Knowledge Management 2 of 2

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Topic 7Knowledge Management

• Part 2 - Developing a Knowledge Management
  Strategy
• Developing a Knowledge Management (KM) Strategy.
• Tailoring your Organisation's KM Strategy.
• Getting Started - Knowledge Mapping.
• The Role of an Executive Sponsor.
• Developing your KM Pitch.
• Strategy Size - Big gorilla or Lots of
  Monkeys.
• Focus Explicit or Tacit Knowledge.

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Developing a Knowledge Management (KM) Strategy

• A good strategy
• tells you what to do
• gives a plan of action
• says what should be accomplished and how long it
  will take
• looks at what investments are needed and in what
  areas.

You must tailor your knowledge management
strategy to your organisation - it needs to fit
like a glove!
Contd
Source Rumizen (2002)
3
Developing a Knowledge Management (KM) Strategy
(Contd)

• Initial points to consider
• Supporting KM infrastructure (the people needed).
• Expanding IT infrastructure.
• Describing corporate culture.
• Developing specific approaches for carrying out
  the strategy (e.g. learning before/during/after
  approach BP).
• Instituting measures.

Contd
Source Rumizen (2002)
4
Developing a Knowledge Management (KM) Strategy
(Contd)

• But remember ...
• There usually is not one single best strategy for
  an organisation.
• Settle for good with demonstrable results.
• Learn as you go - change the strategy if you need
  to.
• Do not lock yourself in.
• That is ...
• Tailor your strategy to your organisation.

Source Rumizen (2002)
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Tailoring your Organisations KM Strategy

• Key organisational questions.
• What is the nature of the business? What do you
  do?
• What is your vision?
• What are your goals?
• How do you plan to achieve your goals?
• What is your organisations current business
  environment?
• What is your industry? What affects it? What is
  the environment for your industry?

Your KM strategy must be firmly rooted in the
context of your organisational strategy.
Source Rumizen (2002)
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Getting Started

• Assess your organisations knowledge
• look for gaps in critical knowledge
• speak to customers and suppliers
• whats it like to do business with you?
• Using knowledge maps can help you find gaps in
  critical knowledge.

Knowledge Mapping a process for identifying
knowledge and skills.
Source Rumizen (2002)
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Getting Started - Knowledge Mapping

• Knowledge maps can help you establish a baseline
  and identify
• What information is in your organisation.
• How it can be found.
• What expertise is within your organisation and
  where.
• What important expertise is outside your
  organisation and where it is.
• How to get access to it.
• What the best sources of information are - both
  internal and external.

Knowledge mapping helps you focus on what the
important knowledge is, as well as ways of
managing it.
Contd
Source Rumizen (2002)
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Getting Started - Knowledge Mapping (Contd)

• Once knowledge mapping has occurred you should
  understand
• the following
• What critical actions a unit must take.
• What decisions people in that unit must make to
  do their work.
• What information they need to make those
  decisions and to do their work
• may be explicit (codified in various ways)
• may be tacit (coming from other people).

Source Rumizen (2002)
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The Role of an Executive Sponsor

• Finding an executive sponsor is crucial to a KM
  initiative.
• Provide funding.
• Open doors and facilitate access to other senior
  managers.
• Champion the KM cause (at upper-level meetings).
• Persuade and convince.
• Coach you on your communication strategy.
• Give you a better understanding of the big
  picture.
• Ease your attempts to get funding.
• Help you plan your overall strategy.
• Encourage you and tell you that what you are
  doing is important.

Source Rumizen (2002)
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Developing your KM Pitch

• Communicate the concept - use words that make
  sense for your
• organisation (i.e. a definition of KM in your
  organisation).
• Lift speech (explain something in 30 seconds).
• Brief synopsis of how you will accomplish KM.
• Lay put concrete actions you plan to take.
• Name people who will be involved.
• Describe timelines (doesnt need to be in
  stone!).
• Emphasise benefits and deliverables for
• organisation (do great things for)
• people (how it will make their lives easier).

