Albert SimardKnowledge ManagerDefence R&D Canada

Presented toSIKM June 19, 2012

Knowledge Managability: A New KM Paradigm

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Definitions

• Paradigm: Shared worldview, or knowledge “landscape” and all its implications within which a discipline such as KM legitimately operates

• Paradigm Shift: A profound change in a paradigm that increases its capacity to explain observed phenomena; a higher-order understanding.

The Thinker - Rodin

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Signs of Paradigm Problems

• Accumulating anomalies that the paradigm cannot explain.

• Competing concepts, theories, and principles.

• Diverse interpretations of observations and experience.

• Anomalies, disagreements, and diversity are increasingly important.

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What if…

Instead of the mantra that organizational culture must change for knowledge management to succeed;

We ask the question: “Given an existing culture, what can knowledge management do to leverage the value of organizational knowledge and increase the productivity of knowledge work?”

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Outline

• Management Levels

• Management Regimes– Creation

– Validation

– Organization

– Authorization

• Knowledge Manageability

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Knowledge Management Levels

Assets

Sharing

Work

Transfer

Infrastructure

Collaboration

National Defence, National Security, Public Safety

Markets

Resources Government

Application

Stock

Flow

Defence R&D Canada

Creation

KM Levels

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Knowledge Infrastructure

Processes

work routineslessons learned, best practices,

Peoplelearning, motivation,

rewards, incentives,

staffing, skills

Governance roles, responsibilities, authorities, resources

Content, Services

data, risk analysis, reports, monitoring, operations, policies

Toolssystems to capture, store, share, and process content

KM LevelsKM Levels

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Knowledge Assets

• Capture: Represent explicit or tacit knowledge on reproducible media

• Inventory: Find, list, and describe knowledge; map to business needs, value and prioritize

• Needs: What needs to be known to accomplish organizational goals; identify core knowledge

• Gaps: Difference between what is known and what needs to be known

• Preserve: organize, store, search & retrieval, maintain and migrate throughout life-cycle

KM LevelsKM Levels

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Knowledge SharingExplicit Knowledge

• Dissemination (Provider Pushes – transmission, semantics, effectiveness)

• Access (User Pulls – awareness, permission, accessibility, searching, retrieval)

• Exchange (Market Trades – reciprocity, trust, signals, inefficiencies, pathologies)

Tacit Knowledge• Methods (conversations, Q&A, capturing, advising,

teaching, storytelling, mentoring, presenting)• Place (meetings, workshops, conferences, on-site,

demonstrations, classrooms, symposia, communities) • Technology (telephone, e-mail, video conference,

chat rooms, bulletin boards, on-line forums, blogs, micro blogs, social network sites)

KM LevelsKM Levels

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Collaboration• Dialogue, conversations in groups

• Sharing, exchanges among peers

• Candor, freedom of expression

• Trust, safety, honesty

• Transparency, openness

• Agreed rules of conduct

• Diversity, flexibility, outliers

• Equality, meritocracy of ideas

• Balanced accessibility and security

• Collective, not individual benefit

KM LevelsKM Levels

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Knowledge Work (DRDC)Inputs

Governance

Monitoring

Intelligence

Needs

Priorities

Establishment

Transformation

Programs

Services

Acquire

Create

Develop

Mobilize

Learn

Output Report

Integration

Innovation

Mitigation

Advice

Adaptation

Clie

nts

DND

(management)

(R & D)

KM LevelsKM Levels

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Knowledge Transfer• Communications: one-way dissemination of

approved messages and positions.

• Transaction: two-way exchanges of knowledge products & services.

• Parallel: Transferring knowledge products & services from or to two or more providers or users.

• Sequential: Multiple organizations sequentially produce and transfer knowledge products & services.

• Cyclic: Knowledge service “value chains” continuously create and transfer new knowledge.

• Network: Interactions among large numbers of participants in a “knowledge ecosystem.”

