Management & E-Business

Knowledge management system

Prepared by: Mohamed

mamdouh
ESLSCA 32-C

Prepared to Dr. Nizar Samy

Table of Contents
1 WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?............................................................ 3
1.1 What is knowledge
management?..................................................................................... 3
1.2 What is
knowledge?............. ............................................................................................. 3
1.3 Why do we need knowledge
management?....................................................................... 3
1.4 What does knowledge management
involve?.................... ............................................... 4
1.5 Some “textbook” definitions of knowledge
management.................................................... 5
2 PRINCIPLES AND PROCESSES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT..................6
2.1 Right knowledge, right place, right
time............ .............................................................. 6
2.2 Types of knowledge: explicit and
tacit.................. ........................................................ 6
2.3 Types of knowledge: old and
new..................................................................................... 6
2.4 Ways with knowledge: collecting and
connecting................................................................ 7
2.5 Ways with knowledge: people, processes and
technology................................................ 8
3 GENERAL
CONCEPTS........................................................................................... 9
3.1 A brief history of knowledge
management......................................................................... 9
3.2 The “knowledge
economy”................................................................................................. 10
3.3 Knowledge management in the public
sector.................................................................... 10
4 GETTING
STARTED................................................................................ .......12
4.2 KM toolbox – inventory of tools and
techniques.................................................. ............ 14
4.3 After Action
Reviews......................................................................................................... 15
4.4 Communities of
Practice............................................................................... .................. 18
4.5 Conducting a knowledge
audit........................................................................................... 22
4.6 Developing a knowledge management
strategy................................................................ 25
5 DEVELOPING THE KM
ENVIRONMENT............................. .............................51
5.1
People.............................................................................................................................
... 51
5.2 KM
Processes......................................................................................................................
57
5.3 KM
Technology...................................................................................................................
59
6 MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT..........................64
6.1 Why
measure?....................................................................................................................
64
6.2 What to measure? Common measurement
approaches.................................................... 64
6.3 How to
measure? ............................................................................................................... 66

1WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT?

Knowledge management is based on the idea that an organisation’s most valuable

resource is the knowledge of its people. Therefore, the extent to which an
organisation performs well, will depend, among other things, on how effectively its
people can create new knowledge, share knowledge around the organization, and
use that knowledge to best effect.

If you have read any of the huge array of knowledge management books and articles
that are currently available, you are possibly feeling slightly bewildered. Perhaps you
are wondering whether knowledge management is just the latest fad and hoping that
if you ignore it, it will eventually go away. Let’s be honest – knowledge management
is surrounded by a great deal of hype. But if you can put the hype to one side, you
will find that many of the tools, techniques and processes of knowledge management
actually make a great deal of common sense, are already part of what you do, and
can greatly help you in your job.
1.1What is knowledge management?

Many of us simply do not think in terms of managing knowledge, but we all do it.
Each of us is a personal store of knowledge with training, experiences, and informal
networks of friends and colleagues, whom we seek out when we want to solve a
problem or explore an opportunity. Essentially, we get things done and succeed by
knowing an answer or knowing someone who does.

Fundamentally, knowledge management is about applying the collective knowledge

of the entire workforce to achieve specific organisational goals. The aim of knowledge
management is not necessarily to manage all knowledge, just the knowledge that is
most important to the organisation. It is about ensuring that people have the
knowledge they need, where they need it, when they need it – the right knowledge,
in the right place, at the right time.

Knowledge management is unfortunately a misleading term – knowledge resides in

people’s heads and managing it is not really possible or desirable. What we can do,
and what the ideas behind knowledge management are all about, is to establish an
environment in which people are encouraged to create, learn, share, and use
knowledge together for the benefit of the organisation, the people who work in it, and
the organisation’s customers (or in the case of the NHS, patients).

1.2What is knowledge?

Academics have debated the meaning of “knowledge” since the word was invented,
but let’s not get into that here. A dictionary definition is “the facts, feelings or
experiences known by a person or group of people” (Collins English Dictionary).
Knowledge is derived from information but it is richer and more meaningful than
information. It includes familiarity, awareness and understanding gained through
experience or study, and results from making comparisons, identifying
consequences, and making connections. Some experts include wisdom and insight in
their definitions of knowledge. In organisational terms, knowledge is generally
thought of as being “know how”, or “applied action”. The last point is an important
one. Today’s organisations contain a vast amount of knowledge and the NHS is
certainly no exception. However, in applying knowledge management principles and
practices in our organisation, knowledge is not our end, but the means for further
action. What we are trying to do is to use our knowledge to get better at doing what
we do, i.e. health care and health care improvement.

1.3Why do we need knowledge management?

Knowledge management is based on the idea that an organisation’s most valuable

resource is the knowledge of its people. This is not a new idea – organisations have
been managing “human resources” for years. What is new is the focus on knowledge.
This focus is being driven by the accelerated rate of change in today’s organisations
and in society as a whole. Knowledge management recognises that today nearly all
jobs involve “knowledge work” and so all staff are “knowledge workers” to some
degree or another – meaning that their job depends more on their knowledge than
their manual skills. This means that creating, sharing and using knowledge are
among the most important activities of nearly every person in every organisation.
It is easy to see the importance of knowledge in the health sector. As clinicians,
managers and other practitioners, we all rely on what we know to do our jobs
effectively. But....

Do we know everything we need to know or are there gaps in our knowledge? Of

course there are. Medical advances are being made all the time so there is always
new knowledge to be learned. Government policies are constantly evolving, as are
management practices. The current modernisation programme requires us to let go
of what we knew and to learn and apply new knowledge. Changing doctor-patient
relationships are requiring us to revisit our whole approach to the provision of health
care. And of course, every new patient that comes through our door brings a
potential new learning opportunity.

Do we share what we know? The NHS is made up of over a million individuals in

hundreds of organisations, each of which have their own knowledge. Is the
knowledge of individuals available to the whole organisation? Is the knowledge or
organisations available to the whole NHS? Not at present. How many times have we
lost valuable knowledge and expertise when a staff member moves on? How many
times have we “reinvented the wheel” when we could have learned from someone
else’s experience? How many times have patients suffered as a result of the
“postcode lottery”?

