1. Knowledge and Information Management
Research and Policy
in Development Programme
Knowledge and Information Management
BOND-ODI Workshop
London, 9th June 2005
Ben Ramalingam
RAPID Programme, ODI

2. Why are we all here today?
Understand the organisational competencies required for effective knowledge and learning
Gain exposure to a range of methods that can be used to promote individual and organisational management of ‘explicit’ knowledge
Describe experiences, methods and approaches that have worked for yourselves and your peers
Receive peer support in thinking through how you might take forward knowledge and learning work within your own organisation

3. Agenda for today 10.00 Getting to know each other
10:20 Knowledge, learning and the benchmarking approach
10.35 Sharing through story telling
11.30: Coffee break
11.45: Review Knowledge assets & personal information strategies
13.00: Lunch
14.00: Developing a knowledge asset
15.30: Coffee
15.45: Strategies, Tools and M&E
16.30: Action Plans
17.00: After action review / Evaluation
17.25: Wrap up and close by 17.30

4. The BOND-ODI approach
Experiential mutual learning
Balance of presenting and facilitating
Relaxed, informal & fun

5. What are we talking about when we say “knowledge and learning”?
“…The idea is not to create an encyclopaedia of everything that everybody knows, but to keep track of people who ‘know the recipe’, and nurture the technology and culture that will get them talking…”
Learn
during
Using Knowledge
Goals
Using
Knowledge
Results
Learn
before
Learn
after
It is about managing the flow of knowledge.
If I can have a 10 minute conversation with someone who knows when I need to know it then that is better than reading a whole stack of reports.
External networks; Colleagues; Information assets

6. There are different forms of knowledge…
Implicit Y
Has it been articulated?
Can it been articulated?
Start N
Tacit to tacit
Acquiring someone else’s tacit knowledge through observation, imitation and practice
e.g. research methodologies, presentations
Explicit to explicit
Combining discrete pieces of explicit knowledge to form new explicit knowledge, for example, compiling data and preparing a report that analyses and synthesises these data. The report constitutes new explicit knowledge.
Tacit to explicit
researchers subsequent conversion of acquired tacit knowledge into specifications or good practices
Explicit to tacit
Internalizing explicit knowledge. We acquire new tacit knowledge; specifically, they came to understand in an intuitive way Y N
Explicit
Tacit

7. …and different approaches to learning and influencing

8. Getting the environment right
Shared beliefs and common values
A willingness to ask for help
Common technology which connects people
Effective Peer Processes
Rewarding and recognising learning
Identifying and reinforcing the right leadership behaviours
Environment: his nudist beach principle ("...if I have to get naked, I would at least do it where there is relative equality") of shared beliefs, common values, effective peer processes etc.
Technology: "...common is more important than current."
Rewards: how to motivate thinking and questioning with a rewards system to encourage innovation while generating conversation and pride
Leadership: Leaders need to be keen and need instant support in digestible form not deeply buried HR documents (e.g. how do I show that asking for help is OK?)

9. Some quotes
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin
“Most activities or tasks are not one time events… our philosophy is fairly simple: every time we do something again we should do it better than the last time.” Lord Browne
Learning happens within organizations all the time as individuals and groups undertake new tasks or become more skilled in their existing tasks. However, it is more difficult for the organization itself to learn because this involves linking the learning by individuals and groups to the wider systems and practices of the organization.
One of the key barriers to learning in today's organisations is that managers are focussed on short-term goals. This pre-occupation with short term goals is unlikely to go away.
However, it is your job as KM practitioners to highlight and champion how, by applying some basic KM techniques, you can help managers and senior managers to deliver on these goals. Some of the tools and techniques in the Good Practice section deliver benefits - particularly to individual and team performance - quicker than senior management might think.
"When knowledge gained somewhere doesn't move elsewhere, that's not a learning organization; that's just a bunch of projects." Saratoga Institute
"Practice provides the rails on which knowledge flows." John Seely-Brown

10. ODI experience
Knowledge and learning are at the heart of the ODI approach to bridge research, policy and practice
ODI research groups and networks provide a substantial knowledge base
e.g. ALNAP and RAPID
The ODI-DFID PPA has systematic learning as a core principle
As an ‘Active Learning Network’ ALNAP at the ODI has been concerned with learning since its inception

11. ODI - research
Incorporating literature reviews, evaluations, case studies and action research within organisations

12. ODI – a strategic framework for change
external factors
knowledge of partners, donors, other external agencies; networks; national and global factors
organisational contexts leadership approaches, governance structures, management processes, institutional pressures, funding cycles, historical evolution etc.
links within and across the organisation boundaries – via communities and ICTs; to communications plans; to core functions and support functions, etc
knowledge – forms and locations; processes – e.g.: creation, sharing, storage, use; key activities and tools; staff capacities; relevance, M&E

13. ODI - a menu of tools
(more about this later…)

14. ODI – practical applications

15. Self Assessment

16. Results of the knowledge benchmarking

17. Example of a river diagram…

24. Example of a step diagram…
Current
level
Managing
knowledge
Something to share and something to learn.
Gap between current
and target level

25. Other applications: AIDS Competence
for retrospect on KM in AIDS project

26. Peer Assists What’s possible? What you know in your context
What we both know
What I know
in my context
Sharing between peers
There is no such thing as best practice. A set of diverse experiences leads to defining common principles and identifying possibilities.

