Weekly Knowledge Management Blog by Stan Garfield

KM Question, Blog, Link, and Book of the Week

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KM Question of the Week

My colleague Tara Pangakis of HP posted this comment in response to last week's Resource Survey: "One question I'm asking quite a bit lately of the set of people I collaborate with is 'how do you define knowledge resource!' Establishing that basic vocabulary can be enlightening in interpreting the rest of the great questions you cite!"

The Resource Survey should start with a complete list of knowledge resources currently available in an organization. But the first question in the survey is: "Are there other valuable knowledge resources you use frequently? If so, what are they?" This allows users to answer Tara's question by specifying actual resources, rather than trying to define them in the abstract.

Here is a list of knowledge resources which can be used to choose the ones most relevant to an organization for a survey. Not all of these are always relevant, and there may be others offered in response to the first question, but this list of the Top 50 KM Components provides one set of definitions. Examples of each component are available in my KM World slides.

People components

1. culture and values: the way things are done in an organization, and what things are considered to be important and taboo
2. knowledge managers: people who spend all or a significant portion of their time leading KM initiatives, sharing knowledge, and supporting others in sharing their knowledge
3. user surveys and employee satisfaction surveys: periodic surveys to determine user preferences, needs, and challenges and to determine how employees view a KM program and its components
4. social networks: collections of people who are acquainted or connected as friends, business contacts, or colleagues and communicate, collaborate, or help one another as needed
5. communities: groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and deepen their understanding and knowledge of this area by interacting on an ongoing basis
6. training: classroom courses, self-paced courses, and recorded webinars which allow users to learn what is expected of them; the people, processes, and tools which are available to them; and how to use all of these in order to share, innovate, reuse, collaborate, and learn
7. documentation: user guides, manuals, and help files which allow users to read about what is expected of them; the people, processes, and tools which are available to them; and how to use all of these in order to share, innovate, reuse, collaborate, and learn
8. communications: vehicles for informing current and potential users about progress in the KM initiative through web sites, team spaces, portals, wikis, threaded discussions, conference calls, blogs, newsletters, distribution lists, and links
9. user assistance and knowledge help desk: people who provide support by phone or email to users, including tool consulting, finding reusable content, connecting to knowledge sources, process support, training, communication, and other assistance
10. goals and measurements: employee goals included in performance plans, and measurements to track performance against those goals and other operational indicators
11. incentives and rewards: programs designed to encourage compliance with goals, improve performance against metrics, and increase participation in KM initiatives – includes tangible rewards, recognition, and competitive rankings

Process components

12. methodologies: policies, rules, techniques, and procedures which prescribe how work it is to be performed and provide proven ways to do it successfully
13. creation: inventing new concepts, approaches, methods, techniques, products, services, and ideas which can be used for the benefit of people and organizations
14. capture: collecting documents, presentations, spreadsheets, records, processes, software source, images, audio, video, and other files which can be used for innovation, reuse, and learning
15. reuse: putting to practical use the captured knowledge, community suggestions, and collaborative assistance provided through knowledge sharing
16. lessons learned: explaining what an individual or team has learned as a result of their experience, using documents, presentations, discussions, and recordings – including what they tried, what worked, what didn't work, what to do, what to avoid, problems faced, how problems were solved, what they would do differently, and key insights and nuggets
17. proven practices: selecting, documenting, and replicating processes which have proven to improve business results so that others in similar environments or with similar needs can benefit from the proven successes
18. collaboration: interacting with peers and colleagues to exchange ideas, share experiences, work together on projects, and solve problems
19. content management: creating, managing, distributing, publishing, and retrieving structured information – the complete lifecycle of content as it moves through an organization
20. classification: creating and maintaining a taxonomy that can be used to organize information so that it can be readily found through navigation, search, and links between related content
21. metrics and reporting: capturing operational indicators and producing reports to communicate performance against goals, areas for improvement, and progress toward the desired state
22. management of change: developing a planned approach to change in an organization to address anticipated obstacles and to ensure successful adoption
23. workflow: embedding knowledge creation, capture, and reuse in business processes so that these steps happen routinely as part of normal work
24. valuation: quantifying the value of reuse and innovation so that it can be fully appreciated by the organization, including customer pricing, cost benefit analysis, and project justification
25. social network analysis: mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, animals, computers or other information/knowledge processing entities; the nodes in the network are the people and groups while the links show relationships or flows between the nodes – provides both a visual and a mathematical analysis of human relationships
26. appreciative inquiry: asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential – mobilization of inquiry through the crafting of the "unconditional positive question"
27. storytelling: using narrative to ignite action, implement new ideas, communicate who you are, build your brand, instill organizational values, foster collaboration to get things done, share knowledge, neutralize gossip and rumor, and lead people into the future

