Knowledge and Information Management

1. Research and Policy in Development Programme Knowledge and Information Management Ben Ramalingam RAPID Programme, ODI b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk BOND-ODI Workshop London, 9th June 2005

2. Why are we all here today? • Understand the organisational competencies required for effective knowledge and learning • Gain exposure to a range of methods that can be used to promote individual and organisational management of ‘explicit’ knowledge • Describe experiences, methods and approaches that have worked for yourselves and your peers • Receive peer support in thinking through how you might take forward knowledge and learning work within your own organisation

3. Agenda for today • 10.00 Getting to know each other • 10:20 Knowledge, learning and the benchmarking approach • 10.35 Sharing through story telling • 11.30: Coffee break • 11.45:ReviewKnowledge assets & personal information strategies • 13.00: Lunch • 14.00: Developing a knowledge asset • 15.30: Coffee • 15.45: Strategies, Tools and M&E • 16.30: Action Plans • 17.00: After action review / Evaluation • 17.25: Wrap up and close by 17.30

4. The BOND-ODI approach • Experiential mutual learning • Balance of presenting and facilitating • Relaxed, informal & fun

5. Learn during Learn after Learn before What are we talking about when we say “knowledge and learning”? “…The idea is not to create an encyclopaedia of everything that everybody knows, but to keep track of people who ‘know the recipe’, and nurture the technology and culture that will get them talking…” UsingKnowledge Using Knowledge Goals Results External networks; Colleagues; Information assets

6. There are different forms of knowledge… Implicit Y Has it been articulated? Can it been articulated? Start N Y N Explicit Tacit

7. …and different approaches to learning and influencing

8. Getting the environment right • Shared beliefs and common values • A willingness to ask for help • Common technology which connects people • Effective Peer Processes • Rewarding and recognising learning • Identifying and reinforcing the right leadership behaviours

9. Some quotes “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin “Most activities or tasks are not one time events… our philosophy is fairly simple: every time we do something again we should do it better than the last time.” Lord Browne "When knowledge gained somewhere doesn't move elsewhere, that's not a learning organization; that's just a bunch of projects." Saratoga Institute "Practice provides the rails on which knowledge flows." John Seely-Brown

10. ODI experience • Knowledge and learning are at the heart of the ODI approach to bridge research, policy and practice • ODI research groups and networks provide a substantial knowledge base • e.g. ALNAP and RAPID • The ODI-DFID PPA has systematic learning as a core principle

11. ODI - research

12. organisational contextsleadership approaches,governance structures, management processes, institutional pressures, funding cycles, historical evolution etc. links within and across the organisation boundaries – via communities and ICTs; to communications plans; to core functions and support functions, etc knowledge – forms and locations; processes – e.g.: creation, sharing, storage, use; key activities and tools; staff capacities; relevance, M&E ODI – a strategic framework for change external factors knowledge of partners, donors, other external agencies; networks; national and global factors

13. ODI - a menu of tools (more about this later…)

14. ODI – practical applications

15. Self Assessment

16. Results of the knowledge benchmarking

17. Example of a river diagram…

24. Example of a step diagram… Current level Managing knowledge Gap between current and target level

25. Other applications: AIDS Competence http://www.km4dev.org for retrospect on KM in AIDS project

26. What’s possible? What weboth know What I know in my context Peer Assists What you know in your context

27. Storytelling 1. Situation 2. A change or challenge 3. Action 4. Result 5. Lesson

28. Group Task 1 – As pairs then groups • Think of a specific change related to “managing knowledge” (OR one of the other competencies) in one of your own projects or programmes, past or present • Reflect and recall the detail before, during and after. Write nothing down • 1 minute` • Find a stranger and take it in turns to listen to and tell a story • Please write nothing down. • 4 minutes; 2 mins each • Use templates to interview your partner and write each story up • Make sure your images and messages are clear. • 10 minutes; 5 minutes each • Find another pair and tell your partner’s story • 12 minutes; 3 minutes each • In your new groups of 4, ask – what are the 3-5 concrete lessons emerging from our stories? • 10 minutes per group • Walk around and highlight favourites from the sheets • Use green dots provided

29. Agenda for today • 10.00 Getting to know each other • 10:20 Knowledge, learning and the benchmarking approach • 10.35 Sharing through story telling • 11.30: Coffee break • 11.45:ReviewKnowledge assets & personal information strategies • 13.00: Lunch • 14.00: Developing a knowledge asset • 15.30: Coffee • 15.45: Strategies, Tools and Measurement • 16.30: Action Plans • 17.00: After action review / Evaluation • 17.25: Wrap up and close by 17.30

30. All participants • What was it like to shape and tell the story? • What was it like to hear your story told by another? • What was it like to tell someone else’s story? • How else could you use this method? • What are its limitations? 10 minutes

31. Building and managing knowledge assets – key lessons • Specificity • Commitment • Incentives and rewards • Demand • Precision costs! • Focus on priority decisions • Build on existing systems and routines • Link to existing processes and incentives • Watch out for “losers” • Go for greatest impact

32. Key questions for developing knowledge assets • What do we think this knowledge asset is really about? • What users and uses might there be there for this knowledge asset? What communities? • What types of information will be available on the asset? • In what formats and structures? • How could useful existing material be incorporated? • How to include people in the asset to build the social life of the asset? • How should the asset be made available to users? • How to build two-way relationships? • incentivise feedback from users • instil ownership in users • How to measure impact? Supply side!

