Understanding%20Knowledge%20Management%20concept

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Understanding Knowledge Management concept

• Dr. Rajendra Suwal
• Management and Leadership Development Specialist
• Nepal Administrative Staff College
• April 3, 2013

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Overview of the Session

• Define knowledge
• Explain knowledge Management Concept
• Learn the characteristics of knowledge
  management.
• Describe knowledge management tools.
• Describe useful applications for distributing,
  creating and sharing knowledge
• Describe some useful Knowledge Management tools
  for Environment aspects

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What is Knowledge?

• Data collection of facts, measurements,
  statistics
• Information organized data
• Knowledge contextual, relevant, actionable
  information
• Strong experiential and reflective elements
• Dynamic
• Branches and fragments with growth
• Difficult to estimate impact of investment
• Evolves over time with experience
• Information that changes something or
  somebodybecoming grounds for action by making an
  individual, or institution capable of different,
  more effective action - Drucker, The New
  Realities

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Knowledge

• Explicit knowledge
• Objective, rational, technical
• Policies, goals, strategies, papers, reports
• Codified
• Leaky knowledge
• Tacit knowledge
• Subjective, cognitive, experiential learning
• Highly personalized
• Difficult to formalize
• Sticky knowledge

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Why people do not want to share knowledge?

• Knowledge is power
•  I dont have time
•  Ive got too much real work to do
•  Thats not my job
•  Youre just using other peoples ideas and
  taking the credit
•  I want to do things my way
•  This is how its always been done
• Im already suffering from information overload
• You should already know all the answers
•  Its just another management fad if I ignore
  it, itll eventually go away
• Whats in it for me?

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Knowledge Management in the Organization

• SYSTEMATICALLY ACTIVELY MANAGING AND LEVERAGING
  STORES OF KNOWLEDGE IN AN ORGANIZATION
• Organizational learning mechanisms Processes to
  create, gather, store, maintain, disseminate
  knowledge

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Why KM is Needed

• Traditional reasons for KM are
• Improving Decision Making by reusing knowledge
• Capturing knowledge from transient work forces
• Additionally, we are finding we need KM because
  of
• Supporting knowledge communities
• Obsolescence/Innovation
• Knowledge persistence

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What Experts say on Influence of Knowledge on
Success

• Peter Drucker (the one factor)
• Toffler (Survival in Knowledge Age is not who can
  read or write but who can learn and unlearn
  quicker)
• Tom Peters (sum total of value-added)
• Handy, Drucker (primary factor of productivity)

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A few Foundation Principles and Building
Concepts

• Knowledge Influences Success
• Knowledge Resides in the Heads of People
• Two Types of Knowledge
• Codified
• Personalized
• Knowledge Sharing Requires a Conduit to Happen
  Systemically
• Technology is the conduit
• Knowledge Sharing Requires Trust
• KM embraces both the Knowledge Based organization
  and the Learning Organization
• KM has planned architectural frameworks

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Knowledge Requires Capture, Organization, Access
and Leverage

• NEW WAY
• Capture from is digits in cyberspace
• Organization via software programs designed upon
  engineering principles, mathematical equations,
  word associations in cyberspace 24/7/365
• Access wherever the physical bodies link via
  computers
• Tacit knowledge tapped using many different
  technological tools
• Leverage is exponential, multiples upon multiples

• OLD WAY
• Capture form is written, auditory or graphical
  representations
• Organization is via tables of content, indexes,
  classification systems used by publishers,
  libraries, etc
• Access when physical body goes to where the
  knowledge is locateda library, a company, a
  research laboratory, a school
• Tacit knowledge rarely tapped
• Leverage is a sum game

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Technology Changes

• KM is integrating technologies that aid
  collaboration and/or knowledge storage
• Wiki, blogs, social networks
• Semantic Web
• GIS Data Fusion - Integration technologies
  (XML, SSE)
• Visualization technologies
• RFID and sensor networks
• Social Network Analysis

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KM Wikis Blogs Social Networks

• Use of wikis for collaborative projects improves
  the ability of project members to collaboratively
  author documents.
• Use of blogs or wikis to create virtual
  discussion spaces where discussions can continue
  24/7 with no physical boundaries.
• Use of blogs, wikis, Linkedin, or Facebook to
  create knowledge worker spaces, communities of
  practice, and social networks. This allows
  knowledge workers to discover the experts among
  them and to learn from each other.
• Use of second life to create virtual worlds for
  knowledge transfer.
• Use of blogs or wikis to connect knowledge
  sources for new knowledge creation and
  repositories of best practices and other
  artifacts.