27. Storytelling 1. Situation 2. A change or challenge 3. Action 4. Result
5. Lesson
action? By the time he’d drained the last of many cups it was clear to him that he was onto something… and… being a man of seemingly boundless energy… he decided to take the plunge. That was the beginning of our partnership, which in truth has been quite amazing. Over the last two years we’ve worked closely together, developing an ambitious programme of work that really put story through its paces.
So what were the parts of the portfolio?

28. Group Task 1 – As pairs then groups
Think of a specific change related to “managing knowledge” (OR one of the other competencies) in one of your own projects or programmes, past or present
Reflect and recall the detail before, during and after. Write nothing down
1 minute`
Find a stranger and take it in turns to listen to and tell a story
Please write nothing down.
4 minutes; 2 mins each
Use templates to interview your partner and write each story up
Make sure your images and messages are clear.
10 minutes; 5 minutes each
Find another pair and tell your partner’s story
12 minutes; 3 minutes each
In your new groups of 4, ask – what are the 3-5 concrete lessons emerging from our stories?
10 minutes per group
Walk around and highlight favourites from the sheets
Use green dots provided

29. Agenda for today 10.00 Getting to know each other
10:20 Knowledge, learning and the benchmarking approach
10.35 Sharing through story telling
11.30: Coffee break
11.45: Review Knowledge assets & personal information strategies
13.00: Lunch
14.00: Developing a knowledge asset
15.30: Coffee
15.45: Strategies, Tools and Measurement
16.30: Action Plans
17.00: After action review / Evaluation
17.25: Wrap up and close by 17.30

30. All participants What was it like to shape and tell the story?
What was it like to hear your story told by another?
What was it like to tell someone else’s story?
How else could you use this method?
What are its limitations?
10 minutes

31. Building and managing knowledge assets – key lessons
Specificity
Commitment
Incentives and rewards
Demand
Precision costs!
Focus on priority decisions
Build on existing systems and routines
Link to existing processes and incentives
Watch out for “losers”
Go for greatest impact
Specific users who demand specific data to inform decisions for which they are held accountable.
Sustained leadership commitment is directly tied to the sustainability of a knowledge management system
Incentives to use objective information tend to be weak - other criteria (e.g. securing funding, rewarding supports) may be more important in determining the success…
KM system users tend to contribute and use information when there are rewards for doing so.
Organisations often overestimate demand for knowledge management systems
KM system design tends to be burdened by unrealistic expectations about the degree of precision “required” without taking into account the high costs of precision
more information is collected than ever analysed and applied – KM should focus first only on information that directly informs priority decisions
Effective systems tend to build-off of existing databases, taking advantage of current data collection routines.  Maintaining familiarity while enhancing efficiency is key
Most knowledge management interventions tend to overlook the organisational processes and institutional incentives that drive information use.
KM efforts require stakeholder/user consensus.  New information tends to create “losers” who may actively resist implementation
Knowledge management systems tend to have the greatest impact on planning and policy support – at that stage policymakers and practitioners have the greatest scope to act in response to new information.

32. Key questions for developing knowledge assets
What do we think this knowledge asset is really about?
What users and uses might there be there for this knowledge asset? What communities?
What types of information will be available on the asset?
In what formats and structures?
How could useful existing material be incorporated?
How to include people in the asset to build the social life of the asset?
How should the asset be made available to users?
How to build two-way relationships?
incentivise feedback from users
instil ownership in users
How to measure impact?
Supply side!

33. An aside: communicating KM
What – are you communicating? (Content)
Who – are you communicating to? (Audience)
How – are you communicating it? (Channel)
When – are you communicating it? (Freq/Timing)
Why – are you communicating it? (Reason/Benefit)

34. A fundamental lesson for development agencies
Personal knowledge management skills are as important, if not more, than technical tools!
Ways that people filter information overload
Making sense of and analysing information
Synthesising information
Using information to communicate effectively with others
Individual behaviours are essential for organisational strategies to work
Individual plans can help
Demand side!

