More on Knowledge Management

This is basically my test blog. If you are interested in the suject of Knowledge Management, please go to www.YKM.typepad.com . The saga continues there.

Wikipedia

I've spent a bit of time over the last day or so, checking out Wikipedia http://wikipedia.org the online Encyclopedia that is interactive...you can add to it. With over 500,000 articles in English (and other languages are well represented there too), it looks like an incredible resource. I checked out a few things, and the writing is good, and the information seems factual. What I can't figure out is the appeal in contributing...anyone help me out?

Business and Blogging

I know I'm behind the technology curve when the business mags start covering it. Such is the case with blogging. This blog (Yerfdog's Bowl) was just started this past week, and wouldn't you know it, BusinessWeek's cover story (May 2, 2005) is on blogging. Entitled "Blogs will change your business."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm

It is a very interesting article. Written by Stephen Baker and Heather Green, it gives some of the pros and cons to blogging as it relates to business. With a dash of scare tactics for businesses thown in, it gives a good prediction of where things might go with regards to blogging about business.

Blogging about business will have several benefits.

One, if businesses are wise, they will engage customers and potential customers and try to find out what customers are really trying to get done, and then respond. There's nothing wrong with that, and everyone wins. Don't run, embrace.

Two, it will just open up businesses a bit more and bare them to the world. This is a subject covered extensively by Don Tapscott, who has discussed the "transparent" organization, or as he puts it in the name of his new book, "The Naked Corporation." The Internet, blogs, etc., are tools that employees and customers and prospects will use to ensure organizational transparency, and again, that's not a bad thing.

Don Tapscott's blog is: http://www.ageoftransparency.com/blog/

OK...so I guess there's only 2 benefits as of this writing....maybe there will be more.

Collaborate to Innovate

Found an excellent article (actually it's a blog posting) on collaboration-based innovation. It was written by David Pollard, a KM professional and consultant. It's basically a case study based on some consulting that he did, and I think it is interesting, informative, and useful.

Pollard leads his customer - a furniture developer - through some interesting changes, and gets them to confront their innovation process. While I'm more inclined toward "job-based" innovation (as discussed by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Raynor in their book, "The Innovator's Solution"), David points his client toward attribute marketing, but other than that difference of opinion, the remainder of the case study is great and gives some good tips on KM and innovation.

I hope you enjoy it.

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/categories/businessInnovation/2005/01/26.html

By the way...the picture on the blog page I'm directing you to is of the SmartCar, created by Mercedes, and hopefully being made available later this year in the U.S. by ZAP (I got to get me one of those!) http://www.zapworld.com/

KM Assistance - Help - Knowledge

For those interested in the pursuit of Knowledge Management, I would like to recommend a couple of people/links. Most of these people I have had personal contact with, and found them to be very knowledgeable and helpful.

You can’t do any better than to get connected with the Association of Knowledgework (AOK), and Jerry Ash. AOK is an online community that examines all aspects of Knowledge Management, and attracts the top minds in the field to contribute to its body of knowledge. Once a month, they have a STAR Series where you can go one-on-one (online) with some of the leading KM professionals. Go to: http://www.kwork.org

If you liked the article I posted here on HR and KM, John Barrett of ITI Associates is very up to date on how KM can assist the HR professional, and his business is centered on consulting with companies that want to capture their company’s intellectual capital (not just for the HR professional). You can find John at: http://www.iti-associates.com/index.asp

Another personal contact of a very knowledgeable KM expert is that of Bryan Davis of the Kaieteur Institute for Knowledge Management. I attended a 3-day seminar at Kaietuer and found the training to have appropriate levels of knowledge for the expert and the neophyte. Bryan not only does training, but research and consulting as well. Find out more at: http://www.kikm.org/vision.html

One of the better all purpose KM sites is that of David Gurteen. What more can I say…http://www.gurteen.com/

If you’re already a KM professional, or you just want to immerse yourself in significant KM thought, one of the absolute leading minds in the area is David Snowden of the Cynefin Centre. You will find articles of all levels. I’ve seen David live at a conference, and he is absolutely riveting, covering complex subjects in a down-to-earth, understandable, manner. http://www.cynefin.net/

I have other friends…some of whom I’ll hear from for leaving them out of this list of professionals, but when you start out a blog, you have to get the networking going, and from what I've looked at, these are great resources for anyone into KM.

