Knowledge Management: Leveraging What You Know

1
Knowledge Management Leveraging What You Know

• National Human Services Assembly 2005 Executive
  Leadership Institute
• November 10-12, 2005

2
Knowledge Management at the Annie E. Casey
Foundation

• Origins
• Implementation
• Initial Outcomes
• The Long Term Challenges
• Indicators of Effectiveness
• The Role and Importance of Leadership

3
Origins

• Caseys endowment grew significantly in the late
  1990s, resulting in an increase in staffing and
  growth in and complexity of its programs
• This spurred new thinking about better ways to
  organize and support the work to achieve the
  Foundations hoped-for outcomes
• Champions within senior leadership envisioned the
  potential of KM and supported a wide-ranging
  study to 1) assess the Foundations situation and
  2) recommend a plan of action

4
Implementation Phase I

• Leadership accepted nearly all the studys
  recommendations to
• Frame a strategy supported by leadership to
• Create a knowledge base of expertise for staff to
  more effectively learn, create and share
  knowledge in serving their constituents
• Aspire to leverage this knowledge base to more
  effectively/directly influence key external
  constituents with targeted knowledge in support
  of Caseys mission
• Clarify KM roles, including creating a KM Team
  merged w/the library
• Organize a consistent knowledge architecture and
  robust processes, and leverage technology to
  support KM in a staff only KM System, including
• Developing a taxonomy or roadmap of the work
• Collecting and cataloging nearly 4,000 resources
• Customizing a software application
• Training staff to use the System

5
Implementation Phase II

• The first two years of implementation
  concentrated on creating the knowledge base (aka
  the KM System).
• Once in place, the Team shifted focus to the
  second part of the strategy to
• Develop a public version of the KM System as part
  of the Foundations revamped website
• Identify and promote ways to better capture
  knowledge
• Work with program experts in support of their
  efforts to leverage Caseys knowledge with key
  partners and audiences

6
Initial Outcomes

• KM introduced a set of organizing principles and
  efficiencies around how Caseys work is framed
  and made accessible.
• It revealed gapsareas where we could create or
  repurpose resources to better address needs.
• And it reminded us that as a passive tool, the
  System could not on its own get the right
  resources into the hands of those who needed
  them.
• Initial internal staff use of the KM System has
  been modest, but as resources are leveraged via
  the public website and other forms of external
  sharing, the demand for and interaction around
  knowledge resources will grow.

7
The Long Term Challenges

• In the technology agile 21st Century, we would
  have to create a KM System if it did not
  existits value as a knowledge base is without
  question.
• But KM is a means to an ends learning in order
  to achieve the outcomes we set for ourselves.
• It must take place in tandem with
• Effective, focused knowledge creation with users
  in mind
• Emphasis on a learning culture and what it takes
  to achieve and sustain it
• Getting knowledge to where users experiment and
  learn

8
Indicators of Effectiveness

• As organizations grapple with assessing KM
  effectiveness, measures might include
• Leadership decisions that support a learning
  culture
• Once developed, the ability to maintain the tools
  and keep knowledge resources current
• Internal (staff) use of the tools
• Ease in locating knowledge resources
• Faster new staff learning curve
• Collaboration among key departments
• Interaction with external partners and audiences
  to get resources they need in the form they want
  in a timely way

9
The Role and Importance of Leadership

• Leaders must
• Understand the change
• Envision the change and how it supports the
  organizations hoped-for outcomes
• Be the change
• Seek and sustain the norm of a learning culture
• Model and hold everyone to being focused and
  accountable