35. Task 2 – “put yourself in their shoes”
1. What are your information needs?
2. What are your key sources? Who are the knowledge brokers?
3. What do you want supplied? What do you want on demand?
4. How and when to process mission critical information?
5. How do you want to file and save? What organisational guidelines are there for this?
6. What is an appropriate filing system for you? How could you document and share this?
7. How to refine and synthesise your information for use by you and others?
8. How to review your information?
Pairs to work through these steps to fill out personal information management
frameworks for each other
20 minutes each (total of 40 minutes)

36. All participants What were some of the challenges there?
What could we change in our own approaches?
10 minutes

37. Task 3 – as groups after lunch
Work in groups of 4-5
You will be given a knowledge asset challenge for you to respond to
Work through each of the questions with your group
Appoint a recorder within each group
Appoint a reporter for each group
Brainstorm each asset and related questions for approx 60mins, taking notes on flip chart paper (to be collected for workshop report – write clear!)
Try to incorporate 2-3 concrete actions from the morning session
Present back to the group (5 mins per groups)
Q&A and summary

38. Agenda for today 10.00 Getting to know each other
10:20 Knowledge, learning and the benchmarking approach
10.35 Sharing through story telling
11.30: Coffee break
11.45: Review Knowledge assets & personal information strategies
13.00: Lunch
14.00: Developing a knowledge asset
15.30: Coffee
15.45: Strategies, Tools and Measurement
16.30: Action Plans
17.00: After action review / Evaluation
17.25: Wrap up and close by 17.30

39. The Knowledge Strategies Framework
external factors
knowledge of partners, donors, other external agencies; networks; national and global factors
organisational contexts leadership approaches, governance structures, management processes, institutional pressures, funding cycles, historical evolution etc.
links within and across the organisation boundaries – via communities and ICTs; to communications plans; to core functions and support functions, etc
knowledge – forms and locations; processes – e.g.: creation, sharing, storage, use; key activities and tools; staff capacities; relevance, M&E

40. The framework can be used to devise and revise strategies
The external factors How does the knowledge and learning strategy address issues emerging from external relationships and factors?
The context How do issues of institutional governance, politics and economics support or hinder the knowledge and learning strategy?
Links How does knowledge and learning link to structures, functions, core activities, supporting activities and processes of a given organisation?
The knowledge How is knowledge and learning understood and applied within each organisation? What tools are used, why and how?

41. And allows useful comparisons
1. Ideal model e.g. ??
2. Islands model e.g. multilaterals
Contexts
Contexts
Links
Knowledge
Links
Knowledge
3. Technocratic model e.g. donors
4. Ivory Tower model e.g. Research institutes
Contexts
Contexts
Links
Links
Knowledge
Knowledge

42. Knowledge: processes and tools
There are a range of processes to consider
Mapping and creation of knowledge
Managing and storing knowledge
Learning and sharing knowledge
Use of knowledge
The different processes and different forms of knowledge can be brought together…
There are also range of processes to consider - creating, sharing, storing and using knowledge. Individuals, teams, organisations and groups of organisations engage in such processes in order to achieve positive change and realise their goals. More specifically:
The mapping and creation of knowledge comprises activities associated with the entry of new knowledge into the organisational system. It includes all the transformations suggested by the ‘data to information to knowledge to wisdom’ frameworks, models of knowledge creation derived from the Knowledge Management (KM) literature (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) , as well as research work, participatory work, workshops, and so on.
Sharing knowledge relates to the flow of knowledge from one party to another. This includes the diverse tools used for translation, conversion, filtering and two-way communication.
Storing knowledge relates to the preservation of knowledge, allowing it to remain within the organisational system, and to those activities that help to maintain the viability of this system. These include intranets, search engines, content management systems (CMSs), electronic publishing systems, workflow systems, groupware, help desk applications, as well as more fundamental systems such as personal and group filing, project archiving, and so on.
Finally, the use of knowledge relates to its application in organisational policy and practice. This involves taking and shaping decisions, making informed actions and modifying behaviours in order to achieve goals. In the case of all organisations, certain decisions, actions and behaviours have become embedded in the form of processes, procedures, rules, instructions and standards. It is perhaps one of the few truisms in this area that all such elements of organisational life were, at some point, specialist tacit knowledge or know-how, which was then converted to explicit forms in order to enable application by non-specialists. Also included in this category is the development of such tools as task performance measurement and coordination patterns, interaction guidelines and process specifications (ODI, 2003; ODI, 2004a; ODI, 2004b; US Knowledge Forum, 1999).
Various tools may be used to facilitate these knowledge activities, ranging from information management (IM) systems through structured learning activities, to comprehensive M&E processes. The different types of activities and the different forms of knowledge can be brought together in a simple, easy to understand format as shown in Figure 1 (ODI, 2005).