Human Resources and Knowledge Management

Just to kick things off, here is an article that I had published in the HR.com Newsletter, touting Knowledge Management tools for HR professionals.

HR and KM: The HR Professional’s Guide to Competitive Advantage


There has been a recent flurry of articles proclaiming the impending death of HR. At the same time, there is equal coverage regarding HR as management’s strategic partner. And, at the recent SHRM conference in Orlando, FL there were sessions devoted to making the HR professional indispensable to the organization. Regardless of which stories you’re seeing more of, a personal competitive advantage is always important. The HR professional adopting Knowledge Management principles could help in this endeavor.

Background

To better understand the value that Knowledge Management (KM) has for the HR professional, here is a quick business overview demonstrating how these principles can help you distinguish yourself or your department.

A successful business mentor once oriented me to the 3 “Ps” of business management, Products, People, and Promotion. These were the basis for a successful business I was told.

Products, of course, are synonymous with service or services in this sense. It is the thing that is sold that generates revenue for the business.

People. Even in a sole-proprietorship, there is one person. This is the human element of the business, and the one the HR professional is most familiar.

Promotion. This is actually much more than promotion, it’s all of marketing, but it’s harder to remember ‘2 “Ps” and an “M.”’ Promotions, then, is the means that you get your product out and into the market and sold.

The 3 “Ps” can be considered to be a triangle.


A triangle is used to demonstrate that each angle is dependant upon the other angles. You need a product or service, you need someone to make, sell, and deliver it, and you need a way to reach the marketplace.

The triangle is useful to also represent business expansion by working on and developing the three component parts. A business may increase the numbers of products it has, which increases the demand for promotion, and similarly may effect and increase the number of people, or the training of the people. They are dependant on one another, and you can begin any expansion by focusing on any one corner.

Of course, this works in the opposite direction as well. When a business loses a key employee, allows a product to go out of date, or stops promotions, then the entire organization suffers and shrinks as a result.

The Fourth “P”

Unfortunately, this business premise misses a key element in every business; no matter how small or large the business, no matter how simple or complex, there is a fourth “P.” The fourth “P” is Processes. Every activity has processes that it uses to make, fix, sell, service, and deliver that organization’s product.

To make sure that Processes is defined in a similarly simplistic manner, it is simply defined in this context as “how things get done.”

To get back to geometry for a moment, the 4 Ps can be easily expressed in the form of a rectangle, as follows:

This rectangle displays the 4 “Ps,” that illustrated in this way can demonstrate that there is dependence upon one another, much like the triangle.

The rectangle is also represented in this way to demonstrate the breadth of value that people and processes play in a business. People and processes are particularly important when it comes to Knowledge Management and the HR professional.

Products

Few would argue that Products is not the most important “P.” There are too many examples to list of poor products that have sold more, and made companies more profitable, than companies with better products; yet, you must have a product, so it is a key element.

There are companies where managing the products or patents (as the case usually is) are an excellent knowledge management opportunity, but this is generally not the case. The argument can also be made that knowledge can be imbedded in products¹, but for reasons previously stated, this is not the greatest yield for the knowledge manager.

For those interested, there is product and patent management tools that assist large corporate communities to share their research and enhance knowledge re-use, but this is not the subject of this article.

Promotions

Promotion is also an important “P,” but case studies exist where companies sustain themselves nicely on word-of-mouth, and there have been some very successful start-ups that have simply relied on their Internet site to drive business in the door. Promotion is important, but not the prime focus of the knowledge manager.

Again, if you are so inclined, there are knowledge management tools and best practices to aid a project of this nature, but it is subordinate to the next two issues.

