#SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book05

7/31/2019 #SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book05

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By Michael Prevou and Mitchell Levy

Everything You Need to Know about Knowledge Managementin Practice in 140 Characters or Less

E-mail: [email protected]

20660 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 210Cupertino, CA 95014

#SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book05

Foreword by Kent Greenes

Book Excerpt



BOOK EXCERPT Table of Contents


Section I: What Is Knowledge Management?

Section II: What Knowledge Management Is Not

Section III: Benefits o a Knowledge Management Program

Section IV: How Do I Know My Knowledge Management Program Is Working?

About the Authors

Everything You Need to Know about Knowledge Management in Practice in 140 Characters or Less



3#SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book05

ContentsThis is the Table o Contents (TOC) rom the book or your

reerence. The eBook TOC (below) difers in page count rom

the tradebook TOC.

Foreword by Kent Greenes 13

Section I

What Is Knowledge Management? 19

Section II

What Knowledge Management Is Not 39

Section III

Benefits o a Knowledge ManagementProgram 49

Section IV

How Do I Know My KnowledgeManagement Program Is Working? 59

Section V

Enabling and Supporting Learningin Your Organization 67



Section VI

Beginning a Knowledge ManagementProgram in Your Organization 77

Section VII

Efective Knowledge Management

Strategies 93

Section VIII

Advice or Creating a SustainableKnowledge Management Program 107

Appendix A: Sample KnowledgeManagement Principles 125

Appendix B: Knowledge ManagementStrategy Development Outline 129

Appendix C: Reerences 135

About the Authors 137





The rapid rate o change and increased complexity o business hasoutpaced our abilities to learn and perorm as organizations, teams, andindividuals. When these actors are combined with the emergence o competition rom sources never beore imaginable, we can no longer afordto rely on traditional knowledge sharing and transer methods. Knowledgemanagement (KM) is one o the most powerul new enablers in a business

leader’s toolkit.

Social media, microblogging, advanced search engines, and newcollaboration sotware (such as SharePoint) are making a diference inknowledge sharing and transer because o three new realities in themarketplace: the need or speed, complex problems with no right answers,and too much inormation.

The need for speed. No matter what, knowledge collaboration, sharing, andtranser have to be ast. In today’s marketplace, speed is everything. Speedis so critical now that people are searching or expertise and content in alimited amount o time.

We need to learn at the speed o work to solve new problems quicker,accelerate innovation, get our products and services to market aster, andoutperorm the competition. Learning rom experience is the source o most o the knowledge we need to perorm. Everyone rom the boardroomto the field agrees that learning beore doing a task or project is howexperience becomes explicit and moveable. But it takes too much time, so itdoesn’t get done. When we weave the tools into our business processes andorganizational structures to share and find nuggets o bite-sized, quicklydigestible knowledge, we reduce the time it takes to learn beore doing andto disseminate learning ater doing, which means people will actually usethe knowledge!

No right answers. Tasks and decisions that could be efectively handledby an individual in earlier times now exceed the scope o a single person.





This new workplace reality is driving a undamental shit in learningand knowledge transer rom the traditional “one-to-many” approach toa “many-to-many” way o learning. This approach inorms thinking andgenerates new ideas and solutions. KM enables many people to sharetheir knowledge with many others and brings the wisdom o the crowdsto solving big organizational problems much aster than beore. It’s anawesome capability or leveraging cognitive diversity to help inorm ourthinking.

But that’s not all KM does. It also makes knowledge sharing and transer

more efective. It puts inormation in context, helps connect us withexpertise, and provides us a deliberate way to capture and transerexperience beore it retires and departs the organization. It helps usidentiy best business practices and the conditions that make them relevantand helps us organize the volumes o content we have available as a usableresource. Done right, KM orces us to be organized, thoughtul, and concisein what we share. This is what our brains really like and need—knowledgein short, sharp chunks.

Drowning in information but never enough knowledge. Let’s ace it,there’s just too much data and inormation out there, but I have neverheard anyone say they had too much knowledge. And inormation sourcesare multiplying at an ever-increasing rate. This is a great thing i we can

manage the environment. But it also makes it di cult and time-consumingto find the right knowledge you need when you need it. By the natureo how it works, KM can provide a channel o relevancy to help ease theweight o too much inormation.

And finally, we share with people we know and trust. This means eachconnection carries some context to help us make sense o what is beingshared. This automatically reduces the herculean task we ace sorting andsiting through the vast amount o knowledge available. It’s no wonderpeople these days are searching or an answer to the question o how tomanage knowledge more efectively.

Michael and Mitchell have done a great thing here. They have combined

their experience in KM and learning to give us nuggets o insights rom




real practitioners that we can quickly tap and digest to inorm our thinking.Their ocus on the Knowledge EnvironmentTM is right on target. Theirorientation on people and processes versus technology is a breath o reshair. It’s now up to us to use this wealth o advice to learn beore, during, andater and optimize our knowledge management eforts.