Do we use what we know to best effect? Not always. In the NHS Plan, the NHS was
described as “a 1940s infrastructure operating in the 21st century”. Clearly our
knowledge has not always been applied to best effect, and we have fallen behind the
times. How many times have we had an idea about how a process or an activity could
be improved, but felt we lacked the time or resources to do anything about it? How
many times have we had an idea that might help our colleagues, but we keep quiet
because our colleagues might not appreciate us “telling them how to do their job”?
How many times have we implemented a new initiative, only to find we reverted
back to the “old way” a few months later? Perhaps we have had insights about how
our patients” needs could be better met, but there was no forum for us to share and
explore those insights so we just forgot about it.

These are just a few examples.

Almost everything we do in the NHS is based on our knowledge. If we do not

constantly update and renew our knowledge, share our knowledge, and then use that
knowledge to do things differently and better, then our people, our organisations, our
patients and the general public will ultimately suffer. We know this because it has
already happened. As The NHS Plan (2000) affirms, in spite of our many
achievements, the NHS has failed to keep pace with changes in our society. What can
transform that, along with the current investment and modernisation programme, is
harnessing the vast collective knowledge of the people working in the NHS, and using
it to best effect. That is why we need knowledge management.

1.4What does knowledge management involve?

Knowledge management is essentially about facilitating the processes by which

knowledge is created, shared and used in organisations. It is not about setting up a
new department or getting in a new computer system. It is about making small
changes to the way everyone in the organisation works. There are many ways of
looking at knowledge management and different organisations will take different
approaches. Generally speaking, creating a knowledge environment usually requires
changing organisational values and culture, changing people’s behaviours and work
patterns, and providing people with easy access to each other and to relevant
information resources.

In terms of how that is done, the processes of knowledge management are many and
varied. As knowledge management is a relatively new concept, organisations are still
finding their way and so there is no single agreed way forward or best practice. This
is a time of much trial and error. Similarly, to simply copy the practices of another
organisation would probably not work because each organisation faces a different set
of knowledge management problems and challenges. Knowledge management is
essentially about people – how they create, share and use knowledge, and so no
knowledge management tool will work if it is not applied in a manner that is sensitive
to the ways people think and behave.

That being said, there are of course a whole raft of options in terms of tools and
techniques, many of which are not new. Many of the processes that currently fall
under the banner of knowledge management have been around for a long time, but
as part of functions such as training, human resources, internal communications,
information technology, librarianship, records management and marketing to name a
few. And some of those processes can be very simple, such as:

>providing induction packs full of “know how” to new staff;

>conducting exit interviews when staff leave so that their knowledge

is not lost to the organisation;

>creating databases of all publications produced by an organisation so

that staff can access them from their desk;

>providing ongoing learning so that people can constantly update

their knowledge;

>encouraging people with a common interest to network with each

other;

>creating electronic filing systems that can be searched in a number of

ways, making the information much easier to find;

>redesigning offices to be open plan so that staff and managers are

more visible and talk to each other more;
 >putting staff directories online so that people can easily find out
who does what and where they are;

>creating intranets so that staff can access all kinds of organisational

information and knowledge that might otherwise take a great deal of
time and energy to find.

1.5Some “textbook” definitions of knowledge management

Here are a few definitions:

>“Clinical knowledge management means enhancing the identification,

dissemination, awareness and application of the results of research
relevant to clinical practice in health and social care.”Jeremy Wyatt

>“The creation and subsequent management of an environment,

which encourages knowledge to be created, shared, learnt, enhanced,
organised and utilized for the benefit of the organisation and its
customers.” Abell & Oxbrow, tfpl Ltd, 2001

>“Knowledge management is a process that emphasises generating,

capturing and sharing information know how and integrating these into
business practices and decision making for greater organisational
benefit.”Maggie Haines, NHS Acting Director of KM

>“The capabilities by which communities within an organisation

capture the knowledge that is critical to them, constantly improve it,
and make it available in the most effective manner to those people
who need it, so that they can exploit it creatively to add value as a
normal part of their work.”BSI’s A Guide to Good Practice in KM

>“Knowledge is power, which is why people who had it in the past

often tried to make a secret of it. In post-capitalism, power comes from
transmitting information to make it productive, not from hiding
it!”Peter Drucker

>“Knowledge management involves efficiently connecting those who

know with those who need to know and converting personal knowledge
into organisational knowledge.”Yankee Group
>“Knowledge management is not about data, but about getting the
right information to the right people at the right time for them to
impact the bottom line.”IBM

>“The capability of an organization to create new knowledge,

disseminate it throughout the organization and embody it in products,
services and systems.”Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995

>“Knowledge management is a relatively young corporate discipline

and a new approach to the identification, harnessing and exploitation
of collective organisational information, talents, expertise and know-
how.”Office of thee-Envoy, 2002

>“Knowledge management is the explicit and systematic management

of vital knowledge and its associated processes of creating, gathering,
organizing, diffusion, use and exploitation. It requires turning personal
knowledge into corporate knowledge that can be widely shared
throughout an organization and appropriately applied.”David J Skyrme,
1997
2PRINCIPLES AND PROCESSES OF KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT

A “rough guide” to some of the main general approaches to knowledge management.

2.1Right knowledge, right place, right time

Some people mistakenly assume that knowledge management is about capturing all
the best practices and knowledge that people possess and storing it in a computer
system in the hope that one day it will be useful. In fact this is a good example of
what knowledge management is not about! Consider this: how often has information
or knowledge been pushed at you when you don’t need it – paper, emails, training,
another irrelevant meeting? Then later, when you do need it, you vaguely remember
seeing something relevant but can’t find it. Some surveys suggest that professional
workers spend ten per cent of their time looking for information they know is
somewhere. And if what you want is in people’s heads, and they’re not always
around, how can you access it when you need it? What if you don’t even know whose
head it’s in, or if they’d be willing to share it with you?

In a nutshell, good knowledge management is all about getting the right knowledge,
in the right place, at the right time.

