WORKING KNOWLEDGE Chapters 5-9 Presentation Casey Tealdi January 31, 2007 MIS 580

Chapter 5: Knowledge Transfer Most effective way: hire smart people, let them talk to one another Reality: people settle for “good” information from someone nearby The larger the company, the harder it is to track down. But, the more likely it exists!

How Management Can Promote Knowledge Transfer Training –“A typical program includes how to identify problems, prioritize, analyze root causes, identify possible counter-measures, implement the solution, and check whether the solution actually works.” Incentives –“Pay for ideas generated by groups or individuals; job duties that include tinkering; permitting or encouraging experiments that are well-conceived but fail; and giving credit to employees who generate new ideas.”

How Management Can Promote Knowledge Transfer Organizational structures –“Formal employee involvement structures such as brainstorming, suggestion programs, quality circles, and self-directing teams support both creating and sharing knowledge.” Technology –“Groupware promotes sharing by tracking the status of ideas and communicating them across a group. Technology helps the quick evaluation of new ideas by capturing actions and transactions and computing their effectiveness.”

Strategies for Knowledge Transfer Unstructured knowledge transfer is critical –Virtual offices, mobility hurt this transfer type Assignees and face-to-face meetings are most effective Must suit organizational/national culture Explicit knowledge: procedures, docs Tacit knowledge: personal contact, formal mentoring

How To Do It Successfully Send clear message to employees, encourage reading and talking Knowledge maps The more rich and tacit the knowledge, the more technology should be used Values, norms, and behaviors that make up company culture determine success

The Culture of Knowledge Transfer Shared language is essential –Physicians or engineers Acceptance depends on transfer medium Two actions: transmission and absorption Viscosity refers to richness of knowledge –At odds with velocity (speed of transfer) Example of success: Post-it Notes at 3M

Chapter 6: Knowledge Roles and Skills Must set roles and skills to capture, distribute, and use knowledge Must be part of everyone’s job Good knowledge workers have –Hard skills (structured knowledge, technology) –Soft skills (culture, political, personal aspects) Corporate librarians are very valuable

Managers of Knowledge Projects Serve in middle level of KM infrastructure Must have “hard” and “soft” skills Must be “egoless” Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) –Management of knowledge –Facilitation of organizational learning Comment: Being “egoless” in the workplace might be harder than you think.

The Chief Knowledge Officer CKO must: –Manage relationships with external knowledge providers –Provide critical input to the process of knowledge creation –Measure and manage the value of the firm’s knowledge assets CKO responsibilities: –Build a knowledge culture –Create a KM infrastructure –Make it pay off economically

Fostering Knowledge Culture Education Incentive programs Management example To defend value of KM –Financial figures –Success stories

CKO or No CKO? Appropriate –Knowledge is embedded in products –Knowledge is critical to the services offered to customers Inappropriate –Decentralized organizational structure –Functions might be performed by other managers

Four Levels of KM Roles Line workers Knowledge workers Knowledge project managers Senior knowledge executives KM roles and responsibilities must be real jobs requiring dedicated resources

Chapter 7: Technologies for KM Most valuable role: extending the reach and enhancing the speed of transfer Also helps in: codification and generation

Technologies that Support or Enhance Knowledge Transfer Tacit to Tacit –E-meetings –Synchronous collaboration (chat) Tacit to Explicit –Answering Questions –Annotation

Technologies that Support or Enhance Knowledge Transfer Explicit to Tacit –Visualization –Browsable video/audio of presentations Explicit to Explicit –Text search –Document categorization

Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence Case-based reasoning (CBR) involves extraction of knowledge from a series of narratives or cases CBR has… –Not achieved broad business application CBR is… –Most commonly found in customer service and support process areas

Knowledge Repositories Examples: Lotus Notes, the Web, Hoover, GrapeVINE Product, market, customer knowledge Good thesaurus is essential Underlying technique: text search-and- retrieval

Focused Knowledge Environments Expert systems: enable the knowledge of a few experts to reach broad audience Constraint-based systems: capture and model constrains that govern decisions Real-time knowledge systems: best for users who are only somewhat expert

Long-term Analysis Systems Neural network is a statistically-oriented tool that classifies cases into categories Requirements –Lots of quantitative data –High-powered computer –Very knowledgeable user Still need a human to: structure and interpret the data, make a decision

What Technologies Can’t Do Knowledge creation; still the act of individuals…and their brains. Value added by people –Context –Experience –Interpretation Transform information into knowledge

Chapter 8: KM Projects in Practice Organizational objectives –Structuring people –Structuring technology –Structuring knowledge content KM objectives –Create knowledge repositories –Improve knowledge access –Improve knowledge cultures/environments

Knowledge Repositories Types –External knowledge –Structured internal knowledge –Informal internal knowledge What goes into them: memos, presentations, reports, articles Comment: Client contact info, dates and results of past interactions, purchase histories, etc. all go into corporate knowledge repositories.

Knowledge Environment Projects Improve the value of knowledge capital Build awareness and cultural receptivity Attempt to change behavior Attempt to improve the process Some firms include contribution to the knowledge base in compensation decision

Attributes of Successful KM Growth in the resources attached Growth in knowledge volume High likelihood of sustainability Comfort throughout the organization Evidence of financial return

What Do People Extract From A Knowledge Center? Previous presentations to clients Process and system design specifications Work plans Other project-oriented collateral/artifacts

Factors Leading to KM Success Knowledge-oriented culture Technical and organizational infrastructure Senior management support Clarity of vision and language Multiple channels for knowledge transfer

What are companies spending on KM (% of revenue)? Buckman Laboratories: 2.5 Ernst & Young: 6 McKinsey & Co.: 10 Three most important factors –Knowledge-oriented culture –Human infrastructure –Senior management support

Chapter 9: The Pragmatics of Knowledge Management Must be blended with other activities or success is unlikely The more people and more groups that buy into the effort, the more likely success

The Path to Successful KM Step #1 –Capture solutions within natural problem resolution workflow. Step #2 –Streamline and simplify the content review process. Step #3 –Use consistent standards and templates to improve quality. Step #4 –Get top-to-bottom buy-in for your KM solution. Step #5 –Reward and recognize people for sharing knowledge.

Getting Started in KM Start with a recognized business problem –Customer defections –Poorly designed systems –Losses of key personnel –Lower “win rate” for service engagements Remember: multi-faceted programs will take longer to see change than single

Additional Tips Leverage existing approaches If you start with technology, the other necessary factors may not materialize Do not underestimate the difficulty of importing best practices Without structure, organizational learning is too conceptual and abstract

Knowledge Management Pitfalls Excessive focus on technology Putting boring content online Failing to measure the worth of knowledge managers Making access restricted or hard to get The belief that an organization is non- hierarchical

The Last Word “Knowledge and learning must always serve the broader aims of the organization. A healthy tension between knowledge and action is the key to organizational (and probably individual) success.”

Research References COHRE Institute of Industrial Relations. “Managerial Practices Underlying One Piece of the Learning Organization.” 2/16/ IBM Systems Journal. “Knowledge Management Technology.” 6/15/ Customer Solutions. “Five Steps To Successful Knowledge Management In Your Service Center.” 8/ _n /pg_1 _n /pg_1

WORKING KNOWLEDGE Chapters 5-9 Presentation Thank you for your time and attention. Are there any QUESTIONS?