33. An aside: communicating KM • What – are you communicating? (Content) • Who – are you communicating to? (Audience) • How – are you communicating it? (Channel) • When – are you communicating it? (Freq/Timing) • Why – are you communicating it? (Reason/Benefit)

34. A fundamental lesson for development agencies • Personal knowledge management skills are as important, if not more, than technical tools! • Ways that people filter information overload • Making sense of and analysing information • Synthesising information • Using information to communicate effectively with others • Individual behaviours are essential for organisational strategies to work • Individual plans can help Demand side!

35. Task 2 – “put yourself in their shoes” • 1. What are your information needs? • 2. What are your key sources? Who are the knowledge brokers? • 3. What do you want supplied? What do you want on demand? • 4. How and when to process mission critical information? • 5. How do you want to file and save? What organisational guidelines are there for this? • 6. What is an appropriate filing system for you? How could you document and share this? • 7. How to refine and synthesise your information for use by you and others? • 8. How to review your information? Pairs to work through these steps to fill out personal information management frameworks for each other 20 minutes each (total of 40 minutes)

36. All participants • What were some of the challenges there? • What could we change in our own approaches? 10 minutes

37. Task 3 – as groups after lunch • Work in groups of 4-5 • You will be given a knowledge asset challenge for you to respond to • Work through each of the questions with your group • Appoint a recorder within each group • Appoint a reporter for each group • Brainstorm each asset and related questions for approx 60mins, taking notes on flip chart paper (to be collected for workshop report – write clear!) • Try to incorporate 2-3 concrete actions from the morning session • Present back to the group (5 mins per groups) • Q&A and summary

38. Agenda for today • 10.00 Getting to know each other • 10:20 Knowledge, learning and the benchmarking approach • 10.35 Sharing through story telling • 11.30: Coffee break • 11.45:ReviewKnowledge assets & personal information strategies • 13.00: Lunch • 14.00: Developing a knowledge asset • 15.30: Coffee • 15.45: Strategies, Tools and Measurement • 16.30: Action Plans • 17.00: After action review / Evaluation • 17.25: Wrap up and close by 17.30

39. organisational contextsleadership approaches,governance structures, management processes, institutional pressures, funding cycles, historical evolution etc. links within and across the organisation boundaries – via communities and ICTs; to communications plans; to core functions and support functions, etc knowledge – forms and locations; processes – e.g.: creation, sharing, storage, use; key activities and tools; staff capacities; relevance, M&E The Knowledge Strategies Framework external factors knowledge of partners, donors, other external agencies; networks; national and global factors

40. The framework can be used to devise and revise strategies • The external factorsHow does the knowledge and learning strategy address issues emerging from external relationships and factors? • The context How do issues of institutional governance, politics and economics support or hinder the knowledge and learning strategy? • Links How does knowledge and learning link to structures, functions, core activities, supporting activities and processes of a given organisation? • The knowledge How is knowledge and learning understood and applied within each organisation?What tools are used, why and how?

41. And allows useful comparisons 1. Ideal model e.g. ?? 2. Islands model e.g. multilaterals Contexts Contexts Links Knowledge Links Knowledge 3. Technocratic model e.g. donors 4. Ivory Tower model e.g. Research institutes Contexts Contexts Links Knowledge Knowledge Links

42. Knowledge: processes and tools • There are a range of processes to consider • Mapping and creation of knowledge • Managing and storing knowledge • Learning and sharing knowledge • Use of knowledge • The different processes and different forms of knowledge can be brought together…

43. Knowledge: a menu of tools

44. What is the M&E problem we face? • The problem with attribution • Multiple actors and factors contribute • Unintended results are often ignored • Influence shifts overtime (indirect relation) • Impact of our interventions occurs further down the development chain • The problem with Accountability vs. Learning

45. The problem with attribution Family Church DFID Knowledge and Learning Your organisation Gov GRO CSOs USAID

46. Why do we face these problems? • Because the responsibility for achieving results ultimately depends on the actions of our partners as influenced by the contexts in which they work • Focusing on downstream impact increases programming bureaucratisation and is inconsistent with our understanding of learning & development as complex processes

47. What is Outcome Mapping (OM)? • OM is a dynamic methodology useful in the development of planning, monitoring and evaluation mechanism. OM: • Provides the tools to think holistically and strategically about how it intends to achieve results • Focuses on outcomes instead of impacts • It deals with Contribution instead of attribution • Forces us to limit our planning and evaluation to our sphere of influence • Deals with changes in the behaviours of our direct partners

48. Influence over time and the focus of OM Influence Time

49. The 3 Stages of OM and what we can do today… • Intentional Design: the Why? Who? What? How? • Vision • Mission • Boundary Partners • Outcome Challenges • Progress Markers • Strategy Maps • Organisational Practices • Outcome and Performance Monitoring • Evaluation Planning

50. = BPs Boundary partners Knowledge & Learning Program