The right knowledge is the knowledge that you need in order to be able to do your
job to the best of your ability, whether that means diagnosing a patient, making a
decision, booking a referral, answering a patient’s question, administering a
treatment, training a new colleague, interpreting a piece of research, using a
computer system, managing a project, dealing with suppliers etc. Information and
knowledge can usually be found in a whole variety of places – research papers,
reports and manuals, databases etc. Often it will be in people’s heads – yours and
other people’s. The right place, however, is the point of action or decision – the
meeting, the patient helpline, the hospital bedside, behind the reception desk and so
on. The right time is when you (the person or the team doing the work) need it.

2.2Types of knowledge: explicit and tacit

Knowledge in organisations is often classified into two types: explicit and tacit.

1Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be captured and written

down in documents or databases. Examples of explicit knowledge
include instruction manuals, written procedures, best practices,
lessons learned and research findings. Explicit knowledge can be
categorised as either structured or unstructured. Documents,
databases, and spreadsheets are examples of structured knowledge,
because the data or information in them is organised in a particular
way for future retrieval. In contrast, e-mails, images, training courses,
 and audio and video selections are examples of unstructured
knowledge because the information they contain is not referenced for
retrieval.

2Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that people carry in their heads. It

is much less concrete than explicit knowledge. It is more of an
“unspoken understanding” about something, knowledge that is more
difficult to write down in a document or a database. An example might
be, knowing how to ride a bicycle – you know how to do it, you can do
it again and again, but could you write down instructions for someone
to learn to ride a bicycle? Tacit knowledge can be difficult to access, as
it is often not known to others. In fact, most people are not aware of
the knowledge they themselves possess or of its value to others. Tacit
knowledge is considered more valuable because it provides context for
people, places, ideas and experiences. It generally requires extensive
personal contact and trust to share effectively.

2.3Types of knowledge: old and new

Most knowledge management strategies generally have one (or sometimes both) of
two thrusts. The first is to make better use of the knowledge that already exists
within the organisation, and the second is to create new knowledge.

Making better use of the knowledge that already exists within an organisation (”old”
knowledge) often begins with “knowing what you know”. Very often leading
managers comment: “if only we knew what we knew”. Too frequently, people in one
part of the organisation reinvent the wheel or fail to solve a problem because the
knowledge they need is elsewhere in the organisation but not known or accessible to
them. Hence the first knowledge management initiative of many companies is that of
finding out what they know, and taking steps to make that knowledge accessible
throughout the organisation. Specific approaches might include conducting a
knowledge audit, mapping the organisation’s knowledge resources and flows, making
tacit knowledge more explicit and putting in place mechanisms to move it more
rapidly to where it is needed.

Creating new knowledge can equally be approached in a number of ways such as

through training, hiring external resources, bringing different people and their
knowledge together to create fresh knowledge and insights, etc. It is also about
innovation – making the transition from ideas to action more effective. Many
managers mistakenly believe this is about R&D and creativity. In fact there is no
shortage of creativity in organisations – not just in R&D but everywhere. The real
challenge is not to lose these creative ideas and to allow them to flow where they can
be used.

In reality, the distinction between “old” and “new” knowledge is not always that
clear. Innovation will often draw on lessons from the past, particularly those that
have been forgotten, or those that can be put together in new combinations to
achieve new results. Similarly, the application of (old) knowledge almost always
involves some adaptation, and so in the process of adaptation, new knowledge is
created. At the end of the day, the quality of knowledge does not depend on whether
it is “old” or “new” but rather whether it is relevant. Whether it is old or new hardly
matters. The question is: does it work in practice?

2.4Ways with knowledge: collecting and connecting

Knowledge management programmes tend to have both a “collecting” and a

“connecting” dimension.

The collecting dimension involves linking people with information. It relates to the
capturing and disseminating of explicit knowledge through information and
communication technologies aimed at codifying, storing and retrieving content,
which in principle is continuously updated through computer networks. Through such
collections of content, what is learned is made readily accessible to future users.

Current examples in the NHS include various intranets, the National electronic Library
for Health, the CLIP database, The Cochrane Library, and many more. This collecting
dimension is often the main emphasis of many European and US knowledge
programmes. However it has its limitations. Even where comprehensive collections of
materials exist, effective use may still need knowledgeable and skilled interpretation
and subsequent alignment with the local context to get effective results, just as
reading a newspaper article on brain surgery does not qualify or enable a reader to
conduct brain surgery. An organisation that focuses completely on collecting and
makes little or no effort at connecting (see below) tends to end up with a repository
of static documents.

The connecting dimension involves linking people with people – specifically people
who need to know with those who do know, and so enhancing tacit knowledge flow
through better human interaction, so that knowledge is diffused around the
organisation and not just held in the heads of a few. Connecting is necessary because
knowledge is embodied in people, and in the relationships within and between
organisations. Information becomes knowledge as it is interpreted in the light of the
individual’s understandings of the particular context. Examples of connecting
initiatives include skills directories and expert directories – searchable online staff
directories that give much more detail about who does what and who knows what,
collaborative working, communities of practice – networks of people with a common
interest, and various “socialisation” activities designed to support knowledge flows.
This connecting dimension tends to be the main emphasis in Japanese knowledge
programmes. However an organisation that focuses entirely on connecting, with little
or no attempt at collecting, can be very inefficient. Such organisations may waste
time in “reinventing wheels”.
Most knowledge management programmes aim at an integrated approach to
managing knowledge, by combining the benefits of both approaches and achieving a
balance between connecting individuals who need to know with those who do know,
and collecting what is learned as a result of these connections and making that easily
accessible to others. For example, if collected documents are linked to their authors
and contain other interactive possibilities, they can become dynamic and hence
much more useful.

