Interpersonal%20Knowledge%20Sharing:

1
Interpersonal Knowledge Sharing

• The Low-Tech, High-Touch Side of Knowledge
  Management

2
Objectives

• To present one perspective on the theory and
  practice of knowledge sharing, a humanistic
  counterpoint to mechanistic knowledge management.
  

• To illustrate how knowledge sharing can be
  encouraged (not managed).
• To open a discussion of best practices in this
  area.

3
Agenda

• Overview of NCR
• Status of Knowledge Management at NCR
• Two Models of Knowledge Management
• Sharing Knowledge Over Mail Lists
• Impact on NCRs Business
• The Art and Science of Fostering CoPs
• Discussion

4
NCR Corporation

• Revenue 6 billion
• Employees 32,000 in
• 80 countries
• Headquarters Dayton, Ohio
• Key Offerings
• Relationship TechnologyTM Solutions built on
• Teradata Warehousing (TD)
• Automated Teller Machines (FSD)
• Retail Point-of-Sale Systems (RSD)
• Consumable Media and Supplies (SMD)
• Comprehensive Service and Support (WCSD)

5
NCR Corporation

• Strategic Challenge
• Transition from a product manufacturer
  (1880-1990)
• to a solution provider (1990-2000).
• New Environment The virtual workplace
• KM Implications

?
6
NCR Corporation

• Strategic Challenge
• Transition from a product manufacturer
  (1880-1990)
• to a solution provider (1990-2000).
• New Environment The virtual workplace
• KM Implications
• Legacy knowledge is both asset and liability
• New knowledge and skills needed throughout
  company
• Much (most?) innovation occurs in the field, not
  at plants or headquarters
• Field personnel are physically more isolated

7
NCRs Initial Approach to KM

• Corporate KM Champion Assigned (1995)
• Initial Focus - Capture/re-use of knowledge
  gained in professional services engagements
• Parallel efforts in several business units,
  particularly customer services
• Corporate team sponsored KAM - the Knowledge
  Asset Manager (based on Notes)

8
NCRs Knowledge Asset Mgr.
9
KAM Communities
10
Status of KM at NCR

• Business Units are driving requirements and
  projects
• Informal cross-BU collaboration
• New cross-BU initiative for Professional Services
  Automation using Changepoint
• Growing awareness of importance of communities of
  interest and practice
• New KM Community of Practice founded in January
  2002

11
KM Evolution
12
KM Lessons Learned

• The value proposition must start with your people
• A knowledge-sharing culture is critical to
  embracing knowledge management
• KM best practices must be integrated with
  business processes
• Collaboration is key to knowledge transfer
• Recognizing, rewarding and measuring KM best
  practices must be balanced and consistent.
• Technology serves only as an enabler

13
Todays Starting Point

• Knowledge exists only in human heads.

14
Two Ways to Transfer Knowledge
15
Two Ways to Transfer Knowledge
16
A KM/KS Comparison Matrix
17
A Model of Associate Competence
18
Competence Stereotypes
Others?
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Knowledge Transfer Strategies
KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN
NARROW
MODERATE
BROAD







20
Knowledge Transfer Strategies
KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN
NARROW
MODERATE
BROAD
EXAMPLE
Telephone Fault Diagnosis
On-Site System Installation
Enterprise Information
Resolution
Maintenance
Architecture Design
CONTEXT
CCC
PS
Field CE
Structured Knowledge
On-line Databases
On-line Databases
STRATEGY
Capture and Guided
Practitioner Knowledge
Practitioner Knowledge
Rediscovery
Exchange
Exchange
TOOLS



Databases
Databases
Databases



Internet access
Internet access
On-line Manuals



Guided Search Interface
Communities of Practice
Communities of Practice
(
CoP)
(
CoP)
METRICS




Time-to-solve
Time-to-solve
Win/loss ratio



Escalation levels
No. of visits
Billable time ratio



Customer sat.
Customer sat.
Customer sat.
APPLICABLE MODEL
Personal Communication
Information Processing
21
Applying the KS Model
- Professional Services -
Design Specs
N
N
C
S
Internet Technology
Field Experience
C
S
Mentored Practice
New College Hire
Professional Consultant
Community of Practice
Customer
Information Communication
22
Applying the KM Model - 1997
- Worldwide Remote Services -
Design Specs
N
C
CBR Technology
Field Experience
S
Dialog Prompts
Para-Technical Call Taker
Technical Diagnostician
Comprehensive Knowledge Solution
23
Applying the KM Model - 2002
- Customer Care Center -
Design Specs
N
C
CKS Technology
Field Experience
S
Guided Search
Para-Technical Call Taker
Technical Diagnostician
CoP
Comprehensive Knowledge Solution
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Supporting the KS Model

• Continuous Knowledge Sharing
• Mailing Lists
• Periodicals (external and internal)
• Regular Symposia
• Communities of Practice
• Just In Time Knowledge Sharing
• Mailing Lists
• Expert locator (e.g. AskMe.com)

