with the need to make the beat policeman effective, the Singapore Police is embracing concepts like 'servant leadership' and 'communities and systems think'. I fell off my chair. The presenter went on to offer three memorable case studies.
In the first, he showed how a lending racket by the Chinese gangs was busted using KM concepts. Crime investigation is now using a cross-disciplinary approach. The gangs use computers for tracking and moving funds, and force and intimidation for extortion. So investigation involves cyber experts along with traditional detectives. Singapore Police realises that the future of crime investigation, therefore, must look like 'communities of practice'.
The next was a case study on migrant Thai workers. They leave families behind, work in Singapore and congregate during weekends. In the past, they used to be noisy, got drunk and left the place littered with garbage. Complaints poured in from angry residents. Faced with the situation, the police put their thinking caps on. Systems Theory told them that use of force to evict the squatters would just shift the problem. The concept of KM begins with creating 'communities of practice'. So, instead of using force, Singapore Police invited the Thai workers, experts and neighbours to a series of discussions. Soon they recognised that the need to congregate and express themselves was a natural process. So, the police worked with the stakeholders, arranged for an alternative place for the Thai workers and helped create a platform for them. Now, instead of singing by the roadside in scattered and inebriated groups, the workers have a podium, get bands to perform and set up food stalls. Corporate sponsorship arrived for litter removal. But Singapore Police has not stopped there. During the outbreak of SARS, it realised that the use of KM principles for solving known, definable problems is no longer the issue. Organisations will need to use KM to cope with the unknown also. So the concept of quarantine was suggested, based on the knowledge that in situations involving total chaos, you have to begin by imposing order. Some order, any order. This was because no one knew what SARS was, how long it would take to come out with a remedy and in what ways it would cause havoc to lives and the national economy. Meanwhile, you buy time to figure out sustainable solutions, or the problem may get solved by itself. Sitting amidst a corporate audience that assumes management concepts to be the purview of either academicians or the private sector, I was humbled by the thinking cop and his message.
