Knowledge Management

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Knowledge Management

• Suncoast Chapter
• Society for Technical Communications
• September 7, 2006

2
Ground Rules

• No phones
• No computers
• No clock-watching
• No bio-breaks
• No note-taking
• No talking
• No sneezing
• No burping
• No laughing
• No snoring

3
TOC

• So What?
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? (to what extent)
• So What?

4
TOC

• So What?
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? (to what extent)
• So What?

5
So What?

• Surprise! You already are a knowledge manager
• How do you organize your projects? Your
  workspace? Your garage? Your books? Your life?
• You bring order where there was chaos
• Make the leap from carbon copies to browsing the
  internet
• Your ability to understand KM
• Allows you to bring valued ideas to management,
  your peers, and your reports
• Broadens your career horizons
• Allows you to see how what you do fits into the
  KM process of your organization (all
  organizations have it)

6
TOC

• So What?
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? (to what extent)
• So What?

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Who? Everyone

• Yes, KM can be practiced by
• An individual
• A work team
• A department
• A division
• An entire organization
• However, to be successful in an organization, it
  requires
• Upper management directives and support
• An enterprise-wide KM organization
• Initial and continued funding
• Flexibility in implementation
• Change Management support

8
TOC

• So What?
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? (to what extent)
• So What?

9
What? Define Your Terms

• Knowledge
• Oxford An organized body of information
• The Knowledge Continuum
• Data Information Knowledge
  Wisdom

• Management
• Oxford Exercising executive control or
  authority
• Creating order out of chaos

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What? Knowledge Value Continuum
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What? What is IT?

• Mission
• Organization!
• What does that mean?

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What? So, Organize Your Closet

• Mission Organization
• Throw out or give away (youll never use it
  again)
• Categorize/color code
• Put similar things in baskets
• Maintain itput stuff away or get rid of it
• Result?
• You can find what you want when you want it,
  quickly
• You will only find things that are of value to
  you
• Things of value to you can be re-used efficiently
• You discover you are missing key pieces
• Know what do you do?
• You either create them, ask your friend if they
  have something you could use, or buy them
• You categorize them
• Put them where they belong

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What? So, Organize Your Knowledge

• Mission Organization
• Throw out or give away (youll never use it
  again)
• Categorize/color code
• Put similar things in baskets in a certain order
• Maintain itput stuff away or get rid of it
• Result?
• You can find what you want when you want it,
  quickly
• You will only find things that are of value to
  you
• Things of value to you can be re-used efficiently
• You discover you are missing key pieces
• Now what do you do?
• You either create them, ask your friend if they
  have something you could use, or buy them
• You categorize them
• Put them where they belong

• Mission Organization
• Delete/Purge/Archive
• Create a taxonomy and tag accordingly
• Post in a database with similar documents grouped
• Review twice a year
• Result?
• You can find what you want when you want it,
  quickly
• You will only find things that are of value to
  you
• Things of value to you can be re-used efficiently
• You discover you are missing key pieces
• Now what do you do?
• You either create them, ask your colleague if
  they have something you could use, or buy them
• You tag them
• You post them in the database

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What? Informed Judgment is Essential to KM Success

• KM requires evaluating and anticipating a users
  knowledge needs and (Judgment)
• Organizing it in such a way that the user can
  find it intuitively (Judgment)
• Navigating the Gray Continuums
• Usefulness (Judgment)
• Value (Judgment)
• Currency (Judgment)
• Authoritativeness (Judgment)
• Etc., etc., etc.
• Therefore, each document is labeled and tagged
  according to its attributes dates, title,
  abstract, and various continuums (Applying your
  judgments to the document)

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What? Defining a Knowledge Object and Content

• Knowledge object
• Re-usable
• Unique
• Identified by tagging
• Includes contextual information
• Knowledge objects may include one or more
  documents which become content when they are put
  somewhere where others can access them
• Within a given document, moving sentences and
  paragraphs to create the optimum message is an
  editorial function the final version is
  considered content, or perhaps, after reasonable
  judgment is made as to its value to others, is
  considered a knowledge object.

16
TOC

• So What?
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? (to what extent)
• So What?

17
Where? Technological Enablement

• Knowledge is comprised of content (knowledge
  objects, documents)
• Why does managing knowledge require titles,
  abstracts, dates, tags, etc.?
• Taxonomy drives browse
• Tags drive search
• Technology enables Knowledge Sharing we can see
  in everyone elses closets and borrow their
  clothes!

18
TOC

• So What?
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? (to what extent)
• So What?

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When? How do we know how often to exercise KM
procedures?

• Depends on the KO
• Legal
• Alert
• Report
• Etc.
• Tag KOs for at least an annual review of all
  content

20
TOC

• So What?
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? (to what extent)
• So What?

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Why? Why Bother?

• Simplifies your search for what you want
• Saves you time to do what you want/need to do
• You know that what you find will be of value to
  you
• Saves money
• Feels good
• Knowledge Management is Fun

22
TOC

• So What?
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? (to what extent)
• So What?

23
How? KM Succeeds When it Creates a K-Sharing
Culture

• KM is an ever-changing, ongoing process
• It must be flexible to reflect the changing
  organization
• It requires dedicated change management
  activities
• It must be driven by upper management
• It must be continually well-funded

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So What?

• Surprise! You already are a knowledge manager
• How do you organize your projects? Your
  workspace? Your garage? Your books? Your life?
• You bring order where there was chaos
• Make the leap from carbon copies to browsing the
  internet
• Your ability to understand KM
• Allows you to bring valued ideas to management,
  your peers, and your reports
• Broadens your career horizons
• Allows you to see how what you do fits into the
  KM process of your organization (all
  organizations have it)

25
Questions, Please
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