knowledge management introduction

Knowledge Management

Štefan UrbánekOctober 2007

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Contents

I. What is Knowledge Management

II.How we did it

III.How to get it done

2

I. What is Knowledge

What problems it solves, where it fits.

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

It Is a Business Activity

treating the knowledge component of business activities as an explicit concern of business reflected in strategy, policy, and practice at all levels of the organization; and, making a direct connection between an organization's intellectual assets (explicit and tacit) and positive business results.

Knowledge management is a collaborative and integrated approach to the creation, capture, organization, access and use of an enterprise’s intellectual assets.

Barclay and Murray

Grey

4

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

It Is a Business Activity

Explicit (recorded)

intellectual assetstacit (personal know-how)

intellectual assets

!

time

Positive business

results

Oragnisational memory

5

What does it mean?

Few examples

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Lost Knowledge Capital

people join and leave teams

team members share knowledge

lost member is lost knowledge

??

7

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Learning Organisation

people join and leave learning teams

team members store and share

when one leaves a team, team retains its knowledge

8

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Time

No KM

With KM

time

No KM

With KM

1+1=? 2

meeting, analysis knowledge application

1+1=? 2

knowledge sharing

free time

9

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Summary I.

Helps people do their jobsand save time through better decision making and problem solving

Promotes peer-to-peer mentoringdevelops a common language

Diffuses best practisescross-fertilizes ideas and increases opportunities for innovation

Builds organisational memory

10

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Paradigm Shift

knowledge is power

sharing knowledge is more powerful

11

II. How we did itHow it was born, how it grew,how is it now and what is Wiki

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

From the Beginning

Started as DWH team knowledge storage

Infected neighboring teamsNow official knowledge management for ITIncreases collaboration, saves time, reveals misinformation

Seeded in marketing department

Plan to make whole organization participateand migrate existing prehistoric knowledge management systems

13

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Instant Solution: Wiki

Collaborative spaceanyone can add, edit, discuss, correct

Information put into contextconnected with related information, knowledge, people or documents

Place for knowledge refinementincremental idea creationsocial error correction

14

Wiki

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Collaborative Space

participants

pages

links

back links

discussions

15

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Demo

(some screen-shots from Wiki here...)

16

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Summary II.

The Tool is Wikimany implementations exist

Information is put into contextlinked with people and other knowledge

Collaboration is the waysharing, evolution, refinement, correction

17

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Discussion

18

WikiHuman Resources

Commercial

Customer Services StrategyTechnical

ITForums

Processes

Glossary

III. How to get it done

What to do to have knowledge management and what to do to make it work

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Before we start

Nature of knowledge:

20

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Start

Define knowledge management strategyPerform knowledge audit

Create planDefine and assign rolesAdjust processes and prepare cultural changePick a tool

21

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Steps and roles

sponsor - pushes the project, takes care of resources, removes obstacles

evangelist - maintains knowledge, motivates others, seeds core knowledge, corrects, links

participants - feed, discuss, refine, use

Research and plan Create and seed Grow Use and benefittime

22

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Possible Issues

Resistance to change“not invented here”, “we have been doing it like this for ages, it works”

No Time and no Desire“I have millions of more important things to do”

No Trust“people are trolls by nature”, “it is not complete”

Low or no Sponsorship

23

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Recommendations

Do not design, let it growit is an evolutionary process that must be embedded into the organizational cultureknowledge management is alive, sometimes unpredictable

Trust people, they will trust youmotivatedo not add many restrictions, they can discourage peoplesocial moderation will do emerge

24

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Summary III.

Almost always requires a cultural changeif not a complete transformation or tweaking of existing culture(s)

Put people and culture firstsystems and tools are second

25

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Discussion III.

Chaotic

Ad-hoc

Managed

Agile

26

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Thank You

stefan@agentfarms.net

27

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike

Credits

Štefan Urbánek, 2007

Images

Brain image: Wikimedia Commons, Human Brain

Beans and peas image: Project Gutenberg, www.guttenberg.org, Outlines of Lessons in Botany, Part I; From Seed to Leaf, by Jane H. Newell, Illustrated by H. P. Symmes

Seeds image: Wikimedia Commons, Seeds / Star Anise

29