Knowledge Resources & Management SHEEO/NCES Network Conference & IPEDS Workshop 4/1/04 John Milam HigherEd.org, Inc.

km.gov

Why is there a km.gov? High federal staff turnover & retirements Lack of adequate training Tendency toward preserving status quo Minimize loss & risk Improve organizational efficiency Embrace innovation Serve customers better & more efficiently

The high cost of not finding information Knowledge workers spend from 15 to 30% of their time searching for information Searchers find what they look for only 50% of the time or less 40% of corporate users report they can’t find the information they need to do their jobs on their intranets “How much time is spent reworking or recreating information because it has not been found?” (Feldman, 2004, p. 9)

Knowledge has become the key economic resource and the dominant - and perhaps even the only source of competitive advantage. Peter Drucker

Why? What is KM? Knowledge management (KM) provides the processes & structures to create, capture, analyze, & act on information Highlights conduits & bottlenecks Emphasis is on human know-how and how to use it for maximum return Recognition that in a volatile climate, actions must be anticipatory, adaptive, & based on a faster cycle of knowledge creation from km.gov Fast Facts

Building KM Capacity throughout Government OMB & GAO identifying viable approaches to KM Congress mandating KM development & leadership Federal KM leaders increasing collaboration about KM across the government Unions supporting knowledge sharing & innovation challenges in agencies Employees creating communities of practices for sharing expertise KM Quick: A KM Tool for Government Practitioners

Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of the knowers. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories, but also in organizational routines, processes, practices and norms. Davenport & Prusak

Types of knowledge Tacit knowledge: Our know-how, including the ability to reason, make decisions and take action derived from individual experience, beliefs, etc. Explicit knowledge: Written, codified, or imbedded knowledge that has been transferred to workgroups or to the organization. Social knowledge is shared informally between individuals, and within groups, communities, and networks. It may be either explicit or tacit. Customer knowledge is both knowledge the customer holds and knowledge about the customer. KM Quick: A KM Tool for Government Practitioners

KM includes… Business communications & intelligence Enterprise content management (ECM) Portals & Intranets Data collection Data marts & warehouses Data mining Decision support systems/EIS Document management systems Records management Customer relations management (CRM) Taxonomies

KM initiatives include… Capture and share best practices (77.7%) Provide training, corporate learning (62.4%) Manage customer relationships (58.0%) Deliver competitive intelligence (55.7%) Provide project workspace (31.4%) Manage legal, intellectual property (31.4%) Enhance web publishing (29.9%) Enhance supply chain management (20.1%) Dyer & McDonough (2001)

Managing learning & knowledge requires more than small-time tinkering within the organization. Success demands a paradigm shift in organizational thinking. Learning through Knowledge Management Ahmed, Lim, & Butterworth (2002)

Challenges to Implementing KM Employees have no time for KM (41.0%) Current culture does not encourage sharing (36.6%) Lack of understanding of KM & benefits (29.5%) Inability to measure financial benefits of KM (24.5%) Lack of skill in KM techniques (22.7%) Organization’s processes not designed for KM (22.2%) Lack of funding for KM (21.8%)

Challenges to Implementing KM – cont. Lack of incentives, rewards to share (19.9%) Have not yet begun implementing KM (18.7%) Lack of appropriate technology (17.4%) Lack of commitment from senior management (13.9%) No challenges encountered (4.3%) Dyer & McDonough (2001) Value mistakes

KM Leadership KM leader is not usually a “top dog” Only 8% of KM projects start by CEO support Most KM implemented at grassroots level Difference between organic vs. mechanistic KM Most of the roles, responsibilities, & tools of KM are already assumed by the work of SHEEO CIOs KM involves a mindset about data & processes that SHEEO CIOs already have SHEEO CIOs are uniquely poised to be grassroots government leaders in KM

8 C’s of KM Success Connectivity to Intranet & tools Sophisticated strategies to manage content Large numbers of communities of practice Culture of knowledge-centricity & innovation Building capacity for knowledge-centric behaviors Spirit of internal & external cooperation Commerce – price & reward contributions Substantial capital investments & strict metrics Rao (2003) DestinationKM.com

KM competencies include… Interpersonal Knowledge sharing/communication Collaboration Communities Service orientation Personal knowledge & cognitive capacity Analytical Synthesis, systems Research

KM competencies include… Managerial/leadership KM vision/strategy Business case/assessment Human capital, competency management Improvement/quality Resourcing Analysis & research Innovation KMPro Certified Knowledge Worker program

What is your organizational & personal KM strategy?