What Does a Chief Knowledge Officer Do?

Two Kinds of Knowledge Tacit: tacit or unarticulated knowledge is more personal, experiential, context specific, and hard to formalize; is difficult to communicate or share with others; and is generally in the heads of individuals and teams. Explicit: explicit knowledge can easily be written down and codified.

What is Knowledge Management? Designing and installing techniques and processes to create, protect, and use known knowledge. Designing and creating environments and activities to discover and release knowledge that is not known, or tacit knowledge. Articulating the purpose and nature of managing knowledge as a resource and embodying it in other initiatives and programs

What Activities Do They Perform? The primary task of a first-generation CKO is to articulate a knowledge management program. This task is twofold: making employees aware of the nature and value potential of knowledge; and selling the concept of knowledge management to both corporate and line local management.

What Activities Do They Perform? CKOs spend a lot of time walking around the organization looking for their knowledge champions: Must have knowledge partners Must have ideas and projects Must get people to commit to any major behavior change or to a knowledge management project

Typical CKO Profile Attributes CKO's outlook or mindset needs to be broad. Almost all the CKOs are in their forties or early fifties; many are female. None are approaching retirement. CKOs usually have a visible and successful track record of achievement in organizational reputation and credibility.

Typical CKO Profile Attributes CKOs are likely to have a high level of enthusiasm for what they are trying to achieve; are highly curious about knowledge; are driven; and extremely motivated to prove that knowledge management is both practicable and can improve corporate performance.

Typical CKO Profile Attributes They need to be goal-oriented and interested in change, yet neither naive nor driven by self-glorification. They have a mission but are balanced. CKOs need to be sociable and energetic, yet tolerant and pragmatic. Career experience and familiarity with the organization.

Typical CKO Profile Attributes CKOs are likely to be even-tempered, optimistic, moderate, and more able to deal with stress and sensitive situations than average and are not likely to dwell on problems in a detrimental way. CKOs seem likely to be tolerant and consider issues on their own terms rather than adhering to fixed standards. They are modest, yet able to promote their own interests, and sympathetic, but without being taken advantage of.

Typical CKO Profile Attributes They seem receptive to their own and others' feelings and enjoy abstract or imaginative thinking. They are honest and considerate of others, with appropriate consideration to the needs of the individual. CKOs have a willingness to try new things or different approaches.

What Resources and Support Does a CKO Require? A CEO or executive team needs to understand the level and nature of resources that a CKO requires to do his or her job. Current CKO budgets are small for three reasons

What Resources and Support Does a CKO Require? Top-level sponsorship is by far the most important resource It is the quality, rather than quantity, of resources that CKOs stress

How Does a CKO Differ From a CIO? 1. CIOs are oriented toward directing a function, rather than initiating and leading a team in transition. 2. CIOs have distinct responsibilities - IT strategy, IT operations, and managing the IT function - and so far, have not formally taken on the full range of knowledge management activities. Where a CKO exists, there is also likely to be a CIO, but the corollary is not true.

How Does a CKO Differ From a CIO? 3. Most CIOs are swamped with work, and should not be expected to add the ambiguities of the CKO role to their job description. 4. CIOs and CKOs have different strong suits

Is the Role of CKO Likely to Endure? Or is it a temporary role or a short-term fad? Some knowledge projects are certainly long-term, especially those that require implementing a fairly comprehensive technology infrastructure Three to five years seems to be the minimum necessary tenure

Does Knowledge Management Require a CKO? Only if your organization is serious about implementing a knowledge management program Economic realities and and competitive edge factors play a large role

Conclusion So, what is the job of a Chief Knowledge Officer? If you are appointing a CKO, how do you know one when you see one?

Acknowledgements I would like to cite the following authors and friends for their help in developing this set of slides: I. Nonaka and H. Takeuchi Nick Bontis M. Earl and I. Scott Peter Senge Thomas Stewart Howard Rheingold Peter Feltham