KM LevelsKM Levels

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Outline

• Management Levels

• Management Regimes– Creation

– Validation

– Organization

– Authorization

• Knowledge Manageability

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Organizational Knowledge Flow

CreationCreation ValidationValidation

OrganizationOrganizationAuthorizationAuthorization

RegimesRegimes

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Incentives

• Compliance (you will)– Pay, job security, duty, work ethic, penalties– Military, manufacturing, law, regulation, policies– Meet quotas, minimum standards, routine tasks

• Motivation (you’ll be rewarded)– Ambition, challenges, bonuses, rewards, recognition– Efficiency, productivity, quality– Increases, improvements

• Engagement (would you like to?)– Meaningfulness, ownership, self-esteem, enjoyment– Creativity, innovation, discovery– Commitment, involvement, willingness, enjoyment

Creation

Creation

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Engagement• Autonomy: (agreed task, flexible schedule, select

technique, choose team)

• Mastery: (is a mindset, it takes time and effort, it is asymptotic)

• Purpose: (meaningful goals, words are important, policies)

Daniel Pink (2009)Daniel Pink (2009)

CreationCreation

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Eliciting Methods

• Conversations, discussions, dialogue (colleagues, peers)

• Questions & answers, problems & solutions (novice/expert)

• After-action reviews, lessons learned (event/group)

• Capture, document, interview, record (expert/facilitator)

• Extraction, identify, codify, organize (expert/know engineer)

• Advising, briefing, recommending (subordinate/superior)

• Teaching, educating, training (teacher/student)

• Storytelling, narratives, anecdotes (teller/listener)

• Explaining, demonstrating, describing (technician/user)

• Presentations, lectures, speeches (speaker/audience)

CreationCreation

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Communities Create & Validate Knowledge

• Knowledge exists in the minds of people. Experience is as important as formal knowledge.

• Knowledge is tacit as well as explicit. Transferring tacit knowledge is more effective through human interaction.

• Knowledge is social as well as individual. Today’s knowledge is the result of centuries of collective research.

• Knowledge is changing at an accelerating rate. It takes a community of people to keep up with new concepts, practices, and technology.

ValidationValidation

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Participants- Help with their work- Solve problems- Find experts- Receive feedback- Place to learn- Enhance reputation

Participants- Help with their work- Solve problems- Find experts- Receive feedback- Place to learn- Enhance reputation

Management- Connect isolated experts- Coordinate activities- Fast problem solving- Reduce development time- Standardize processes- Develop & retain talent

Management- Connect isolated experts- Coordinate activities- Fast problem solving- Reduce development time- Standardize processes- Develop & retain talent

Community Benefits

Outputs- - Tangible: documents, reports, manuals,

recommendations, reduced innovation time and cost- - Intangible: increased skills, sense of trust, diverse

perspectives, cross-pollinate ideas, capacity to innovate, relationships, spirit of enquiry

Outputs- - Tangible: documents, reports, manuals,

recommendations, reduced innovation time and cost- - Intangible: increased skills, sense of trust, diverse

perspectives, cross-pollinate ideas, capacity to innovate, relationships, spirit of enquiry

ValidationValidation

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Harvesting Methods

• Service Center: repository for community outputs; interface with communities, minimize duplication, inform communities

• Leader: transfer community outputs; Identify emerging trends, prioritize issues

• Sponsor: endorse community outputs; bridge between the community and the organization, provide support, minimize organizational barriers

• Champion: ensure adoption of community outputs; communicate purpose, promote the community

ValidationValidation

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Organizational Structure

Technology

support

Manage

InterfaceContent

Research

Social

Common

OrganizationOrganization

Governance

direction

workwork

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Knowledge Services Value Chain

Use Internally

Use Professionally

Use Personally

Create Transform

Add Value

Transfer

EvaluateManage

Extract

Advance

Embed

Legend

S&T PartnersCentre for Security Science

Practitioners & Stakeholders

OrganizationOrganization

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Organizing Knowledge

• Classification systems

• Indexes, catalogues

• Thesauri, Taxonomies

• Ontologies, Mind maps

• Folksonomies

• Automated methods

• Artificial intelligence

OrganizationOrganization

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Service Governance Framework

Negotiation

Negotiation

Negotiation

AuthorizationAuthorization

Direction, Authority, ResourcesProgram

Governance

Project Governance

Work

Systems

Reports, Advice, Issues

Corp. Service Governance

Centre Service Governance

KIT Services

Technology Content

Reports, Advice Issues

Other services: science, HR, finance, purchasing…

Mandate Resources ConstraintsAuthority Responsibility Accountability

Budget Staff Capacity

Laws TB Policies DND Policies

Corporate Governance

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Authorization

• Understanding – Keep it simple; one message with stories and multiple analogies from different perspectives.

