Knowledge Auditing: A Practical Approach

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Knowledge AuditingA Practical Approach
Going beyond the Hype of Knowledge Management

• Geoffrey A. Walker
• Information Systems ICT Development Officer
• Operational Support Special Projects Unit
• Newcastle City Council

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Overview

• The Changing Organisational Environment
• Data, Information and Knowledge The
  Relationship
• Knowledge Knowledge Management Practical
  Definitions
• How should Organisations approach KM? Key
  Questions
• Communities of Practice New Forms of
  Organisation
• Community Services Division Knowledge Audit
  2002
• Knowledge Auditing Critical Success Factors
• Further Reading

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The Changing Organisational Environment

• 20th Century
• Functional departments in single locations
• 9 to 5, Monday to Friday working
• Hierarchical management structures with fixed
  roles
• Emphasis on intra-organisational working
• Organisationally structured training and
  development

• 21st Century
• Geographically distributed individuals with
  remote and mobile working
• 24/7 society
• Flatter management structures, matrix management,
  multi-tasking and project team based
• Greater emphasis on partnership and alliances
• Personally tailored training and devleopment

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Information Overload is not a new problem!!!An
immense and ever-increasing wealth of knowledge
is scattered about the world today knowledge
that would probably suffice to solve all the
mighty difficulties of our age, but it is
dispersed and unorganised. We need a sort of
mental clearing house for the mind a depot where
knowledge and ideas are received, sorted,
summarised, digested, clarified and
compared.H.G. Wells The Brain Organisation
of the Modern World 1940
The economist Alfred Marshall first outlined the
concept of the knowledge-based economy in his
Principles of Economics in the 1890s...
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Here is another view!Its not about an
encyclopaedia that captures everything that
anybody ever knew. Rather, its about keeping
track of those who know the recipe and nurturing
the culture and the technology that will get them
talking.Ward, Adrian Workers Frontier
International
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Data, Information Knowledge

• Data is facts, pictures or numbers presented
  without a context
• Information is organised data presented in
  context
• Knowledge is information in context together with
  an understanding of how to use it

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Davenport Prusaks 33 Rule

• Resource management
• Organisational culture
• Information technology
• What about the missing 1?

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Defining Knowledge Knowledge Management

• Knowledge The information contained within the
  organisation about customers, products and
  services which is contained within peoples minds
  or filed in analogue or digital format.
• Knowledge Management A systematic attempt to use
  knowledge within an organisation to improve
  overall performance.

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How should organisations approach KM?Questions
an organisation must ask itself!

• How should an organisation new to KM get started?
• How do you create a culture favourable to KM?
• How do you measure and reward progress?
• How do you manage knowledge content
  systematically?
• How do you create a KM architecture which
  encourages the flow of knowledge?
• What level of human resources do you need to
  invest in KM?
• How do you sustain impetus in KM?

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Communities of Practice

• A community can be defined as any group of people
  with a shared set of values or beliefs.
• Social network analysts refer to communities as
  groups that share resources, provide support and
  show reciprocity.
• Communities of practice are groups that share
  knowledge, learn together and create common
  practice. They demonstrate shared mental models,
  a common culture of information sharing and a
  sense of community that enables learning.

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What is a CoP?
Communities of practice are the next phase in
organizational design
The multimembership organization
The functional organization
The market-oriented organization
The team-based organization
Communities of practice weave the organization
around competencies without reverting to
functional structures
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Characteristics of CoPs
Legitimate Peripheral Participation Provides a
way to speak about the relations between
newcomers and old-timers and about activities,
identities, and communities of knowledge and
practice. It concerns the process by which
newcomers become part of a community of
practice.

• Share knowledge
• Learn together
• Create common practices
• Share mental models
• Have a common culture of information sharing
• Display a sense of community which enables
  learning

Knowledge Ecology An interdisciplinary field of
management theory and practice, focused on the
relational, social and behavioral aspects of
knowledge creation and utilization. Its primary
study and domain of action is the design and
support of self-organizing knowledge ecosystems,
providing the infrastructure in which
information, ideas, and inspiration can travel
freely to cross-fertilize and feed on each other.
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Stages of Development of CoPs
Communities of practice evolve through life-cycle
phases
Discover/Prepare
Initiate/Incubate
Focus/Expand
Sustain/Renew
Let go/Remember
1. Potential 2. Coalescing 3. Maturing
4. Stewarding 5. Legacy
1. Topics defined? Shared needs identified?
Network found? 2. Coordinator ready to take
leadership? Case for action clear? Ideas on how
to link members? People connecting, helping each
other, having some success? Starting to share
useful knowledge? 3. Developing an identity as a
community? Focusing on developing a common
practice? Becoming visible? Growing? 4. Going
through cycles of activity? Gaining influence?
Changing leadership? Changing membership?
Mid-life crisis? Need to rethink direction? 5.
Little activity? Outlived its usefulness? Still a
resource? Still a source of inspiration
direction?
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CoPs Forms of Leadership
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CoPs Levels of Participation
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Community Services DivisionOperational Support
Special Projects Unit
Creating the Context for Managing Knowledge
Being Roughly Right is Better than Being
Precisely Wrong

• Knowledge Audit 2002
• The Aims
• The Knowledge Management Model
• The Key Tasks
• The Maps
• The Outcome

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KM Objectives Programmes
? Three broad objectives of KM 1. Leveraging
the organisation's knowledge 2. Creating new
knowledge or promoting innovation 3. Increasing
collaboration and hence enhancing the skill level
of employees. ? Most common KM programmes
involve 1. Development of a knowledge
repository 2. Forming and nurturing communities
of practice.
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The Aims

• The aims of the knowledge audit are as follows-
• Study and develop a deeper understanding of
  existing communities , content and
  conversations .
• Identify opportunities to add value to current
  communities, content and conversations.
• Develop a knowledge management strategy that
  delivers on the identified opportunities.
• Communities, for the purposes of social network
  analysis, are defined as groups that share
  resources, provide support and show reciprocity.
• Content is forms and combinations of words,
  images and pictures.
• Conversations are exchanges of sentiments,
  observations, opinions, or ideas.