Processes

From the premise that the only sustainable competitive edge that a company has is what it knows, how it uses what it knows, and how fast can it know something new2, this competitive advantage principle leads us to people and processes, and consequently to the HR professional.

Taking processes to mean, “how something gets done,” it is easy to see that each process has knowledge associated with it. All business processes are embedded with knowledge3.

This is the gold mine for the knowledge manager, and the HR professional, as there are a number of tools (some technological, some are just plain know-how) that can be used to capture, export, and innovate/improve upon any process as necessary.

First, a process can be well executed, in which case that knowledge needs to be captured for the benefit (and survival) of the business. Some of the procedures for this are very powerful. One such action is creating a narrative database4. There would normally be a small learning curve to understand how to do this, but this is truly a top-notch way to capture an individual’s knowledge concerning a job or process, and it does not have to require technology.

Activities such as shadowing, apprenticeships, mentoring, and e-learning can also be used. One of these actions alone can make the knowledge manager look like a genius, as the loss of an employee who is the only storehouse or the best-practice storehouse of how things get done is very costly to an organization.

The other end of the spectrum is that a process can be observed as being slow, or in need of change. The knowledge manager has tools to hand to find out the problem with any process. These tricks-of-the-trade include brainstorming, after action reviews, and putting a person from another area of the company into this position to get a “fresh set of eyes.”

These KM tools are all ways to innovate or change a process to improve it, and in doing so, the manager provides the company with a significant return on investment, ultimately improves the bottom line, and where the HR professional can act in this manner, makes him or her indispensable.

So before moving on to ‘people,’ a knowledge manager is well served to focus on processes as the hottest area to demonstrate return on investment, as there is knowledge embedded in every process within an organization.

People

Some businesses, such as the fast food industry, will argue that processes is the most important of the 4 “Ps;” other individuals and businesses will suggest that people is the most important “P.” The two are closely related, and the most fruitful in creating positive change in an organization, and in delivering competitive advantage.

People are similar to process in that they are the holders of the knowledge surrounding processes. In that sense, the same KM tools already discussed apply. Note that employees (knowledge workers) will innovate in their jobs and will deviate from the procedural handbook for their position (usually in a positive way, though we’ve all probably experience both sides of this). That is why some of the aforementioned KM applications need to be regularly re-applied.

The other important aspect to people is connecting them. Innovation and competitive advantage can be gained through a number of activities designed to connect people (again – this can begin without cost and in a non-technical manner).

Facilitating brainstorming sessions, understanding and researching a business’ social networks, and the establishment of communities of practice are easy skills to learn or brush-up on for HR pros, and they quickly help to link employees together. Shared knowledge and communication will result in improved people and processes within the business.

Arguably, in the attempt to create an agile business, it is most important to connect people, but as a knowledge manager, it is vital that at some point there is some means established to collect the knowledge created from the connection5, as that has and will have value to you and your organization as well.

The Human Resources Professional

The message contained here is that the HR professional should also be the Knowledge Management professional. Who better than the HR professional to facilitate communities of practice, brainstorming sessions, apprenticeships, mentoring, e-learning, social nets, change management, and the many “KM” procedures that affect both People and Processes?

Much of the KM professional’s tools are innate to the HR professional. Depending on your organization, nothing mentioned in this article, as it relates to people and processes, is beyond the scope of HR. In fact, many examples exist of lower level employees in organizations having latched on to some of these KM principles and then operating in “stealth” mode (doing it, but not calling it KM), thus creating their own personal competitive advantage.

As the corporate benefits of KM initiatives become more recognized, books, e-learning, and formal training in some of these practices will be even more easily accessible. So get trained, or brush up on some of these skills, and then by following the company’s strategy, execute a plan to improve the People and the Processes of the organization. This is your personal guide to competitive advantage, and entering the field of Knowledge Management.

Yerfdog at work. 

Welcome

Welcome to Yerfdog's bowl, Tom Godfrey's new blog. I expect to post thoughts on business, travel, music and whatever comes up. Please join me.