Click to edit Master title 1 ISM Best Practices Workshop September 12, 2006 B. Michael Hillman Knowledge Management Tools and Principles

Click to edit Master title 2 What is Knowledge Management? “Getting the right information, to the right person, at the right time to make the right decisions”

Click to edit Master title 3 Knowledge Management Is: A systematic process for finding, selecting, organizing and presenting organization “knowledge” Providing workers the knowledge and tools to achieve a desired outcome, as opposed to preventing an undesirable outcome A work environment that rewards employees for sharing and reusing previous experiences and practices to meet present needs

Click to edit Master title 4 “KM” DRIVERS Need to capture critical knowledge that may be lost through staff turnover and retirement Need to reduce inefficiencies Need to provide an institutional infrastructure for sharing knowledge among multidiscipline communities.

Click to edit Master title 5 Implementing Knowledge Management Identify knowledge needs and sources ↓ Collect and Capture the knowledge ↓ Share the Knowledge

Click to edit Master title 6 Communities of Practice An informal network of people who are involved in similar work or activities Examples: Single business entity; Persons sharing a common interest

Click to edit Master title 7 Communities of Practice and the Organization Communities of Practice can be found: Within organizational units Across organizational units Across organizational boundaries Across corporate boundaries

Click to edit Master title 8 How to Encourage Communities of Practice Focus on minimizing/improving systems and processes Must have structure, meaning, and value Allow for regular and new activities Keep a sustained level of commitment Enable sharing of both ‘Explicit’ and ‘Tacit’ Knowledge

Click to edit Master title 9 EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE Explicit knowledge is relatively easy to capture and store in documents and data systems Policy Statements Procedures and Instructions Drawings White Papers Published Articles and Papers Books

Click to edit Master title 10 TACIT KNOWLEDGE Tacit knowledge is the knowledge people have in their minds BUT – they may not know they have it OR – they may not know how valuable it is Tacit knowledge is more valuable as it provides context for: People Places Ideas Experience

Click to edit Master title 11 TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FORUMS Structured Good for capturing and presenting explicit knowledge Unstructured Good for sharing tacit knowledge

Click to edit Master title 12 STRUCTURED KM FORUMS Require submission/approval process Generally controlled by corporate or peer hierarchy Examples: Professional Publications (AMA Journal of Medicine) Corporate or Organizational Sites (US Navy, NASA, BP, Fluor) Industry Peer Groups (EFCOG, Utility Owners Group, INPO)

Click to edit Master title 13 UNSTRUCTURED KM FORUMS Promote “free-flow” of information Range from “Blogs” to “Communities of Practice” discussion forums May still have controls on membership and may be sponsored/hosted by sponsor site Examples” Your favorite team’s sports discussion forum NASA communities of practice discussion forums EFCOG Discussion groups

Click to edit Master title 14 BARRIERS TO SHARING KNOWLEDGE 1 Belief that “Knowledge is Power” 2 Distrust of Co-Workers 3 Desire to “get the credit” 4 Feeling that “I won’t be needed anymore” 5 Feeling “it’s just too hard” 6 Feeling of “what’s in it for me?” 7 “Technology Gap” Management must be actively involved with breaking down these barriers.