In search of a Networking Quotient (NQ)
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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Business Objectives
determine
determine
Creates a rich pool of data that forms the basis
of meaningful conversations that lead to improved
results.
Critical Success Factors
Knowledge Needs
Core Process
The KM Model
generate
generate
define
Knowledge Strategy
Information
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Knowledge
PROCESS
Skills
People
Software Strategy
Systems Management
possible
Hardware Strategy
Systems Development
required
User Training
ICT MANAGEMENT
User Support
User Training
Source Sveiby Knowledge Institute
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The Key Tasks
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The Space of Flows...Societies organised
around flows of information will create a new
spatial logic.Manuel Castells
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The Invisible Workbench...The intangible
dimension-that is, the generative domain of human
action and relationships-is moving from the
periphery to center stage.Michael Jung
(McKinsey Co.)
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A Few Words from the Works of Wellmanhttp//www.
chass.utoronto.ca/wellman/1. Communities lost
versus communities liberated2. Weak ties and
strong ties3. Public space and cyberspace4.
Glocalisation5. The person is the portal
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The Power of Metaphor
Metaphor is a distinctive method of perception.
It is a way for individuals grounded in different
contexts and with different experiences to
understand something intuitively through the use
of imagination and symbols without the need for
analysis or generalization. Through metaphors
people put together what they know in new ways
and begin to express what they know but cannot
yet say. As such, metaphor is highly effective in
fostering direct commitment to the creative
process in early stages of knowledge creation.
(Nonaka)
Three Individual-Level Functions of
Organisational Learning- 1. Metaphor The
multiple meanings and contradictory logic jump
start the creative process 2. Analogy An
intermediate step between pure imagination and
logical thinking 3. Model Contradictions are
resolved and developed into concepts and these
become transferable through the use of consistent
and systematic logic.
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Divisional Network Map
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Network Maps
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Star Topology
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NODE A
NODE B
NODE F
NODE G
NODE C
NODE F
NODE D
Network Measures
Physical Links 28
Longest Path 1 hop
NODE E
Note
Node Interaction
point within networks
refers to Both Human
and Computer
Interaction
Full Mesh Topology
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Interpersonal Interaction Survey
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Quality of Work Interactions
Can be assessed quantitatively Low0
High1 ACTIVITY Measurement of how active a
person is in the network. CONTROL Measurement of
how much control a person has over the flow
information. REACH Measurement of how much
potential influence a person wields. ACCESS
Measurement of how easily a person can get the
resources he or she needs to be successful in the
organisation. POWER Measurement of how much
power a person has to get things done.
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The Outcome
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Knowledge AuditCritical Success Factors

• Leadership
• Trust
• Collaboration
• Information Communication Technologies
• Human Resource Management
• Organisational Culture

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Knowledge AuditAnd, therefore

• A truly knowledge-focused organisation should
  recognise trust as the bandwidth of knowledge
  sharing and invest accordingly in building a
  collaborative climate
• Kelleher, Dominic Levene, Simon -
• Knowledge Management A Guide to Good Practice -
  BSI - 2001

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Further Reading

• Brooking, Annie F. (1999) Corporate Memory
  Strategies for Knowledge Management London
  Thomson
• Collison, C. Parcell, G. (2001) Learning to
  Fly Practical Lessons from One of the World's
  Leading Knowledge Companies Oxford Capstone
• Davenport, Thomas H. Prusak, Laurence (1998)
  Working Knowledge How Organisations Manage What
  They Know Harvard Business School Press
• Wenger, E. et al (2002) Cultivating
  Communities of Practice A Guide to Managing
  Knowledge Boston, Mass. Harvard Business School

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THE END
geoff.walker_at_newcastle.gov.uk http//www.geoffwalk
er.net

• Thank You

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Human Computer Networks

• Social network researchers and consultants focus
  on geodesics, that is, the shortest paths in the
  network. Many of todays social network
  algorithms are based on a branch of mathematics
  called graph theory. Social network scientists
  have concentrated their work, and therefore their
  algorithms, in the following areas-
• Individual node centrality within a larger
  network-network dependency and load upon
  individual routers
• Overall path distribution-good connectivity
  without excessive routing tables
• Improving communication flow within and between
  groups-designing better topologies
• Network patterns surrounding ego
  networks-strategies for analysing and
  manipulating individual router connections

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Ring Topology
NODE A
NODE B
NODE H
NODE C
NODE G
NODE D
NODE F
Network Measures
Physical Links 8
NODE E
Longest Path 4 hops
Note
Node Interaction
point within networks
refers to Both Human
and Computer
Interaction
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NODE A
NODE F
NODE B
NODE G
NODE C
NODE F
NODE D
Network Measures
Physical Links 12
Longest Path 2 hops
NODE E
Note
Node Interaction
point within networks
refers to both human
and computer
interaction
Partial Mesh Topology
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