Short KM Course - Post #6

It’s time for me to continue sharing some unwanted advice….time for me to continue with the short course on KM lest you imagine I’ve lost interest! :) (Work pressure does not let one write books however short they may be ;) )

If you’re looking in for the first time, here are the links to the earlier parts of this course:

Part 1 - http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2006/10/my-new-definition-of-km-d.html
Part 2 - http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2006/10/short-blog-course-on-km.html
Part 3 - http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2006/10/km-course-post-3.html
Part 4 - http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2006/10/km-course-post-4.html
Part 5 - http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2006/11/km-course-post-5.html

And here is part 6 :

Given all the background about what goes into leveraging on existing knowledge, it is time to understand how it ought to be done. Having looked back at my previous two posts, I do think it could have been made simpler in some ways ….:) so….I am going to attempt to make this one simple and stick to the point though this may leave some people with the feeling that they don’t know everything that there is to it. But it is a risk I shall take….till I get contradictory feedback.

The story so far…
The need: Leverage on existing knowledge…
We know: What are the different types of knowledge that need to be leveraged
We also know: What it means to leverage on existing knowledge – generally speaking as well as in terms of the overall organizational requirements

An organization that wants to ensure that it is leveraging on existing knowledge and wants to reach a fundamental level of knowledge efficiency can go about this exercise without any second thoughts.

1.Choose a pilot division
2.Set up a team of people who represent the management, functions (HR etc), and the pilot division under the leadership of a KM professional.
3.Understand the key types, forms and sources of knowledge and who generates it, when it is generated, how is it generated, why is it generated, where is it generated, how is it dealt with for the rest of its ‘life’….which may end in deletion/minor updations/value-added modifications etc
4.Conduct brainstorming sessions to understand the demand for knowledge from the business perspective, the current challenges in the context and the need for corresponding cultural, procedural and technological changes
5.Plan for the changes and additions and assign ownership to relevant people. Foresee benefits and measure parameters pre-implementation
6.Implement and assess situation. Measure parameters post-implementation and publish benefits/re-look at changes if not satisfactory

Sounds simple? Experience says it’s not so. This kind of a project can be replicated in divisions that have similar situations. But the approach that needs to be adopted for an enterprise-wide KM initiative in terms of a single-window portal, expert locator etc can be quite different.

To be continued....

KM Course - Post #5

Continuation of 'Leveraging on existing knowledge':

Having looked at some of the fundamental principles that form the foundation for making use of existing knowledge, let's go on to understand exactly what is existing knowledge and how it has to be leveraged upon:

What is the existing knowledge that needs to be made good use of?

- Business knowledge
- Domain knowledge
- Functional knowledge
- Process knowledge
- Customer knowledge
- Employee knowledge (people skills)
- Market/Environment knowledge
- Competition knowledge
- Technology knowledge

Knowledge could be those that can be

- Documented - completely explicit - Organizational structure
- Taught - How to reach a place - shortcuts/what to do in certain situations etc (maps may be a good documented substitute though)
- Taught, observed and learned through practice - How to conduct meetings

Each knowledge type has to be shared and made good use of through different techniques and tools. Making good use of existing knowledge implies the following:

- If I've done it once, I should be able to do it again more efficiently/effectively
- If I've done it once, I should be able to teach someone who has not yet done it or someone who tried it differently and did not learn what I learned
- If I've done it once in a certain way and someone else has done it in some other way, we both get together and learn from each other and put together the best of both and mutually benefit
- If I've done it once, I document it and circulate it to a large audience who not only learn from it but also keep adding to it so as to improve it and provide alternatives

The culture has to be ready to learn and share...independently and collectively.
The processes have to be ready to accommodate for learning and sharing activities. Anytime, All the time
There ought to be tools that help people learn and share...independently and collectively.
The sharing has to haapen through the right channels at the right time and to the right people and has to be made available forever....though it keeps changing its shape and size and form as it evolves and changes with time....!

For all this to happen, the organization has to identify the knowledge that's important for the business, understand how, who, when, where and why knowledge is generated, enable it to be shared, provide an environment for people to learn and generate the knowledge and understand how it is used and provide the necessary tools and cultural orientation required.

Somebody asked....

Somebody asked..."Does KM produce business benefits or is it an esoteric subject?"....and I think...

Yes and Yes! :)

Practicing KM definitely produces business benefits though how it can be quantified is not only a challenge in some ways but also is a matter of perception....and therefore an esoteric subject in the eyes of people who claim to be KM experts! :) Jokes apart, KM is an esoteric subject in the sense that only those who are comfortable talking about intangibles and things that are all-encompassing understand it....or rather try to understand it.