2.5Ways with knowledge: people, processes and technology

One popular and widely-used approach is to think of knowledge management in
terms of three components, namely people, processes and technology:

>People : Getting an organisation’s culture (including values and

behaviours) “right” for knowledge management is typically the most
important and yet often the most difficult challenge. Knowledge
management is first and foremost a people issue. Does the culture of
your organisation support ongoing learning and knowledge sharing?
Are people motivated and rewarded for creating, sharing and using
knowledge? Is there a culture of openness and mutual respect and
support? Or is your organisation very hierarchical where “knowledge is
power” and so people are reluctant to share? Are people under
constant pressure to act, with no time for knowledge-seeking or
reflection? Do they feel inspired to innovate and learn from mistakes,
or is there a strong “blame and shame” culture?

>Processes : In order to improve knowledge sharing, organisations

often need to make changes to the way their internal processes are
structured, and sometimes even the organisational structure itself. For
example, if an organisation is structured in such a way that different
parts of it are competing for resources, then this will most likely be a
barrier to knowledge sharing. Looking at the many aspects of “how
things are done around here” in your organisation, which processes
constitute either barriers to, or enablers of, knowledge management?
How can these processes be adapted, or what new processes can be
introduced, to support people in creating, sharing and using
knowledge?

>Technology : A common misconception is that knowledge

management is mainly about technology – getting an intranet, linking
people by e-mail, compiling information databases etc. Technology is
often a crucial enabler of knowledge management – it can help
connect people with information, and people with each other, but it is
not the solution. And it is vital that any technology used “fits” the
organisation’s people and processes – otherwise it will simply not be
used.

These three components are often compared to the legs of a three-legged stool – if
one is missing, then the stool will collapse. However, one leg is viewed as being more
important than the others – people. An organisation’s primary focus should be on
developing a knowledge-friendly culture and knowledge-friendly behaviours among
its people, which should be supported by the appropriate processes, and which may
be enabled through technology.

3GENERAL CONCEPTS
3.1A brief history of knowledge management

Knowledge management as a conscious discipline would appear to be somewhere

between five and fifteen years old. It evolved from the thinking of academics and
pioneers such as Peter Drucker in the 1970s, Karl-Erik Sveiby in the late 1980s, and
Nonaka and Takeuchi in the 1990s. During that time, economic, social and
technological changes were transforming the way that companies worked.
Globalisation emerged and brought new opportunities and increased competition.
Companies responded by downsizing, merging, acquiring, reengineering and
outsourcing. Many streamlined their workforce and boosted their productivity and
their profits by using advances in computer and network technology. However their
successes in doing so came with a price. Many lost company knowledge as they grew
smaller. And many lost company knowledge as they grew bigger – they no longer
“knew what they knew”.

By the early 1990s a growing body of academics and consultants were talking about
knowledge management as “the” new business practice, and it began to appear in
more and more business journals and on conference agendas. By the mid-1990s, it
became widely acknowledged that the competitive advantage of some of the world’s
leading companies was being carved out from those companies’ knowledge assets
such as competencies, customer relationships and innovations. Managing knowledge
therefore suddenly became a mainstream business objective as other companies
sought to follow the market leaders.

Many of these companies took the approach of implementing “knowledge

management solutions”, focusing almost entirely on knowledge management
technologies. However they met with limited success, and so questions began to be
asked about whether knowledge management wasn’t simply another fad that looked
great on paper, but in reality did not deliver. In fact for a while, it looked as if
knowledge management was destined to be confined to the “management fad
graveyard”. However on closer inspection, companies realised that it wasn’t the
concept of knowledge management that was the problem as such, but rather the way
that they had gone about approaching it. Reasons for their limited success included:

>The focus was on the technology rather than the business and its
people.

>There was too much hype – with consultants and technology vendors
cashing in on the latest management fad.

>Companies spent too much money (usually on “sexy” technologies)

with little or no return on their investments.

>Most knowledge management literature was very conceptual and

lacking in practical advice, which led to frustration at the inability to
translate the theory into practice – “it all makes so much sense but
why isn’t it working?”
 >Knowledge management was not tied into business processes and
ways of working.

>It was seen as another laborious overhead activity or yet another

new initiative.

>A lack of incentives – employees quite rightly asked the “what’s in it

for me?” question.

>There wasn’t sufficient senior executive level buy in.

Fortunately companies are now recognising these early mistakes and are beginning
to take a different approach to knowledge management – one in which the emphasis
is more on people, behaviours and ways of working, than on technology. Of course
there are still some sceptics who believe that knowledge management is just a fad.
But according to a number of company surveys, it would seem that they are in a
minority. A more popular view is that knowledge management may not remain as a
distinct discipline, but rather will become embedded in the way organisations work.
This can be compared to Total Quality Management which was the “in thing” in the
1980s; nobody talks about “TQM” any more, but many of its principles and practices
are an integral part of how most organisations operate. It looks likely that this could
also be the future for knowledge management.

3.2The “knowledge economy”

“As we enter the 21st century we are moving into a new phase of economic and
social development, which can usefully be referred to as a “knowledge economy”, in
which knowledge will be a key determining factor in organizational and economic
success or failure. The most effective organizations in the knowledge economy will be
those which recognize and best harness the crucial role that knowledge plays both
inside and outside their organisation.”From: Knowledge Enhanced Government: A
strategy for the UK Office of the e-Envoy, July 2002

The government’s objective is to make the UK one of the world’s leading knowledge
economies.

3.3Knowledge management in the public sector

In both the private and public sectors, more and more organisations are beginning to
take responsibility for managing knowledge as a means to create value. But what
does “value” mean in the context of the public sector? Public sector organisations are
not usually seeking a competitive advantage, so why bother with knowledge
management? If we go back to our definition of knowledge as “the capacity for
effective action” (see the section What is KM?) then this probably better describes
the expectations of government and public services. Every public service involves a
wide range of relationships between policy makers, service providers, local
authorities, the general public and various other interested parties such as voluntary
and community sector organisations, the private sector etc. If we think about the
many interactions within and between these groups, and their impact on policy and
service provision, then we begin to see the scope for knowledge management in the
public sector. How does one of these various parties share an experience and
introduce one policy driven initiative with that of another for the benefit of all
concerned? How can everyone involved have an awareness of the “bigger picture” as
well as their own individual standpoints? How can all parties be better prepared to
act?

