Managing Knowledge:

1. Managing Knowledge:  Sharing what we learn today and preserving for the future Dr. Kimiz Dalkir School of Information Studies McGill Management Forum 27 November 2007

2. Were we not already managing our knowledge well (enough)? • We are • More global/international • More connected (9-5 followed by 5-9) • We are more mobile (min. of 3 careers) • We have to do more, faster with less resources • The babyboomers are retiring • We face information overload every day • 9/11 was a big wake up call

3. Who uses strategic knowledge resources? How often, why, how do they add value…? How do we ensure knowledge continuity when people retire/leave? How do they organize this valuable knowledge? Do they manage to find it again…..? A day in the life of a valuable knowledge resource…

4. What are the consequences? • What is the cost of: • not sharing knowledge? • not finding knowledge that exists? • not finding the right knowledge? • not knowing it even exists? • Losing knowledge? • Rework/reengineering not always possible • When it is, it is always very costly The keys to knowledge are often lost…

6. “Thirty-five years ago, NASA put men on the moon for US$24 billion over a decade. In the ensuing years, not only did NASA forget how to do it, as everyone involved retired and little effort was made to record what they knew, but in a cost cutting move, they lost the last set of blueprints for the only rocket ever built that was big enough to get there.” (DeLong, 2004)

7. Anti-Terrorism & KM • “After the first Anthrax attack, the biggest problem we faced was not access to information – it was prioritization of information, and access to the right experts.” (CRTI, bioterrorism expert) • “After 9/11, we asked ourselves: why was no one able to connect the dots?” (David Ignatius, Assoc. Ed., The Washington Post)

9. Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI) Measuring the KM contribution to collaboration and organizational memory

10. The journey towards organizational learning – case study of Oxfam How can we learn from the past – best practices (things we did better) and lessons learned (things to avoid repeating in the future!)

11. “We Know More than we Can Tell” • knowledge is an intellectual asset - yet only 10 -15% is actually written down • Impossible to document all knowledge - worse yet, this knowledge is lost once employee leaves

12. Explicit Tacit

13. Mostly explicit: Knowing what… Knowing how to…. Mostly tacit: Knowing where to find knowledge Knowing who knows what and being able to contact/find them Which knowledge to transfer?

14. One model of KM*: *Nonaka, I. and H. Takeuchi. The Knowledge Creating Company. New York: Oxford, 1995. Tacit Explicit Tacit .. Explicit

15. How to manage knowledge? Explicit Tacit Socialization Externalization • Exercises • Clusters • First • Responder • Workshops • After action reviews • Symposia • Workshops • Tech Demos • Competency Map Tacit Tacit • Lessons learned • New Protocols • Documents/Reports • Communications • Portal • Databases • Info Management • Exercises • Shared • Experience • Training Explicit Internalization: Combination:

16. Social Network Analysis is used to follow the flow (or lack of flow)of knowledge Orphaned database Rosa and Thomas are `hidden` experts

17. KM is the process of capturing a company’s collective expertise wherever it resides: in databases, on paper, in people’s heads – and distributing it to wherever it can help produce the biggest payoff (Hibbard, 1997) What is Knowledge Management?

18. Why worry about KM in universities? The university’s knowledge role • Knowledge creation and codification = research • Knowledge dissemination = education, training and publication • Knowledge application = service to society (Kargbo, 2002) Tacit Explicit

19. How well do universities manage their knowledge? Do they: • Exploit both tacit and explicit knowledge? • Avoid duplicating information? • Have opportunities to easily share and pool what they have learned? • Know what they know and who knows what? • Recognize knowledge as an asset and manage/leverage knowledge accordingly?

20. A successful learning organization should have: • Learning Culture - an organizational climate that nurtures learning • Processes - processes that encourage interaction across boundaries • Tools and Techniques - methods that aid individual and group learning • Skills and Motivation - to learn and adapt (Leithwood and Louis, 1998)

21. Some things to keep in mind… • What is your role in knowledge management? CKO – CWO*? • What knowledge-related challenges are you facing today? • How does important knowledge get shared in your organizational unit? • What helps and what hinders this sharing? *Chief Wisdom Officer (!!)

22. Additional resources of interest • DeLong, D. (2004). Lost knowledge: confronting the threat of an aging workforce. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. • Hibbard, J. (1997). Ernst and Young deploys app for knowledge management. Information Week, July 28, 1997, p. 28. • Kargho, J. (2002). African universities and the challenge of knowledge creation and application in the information age. Library Review. Vol. 51/8, 2002 p.411-416. • Leithwood K., and Louis, K. Eds. (1998). Organizational learning in Schools. Lise: Swets, 1998. • Salkeld, L. (2007). Is this the man who sank the Titanic by walking off with the vital locker key? Daily Mail UK (available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

23. Future Projects: The Encyclopedia of Lost Knowledge…. Thank you for your attention Kimiz.Dalkir@mcgill.ca