Kent Greenes

Founder o Greenes Consulting and previous Head o

Knowledge Management or British Petroleum andScience Applications International Corporation




The Knowledge Environment™




KM is a deliberate approach to help organizations efectively use

and reuse what they know (both tacit and explicit) to achieve a

sustained competitive advantage.

Knowledge exists in the heads o people. In a business context, it is “what ouremployees know about their customers, one another, products, processes,mistakes, and successes, whether that knowledge is tacit or explicit” (O’Delland Hubert 2011). It is our ability to access, learn rom, and use this knowledgeor a competitive advantage that drives the need or us to manage knowledgein our organizations.

While knowledge management (KM) is a relatively new discipline, it is otenmisunderstood and hard to quantiy in terms o results. One o the reasons itis so misunderstood is the dif culty in visualizing and communicating howpeople manage knowledge. Our deault rame o reerence causes us to ocuson managing documents, artiacts, and the technology systems used to storeand collect these artiacts, rather than on the ull spectrum o both tacit andexplicit knowledge linked to improving business objectives and creatingresults. I we can rerame our thinking to one that manages the environmentin which we want knowledge to flow, then we can address the components othat environment as tangible items that we can design, build, measure, andmanage.

While the three elements o people, processes, and technology have ormedthe oundation or KM in the past, they are no longer suf cient to outlinean eective knowledge environment. KM must orient on at least sevencomponents we call the Knowledge Environment™ (Prevou 2011) so we canreduce the barriers and improve the way in which knowledge moves throughthe organization. The Knowledge Environment™ consists o: people, processes,technology, organizational structure, content, organizational culture, and

What Is Knowledge Management?

Section I



knowledge leadership. Each component must be addressed and integratedin the right balance or an eective KM eort. Likewise, KM must also belinked to the goals and objectives o the organization and ocused on closingperormance gaps.

Managing what we know and who knows it is too important to our success orit to be let to happenstance. KM must put people first and serve as a deliberateapproach to help eectively use and reuse what we know to achieve a sustainedcompetitive advantage. This holistic strategy to manage the entire KnowledgeEnvironment™ is a must or any modern-day organization.




#SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book05 11

1

2

KM is about sharing tacit and explicit

knowledge, breaking down silos,and connecting the workorce to

improve perormance.

KM is a way o conducting everyday

business to ensure our corporate

knowledge is embedded in our

business processes.




3

KM is socially driven,

linking people across the

organizational boundaries to

share what they know.




4

KM is about managingproessional conversation by

using social applications that

link people to people and

people to content.







What Knowledge Management Is Not

Section II

Otentimes, when people are discussing knowledge management, theconversation quickly turns to things that KM is not—like the technical detailso data storage solutions or the latest collaborative tools—rather than stayingocused on the goals that KM can accomplish (i.e., business drivers such asimproving human perormance or business processes, or the creation o acapability to find and connect expertise with those who need it). As noted bymany o the practitioners who contributed content to this book, technologyalone cannot share knowledge or make the complex decisions or us. It canstore data and inormation and prod us to action, but ultimately, it is only atool that must be integrated into our work environment and applied in context.

Successul KM is more about connecting people to people and people to contentthan anything else. Technology is a key enabler, especially today when we needto span time and geographical boundaries to connect a global workorce. Buttechnology is only an enabler, a tool. Understanding and considering eacho the seven components o the Knowledge Environment™ and creating theproper balance, like in any ecosystem, is paramount to eective KM.

When considering a knowledge flow problem or gap, first ask, “What are wetrying to accomplish and why?” without any discussion o technology. Then,and only then, discuss how technology can enhance and enable that process.KM should be used to solve business problems and should not be an end untoitsel.




29KM is not technology driven.

Technology is an enabler—it cannot

share or make decisions or us.

30KM enables business processes—it’s

not a separate or additional business

unction, an extra duty, or a

step in a process.




31Remember, knowledge must move to

be valuable. Do your KM systems

move it, or just store it?

32KM is not run or managed by the

IT team. They simply enable it like

a plumber enables the flow o

drinking water.




33

KM is not narrowly ocused

on mining the knowledgecontained in documents.

More than 80% o

corporate knowledge is

in people’s heads!




34

35

It’s everyone’s duty to understand

how KM fits into the companyprocesses. Don’t designate KM to

one position or team.

Don’t assume people will access and

use the inormation that is dumped

into large repositories or databases.







Section IIIBenefits o a Knowledge Management Program

The benefits o a KM program could include improved perormance; increasedproductivity and profits; improved innovation; better, aster decisions;cost savings; reduced loss o knowledge and expertise rom retiring andtransitioning workers; happier workers; and increased individual/teamef ciency and eectiveness. I your KM program is aligned directly with yourbusiness strategy (as we recommend), you are practicing KM or the benefito your organization’s bottom line. Your organization’s KM and inormationtechnology practitioners and managers should be able to directly link almostevery KM and IT activity to a business goal and objective.