In recent years there has been a number of government policies aimed at equipping
the public sector to function more effectively in an information society. These have
included:

>our Information Age (HMSO, 1998) – the de facto UK national

information policy

>open for learning, open for business (National Grid for Learning,
1998) – establishing a commitment to a national grid for learning

>modernising government (HMSO, 1999) – committed government to

modernising public services so that all would be capable of being
delivered by computer by 2005

>e-government (Cabinet Office, 2000) – a strategic framework for

public services in the information age

Building on this, subsequent developments have focused on making better use of the
tacit knowledge within, and improving knowledge transfer across, the public sector.

The Office of the e-Envoy’s UK Annual Report 2000 announced the development of a
cross-government knowledge management system, focusing on the creation of a
Knowledge Network – “a unified cross-government communications infrastructure to
enable officials in all government departments and associated bodies … to
communicate electronically with each other and share common, secure access to
databases, discussion forums, web-based community sites and “knowledge pools”.”

From there, a new programme of modernisation led by the Office of the e-Envoy
known as Knowledge Enhanced Government (KEG) was launched. The KEG team is
working with the major central government departments in ensuring that there are
departmental teams and processes in place to support participation in KEG. The
Department of Health is already a key player in these processes.
As part of KEG, the Office of the e-Envoy has recently considered the development of
a knowledge management policy framework to provide a holistic view of knowledge
management and recommendations for activity. Early proposals have suggested that
this framework could be based around ten key areas of activity:

1knowledge capture – policies and processes for identifying and

capturing explicit and tacit knowledge.

2knowledge transfer – policies and processes for transferring

knowledge among and between its various sources and forms.

3knowledge retention – policies and processes for retaining

organisational knowledge, especially during periods of organisational
change.

4content management – policies and processes for efficiently

managing the organisational knowledge base.

5knowledge capital – policies and processes for measuring and

developing the government’s human and social capital.

6enabling communities – policies and processes for promoting and

supporting knowledge-based community working across and between
departments.

7supporting a knowledge culture – policies and processes to create the

necessary cultural changes to embed the knowledge management
ethos into working practices.

8knowledge partnerships – policies and processes for promoting and

supporting knowledge partnerships between central government and
key partners such as local government, departmental agencies, non-
departmental public bodies, voluntary and community organizations
etc.

9supporting key business activities – policies and processes to support

key business activities in government such as project management,
the legislative process, delivery monitoring etc.
 10knowledge benchmarking – policies and processes for benchmarking
current knowledge management capabilities and practices against UK
and international best practice, and for improving performance.

4GETTING STARTED

With such a wide range of definitions, philosophies, methodologies, tools and

techniques, approaching knowledge management can initially seem quite daunting.
In starting out, many practitioners tend to offer the following types of advice:

4.1.1Review your options

It is useful to gain a broad understanding of the variety of approaches to knowledge

management. Not only are there many alternatives, but also some of them differ
quite widely from others in their methods. Before selecting your approach or
approaches, try to explore the many options open to you.

4.1.2Don’t get too hung up on “the best”

There is no single “right” way to approach knowledge management. Knowledge

management methods are as varied as the organisations in which they are
implemented. Every organisation is different and so its approach to knowledge
management will need to reflect its own particular circumstances. There is no “one
size fits all”. The “best” approach will be one that works well for your organisation.

4.1.3Keep it simple – avoid rocket science

There is still quite a lot of confusion about what knowledge management actually is
and what it involves. Don’t add to that confusion by blinding people with rocket
science and textbook definitions. Get clear on what knowledge management means
for your organisation. Then make the concepts of knowledge management real for
others in your organisation. Use simple definitions and simple language to explore
real problems and opportunities. Create a clear, tangible picture of the benefits of
knowledge management as they relate to your organisation’s specific goals and
circumstances.

4.1.4Learn while doing

Avoid the temptation to wait until you have “mastered” the theory of knowledge
management before getting started on the practice. (The theory is constantly
evolving, so the chances are you will never master it). One of the best ways to learn
is “on the job”. You can learn a great deal from what others have done, but you will
only learn what does and doesn’t work for your organisation when you actually get
started and do something.

4.1.5Celebrate what you’re already doing

Start from where you are, with what you have. In most organisations there will
already be examples of good knowledge management practice – except they won’t
usually be thought of as knowledge management. Look around your organisation for
current activities that might already be related to knowledge management – not
necessarily big projects or initiatives, but simple, day-to-day ways of doing things.
Look for teams or groups that are currently sharing knowledge, and make
connections with these people. Find out how it is benefiting those people and the
organisation as a whole. Celebrate and build on these examples of good practice.

4.1.6Look at your organisation’s goals

Given that knowledge management is not an end in itself, but rather a

means to achieving organisational goals, then this is a logical place to
start. Look at both the long-term goals and short to medium-term
objectives of your organisation: what are they? How might knowledge
management help you to achieve them? Then look at what people –
teams and individuals – do in your organisation. What are the services
they provide? What activities and processes do they perform in order
to provide those services? How might they be done better for the
benefit of individual staff, the organisation a whole, and your patients?
What knowledge do people need in order to do their jobs? What
knowledge might they need in order to do them better? How can you
acquire, create, use and share that knowledge to bring that about? In
what ways are you already doing so? How might you do it better?
4.1.7Look for needs, problems and pains

Another good place to start is with what some managers call “needs, problems and
pains”. These are the things that are not working well in your organisation: things
that are getting in the way of people doing a good job, things that irritate people and
make their lives difficult, things that hamper the quality of your service to patients.
Talk to people and start to build up a list of some of the major needs, problems and
pains in your organisation. From there, you can select one or several of these with
which to start, and look at how you might resolve it using knowledge management
principles and practices. A great advantage of this approach is that it can allow you
to achieve “quick wins”. These are problems that are generally fairly simple and
quick to resolve, but their resolution has a big impact and the results are clearly
visible. Quick wins can be very useful in demonstrating the potential benefits of
knowledge management to both managers and staff – there is nothing like real
results to win people over.

