IMPROVEMENT SKILLS CONSULTING LTD. Simply, improvement. Knowledge Management: Applied Common Sense?

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1 IMPROVEMENT SKILLS CONSULTING LTD. Smply, mprovemet Kowledge Maagemet: Appled Commo Sese?

2 Kowledge Maagemet: Appled Commo Sese? There s o such thg as Kowledge Maagemet, oly kowledgeable people. [Peter Drucker] Kowledge Maagemet Nosese Professor T D Wlso of Sheffeld Uversty publshed a paper called The osese of kowledge maagemet 2002, whch I read wth terest. I t he examed crtcally the orgs ad bass of 'kowledge maagemet', ts compoets ad ts developmet as a feld of cosultacy practce. He explored the dffereces betwee kowledge ad formato through lterature surveys ad revews of varous cosultaces webstes. Hs cocluso was that 'kowledge maagemet' s a umbrella term for a varety of orgazatoal actvtes, oe of whch are cocered wth the maagemet of kowledge! Those actvtes that were ot cocered wth the maagemet of formato were cocered wth the maagemet of work practces, the expectato that chages such areas as commucato practce would eable formato sharg. The bg problem wth the approaches proposed by all the bg cosultaces he researched was that they were actually talkg about formato ad data maagemet, probably wth the am of sellg IT solutos. Ad so, the frst learg pot s the eed for a set of deftos: Data are raw facts (e.g. umbers, values, statemets) ot much use o ther ow Iformato s data that have bee processed to be useful, or to add some meag a map s a collecto of data (symbols, facts) that have bee combed to provde formato about places Kowledge s the applcato of data ad formato usg a map to plot a scec route betwee two places that avods ma roads ad bult-up areas 2008 Improvemet Sklls Cosultg Ltd. Regstered Offce: 204 Bld Lae, Flackwell Heath HP10 9LE Compay Regstrato Number: VAT Number: E: fo@mprovmet-sklls.co.uk W: 1

3 Aother mportat defto, whe cosderg kowledge maagemet s the dfferece betwee tact ad explct kowledge. Tact kowledge s ofte defed as beg the kowledge that exsts the heads of people a orgasato. As such, t s dffcult to get hold of ad ca walk out the door whe a member of staff leaves. It s probably true to say that most orgasatos do t kow what ther people really kow. The explct kowledge approach assumes that the useful kowledge of dvduals a orgazato ca be artculated ad made explct. As such, t ca be wrtte dow, codfed, structured ad shared wth others. Ths s the stuff that ca be put to databases ad formato systems. Gettg hold of tact kowledge, by cotrast, s dffcult ad s very much a people ssue. Some researchers beleve that, of all the kowledge a orgasato, less tha 20% s explct. Therefore, gog dow the IT route to eable kowledge maagemet s ot lkely to have a major busess beeft. Systems mght hold 80% of the data/formato, but people hold 80% of the kowledge. The added value ad orgasatoal beeft comes from people applyg ther kowledge to mprove performace ad to ovate. KM Frameworks Havg worked o a umber of KM projects ad ru umerous workshops o the subject over the past e years we ve see everythg from KM beg a theoretcal exercse, through to real, practcal actos take to mprove performace. What we ve also leared s that the successful orgasatos typcally ca descrbe ther approach to KM wth some sort of Framework. Oe example, based o extesve experece Europe s the EFQM Kowledge Maagemet Model. It also makes use of a self-assessmet mechasm to help defe a orgasato s KM capablty level, wth detfable stregths ad areas for mprovemet. Ay useful framework descrbes how a orgasato thks about kowledge ad kowledge maagemet as t relates to ts busess. It ca clude basc deftos ad prcples (such as the dffereces betwee data, formato ad kowledge), as well as KM foudatos (such as the exstece of kowledge assets ad processes ad the culture/evromet/techology requred). You mght also fd: A KM process model defg the key steps such as Idetfy, Capture, Orgase, Share, Apply (a typcal KM process cycle that leads to learg ad mprovemet) 2008 ISC Ltd. 2