43. Knowledge: a menu of tools

44. What is the M&E problem we face?
The problem with attribution
Multiple actors and factors contribute
Unintended results are often ignored
Influence shifts overtime (indirect relation)
Impact of our interventions occurs further down the development chain
The problem with Accountability vs. Learning
The problem with Accountability vs. Learning.
Being accountable demands a great deal of effort directed towards the development of M&E techniques, methods, indicators and procedures. It has fostered a bureaucratisation of development work demanding a great deal of information from research partners.
This quest for accountability makes it difficult for programmes to learn about their work. The use of impact indicators do not tell researchers whether their work was successful or not. It does not separate the effects of other actors and influences that may have contributed to the final and observable impact.

45. The problem with attribution
Family
Church
DFID
Knowledge and Learning
Your organisation
Gov
GRO
CSOs
USAID

46. Why do we face these problems?
Because the responsibility for achieving results ultimately depends on the actions of our partners as influenced by the contexts in which they work
Focusing on downstream impact increases programming bureaucratisation and is inconsistent with our understanding of learning & development as complex processes

47. What is Outcome Mapping (OM)?
OM is a dynamic methodology useful in the development of planning, monitoring and evaluation mechanism. OM:
Provides the tools to think holistically and strategically about how it intends to achieve results
Focuses on outcomes instead of impacts
It deals with Contribution instead of attribution
Forces us to limit our planning and evaluation to our sphere of influence
Deals with changes in the behaviours of our direct partners

48. Influence over time and the focus of OM

49. The 3 Stages of OM and what we can do today…
Intentional Design: the Why? Who? What? How?
Vision
Mission
Boundary Partners
Outcome Challenges
Progress Markers
Strategy Maps
Organisational Practices
Outcome and Performance Monitoring
Evaluation Planning

50. Knowledge & Learning Program
= BPs
Boundary partners
Knowledge & Learning Program

51. Boundary Partners
Individuals, groups and organisations with whom the programme interacts directly to effect changes…
Those that you are trying to encourage to change so that they can contribute to the vision…
People with whom you will work directly
At first the number of boundary partners might be overwhelming. We must try to group similar partners according to the type of behavioural changes sought.
Boundary partners are different from strategic partners. Strategic partners are those with whom the programme works but in whom it does not intend to influence changed behaviours.
Boundary partners are a subset to the programme’s stakeholders.

52. Task 4 – Outcome Mapping Lite …as individuals
Who are your program boundary partners?
What KM-related changes are you trying to bring about in their practices?
Try to group similar partners according to the type of behavioural changes sought
Why?
What benefits would you expect?

53. Action Planning - KM
An Action Plan is a sequenced plan of specific actions to deliver defined objectives.
It involves thinking through a series of questions:
What are your change objectives for KM? Priorities?
What are the major forces for & against this change ?
Which forces can you engage with?
Who are the key players? Who can you influence?
What resources & tools do / could you apply?
Are there any other issues?
How will you engage with the key players and what will you do?

54. Task 5 – as individuals
Build on work you have already done today to develop an action plan to deliver your KM change objectives

55. Task 6 - After Action Review
What was supposed to happen today?
What actually happened today?
What was done well and what should be done differently?
What specific actionable recommendations can be made as a result of these findings, to inform and improve future training sessions?

56. Evaluation forms
To be filled out before you go

57. Some quotes
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin
“Most activities or tasks are not one time events… our philosophy is fairly simple: every time we do something again we should do it better than the last time.” Lord Browne
Learning happens within organizations all the time as individuals and groups undertake new tasks or become more skilled in their existing tasks. However, it is more difficult for the organization itself to learn because this involves linking the learning by individuals and groups to the wider systems and practices of the organization.
One of the key barriers to learning in today's organisations is that managers are focussed on short-term goals. This pre-occupation with short term goals is unlikely to go away.
However, it is your job as KM practitioners to highlight and champion how, by applying some basic KM techniques, you can help managers and senior managers to deliver on these goals. Some of the tools and techniques in the Good Practice section deliver benefits - particularly to individual and team performance - quicker than senior management might think.
"When knowledge gained somewhere doesn't move elsewhere, that's not a learning organization; that's just a bunch of projects." Saratoga Institute
"Practice provides the rails on which knowledge flows." John Seely-Brown

58. Our roles What you are: What you’re not: Spark Plug “Knowledge doctor”
Broker
Thomas Edison! (“trial and error”…but looking for that popular ‘light bulb’ result!)
What you’re not:
“Knowledge doctor”
Senior Technocrat
Joan of Arc! (“crash and burn”)

59. Making serendipity happen everyday…

60. Thank You! Please keep in touch!
Ben Ramalingam –
Yvonne Thomas –
RAPID Programme
Overseas Development Institute
111 Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7JD
Tel: (+44)
Fax: (+44) )