Moving back to quantified business benefits....if, to achieve a business goal, the concepts of KM are utilized, there are people who may attribute the entire revenue/profit/rating/brand perception, as the case may be, to KM! For example: Someone networks with a key customer contact and realises in the normal course of the conversation that the customer has an implcit requirement and comes back and puts it up on a discussion board which is in turn commented upon by various team members and managers and finally results in a proactive proposal that the organization wins.....?! Some people would say it was KM that made it possible and some others that it was the technical/functional solution that made it ultimately possible! So, isn't it about perception?

But there are clear situations like that involving Customer Queries/Responses and a database that stores previous queries/responses that improve customer response time and this can be quantified in clear terms....!

This is a vast topic and can be spoken about at length. Stopping here for now! :)

KM Course - Post #4

Having said that KM, simply put, is a management philosophy that deals with leveraging on existing knowledge and creating new knowledge from old knowledge...we went on to see that a good starting point would be to understand how to make best use of existing knowledge by aligning our activities with the business goals. What could be the business goals (and corresponding road-blocks) that need to be considered in the context of KM...and especially in the context of existing knowledge? Which of the typical business goals can be achieved with KM as an enabler? Which of the corresponding road-blocks can be cleared with the aid of KM?

Let's take some examples: Typical business goals would concern themselves with revenue growth, cost-cutting, innovation, productivity, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and brand image. Logically speaking, cost-cutting, productivity improvement, employee and customer satisfaction are areas which involve making best use of existing knowledge in an organization. Making best use of existing knowledge simply means making knowledge accessible to the right person at the right time and in the right format. This will ensure that employees are able to go about their duties without unnecessarily wasting time, effort and money. They end up reusing artifacts already prepared by others in the organization thus not only improving productivity and cutting costs but also improving employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction in case the activity concerned has a direct impact on services provided to the customer!

The underlying KM principles among others would be:

- Designing and executing processes so as to identify the importance of the knowledge being handled and capturing/sharing the same. Systems need to be designed to capture explicit components of the knowledge and alert concerned people about the availability of explicit knowledge. Systems also need to remember the people who can provide more information on the project when needed thus capturing information about the availability of tacit knowledge

- Making knowledge capture and sharing a way of life for each and every employee by not only designing processes appropriately but also providing them with the right tools to do so. These may be sophisticated tools that are on a network 24*7

- Most importantly, people need to educated about the importance of (and opportunity loss involved in not) capturing and sharing the knowledge. They need to be encouraged, acknowledged, appreciated and celebrated for such activities.

Next post: Continuation of the discussion on how to leverage on existing knowledge

technorati tags:KM

KM Course - Post #3

Ok! Let's start off.....Having said that KM is about leveraging on existing knowledge and creating new knowledge for business benefits....how does one go about it?Let's take it one at a time. Let's focus first on leveraging existing knowledge...Leveraging on existing knowledge for the logical sense that it makes is one thing and doing it because the business situation desperately calls for it is another!

Ideally, unless the business leader under question is inherently a believer in the logic that existing knowledge needs to be circulated and made best use of and that it is worth INVESTING in financial terms and otherwise (time, other resources), it is better to let the business objectives dictate to the KM plan.So, what we ought to do is to study the existing business objectives and the future business objectives and look at how it needs to be achieved and the role that existing knowledge would play in the same. We also ought to look at the problems or the stumbling blocks/pain areas that the business faces currently and the role that knowledge has to play in the given scenario and prepare a KM plan accordingly.

Next post: So, how does one plan to leverage on existing knowledge.....?

A short -blog- course on KM...

Ok! Here goes! I've been stimulated enough to think about the definition of KM which you can read below. So, I think it's going to be easy for me to keep the momentum and go on and build on this and prepare a short blog course on what I know about KM...! :) What say?

technorati tags:KM

Unwanted advice?

If there is...

- no top management support for KM (includes their willingness to talk about the importance of KM when talking to the workforce)
- no Management/HR-driven culture of acknowledging knowledge sharers/mentors rather than individuals who accomplish but hoard

...KM will not work!

You can as well get ready to see 80% of your effort going down the drain. It is indeed the pareto rule at work. 80% of KM will arguably happen if there is just 20% in place - management support and a culture that pampers those who share. The KM's job is a lot easier then....(she of course then needs to work on improving those processes, communicating effectively, making the technology fascinating, evangelizing et al)