Technology components

28. user interface: the point of entry to a knowledge base that provides navigation, search, communication, help, news, site index, site map, and links to all tools
29. intranet: a private computer network that uses Internet protocols, network connectivity, and possibly the public telecommunication system to securely share part of an organization's information or operations with its employees
30. team spaces: collaborative workspaces designed to allow teams to share documents, libraries, schedules, and files; conduct meetings, calls, surveys, and polls; and store meeting minutes, discussions, reports, and plans
31. virtual meeting rooms: online, real-time tools designed to allow teams to share presentations, applications, and white boards during meetings
32. portals: web sites that provide personalized capabilities to users through the use of customization, building blocks, and integration of multiple sources
33. repositories: structured lists and databases which allow documents and other files to be stored, searched for, and retrieved
34. bulletin boards and threaded discussions: forums for carrying on discussions among subscribers on a specific subject, including online and email posts and replies, searchable archives, and discussions grouped by threads to show the complete history on each topic
35. expertise locators and ask the expert: systems for finding experts on particular subjects, allowing individuals to enter details about what they know and can do, and others to search for all people having desired skills, experience, or knowledge; and systems for asking questions of experts and getting the answers
36. metadata and tags: information about information – data fields added to documents, web sites, files, or lists which allow related items to be listed, searched for, navigated to, syndicated, and collected
37. search engines: tools which allow searching for documents, files, list items, content, and answers to questions – allow specifying the scope or domain of the search, whether to search on text or metadata, and how results should be presented
38. archiving: offline file storage for legal, audit, or historical purposes, using tapes, CDs, or other long-term media
39. blogs: web sites where entries are made (such as in a journal or diary), displayed in a reverse chronological order; often provide commentary or news on a particular subject; some function as personal online diaries or logbooks; combine text, images, and links to other blogs and web sites; typically provide archives in calendar form, local search, syndication feeds, reader comment posting, trackback links from other blogs, blogroll links to other recommended blogs, and categories of entries tagged for retrieval by topic
40. wikis: web sites which allow users to easily add, remove, edit, and change most available content – effective for collaborative writing and self-service web site creation and maintenance
41. podcasts: recorded broadcasts which can be listened to online, or downloaded manually or automatically through syndication and then listened to on portable MP3 players at the listener's convenience
42. syndication and aggregation: using feeds available from a web site to provide an updated list of its content in the form of a subscription, an embedded portion of a web site, or a collection of disparate content on a particular topic – typically uses RSS or Atom syndication and .rss, .xml, or .rdf files for the feeds
43. social software: a range of tools which facilitate social networking, typically personal web pages including bios, photos, interests, audio and video, links to friends, messages from friends, and personal networks; often referred to as Web 2.0 to include a broad range of tools such as blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds
44. external access: capability for users outside of a company's firewall to have access to selected web sites and team spaces to allow collaboration with retirees, partners, and customers who would otherwise be blocked from the company's internal network – requires technical, security, and legal elements
45. workflow applications: software which connects and sequences different applications, components, and people, all of which must be involved in the processing of data to complete an instance of a process
46. process automation applications: tools which automate previously manual processes, such as the production of proposals, creation of presentations, or the design of products
47. e-learning: tools which enable the delivery and tracking of online training courses
48. subscription management: tools which allow content providers to reach subscribers on an opt-in basis, and subscribers to sign up to receive periodicals and other communications based on their interests
49. incentive points tracking: systems for awarding and tracking points for desired knowledge management behaviors, both automatically as triggered by events and manually through forms entry
50. survey and metrics reporting automation: systems for conducting, collecting, and publishing survey data; and systems for collecting, distributing, and publishing data on key performance metrics

KM Blog of the Week

Green Chameleon by Patrick Lambe

Patrick will be presenting to the System Integrators KM Leaders next week. Here are two excellent documents he recently posted on his blog.