Source Rumizen (2002)
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Strategy Size - Big Gorilla or Lots of Monkeys
Whether or not you want to put together a
strategy that sweeps across your entire
organisation, impacting many processes.

• A Big Gorilla
• It is harder to work with a big gorilla.
• The scope is larger, the implementation is
  larger.
• More to worry about.
• Payoff is potentially great.

Contd
Source Rumizen (2002)
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Strategy Size - Big Gorilla or Lots of
Monkeys (Contd)

• Lots of Monkeys
• Identify smaller, more isolated projects in
  specific areas.
• A surgical approach.
• Fewer headaches.
• Easier to manage and easier to focus on.

The answer for your company depends upon your
organisational strategies and gaps.
Ans
If the payoff is large enough, a little monkey
is as good as a big gorilla.
Source Rumizen (2002)
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Closing Thoughts ...

• Successful initiatives in KM require
• imagination
• daring
• persistence
• an entrepreneurial spirit
• a willingness to occasionally be outrageous and
  outspoken.

You must be prepared to win big - or fail
greatly. But the potential prize for your
organisation matches the size of the challenge.
Source Laurence Prusak - Executive Director, IBM
Institute for Knowledge Management
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Start Small

• Start with a pilot or several pilots with clearly
  defined objectives.
• Choose pilots with visibility and impact that are
  certain to succeed.
• Involve the users.
• Concentrate on lessons learned and
  recommendations for the future, plan to scale up.

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Focus Explicit or Tacit Knowledge

• Concentrating on explicit knowledge leads you to
  codify.
• Concentrating on tacit knowledge leads you to
  connect people.
• When making the decision
• Involve the users (essential).
• Ask what knowledge is important for the
  organisation to reach its goals.
• Ask what value customers expect.

The organisation will have to use its own
judgement as to what is best (i.e. the mix of
focus).
Source Rumizen (2002)
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Codifying - Explicit Knowledge

• If the organisation has processes that repeated
  over and over again across the globe, codifying
  best practices can have a big payoff.
• If the organisations work largely depends upon
  explicit knowledge then write it down, make it
  available.
• Requires a heavy IT investment to codify, store
  and disseminate explicit knowledge.
• Live or die by your IT as well as the goodness of
  the content.
• Invest heavily in the publishing process -
  writing, co-ordinating, editing and maintaining
  the content.

Source Rumizen (2002)
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Connecting - Tacit Knowledge

• A personalisation strategy focuses on linking the
  source of tacit knowledge people.
• Characterised by approaches such as networks,
  communities of practice, yellow pages.
• Key phrase is connecting.
• Still have IT investment, but emphasis is
  technology that connects people to people.
• Goal is to facilitate exchanges through
  technologies like threaded discussion and
  videoconferencing.

Source Rumizen (2002)
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Focus Explicit or Tacit Knowledge (Contd)

• In reality
• A KM program focused on explicit knowledge will
  have some people connections.
• A KM program focused on connecting people will
  also have to address explicit knowledge needed by
  the people.

Source Hansen, Nohria Tierney (1999) in
Rumizen (2003)
Source Rumizen (2002)
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Summary

• A good KM strategy is a plan of action that
• describes what needs to be done
• says what needs to be accomplished
• is linked to the strategy of the organisation
• gives a timeframe.
• An executive sponsor is a critical success factor
  for a KM program.
• You must define what KM means for your
  organisation.
• You need to develop a vision for KM.

Contd
Source Rumizen (2002)
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Summary (Contd)

• Key decisions
• A strategy that spans the organisation or one
  which focuses on smaller areas.
• To concentrate on explicit or tacit knowledge
• concentrating on explicit knowledge leads you to
  codify
• concentrating on tacit knowledge leads you to
  connect people.

Source Rumizen (2002)
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References

• The following text was used in the preparation of
  this material.
• Rumizen, M. C. (2002) Knowledge Management,
  Alpha.