4 Examples of techology eablers that mght be used to provde some support for KM (e.g. Itraets, Dscusso Boards, Expert Systems, Documet Maagemet Systems) Examples of people eablers that mght be used to embed the KM processes to workg practces (e.g. Commutes of Practce, Metorg, Coachg, Post-project Revews) Lsts of tools ad techques that ca be used by people, or wth systems (e.g. FAQ lsts, Yellow Pages of subject matter experts, Case Studes, Process Maps) Deftos of KM roles, such as Chef Kowledge Offcer, Lbraras, Kowledge Owers Makg KM work The trck (f there s oe) s ot applyg Kowledge Maagemet, but creatg a evromet whch kowledge s created, shared ad appled to delver performace mprovemets. The model below summarses the practcal thgs that we ve see orgasatos do order to get beefts out of a approach to KM. You do t have to do them all, but the more comprehesve the approach, the more sustaable the beefts are lkely to be. KM Capablty Assessmet vs. Strategy C o m m u c a t o s Daly KM applcato KM Capablty buldg Cotuously Improvg Performace & KM Capablty KM Improvemet Projects T r a g 2008 ISC Ltd. 3

5 KM Capablty Assessmet vs. Strategy ths s about detfyg, durg the busess plag cycle, where KM mght add value ad mprove orgasatoal performace. You mght wat to do a Capablty Assessmet usg the EFQM Model ad you ll also eed to detfy real performace gaps where a KM approach could help. Ths tells you where to focus effort ad starts wth the seor team. Daly KM applcato here, you eed to get the KM process cycle workg daly actvtes; perhaps team meetgs, ed of project revews, or 1-1 performace maagemet dscussos; ad esure people get recogto for kowledge-sharg. These are the 1000 lttle thgs that buld a learg orgasato. KM Capablty buldg the am here s to buld frastructure, ether IT or People systems, to provde KM capablty for the future. These are usually projects that mprove capablty, rather tha performace. KM Improvemet Projects choose some projects where a embedded KM dmeso wll add value; e.g. clude specfc KM processes exstg project lfecycle methodologes ad use them for mprovemet ad mplemetato projects. These projects mprove performace. There are two supportg sets of actvtes; Commucatos ad Trag. It s mportat to help people uderstad why kowledge-sharg s mportat ad how t could beeft them. Ad, some people wll eed to be gve ew sklls to eable them to apply the KM processes. Fally, the desred outcome s cotuously mprovg performace, plus cotuously mprovg kowledge maagemet capablty. Whch takes you back to pot oe: Capablty Assessmet vs. Strategy ca you measure what your KM approaches ad actvtes have cotrbuted? So, f you ca do t rght, kowledge maagemet should really just be appled commo sese. But, as s also sometmes sad, commo sese s t all that commo ad t s all too easy to be lured to the kowledge maagemet osese trap ISC Ltd. 4

6 Our track record Our cosultats have bee helpg orgasatos the prvate ad publc sectors to maage ad mprove performace for early two decades. Implct that s the eed to share our kowledge ad to help clets buld ther ow capablty to drve sustaable performace mprovemet. We are ot wedded to a partcular methodology or framework. We help clets detfy ther mprovemet goals ad the develop a approach to acheve these. Please cotact us for more formato about how we ca help you to maage ad mprove performace. S I M P L Y, I M P R O V E M E N T Kowledge Maagemet : Appled Commo Sese? 2008 Improvemet Sklls Cosultg Ltd. 204 Bld Lae, Flackwell Heath, Hgh Wycombe HP10 9LE Phoe Fax E fo@mprovemet-sklls.co.uk W ISC Ltd. 5

7 Refereces: Wlso, T.D. (2002) "The osese of 'kowledge maagemet'" Iformato Research, 8(1), paper o. 144 [Avalable at EFQM Kowledge Maagemet Framework 2005 [Avalable at ISC Ltd. 6