Ten Shifts in Knowledge Management

In just 2-3 years knowledge management has come a long way. It has:

• attracted significant strategic interest from many quarters, including top companies and government agencies
• spurred the release of several journals/magazines devoted exclusively to knowledge management
• become an initiative in between a third and half of Fortune 500 companies
• has delivered demonstrable benefits in a variety of situations
• created market opportunities for suppliers, especially for software products and management consultancy
• stimulated new ventures (cf www. knowledgeshop.com) devoted to exchange and sale of knowledge.

In my opinion knowledge management is really about:

• managing information - explicit/recorded knowledge
• managing processes - embedded knowledge
• managing people - tacit knowledge
• managing innovation - knowledge conversion
• managing assets - intellectual capital

So what exactly is the future of knowledge management? 

Some believe that KM will shift in the following ways in the near future:

"1. From a Dimension of Other Disciplines to a Discipline in its Own Right - it will be a subject of degree courses and a profession distinct from information management. Watch out for the first Faculty of Knowledge Management.

2. From Strategic Initiatives to Routine Practice - The CKO of the future (if they exist) will embrace some of the functions of today's HR managers and CIO.

3. From Inward Focus on Knowledge Processes to External Focus on Knowledge Businesses - companies will identify how their knowledge assets can be recombined to create new knowledge-based businesses. For example, an engineering/manufacturing company might create an engineering consultancy business.

4. From Best Practices to Breakthrough Practices - rather than improve incrementally, companies should strive for 10x improvements in key areas, such as time-to-market, functionality per unit cost (yes - we have several examples of where this has been achieved).

5. From Knowledge Codification and Databases to Tradeable Knowledge Assets. Although publishers have done it for some time, many other companies are now realizing the opportunities from trading their databases e.g. fleet car managers and car reliability information.

6. From Knowledge Processes to Knowledge Objects - just as computer applications are going object oriented, so too will the application of knowledge. We will package knowledge as objects (that might include an information record, a multimedia clip, and access to a person) that can be manipulated and transmitted in different ways. There will be knowledge markets for them - precursors e.g. for IC design rights, already exist. See also http://www.knowledgeshop.com

7. From Knowledge Maps to Knowledge Navigators/Agents - maps are static representations of objects, and without extensive realtime map making capability (which could happen in the future) we need other ways to find existing and emerging knowledge. These will be human brokers (people with know-where and know-who) and intelligent software agents.

8. From Knowledge Centres to Knowledge Networks - although aggregating knowledge and knowledgeable people at knowledge centres gives critical mass, a more effective model may well be local nodes of expertise interconnected through human and computer networks i.e. the virtual knowledge centre.

9. From Knowledge Communities to Knowledge Markets - Communities are emerging that provide an effective vehicle for knowledge exchange. But as knowledge acquires value, and becomes 'productized' as objects (Shift 6) these communities will develop payment mechanisms and other trappings of a market place. The phrase "a penny for your thoughts" will have real meaning - people microchips embedded under their skin which handle knowledge transfer and micropayments under directives from the human brain!

10. From Knowledge Management to Knowledge Innovation. As ENTOVATION Colleagues will know, Debra M. Amidon sees Knowledge Management as a transition phase to something more fundamental. Management implies custodianship and managing what you know - innovation is creating something new and better, and that surely must be the ambition of all existing knowledge managers. It certainly is for me."

Is KM here to stay?

Is KM just a passing fad like some believe Facebook is? Is there a window of opportunity we may miss? What is coming next? Only last year did 47% of managers believe that Knowledge management was a temporary topic. If you ask managers now, that percentage would probably be more around 10%. Which proves what I have been saying the past couple of months - developing and exploiting organizational knowledge is becoming fundamental like e-banking. Sharing knowledge e.g. of best practice, can improve productivity. Embedding knowledge into products can enhance value. Connecting different knowledge sources can create innovative products.

