Knowledge Management Practice in Organizations: The View From Inside

A Panel Discussion by the AuthorsFebruary 25, 2014

A Collaborative Effort

• IGI Global requested a book on KM …

• That was not going to happen without some help!

• Six contributors stepped up …to help produce a volume of practitioner insight gleaned from a combined ~150 years of experience

http://www.igi-global.com/book/knowledge-management-practice-organizations/90644

Contents:

Preface (Practitioners Speak from Experience) – by Ulla de Stricker (Editor)

1. A Context of Challenges – by Ulla de Stricker2. Knowledge Culture – by Ulla de Stricker3. Planning for Knowledge Management: Conducting a Knowledge Assessment – by Cynthia Shamel4. Communities in the Workplace – by Connie Crosby 5. Getting Started with Social Media for Knowledge Management – by Connie Crosby6. Building Smarter Organizations: Culture, Complexity, and Connecting through Enterprise Social Networks – by Gordon Vala-Webb7. The Learning Organization – by Deborah Keller8. Tools for Talking: Conversations are Critical to Knowledge Management – by Karen Huffman9. Knowledge Management On Demand: Leveraging External Consulting Expertise – by Constance Ard and Ulla de Stricker10: Postscript: Leadership in Knowledge Management – Authors’ Comments

Summation: The Holistic Approach – by Constance Ard

Key Points (Speed Read)

• The book’s chapters look at KM from many vantage points

• All of them practical in the sense that we have “been there”

• Our pleasure to share the highlights here

A Context of Challenges• Whenever professionals talk - be their topic talent

recruitment, customer service, or product innovation - they are in fact discussing knowledge management even though the term may never be uttered.

• Technology was not the answer to the challenge of harnessing "what the organization knows" and applying it for efficiencies and strategic advantage.

• The chapter looks at common stresses experienced in today's organizations - from dealing with email tsunamis to facing the question "who owns knowledge management - and who should?"

Challenges

• KM is Intrinsic to Organizations• External and Internal Information are a Constant• Information Presence is not the Problem - Volume is• A Gamut of Other Challenges in KM

– Human nature prevails in the face of common pressures– Common characteristics of work in contemporary organizations– Difficulties in ensuring synergies between areas of expertise– Difficulties for decision makers in funding KM– Bottom Line: Ownership

Knowledge Culture• Every organization exhibits a culture made up of the

beliefs and norms guiding day to day behavior. Culture may or may not be in alignment with senior management's official pronouncements, formal operational rules, or the public image an organization's leaders wish to project.

• Culture may support or undermine discipline in managing and sharing knowledge. Certain key characteristics are common for organizations in which knowledge management is a priority underpinned by funding and by senior management rewards for behaviors supporting the use of knowledge toward overall organizational benefit.

Culture

• Elements of Knowledge Culture: Characteristics of KM-focused Organizations– What gets rewarded gets repeated

• Factors Influencing Behavior– Lost opportunities– The trap of “good enough”– Attention to intelligence

Knowledge Culture

• Download the Knowledge Culture chapter at www.destricker.com

Knowledge Assessments

• The knowledge assessment (audit, survey, study) offers direct benefit to your company’s bottom line.

• Use the knowledge audit to inform your KM initiatives

• Look at the knowledge audit as a strategic tool• Advance corporate goals through the knowledge

audit

Knowledge Assessments• Minimize the unknown unknowns

Knowledge Assessments

• Use the KA to inform your KM initiatives– Understand what’s actually going on– Avoid misplaced energies and resources

• Look at the KA as a strategic tool– Set priorities within the information center– Allocate spending– Feed into the information center’s strategic plan

• Advance corporate goals through the KA– Align your initiatives with the company’s goals– Position the information center as a leader in advancing

toward those goals

Knowledge Assessments

• Download the Knowledge Assessments chapter at http://www.shamelinfo.com

Communities in the Workplace

• Engaged communities may have regular meetings or conference calls, storytelling, speaker series, discussion groups, information sharing and content curation, sharing calendars of events and key dates, polls and surveys, review of resources and software, thought leadership, professional development and business development.