4.1.8Start small

Attempting to launch an organisation-wide knowledge management programme

without building the evidence first is unfortunately a common mistake, but one to be
avoided. Some organisations prefer to “dip their toe in the water” with one or two
initiatives before considering a formal knowledge management strategy; others
choose not to create a formal strategy at all, choosing instead to take a more
informal or incremental approach. Either way, whether you choose to create a formal
knowledge management strategy or not, a large-scale, high-cost, “big bang” roll-out
is not recommended. Knowledge management is more an iterative process of
continuous development. Hence, it is far better to gradually introduce a series of
practical, manageable changes. Then, as interest develops, you can look to expand
your initiatives.

4.1.9Don’t take off without a pilot

When looking to implement any major new initiative, conducting a pilot is essential. A
pilot involves “test driving” the initiative on a relatively small scale in order to learn
what works and what doesn’t, make any necessary changes accordingly, and gather
clear, demonstrable evidence about the benefits, before rolling out the initiative on a
larger scale. This means that when you come to roll it out, you have already made
most of your mistakes, and you have something that has been proven to work well in
practice. In terms of securing resources and support, this is a whole different
proposition to having an idea in theory.

4.1.10Remember the “big three”: people, processes, technology

In implementing knowledge management tools and techniques, never forget the

importance of creating the right kind of environment. Your organisation’s people,
processes and technology will at all times be acting as either enablers of, or barriers
to, the effective use of your knowledge management tools. You need to identify the
barriers and remove them, and build on the enablers. If you have already tried to
implement something and it hasn’t worked, this is where you need to look. If you are
about to implement something, look before you leap.

4.1.11The ultimate aim: institutionalisation

Granted, you are just starting out with knowledge management. This is
the beginning of the road. However it is worth keeping one eye on the
horizon further down that road. It is useful to bear in mind that success
in knowledge management does not involve building up a big new
department or a whole network of people with “knowledge” in their job
title. You may need to do these things to some degree in the medium-
term. However the ultimate aim is for knowledge management to be
fully “institutionalised”. Or in other words, so embedded in the way
your organisation does things, so intrinsic in people’s day-to-day ways
of working, that nobody even talks about knowledge management any
more – they just do it. So if you are a knowledge manager, you will
know that you have fully succeeded when you have worked yourself
out of a job!

4.2KM toolbox – inventory of tools and techniques

The following “toolbox” presents some of the most common tools and techniques
currently used in knowledge management programmes. The aim is to give an
introduction, to present an overview of what is involved, and to provide some
pointers to further resources.

1After Action Reviews (AARs) A tool pioneered by the US army and now
widely used in a range of organisations to capture lessons learned both
during and after an activity or project.

2Communities of Practice Widely regarded as “the killer KM

application’, communities of practice link people together to develop
and share knowledge around specific themes, and are already being
established in the NHS.

3Conducting a knowledge audit A systematic process to identify an

organisation’s knowledge needs, resources and flows, as a basis for
understanding where and how better knowledge management can add
value.

4Developing a knowledge management strategy Approaches to

developing a formal knowledge management plan that is closely
aligned with an organisation’s overall strategy and goals.

5Exit interviews A tool used to capture the knowledge of departing

employees.

6Identifying and sharing best practices Approaches to capturing best

practices discovered in one part of the organisation and sharing them
for the benefit of all.

7Knowledge centres Similar to libraries but with a broader remit to

include connecting people with each other as well as with information
in documents and databases.

8Knowledge harvesting A tool used to capture the knowledge of

“experts” and make it available to others.
 9Peer assists A tool developed at BP-Amoco used to learn from the
experiences of others before embarking on an activity or project.

10Social network analysis Mapping relationships between people,

groups and organisations to understand how these relationships either
facilitate or impede knowledge flows.

11Storytelling Using the ancient art of storytelling to share knowledge

in a more meaningful and interesting way.

12White pages A step-up from the usual staff directory, this is an

online resource that allows people to find colleagues with specific
knowledge and expertise.

5DEVELOPING THE KM ENVIRONMENT

Whatever knowledge management tools and techniques you use, they are unlikely to
work in isolation – they need to be supported by the right kind of environment. The
three key elements of that environment are outlined here, namely:

>People

>Processes

>Technology

Your organisation’s people, processes and technology will at all times

be acting as either enablers of, or barriers to, effective knowledge
management. You will need to identify the barriers and remove them.
You will probably also need to build on existing enablers and create
additional ones. This is often where the greatest knowledge
management challenges lie.

5.1People

5.1.1Introduction
 Of the three components of knowledge management – people,
processes and technology – the most important is undoubtedly people.
Why? Because creating, sharing and using knowledge is something
that is done by people. Processes and technology can help to enable
and facilitate knowledge management, but at the end of the day it is
people who either do it or don’t do it. A number of organisations have
learned this through bitter experience. Of those companies that led the
way in the early days of knowledge management, many focused
primarily on processes and technology – to their cost. Having made
significant investments in the latest systems, they then found that
people simply did not use them and so the systems ended up being
confined to what became known as “the ”. Since then, organisations
have learned that it is people who “make or break”
5.2KM Processes

5.2.1Introduction

Knowledge management processes are the activities or initiatives you put in place to
enable and facilitate the creation, sharing and use of knowledge for the benefit of
your organisation. Processes also refer to your organisation’s general infrastructure
and processes (or “ways of doing things”), and the extent to which these act as
enablers of, or barriers to, good knowledge management practice. Hence the
“process” component involves looking at:

>Organisational processes and infrastructure – and whether they

currently help or hinder knowledge management;

>Knowledge management processes and infrastructure – the “process”

element of what needs to be put in place to make knowledge
management happen (as well as people/culture and technology).

5.3KM Technology

5.3.1IT and knowledge management

In the early days of knowledge management, there was a strong focus on information
technology (IT). As knowledge management became the latest buzzword, technology
vendors were quick to spot an opportunity to sell “knowledge management
solutions” and many of the companies that led the way in knowledge management
were quick to buy – to their cost. Having made significant investments in the latest
systems, they then found that people simply did not use them and so the systems
ended up being confined to what became known as “the knowledge management
graveyard”. These companies learned the hard way that knowledge management is
about people, processes and technology – in that order of priority.
That being said, technology is an important enabler of many, if not most, knowledge
management initiatives. Technology can support and enable knowledge
management in two main ways:

1It can provide the means for people to organise, store and access
explicit knowledge and information, such as in electronic libraries or
best practices databases.