According to the Economist Intelligence Study “Foresight 2020,” KM is oneo the five key trends that will determine competitiveness in this decade.For businesses to compete successully, they will need access to actionableinormation and expertise aster and with more context and relevance than everbeore. With so much riding on our need to connect our workorce and sharewhat we know to learn rom one another and produce or our organizations, KMcannot be let to happenstance. The benefits and rewards will be commensuratewith an eective program that manages the entire spectrum o the Knowledge

Environment™.




42

KM helps you learn aster and more

eectively than your competition.

43KM helps you manage the

increasing volume and speed

o big data and the requirement to

constantly innovate and grow.




44

KM improves return on investment,

ef ciency o processes, and

inormation technology.

45

KM creates aster, more

inormed decision making, shortertime-to-market cycle, and improved

employee and customer satisaction.




46KM helps us connect the

workorce across time, space, and

organizational boundaries.

The illiterate o the 21st century

will be those who cannot learn,

unlearn, and relearn quickly.

KM is a tool to help you learn.

47




48

49KM provides an essential roadmap

or how we connect, share, learn, and

innovate. It develops relationships

that make our businesses work.

KM captures and distributes bestpractices to reduce the cost o

rethinking or redeveloping solutions.







One o the most important conversations executives can have with their staf is about how they will know their KM eforts are working. Like any soundbusiness unction, you should be able to measure whether KM is having

an efect on your business goals and objectives. Many people eel that KMobjectives are intangible and very hard to measure. Most agree that i theycan be measured, they take longer to achieve and cannot be measured onquarterly business cycles. Outlining a knowledge strategy that has clearlydefinable objectives and tasks is critical to a successul program. Like aroadmap, this ramework helps us understand where we are going, how andwhen we will get there, and who is accountable or what. One o the mostobvious ways you will know your KM program is working is by the behaviorsthat demonstrate a sense o personal accountability or continuous learning,sharing, and collaboration. People should be asking, “Who else needs toknow this, who has done anything like this beore, and how can we learn Xso we can accomplish Y better, aster, and cheaper?”

When looking or tangible measures o efectiveness, organizations needto look at each component o the Knowledge Environment™ and identiymetrics that are linked to their perormance goals (i.e., growing thebusiness base, improving profitability, increasing quality, improving brandrecognition, saving time, having aster time to competency or new hires).KM should also produce a number o intangible benefits that will be muchharder to measure. These benefits may include stronger relationships andnetworks, deeper commitment to the organization resulting in less turnover,higher sense o employee satisaction, more collaboration, reductions inknowledge lost rom retirements and transitions, and increased desire orlielong learning…just to name a ew.

Section IVHow Do I Know My Knowledge Management

Program Is Working?




59

60

KM is working when new hires startproducing aster as a result o a more

eective onboarding program.

KM is working when it is no longer

reerred to as a program. Instead,

it has become integral to

organizational behavior.




61

KM is working when the

KM processes improve

individual, team, and

organizational eectiveness.




62

KM is working when yourworkorce shares a common

view o what is going on.

They eel inormed

and empowered.



Michael (Mike) Prevou, PhD, is president and co-founder of Strategic

Knowledge Solutions, a leading consulting firm specialized in knowledge

management (KM) and organizational learning solutions.

Mike is one of the most innovative and experienced KM practitioners in the

country. He is a certified Master Knowledge Management Professional and

in #SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book05: Everything

You Need to Know about Knowledge Management in Practice in 140 Characters or Less , he draws on that unique experience in the public,

private, and non-profit sectors to bring you the most relevant and cutting-

edge developments in the field.

Mike spent twenty-five years in the U.S. Army, where he co-founded the

Army’s lead agency on knowledge management and established and grew

a nested network of over sixty online communities of practice to connect

Army leaders. These communities have now grown to over 250,000 active

members and have saved the military time, money, and lives. He has

consulted with over thirty corporate, military, federal government, and

About the Authors



academic organizations on KM and learning and published over twenty-

five articles on knowledge management strategies and solutions, andindividual, team, and organizational learning approaches. He is a regular

speaker at learning and knowledge management conerences and teaches

a series o KM related courses, workshops, and seminars. His unique

experiences in implementing real KM in action along with his background

in educational psychology partner or a powerul combination o expertise

that can help any company implement a successul KM program targeted

to their specific needs.



Mitchell Levy is the author o twelve business books and the CEO o the

independent publishing house Happy About®. Ater earning his MBA

rom the College o William and Mary, he spent thirteen years working or

corporations in IT, Finance, and Operations. He then spent eleven years as

an entrepreneur creating thirteen companies and strategic partnerships,

including Happy About in 2005. During this timerame, he created over

seventy courses at various universities and online learning programs, and

booked over 500 speakers at large-scale conerences.

Mr. Levy is also partner o the physical networking firm CXOnetworking

and sits on the Board o Directors at Rainmaker Systems (NASDAQ:

RMKR). Previously, he created our executive education programs at two

diferent Silicon Valley universities and was the conerence chair or our

Comdex conerences ocusing on business executives at medium to large

sized enterprises. He has contributed to and written over 100 articles, and

has given over 250 speeches on e-commerce and business.



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