• Benefits of communities can be augmented through improved engagement of community members, community management and administration, and implementation of a subject taxonomy.

Communities in the Workplace

• Benefits and activities• Management of communities • Relevance for today’s KM• Documented knowledge• Role in mobile work

Social Media for KM• As social media tools and platforms become more

common inside organizations, KM teams will need to incorporate them into their toolbox. It is necessary to learn how they work and how they can be used to be effective in accomplishing the organization’s knowledge and information related goals.

• The technology is more difficult to set up; getting buy-in from senior executives is not always easy; and getting a sufficiently wide adoption of the tools can be a challenge if employees are not ready for it. Planning and change management are needed to encourage success.

Social Media for KM

• From Web 2.0 to Enterprise Social Networks• Unlocking knowledge • Tools and platforms• Intermediate to long term uses• Getting started• Success factors• Future outlook

Smarter Organizations

• Being a “smart” organization is essential for survival in this age of hyper-competition, global power shifts, and technological change.

• There are three matching and inter-linked solutions to improve knowledge flows: reducing unnecessary complexity, moving to a collaborative culture, and using an enterprise social networking (ESN) technology. The focus of the chapter is a step-by-step approach to justify, design, measure, and roll out an ESN suite.

Smarter Organizations

• Rise of the need to be smart• People cost of “dumb” organizations• The maze-trix problem• Toward a smart culture (collaborative as opposed to

command-and-control)• Choosing and introducing an ESN suite• Change Management

The Learning Organization

• Using reviews of past events as (often expensive) investments in learning for the future pays off. Learning barriers are similar to all other barriers to successful knowledge management and include such obvious elements as high level ownership and a culture of valuing the learning every employee can contribute to the organization's future.

• A key element is the organizational will to learn from what happened in the past. The After Action Review is used to illustrate a model for organizational learning.

The Learning Organization

• What is a learning organization?• Capturing lessons• Collecting the organization’s knowledge• Learning from knowledge• Facilitating collaboration• The enterprise approach to KM• Overcoming barriers

Tools for Talking

• The simple act of conversing with colleagues and fellow members of communities of practice is a powerful vehicle for exchange of knowledge and for learning.

• Fostering opportunities for productive conversations is a strategy to consider seriously in enhancing knowledge transfer among individuals.

• Tools for enhancing the effectiveness of conversations - in person and virtually - are described: unconferences, mind mapping, and real-time collaboration tools.

Tools for Talking

• Conversations are critical and change is inevitable

• Unconferences• Mind maps• Pecha Kucha (peh-chak-cha)• Audio conferencing• Web conferencing and online meetings• Virtual communities• Blueprint for success

KM on Demand: Leveraging Consultants

• In some organizations, certain aspects of KM (typically large projects) are outsourced to global consulting firms. In others - often smaller entities - it may be supported by one-time or occasional consulting assistance to diagnose requirements, recommend solutions, and perhaps guide implementation.

• The chapter explores the business model, value proposition, and success factors in "purchasing in" consultants who bring to bear their experience and expertise from many other engagements.

KM on Demand: Leveraging Consultants

• The psychology of purchasing expertise• Management and staff perspectives• Short term expense for long term gain• The partnership model• Success factors in leveraging external expertise:

Manage the process well

Leadership in KM

• Four of the book's contributors comment on their experience of leadership in the field of knowledge management.

• Due to the intrinsic nature of the discipline and due to the ways in which knowledge management manifests in organizations, leadership in KM requires a wide range of soft skills and considerable finesse.

It May not Feel Natural

• But enthusiasm goes a long way!

Leadership in KM

• Advice to a new KM leader: Run!• The future of KM leadership• Becoming a thought leader• What constitutes leadership in KM?

Real Life KM

Let’s Talk

• Click on the book image at • www.destricker.com• for links to the authors