2It can help to connect people with people so that they can share tacit
knowledge, such as through white pages, groupware or video
conferencing.

Much of the early focus on technology was driven by an over-focus on explicit

knowledge – on “getting things down” and into high-level databases. However, given
the current view that up to 80% of an organisation’s knowledge is always going to be
in people’s heads, there is a growing interest in technologies that support
communication and collaboration between people.

Technology adds value when it reduces the cost, time and effort
needed for people to share knowledge and information. However if it is
not closely aligned with organisational needs and with people’s ways of
working, or if it results in information overload and so people can no
longer make sense of it all, then even with the best technology in the
world, you will end up right back at square one: people still cannot
easily find the knowledge an information they need. The importance of
this cannot be overemphasised.

The reality is that technology can only fulfil some of our needs. And how well it fulfils
them depends critically on managing the knowledge behind them – content
management, assigning knowledge roles etc. There are many tools that can help
enable individuals and organisations to be more effective at accessing and sharing
their knowledge. How well we exploit these opportunities depends more on good
knowledge management than on finding the “best” piece of technology. In other
words, technology by itself does not create shared knowledge: it needs to be
supported by, and integrated with, relevant people and processes. Tom Davenport, a
prominent author on knowledge management, is often quoted as offering the
following rule of thumb: your investment in technology in terms of both cost and
effort should stay under one third of the total knowledge management effort –
otherwise you are going wrong somewhere.

So, what kinds of technology are we talking about? The following is a brief and simply
overview, aimed at giving the non-technical manager an overall idea of some of the
knowledge-enabling technologies currently available.

6MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

6.1Why measure?

Measurement is undoubtedly the least developed aspect of knowledge management,

which is not surprising given the difficulties in defining it let alone measuring it. In
fact some practitioners feel that measurement is premature at this stage and that
trying to measure knowledge before you fully understand how knowledge is created,
shared and used is likely to lead you to focus on the wrong things. Elaborate
measurement systems, they say, cannot currently be justified because we simply do
not yet know enough about the dynamics and impact of knowledge.

That being said, in practice, few organisations have the luxury of being allocated
resources to implement something without being required to demonstrate its value.
Without measurable success, enthusiasm and support for knowledge management is
unlikely to continue. And without measurable success, you are unlikely to be able to
what works and what doesn’t and therefore make an informed judgement regarding
what to continue doing, and what to adjust.

6.2What to measure? Common measurement approaches

There are a number of approaches that are increasingly being used to measure the
value of, and progress in, knowledge and knowledge management in organisations.
Some of the more common approaches are outlined here for the purposes of
providing a general overview.

6.2.1Measuring the impact of knowledge management on the

organisation’s performance

Given that the whole point of knowledge management is to improve the performance
of your organisation and to help it to achieve its objectives, the best and most logical
approach is tie-in measurement of knowledge management with your organisation’s
overall performance measurement systems. This can be done either at an
organisational level, or for individual projects and processes.

However, one limitation of this approach is that if knowledge management practices

are made an integral part of work, you cannot be sure of the relative contribution of
those knowledge management practices to the success of a project or process,
versus other factors. In view of this, O’Dell and Grayson, in Chapter 12 of their book
“If only we knew what we knew: the transfer of internal knowledge and best practice
(1998)” recommend a two-pronged approach that seeks to measure both outcomes
and activities.

Measuring outcomes focuses on the extent to which a project or a process achieves

its stated objectives. The success of the project or process serves as a proxy
measure for the success of the knowledge management practices embedded in it. In
other words, knowledge management is seen as an integral tool for improving a
project or process, rather than as a separate thing. For example, outcomes might be
measured in terms of the reduced cost of a process, improved efficiency, the
reduction in time taken to do it, the improved quality of delivery, etc.
Measuring activities then shifts the focus onto the specific knowledge management
practices that were applied in the project or process. What were the specific
knowledge management activities behind this practice and what was their effect? In
measuring activities, you are looking specifically at things like how often users are
accessing, contributing to, or using the knowledge resources and practices you have
set up. Some of these measures will be quantitative (“hard”) measures such as the
number and frequency of hits or submissions to an intranet site per employee.
However these measures only give part of the picture – they do not tell you why
people are doing what they are doing. Hence to complete the picture, you will also
need qualitative (“soft”) measures by asking people about the attitudes and
behaviours behind their activities.

6.2.2The balanced scorecard

An increasingly popular approach to measuring an organisation’s performance, and

one that is being widely adopted in knowledge management, is the balanced
scorecard. The advantage of this approach in knowledge management terms is that it
directly links learning to process performance, which in turn is linked with overall
organisational performance. Developed by Kaplan and Norton, the balanced
scorecard focuses on linking an organisation’s strategy and objectives to measures
from four key perspectives: financial, customers, internal processes, and learning and
growth. In contrast to traditional accounting measures, the balanced scorecard shifts
the focus from purely financial measures to include three key measures of intangible
success factors. These roughly equate to the three components of intellectual capital
– namely human capital (learning), structural capital (processes), and customer
capital. The four perspectives can be framed as follows:

1FinancialHow do we look to our “shareholders” (or governing bodies)?

2CustomerHow do our patients see us? Are we meeting their needs

and expectations?

3Internal processesWhat do we need to do well in order to succeed?

What are the critical processes that have the greatest impact on our
patients and our financial objectives?

4Learning and growthHow can we develop our ability to learn and grow
in order to meet our objectives in the above three areas?

This knowledge management, which is about learning and growth, is measured as an

integral and yet distinct part of overall organisational performance.