• Experience – Do your homework; pre-brief decision makers, solicit opinions, negotiate objections (to a point).

• Resources – Pick low-hanging fruit; plan low cost, small effort, low impact activities.

• Management – Think big, start small; divide into small projects with measurable, high-impact deliverables.

• Submission – Leadership is essential; bypass unjustified objections, accept majority vote, authorize work.

AuthorizationAuthorization

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Sustainability• Leadership – Outputs must be delivered within a leader’s

tenure; preferably, get them institutionalized. • Governance – Representative, federated decision making

is the only sustainable governance for knowledge work.• Reorganization – Align a project/activity with the

organizational business model. • Priorities – Align the project/activity with the organization’s

long-term strategy• Support – Deliver initial outputs when & as promised; be

prepared to adapt to changing priorities.• Culture – Develop favorable policies, reward desired

behavior, leverage work, implement helpful systems.

AuthorizationAuthorization

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Outline

• Management Levels

• Management Regimes– Individuals

– Communities

– Organization

– Authorization

• Knowledge Manageability

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Management RegimesAuthoritative Hierarchy

Organizational Structure

Negotiated Agreement

Responsible Autonomy

Purpose (Why) Authorize Organize Collaborate Create

Entity (What) Decisions & Actions

Objects & Tasks

People & Connectivity

Environment & Interests

Process (How) Decide & Act Capture & Structure

Connect Communities

Engage People

Interactions Hierarchy Work Process Agreements Dialogue

Knowledge Authoritative Explicit Tacit Innate

ManageabilityManageability

KnowledgeKnowledge

AuthorityAuthority

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Manageability and the Cynefin Framework ManageabilityManageability

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Definitions

• Authoritative Hierarchy: Knowledge creation, management, and use can be completely, totally, or entirely mandated, governed, structured, and evaluated.

• Organizational Structure: Knowledge creation, management, and use can be predominantly, generally, or mostly mandated, governed, structured, and evaluated.

• Negotiated Agreement: Knowledge creation, management, and use can be partly, nominally, or incompletely mandated, governed, structured, and evaluated.

• Responsible Autonomy: Knowledge creation, management, and use can be slightly, minimally, or not mandated, governed, structured, and evaluated.

ManageabilityManageability

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Knowledge Agenda

Management levels

Authoritative Hierarchy

Organizational Infrastructure

Negotiated Agreement

Responsible Autonomy

Transfer Direction Products & Services

Exchange Knowledge markets

Work Mandate Process Agreement Self-interest

Collaboration Assignment Representation Partnership Voluntarism

Sharing Vertical Horizontal Community Network

Assets Embed Sole IP rights Joint IP rights Open source

Infrastructure Authoritative Standardized Connective Enabling

Management RegimesManagement Regimes

Manageability

Boundaries are “Fuzzy.”Boundaries are “Fuzzy.”

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Management Regimes and Strategic Trends

Authoritative Hierarchy

Organizational Structure

Partnership Agreement

Responsible Autonomy

knowledge assets

generation capacity

structured processes

individual abilities

Re

lativ

e Im

por

tanc

ehigh

low

Management Regime

Competitiveness

Sustainability

ManageabilityManageability

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Main Messages

• There are six KM levels.

• There are four KM regimes

• KM moves knowledge across all levels and regimes.

• This framework provides a new paradigm for KM.

Escher (1957) “Cube with Magic Ribbons”

Escher (1957) “Cube with Magic Ribbons”

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Time for DialogueTime for Dialogue

albert.simard@drdc-rddc.gc.caalbert.simard@drdc-rddc.gc.ca