With great interest I have read Roan Yong’s “Knowledge Management in 2012? Probably Dead”. And yes, I agree to what he has stated: KM got too academic - or always was? And the social web will be what will replace it. Roan’s article triggered more thoughts which are too long to just pack in the article’s comments: there are more problems of today’s KM than to be blown up; and why the social web is KM at it’s core.

Knowledge Management as it started was focused on activities and tools which are additional tasks outside people’s daily work. In the book ‘The New Edge in Knowledge’ this is referred to as “Above the Flow”. This book also mentions that we should focus more on “In the Flow” activities; things we know for long as personal KM or simply knowledge management embedded in people’s daily work. In my own field, I have been pushing for this integration and slowly our company starts to understand it’s value and we start to embark on this journey. What has enabled this move? First, we have realized that it’s very difficult to ask for additional efforts in times of a economic downturn; though, the value of knowledge sharing is still understood. The other driver for embedding KM in the flow is technology:

• consumerisation of business applications has led to a faster user adoption
• cloud-based solution drive people to store their information in a central location which makes sharing and collaboration easier
• mobile applications allow continuous, ubiquitous use of business tools
• social business applications have matured and are now available for large vendors

Roan argues that morphing KM into Social Business; and yes, I agree. But wait? Isn’t social business at it’s core and we just avoid to say The Word? Classic business applications did focus information transactions: send an e-mail, read a report, record a client visit, buy a new gadget, etc. The social web adds a new layer to these transactions: context! And isn’t information plus context equal to knowledge? At least I would argue that. Before we make the decision to buy the latest tablet we check our social context for feedback; when we summarise the client visit we add in the client’s twitter feed; when I receive an e-mail I see which documents, discussions, friends I share with the sender, etc.

For me, Social Web means that Knowledge Management has finally arrived.

Photo credit: Jordanhill School D&T Dept

I will be speaking to a group of HR professionals on the confluence of KM and HR (webpage). I am interested in the intersections of both business disciplines, and how one might support the other in better managing their organisation’s human capital. The choice of topic is motivated by a frequent realisation in KM projects that success is often dependent on engaging - and having engaged - HR colleagues. There are several areas where I think HR and KM can work together.

In job interviews they identify candidates who demonstrate a propensity to share rather than hoard what they know. They look for candidates who maintain strong external professional networks that can be tapped into for knowledge and information.

In onboarding, they provide a map of what knowledge is critical to their business and where they can be found. Where tacit knowledge is concerned, they broker the necessary connections. They emphasise the employees’ role in updating staff profile and directory. By the same token they also stress “quality in, quality out” for information repositories.

That knowledge management is a line manager’s responsibility is promulgated through job descriptions. That knowledge sharing is an important competency is reinforced through competency frameworks.

In succession planning they help identify what knowledge the next cadre of leaders should possess, and figure out ways to bridge the knowledge gaps. They do this by reducing the responsibilities of would-be retirees and by tasking them to be mentors or coaches to their successors – with the blessing of top management of course.

How else do you think HR and KM can work together?

“Knowledge management practices are often narrowly focusing on internal operations and not addressing larger questions about the nature and sustainability of the knowledge driving the organization. There seems to be a separation of KM from the overall business strategy, a general neglect of addressing the larger questions about an organization’s knowledge and how such knowledge may create societal value beyond a company’s financial gains.” She gives an interesting example from Mars, referring to the ingredients in their product Skittles: “Few of these ingredients have anything to do with real food, and one might argue that the industrial food industry contributes to decreasing knowledge about nutrition and food in society rather than contributing to informed decision-making on food. Could the organization use KM to establish a serious dialogue with customers? Develop ideas and products for a global, sustainable food production?”

Important and difficult questions, connected to the earliest visions of KM back in the 1960s. In 1967 L.K. Caldwell wrote an article for the Public Administration Review in which he asked how knowledge management could help ensure that “all relevant knowledge is brought to bear upon the problems that society needs to solve [...] At the very least, the manager of knowledge needs to discover what science can tell respecting trends or objectives that would be socially harmful.”

I would like to briefly introduce two methods they have presented. You will see, these are very generic and can be applied in environments of any solutions provider. The first method is looking at how to tackle change and address new user behaviours:

• Readiness: analyse the current status (culture, governance, target audiences); obtain management commitment; establish a communication plan
• Communication: create excitement; market the benefits; deliver the elevator pitch
• Training: self-service training, dedicated workshops, ad-hoc support

The second method I would like to mention is how could the roll-out be phased:

• Core IT users: test the solution and processes; train the support staff
• Early Adopters: validate the solution; engage the enthusiasts and super users
• Global Go-live: finally distribute the tool to everybody; apply the new behaviours

Taking a step back… When we talk about Change Management then we should also mention Kotter and and his eight step change process:

1. Establishing a Sense of Urgency
2. Creating the Guiding Coalition
3. Developing a Change Vision
4. Communicating the Vision for Buy-in
5. Empowering Broad-based Action
6. Generating Short-term Wins
7. Never Letting Up
8. Incorporating Changes into the Culture

With this background I would like to compare the above mentioned approach with the proven, academic method. Here are the links I have identified:

• urgency / vision / short-term win: these three aspects are covered by defining clear business goals and formulate them in a crisp elevator speech; further, the readiness analysis builds the basis that the project is steered in the desired direction
• coalition / empowerment: with the involvement and the help of enthusiast we are easily covering both aspects
• communication: this point has a very dominant position in the change methodology with documentation and communication planning
• persistence / embedding in culture: these two aspects are tricky and vital at the same time; they are covered with the on-going support and by measuring success

The methods the solution provider is applying to drive user adoption for cloud collaboration tools don’t show big surprises, build on common sense, and relate to a proven approach. Though what I like about it is that the steps are summarised in a very simple formula. And as such these might support to establish new behaviours with the end users and that they are using the tools you are presenting to them in a desired way.

How do you drive user adoption?

I was searching for a photo of Peter Drucker when I came across this 14-year-old article by him on the experiences that had shaped him. The third experience, where he talked about learning a new subject every 3 years, resonates with me. It reminds me of what Steve Jobs said about learning calligraphy in college, something that had no practical application at that time but which proved useful later in his life. It seems that not being able to see the usefulness of something should not preclude one from learning it. Last week, a client told me that she was going to attend a change management course in the US. My first reaction was to ask her how the course would be useful in her work. Next time, I shall be asking “What next?”.

How to integrate knowledge sharing in the daily routine? We have asked our users for ideas and I am happy to summarise here what they have came up with.

• When we establishing a project definition or a failure analysis, link to the global knowledge platform to search for similar solution and benchmarks
• At the end of each project, conduct an after action review and contribute the results to the global knowledge platform
• Integrate the platform into the e-mail system; one access point and one password
• Install a notice in all meeting rooms that reminds to access the global knowledge platform for related topics and identify results that can be shared
• In training sessions refer to the knowledge platform to access related information

In addition to this recent survey, we have integrated a regional remedy system with our global knowledge platform: when entering a new incident the user can directly search the global platform for solutions; the discussions from the remedy system are made available in the global knowledge search. This was a simple solution to integrate existing regional knowledge sharing activities in the global platform.

What are your experiences to plant knowledge sharing activities in people’s daily work?

Taxonomy_Bootcamp_Empirical_Approaches_full_slides.pdf

Taxonomy_Bootcamp_Empirical_Approaches_full_slides.pdf