25
NCRs Web-Archived Mail Lists

• Released in late 1995
• Target users Field practitioners
• Design bias Field-to-field communications
• Uneven management sponsorship
• Pilot (95 - 96)
• Production (97 - 99)
• Orphan (99 )

26
Mailing List Architecture
27
Mailing List Architecture
28
Mailing List Architecture
29
Mailing List Architecture
30
Mailing List Architecture
31
Mail List Statistics

• Released November 1995
• Total Lists 525
• Active Lists (lt90d) 78 (15)
• (lt30d) 53 (10)
• Current subscribers 13,000
• Current subscriptions 50,000 (4/subscriber)
• Cumulative Postings 62,000
• Contributors 9,000
• Author Distribution 51231573.8.1

32
Keys to Successful KS

• Start with existing relationships
• Provide simple, unobtrusive communication support
  (participation must be optional)
• Support de facto community leaders
• Publicize (but dont hype) successes
• Do not impose formal objectives on participation
  and contribution
• Do not introduce new processes and procedures
• Allow good things to happen...

33
Mailing List Study - ATR

• Created October 1996 30 subscribers
• Initial Name Advanced Tech. Research
• Purpose News alerts from ATR director
• Signal Event Reply All in December 1996
• First Discussion 13 Jan 1997 (4 replies)
• Renamed A Terrific Resource (Jan. 1999)
• Current subscribers 940
• Cumulative Postings 13,000 over 5 years
• Contributors 1,000

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A Week In the Life of ATR

• Content

New Messages 19 -gt Replies 19
Total 38
(ca. 7/day)
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Business Impact 1 - Prima Facie

• The statistics on the previous slides suggest a
  strong prima facie case for the business value of
  the mailing lists

36
Business Impact 2 - War Stories

• Supporting new sales
• I presented our CRM solution to the decision
  makers of a bank in Hong Kong. We won that deal
  due to some key messaging and positioning of our
  product compared to our competitors. I posted my
  presentation on the CRM List. A number of
  responses indicated it would help them position
  us against our competitors in the future.
  Australia - Value Not disclosed
• Solving customer problems
• In Dec 01 we upgraded a large Teradata site. A
  hidden problem popped up all of a sudden which
  was a very critical issue for business users at
  the site. A quick shot to ATR revealed a known
  issue elsewhere in the world and 24 hrs later a
  patched version could be deployed. Austria -
  Value 1.8M annually
• Improving NCR solutions
• The ss-fbd-emv mailing list was fundamental
  during the development of the FBD EMV Application
  Kernel and in obtaining the first EMV Level 2
  approval for an ATM Application in the world.
  Europe - Value US 5 million over 3 years.

37
Business Impact 3 - ROI

• Initial cost 75 K 15 K (HW)
• Ongoing costs 60 K (10 K/yr.)
• Value of
• Deals won 1 M
• Time saved 1 M
• Deals influenced 1 M
• Customers retained 1 M
• Competitors thwarted 1 M

38
Business Impact 3 - ROI

• Initial cost 75 K 15 K (HW)
• Ongoing costs 60 K (10 K/yr.)
• Value of
• Deals won 1 M
• Time saved 1 M
• Deals influenced 1 M
• Customers retained 1 M
• Competitors thwarted 1 M

• Pro Forma ROI 331

• The MasterCard analysis

39
Definition of Community

• A Community of Practice is an informal network of
  people engaged in a particular profession,
  occupation, or job function who actively seek to
  work more effectively and to understand their
  work more fully.

40
Communities and Organizations
41
Communities and Organizations
42
Community Ecosystem
43
Community Ecosystem
44
Community Ecosystem
45
The Invisible Key to Success

• Communities of practice are the shop floor of
  human capital, the place where the stuff gets
  made.
• They're like professional societies. People
  join and stay because they have something to
  learn and to contribute. The work they do is the
  joint and several property of the group--cosa
  nostra, our thing."
• - Tom Stewart
• Fortune
• 5 August 1996

46
Reflections on Community - 1

• The problem is that corporate types don't know
  from community. They think network. They think
  conference. They think in safe, gray office
  metaphors that don't rock the boat. Their only
  question is, "So, how are you better than
  NetMeeting, Microsoft's conferencing software?"
• - Chris Tacy, Underdeveloped
• NYT Cybertimes
• 2 July 1997

47
Reflections on Community - 2

• Learning is social, but not all groups learn
• It is possible to
• Seed new communities
• Enhance existing communities
• Link formal and informal learning
• Align community and organizational objectives

48
The Community Life Cycle
49
The Community Life Cycle
50
Conclusions

• Knowledge sharing is essential to KM
• Knowledge sharing is a natural part of natural
  community behavior
• Communities can be seeded, fostered, guided, and
  supported, but not managed
• Successful communication technologies are simple
  and convenient
• Knowledge sharing is incomplete and messy
• The ROI on simple technologies can be very high

51
Discussion

• Thoughts on the KS/KM models?
• Other examples of ways to support KS?
• Policies? - Research?
• Processes?
• Technologies?
• Other examples? Counter-examples?
• Impact of emerging technologies
• Wireless communications
• Real-time language translation
• Others?