How to Use KPIs in Knowledge Management

I’ve always been wary of KPIs in knowledge management, because they appeal to a tangible measurement mindset that is easily distracted from the intangible and hard-to-pin down outcomes of KM efforts. I can’t tell you how may implementations I’ve seen where the measurements are diligently gathered and presented as tokens of success (number of documents, number of contributions, number of sharing sessions) when behind the metrics facade, the KM culture and rich sharing habits are as dead as a doornail.

But KPIs, used intelligently alongside “softer” evaluation techniques, do enable you to monitor progress and health in relation to your expectations as you move along your KM journey. And changes or spikes in activity or output trends can signal a need to investigate deeper. So if you take the KPIs with a big pinch of salt and remember you always have to interpret them, they can be a perfectly legitimate tool. So I sat down and wrote this guide to using KPIs.

The paper is in three sections: the first sets out some guidelines for how to use KPIs smartly. The second section gives ideas for sample sets of KPIs covering KM activities and tools as diverse as communities of practice, KM roles, and use of wikis and blogs. The third section is a template for drawing up your own sets of KPIs.

What Would a Knowledge Sharing Policy Look Like?

The contents of this document cover all the main principles and guidelines for effective sharing (I think), but I’m hoping you, the readers will give feedback and point out any factors I’ve missed.

KM Link of the Week

ABC: An Introduction to Knowledge Management - The basic guide to KM - by Meridith Levinson

• What is knowledge management (KM)?
• What constitutes intellectual or knowledge-based assets?
• Besides using technology, how else can tacit knowledge be transferred?
• What benefits can companies expect from KM?
• How can I sell a KM project in my organization?
• How can I demonstrate the value of a KM initiative?
• Is there a best way to approach KM?
• What are the challenges of KM?
• How can I gain support for my KM effort and get people to use the systems and processes we’re putting in place to facilitate KM?
• Who should lead KM efforts?
• What technologies can support KM?
• What is social network analysis (SNA) and how is it related to KM?

KM Book of the Week

I attended the monthly Positive Link Session held by the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The speaker was Dan Mulhern, and his leadership message applies not only to business, but also to families, teams, and government. I liked his emphasis on telling stories, so I feature his book this week.

Everyday Leadership: Getting Results in Business, Politics, and Life by Dan Mulhern

A down-to-earth, behind-the scenes account that goes beyond the usual self-improvement book to put a human face on the role of leadership in our lives

Review by Thomas E. Nugent: "Most of us don't tell enough stories" Dan says on page 46, and then continues to tell story after story that call out the ideas, and more importantly the values, that leaders leverage to move themselves and their organizations forward.

Google Book

Offers strategies to improve leadership skills, improve results, and gain greater satisfaction. This book is about that intersection in the lives of human leaders, and presents stories that illuminate some of the best ideas about real human leadership.

University of Michigan Press

Everyday Leadership offers strategies to improve leadership skills, achieve results, and gain greater satisfaction in these hectic times. It speaks to the everyday leader, whether that person is a principal, pastor, parent, or CEO.

Daniel Granholm Mulhern brings the art of management down to earth, presenting stories that illuminate some of the best ideas about real human leadership. He offers practical steps to achieve the goal of leading well in our lives through creating a vision, communicating that vision, and living it in simple yet powerful ways.

Daniel Granholm Mulhern is the "First Gentleman" of the State of Michigan and an accomplished consultant, business coach, and motivational speaker. In addition to the personal support and counsel he offers his wife, Governor Jennifer Mulhern Granholm, Dan contributes his professional expertise, spearheading the effort to make Michigan's state government a model for the nation as a "great place to do great work!" Dan also chairs the Michigan Community Service Commission, which promotes and coordinates volunteer efforts across the state.

Table of Contents

1. Start with a Vision 10
2. Communication, Communication, Communication 32
3. Motivation 56
4. Get Yourself Together 78
5. Do the Right Thing 96
6. Authority 121
7. Inclusion 145
8. Ego and Team 172

-END-

[The contents of this KM blog are my personal comments and do not reflect the official views of Hewlett-Packard Company.]