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KM and the Semantic Web

• Semantic web is a goal where everything on the
  web is expressed in a common ontology
• Improves our ability to find relevant knowledge
• Facilitates knowledge storage
• Enhances knowledge creation

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KM and Data Fusion

• Data fusion is about taking different data
  streams and putting them together to add decision
  support value
• Allows experts to create knowledge
• Utilizes RSS feeds, SSE, XML
• Main application is GIS which fuses multiple data
  streams to create mapped knowledge repositories

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KM and Visualization

• Knowledge Visualization improves knowledge
  transfer by providing tools that allow knowledge
  workers to manipulate knowledge into
  representations that have more meaning
  (incorporates context and culture)
• Second life allows for avatar representations and
  a virtual world where knowledge can be abstracted
  and shared in a non-threatening environment
• Mapping technologies such as topic maps and GIS
  create knowledge abstractions based on topics,
  geography, etc. and to control overload by using
  knowledge to determine what should be presented
• Knowledge portals to provide self directed
  visualization of knowledge through customization.

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KM and Mapping

• Knowledge Mapping allows for better organization
  of knowledge to facilitate knowledge retrieval
• Utilizes taxonomies and ontologies
• Mapping technologies such as topic maps and GIS
  allows faculty to organize knowledge based on
  some taxonomy
• Utilizes organizations based on topics, skill
  sets, people, geography, subject, etc..

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KM Social Network Analysis

• Social Network Analysis provides a tool that
  helps researchers identify knowledge sources and
  flows
• Looks at formal communications such as reports
  and email
• Looks at informal communications such as who you
  go to when you need to know something
• Maps the two together to give a view of where
  knowledge is and how it flows

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Integrating Initiatives

• Trend is to combine KM with new technologies into
  strategic organizational initiatives such as
• Customer Relationship Management, CRM
• Supply Chain Management, SCM
• Data mining to discover knowledge
• Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP
• Project management mature processes
• Communities of Practice, CoP

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Critical Success Factors

• A Knowledge Strategy that identifies users,
  sources, processes, storage strategy, knowledge
  and links to knowledge for the KMS
• Motivation and Commitment of users including
  incentives and training
• Integrated Technical Infrastructure including
  networks, databases/ repositories, computers,
  software, KMS experts
• An organizational culture that supports learning
  and the sharing and use of knowledge

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Critical Success Factors

• A common enterprise wide knowledge structure that
  is clearly articulated and easily understood (an
  ontology)
• Senior Management support including allocation of
  resources, leadership, and providing training
• Learning Organization
• There is a clear goal and purpose for the KMS

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Knowledge Management Systems

• Knowledge
• Awareness and understanding of a set of
  information and the ways that information can be
  made useful to support a specific task or reach a
  decision
• Knowledge management system (KMS)
• Organized collection of people, procedures,
  software, databases, and devices used to create,
  store, share, and use the organizations
  knowledge and experience

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Overview of Systems
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Data and Knowledge Management Workers and
Communities of Practice

• Personnel involved in a KMS include
• Data workers secretaries, administrative
  assistants, bookkeepers, other data-entry
  personnel
• Knowledge workers people who create, use, and
  disseminate knowledge
• Examples professionals in science, engineering,
  and business writers researchers educators
  corporate designers

• Chief knowledge officer (CKO) top-level
  executive who helps the organization use a KMS to
  create, store, and use knowledge to achieve
  organizational goals
• Communities of practice (COP) group of people
  dedicated to a common discipline or practice,
  such as open-source software, auditing, medicine,
  or engineering
• Excel at obtaining, storing, sharing, and using
  knowledge

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Obtaining, Storing, Sharing, and Using Knowledge
Knowledge Management System
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Knowledge Management Enablers

• Leadership
• Knowledge champions, such as CKOs
• Culture
• Access
• Technology
• Learning Culture

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More on the Importance of Corporate Culture

• Changing the culture is imperative.
• To create a climate in which employees volunteer
  their creativity and expertise, managers need to
  look beyond the traditional tools at their
  disposal finding ways to build trust and develop
  fair process.
• That means getting the gatekeepers to facilitate
  the flow of information rather than hoard it.
• And offering rewards and incentives.