The balanced scorecard approach can be applied to individual initiatives as well as to

a whole organisation.
 6.2.3Return on investment (ROI)

Most initiatives that require resources will be expected to show a return in

investment – what benefits did we get to justify the costs involved – and knowledge
management in usually no exception. The problem is that both the costs and the
benefits of knowledge management can be notoriously difficult to pin down. While
the costs associated with an investment in information technology can be relatively
straightforward to identify, other costs can be less so, such as for projects that
involve an amalgam of resources from across the organisation, or those inherent in
challenging an organisation’s culture. On the benefits side, how do you measure
things like increased knowledge sharing, faster learning or better decision-making?

A number of approaches have been developed for showing financial returns on

knowledge assets. Such approaches tend to be rather complex, and therefore are
probably more appropriate to organisations that are reasonably advanced in their
knowledge management efforts, rather than just starting out.

6.2.4The knowledge management life cycle

Some organisations measure the progress of their knowledge management activities

in terms of their maturity – how far “down the line” they are in implementing
knowledge management practices and ways of working. The American Productivity
and Quality Center has developed a framework known as Road Map to Knowledge
Management Results: Stages of Implementation. The aim is to provide organisations
with a map to guide them from getting started right through to “institutionalising”
knowledge management – embedding it in the organisation and making it an integral
part of the way an organisation works. The map has five stages:

1Get started

2Develop a strategy

3Design and launch a knowledge management initiative

4Expand and support

5Institutionalise knowledge management

There are measures associated with each stage.

6.2.5Employee surveys
Given the importance of people in knowledge management, employee surveys can
be a useful additional to your measurement toolbox. Surveys can be used to assess
aspects of organisational culture and the extent to which people’s opinions, attitudes
and behaviours are, or are not, changing. Obviously such surveys measure people’s
subjective perceptions and these may or may not reflect reality, but in many ways
that can be their very benefit, as people’s perceptions will determine their
behaviours with respect to knowledge management. In order to be effective, it is vital
that any such surveys are carried out by people with the required expertise, whether
that is through in-house capabilities or by hiring external consultants.

6.2.6Measuring the value of knowledge assets

As well as measuring the progress and value of knowledge management initiatives,

organisations are also developing ways to measure the value of their knowledge
assets. The traditional balance sheet is increasingly being regarded as an incomplete
measure of an organisation’s worth, as it does not place a value on intangible assets
such as knowledge or intellectual capital. As already mentioned, intellectual capital is
commonly regarded as having three components: human capital (the knowledge and
skills of people), structural capital (the knowledge inherent in an organisation’s
processes and systems), and customer capital (customer relationships). There are a
number of key models for measuring the value of intellectual capital. Among the
best-known are:

>The Skandia Navigator and its associated Value Creation

ModelDeveloped by Swedish financial services company Skandia, this
approach uses the metaphor of a house whose roof represents an
organisation’s financial assets and whose foundations represent
innovation and renewal. The model includes a long list of measures,
which are organised into five categories, namely: financial, customer,
process, renewal and development, and human.

>Sveiby’s Intangible Assets MonitorDeveloped by knowledge

management pioneer Karl Erik Sveiby, the monitor categorises
intangible assets into human competence, internal structure and
external structure, with further subdivisions into indicators of efficiency
and utilisation, stability, and growth and renewal.

>Intellectual Capital Services’ IC- IndexOriginally developed in

Scandinavia and Australia by Johan and Göran Roos, the index
identifies four categories of intellectual capital: relationship, human,
infrastructure and innovation; it then looks at the relative importance
of each, and also at the impact of changes in intellectual capital.

>Philip M’Pherson’s Inclusive Value Methodology (IVM)A model in which

users create hierarchies of intangibles to which they assign value
 ratings according to priorities, then a computer model determines the
overall value rating and tests for areas of risk.

6.3How to measure?

Melissie Clemmons Rumizen outlines the following steps in developing measures, in

Chapters 19-22 of her book “The complete idiot’s guide to knowledge management
(2002)”:

6.3.1Revisit your goals

Your starting point for measuring any knowledge management initiative will be the
original goals of that initiative: what is it that you set out to achieve? Developing
measures will often lead you to get clearer about how you define your goals in the
first place; if your goals are not concrete and clear enough, then measuring your
success or progress against them will be difficult. Hence ensure that your goals
define clearly what constitutes success in measurable terms.

6.3.2Know the audience for your measures

In defining success, you will often find that different people have different ideas
about what constitute success. Managers who approve the allocation of resources will
want to know about the returns on their investment. Users of the knowledge
management initiative will want to know how it has benefited them and whether their
participation has been worthwhile. Other beneficiaries of the initiative, such as
patients, will want to know how they have gained.

6.3.3Define the measures

Define what exactly you are going to measure, and what measurement approach or
approaches you intend to take. Ensure that your measures are:

>ValidThey actually measure what they are intended to measure

rather than something else,

>ReliableThey give consistent results

>ActionableThey give information that can be acted upon if necessary.

 6.3.4Decide what data will be collected and how it will be collected

This is a process of “putting the meat on the bones” – spelling out the details: what
data will be collected, who will collect it, how, when, where, etc.?

6.3.5Analysing and communicating the measures

When analysing and presenting the results, be sure to refer back to your original
goals and your audience. Aim to present results in a way that answers their questions
in a meaningful way, rather than simply presenting facts and figures.

6.3.6Review your combination of measures

Monitor and evaluate how your measures are working. Developing measures is a
process of trial and error – don’t necessarily expect to get it right first time. Similarly,
remember that as objectives and situations change over time, so will your measures
need to.

Additional pointers emphasised by other practitioners include:

>Measuring for the sake of measuring is a waste of time – be sure that

you are measuring for a specific purpose or purposes.

>Be sure that some kind of action or decision will be taken as a result
of your measures

>Don’t try to measure everything; instead, focus on what is important.

Trying to measure too much not only requires a great deal of work, it
also tends to dilute the important issues.

>If your organisation already has a measurement system in place,

then you can use those measures.

>If your knowledge management initiatives work, then you might

assume that this will show up in your organisation’s other performance
measures. Of course there is no guarantee that existing measures are
good ones so you might like to look into them, but there are two major
advantages to “piggy-backing” on existing measures: first, they are
already accepted practice in the organisation, and second, they are
most likely measuring things that are important to the organisation.