To gain some insights on the likely future of knowledge management, it is instructive to look at how some earlier 'fads' have evolved. Few large companies today do not practice Total Quality Management, at least in some form. Quality has become embedded in all their products and processes - although you still frequently find companies who are not practicing what they preach. Similarly, most organizations have introduced some form of Business Process Reengineering, even if not restructuring as radically as Hammer and Champey defined it. The point is, that these concepts have matured into a set of desired management practices, that in turn have stimulated a thriving industry for experts, suppliers of tools and techniques, training and other services. So if we have all these tools and techniques set in place, then why do companies have product call backs and deffects?

Benefits of KM

What are the Benefits of Knowledge Management?

Strategically speaking, there are four kinds of benefits from managing knowledge:

• Create new value through new products or services (innovations);
• Enhance current value of existing products (knowledge about customers);
• Reduce/avoid costs/promote reuse (knowledge about processes);
• Reduce uncertainty/increase speed of response (knowledge about the environment).

Can we quantify the benefits?

I was involved in a discussion in an open forum where we talked about how can you quantify Organizations that have adopted KM approaches have applied the following metrics:

Speed of response
Time taken to respond to customer needs, requests or problems. Time taken to bring new products or services to market. Time taken to enter new markets.

Reuse of knowledge
Frequency of access and utilization of codified knowledge assets. Avoidance of re-work and "re-invention of the wheel."

Employee empowerment and satisfaction
Growth and ability to hire talented staff. Retention of experienced, knowledgeable employees. Span of influence of knowledgeable staff.

What methods and tools have been found to work?

Communities of Practice
Groups whose members regularly share knowledge and learn from each other. Communities of practice (1) share common work activities or interests, (2) recognize the collective value of sharing knowledge, and (3) have developed norms of trust, reciprocity, and cooperation. (Buckman Labs, Clarica, World Bank, Xerox)

Knowledge Repositories
Databases of codified knowledge assets that are systematically organized to facilitate searching, browsing, and retrieval. Knowledge repositories may contain lessons learned, best practices, planning documents, project proposals, marketing presentations, and so on. (Accenture, Ernst & Young)

Expertise Directories
Profiles of employee expertise that are updated, allowing users to find individuals by expertise areas, and to make contact with or present questions to identified experts. (Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft)

Action Reviews
Facilitated processes that occur before, during, and after significant and intensive work activities in which project members collectively analyze and reflect on lessons learned. (US Army, British Petroleum)

Best Practice Replication
Structured processes that collect, codify, and 'push' innovative practices or solutions developed at a particular location to the rest of the organization for possible adoption. (Ford, Shell)

Information Technology
IT plays a major enabling role in most of these applications. IT tools and infrastructure provide communications, database management, information access, and collaboration capabilities.

Corporate Marketing and KM

What can knowledge management processes and tools do for corporate marketing?

Traditional marketing communications methods include:

1. Direct mail, email, and voicemail messages
2. Web sites
3. Links from other web sites
4. Conference calls and virtual meeting rooms
5. Periodicals and publications
6. Meetings, events, tradeshows, conferences, seminars, and training sessions
7. Audience surveys and focus groups
8. Advertising
9. Public relations and analyst relations
10. Interviews, news stories, and published articles

Using Web 2.0 technologies often associated with knowledge management, corporate marketing can better engage with both employees and customers. Here are ten ways to do so:

1. Threaded discussions
1. Internal: Allow employees to collaborate with one another, ask and answer questions, and share information.
2. External: Encourage customers to help one another, suggest products and services, and engage with each other. Example: HP IT resource center forums
2. Social software
1. Internal: Allow employees to have similar functionality to what they are used to externally. Encourage them to gain experience in using these tools.
2. External: Encourage customers to build networks built on products and services, interests, preferences, etc. Examples: Facebook, Digg,Technorati
3. Bookmarks and tags
1. Internal: Allow employees to bookmark their favorite sites.
2. External: Encourage customers to tag their favorite company-related sites. Example: del.icio.us
4. Community spaces
1. Internal: Allow employees to collaborate on topics of interest.
2. External: Encourage customers to collaborate on company-related topics. Example: Yahoo! Groups
5. Portals
1. Internal: Allow employees to interact with a single site which integrates content from multiple sources.
2. External: Encourage customers to visit a single site for all of their support needs. Example: HP IT Resource Center
6. Wikis
1. Internal: Allow employees to create and collaboratively edit their own content pages.
2. External: Encourage customers to collaboratively edit community pages. Example: IBM wikis
7. Webcasts and webinars
1. Internal: Communicate useful marketing information to employees to help them better do their jobs.
2. External: Communicate useful marketing information to customers to help them better understand company offerings. Example: HP webcasts
8. Blogs
1. Internal: Give employees a voice, solicit their inputs and suggestions, and make executives more approachable and real.
2. External: Communicate useful information to customers with a personal face to build credibility and increase engagement. Example: HP blogs
9. Podcasts
1. Internal: Allow employees to receive communications in a way which is more convenient for them.
2. External: Encourage customers to subscribe to receive audio communications on a regular basis. Example: HP podcasts
10. Videos
1. Internal: Allow employees to record and upload their own videos to share information, create excitement, and emulate YouTube.
2. External: Encourage customers to view product and service videos to learn more about offerings in an appealing way. Example: HP videos
   

IBM and KM

I came accross an article titled IBM's KM Strategy, at KMWorld. It discuss the very first beginnings of Knowledge Management inside IBM. How it has actually been really strong with the explicit knowledge exchange, i.e. asset management, through the existence of different Intellectual Capital repositories, beingKnowledgeView (From Global Business Services) one of the most powerful and popular ones, and other key areas of how KM has been envisioned all along. Such as:

Asset Management: An asset at IBM doesn't necessarily have the same definition that an Accountant would have. Every employee's knowledge is an asset to the organization. By leveraging their knowledge, the company may grow and become stronger and more competitive. Through asset management IBM allows for a worldwide Asset Reuse program for Global Technology Services where knowledge workers can capture key assets and then make them able for reuse at a later time. 

 Expertise Location: BluePages -the universal employee directory that feeds everything else like Fringe Contacts. 

Collaboration: Using different tools such as Collaboration Central, Teamrooms, Jams, ThinkPlace (Sharing and collaborating on ideas across the timezones, geographies and business units), etc.

On-demand Learning: Learning@IBM is a new way to help promote learning throughout the organisation where the employees have full control of their own learning process - methods, types, etc.

One thing I would like to not - I noticed that IBM's KM tools have all been very much focused primarily on transferring explicit knowledge as opposed to a more balanced approach between the sharing of explicit and tacit knowledge. Why is that?

Audiobooks

I came accross someone sitting in the metro with their headphones on but i couldn't hear any music, it was more like someone talking, telling a story. I thought that was pretty strange. It was a long trip and i couldn't help but feed my curiosity so i thought i'd ask the girl what it was she was listening to. She told me it was something called an audiobook. She uses it because she doesnt usually have time to read books apart from during her daily commute. Because she gets dizzy when reading in a moving vehicle, a friend of hers suggested she could listen to audiobooks. I thought this was so fascinating. 

This is a way of transfering knowledge! Those that are lazy to type things up or video it (like i mentioned in one of my previous posts) will find this rather simple. You could have a verbal blog! I actually don't know if this already exists. But I think it's a cool idea. I don't know about others but usually if i'm asked to explain something, i'm more comfortable speaking it rather than writing it out. So this form of knowledge transfer would work well for people like me or people with disabilities.

Tacit vs. Explicit Knowledge

Should companies focus more on explicit or tacit knowledge?

As i mentioned in my previous post, explicit knowledge is information that is written down and tacit knowledge is all the information generated from past experiences stored in peoples' heads.

A focus on explicit knowledge usually leads to an emphasis on search, taxonomy (categorizing the explicit knowledge), and sometimes selection (e.g. qualifying best practices). 

A focus on tacit knowledge often requires a concentration on establishing and encouraging communities (where tactic knowledge can be shared), story telling, and the technologies and events that support them (forums, blogs, face-to-face meetings, etc.). 

Search is also important, but often focuses on people rather than documents (finding expertise rather than static information).