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Organizational Changes

• Knowledge management efforts can completely
  collapse boundaries
• A knowledge management system cannot work through
  hierarchies
• Individual and team learning processes must
  become the true driver of organizational learning

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Sustainability of a KM Endeavor

• There are three fundamental processes that
  sustain profound changes such as the introduction
  of a KM system
• developing networks of committed people
• improving business results
• enhancing personal results
• To achieve sustainability, there must be a
  focus on learning, and learning how to harness
  the learning capabilities that lead to
  innovation.
• The emergence and development of informal
  networks must be supported so that people can
  share their tacit knowledge and help one another.
  

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Definition of Environmental Aspect

• An environmental aspect is the part of an
  activity, product, or service that interacts with
  the environment. An aspect can be thought of as
  the actual or potential cause of an
  environmental impact.
• Aspects can be regulated or unregulated.

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Examples of Environmental Aspects

• Vehicles emit exhaust
• Water leaks from distribution system
• Fueling spills occur
• Containers not closed
• Noise from aircraft engine run-up testing
• Lights and computers left on at night
• Copier paper bleached with chlorine
• Bicycles dont emit exhaust

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Knowledge Management in reference to Environment
Aspects

• As pointed out earlier, KM is essentially about
  facilitating the processes by which knowledge is
  created, shared and used in organizations.
• Creating a knowledge environment usually requires
  changing organizational values and culture,
  changing peoples behaviors and work patterns.

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Processes

• At the organization level, the processes can be
• coming out with KM policy and strategy
• providing induction packs full of know how to
  new staff
• creating databases of all environment related
  publications produced by an organization so that
  staff can access them from their desk
• conducting exit interviews when staff leave so
  that their knowledge is not lost to the
  organization
•  

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Processes2

• providing ongoing learning so that people can
  constantly update their knowledge on
  environments
•  encouraging people with interest on environment
  to network with each other
•  creating electronic filing systems that can be
  searched in a number of ways, making the
  information much easier to find
•  redesigning offices to be open plan so that
  staff and managers are more visible and talk to
  each other more
• creating intranets so that staff can access all
  kinds of organizational information and knowledge
  that might otherwise take a great deal of time
  and energy to find.

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KM tool box for Environment Aspects

• After Action Reviews (AARs) A tool pioneered by
  the US army and now widely used in a range of
  organizations to capture lessons learned both
  during and after an environment activity or
  project.
• Communities of Practice Communities of practice
  link people together to develop and share
  knowledge around environment aspects  
• Conducting a knowledge audit A systematic
  process to identify an organization's knowledge
  needs, resources and flows on environment
  aspects, as a basis for understanding where and
  how better knowledge management can add value.

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KM tool box for Environment Aspects2

• Identifying and sharing best Environment
  practices Approaches to capturing best practices
  discovered inside or outside the organization and
  sharing them for the benefit of all.
• Knowledge harvesting A tool used to capture the
  knowledge of experts and make it available to
  others.
•  Social network analysis Mapping relationships
  between people, groups and organizations to
  understand how these relationships either
  facilitate or impede knowledge flows.
•  White pages A step-up from the usual staff
  directory, this is an online resource that allows
  people to find colleagues with specific knowledge
  and expertise on environment.

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Acknowledgements

• Peter Senge
• Art Kleiner
• Blaise Zerega
• Charlotte Roberts
• Richard Ross
• George Roth
• Bryan Smith
• James Brian Quinn
• William Truran
• J Michael Pemberton
• Sarah Cliffe

• David A. Nadler
• Rick Mullin
• Ellen M. Lapp
• Thomas Stewart
• Peter Feltham
• Howard Rheingold
• Nick Bontis
• Morten T. Hansen
• Jim Bair
• Henry Mintzberg
• James Cortada

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• Thank you for Listening