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Written by Vernon Prior

Knowledge is a blend of experience, values, information in context, and insight that forms a basis on which to build new experiences and information. It is the value added by people that transforms information into knowledge. Or, as Peter Drucker (1) puts it:

‘Information only becomes knowledge in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it'.

Knowledge management is the process of identifying, collecting, preserving and transforming information into knowledge that is readily accessible in order to foster innovation and improve the performance of the organisation. It is based on the assumption that the potential for sustained improvement exists in the knowledge derived from people, processes, designs and ideas within the organisation. Knowledge management also implies the creation of a culture and structure that promotes information sharing and learning.

Why bother?

Many organisations embrace knowledge management in order to stimulate innovation, a major contributor to competitive advantage. Innovation covers all those activities necessary to transform an idea or invention into a problem-solving or marketable device, product, process, service or technique. Creativity, which inspires those ideas, derives from imaginative combinations of existing knowledge. It often comes about when people from different cultures and of varied experience get together.

Knowledge management may lead to involvement in competitive intelligence operations which, in turn, will enhance planning and decision making. By making sure that you recognise and reward knowledge creation, you can expect to see improved employee retention rates and the elimination of redundant practices or processes. Because it induces an increased awareness of its value and a more rational approach to its organisation, involvement in knowledge management should help you to protect intellectual capital and know-how.

What comes first?

One school of thought divides knowledge into two kinds. Explicit knowledge is rules-based and schematic, and can be codified (for instance, as reports, patent specifications, structured documents, check lists, manuals, promotional materials and procedures). It can be easily articulated and readily transferred. Its management calls for a fairly formal structure and devoted staff.

More effective knowledge management systems, however, attempt to exploit tacit knowledge: knowledge that is gained empirically. It is rich, intuitive, complex, constantly changing and can only be coherently expressed or explained to the inexperienced with great difficulty. In many cases, it is tacit knowledge that determines the success or failure of a company. Since tacit knowledge is primarily embodied in people, both within and external to the organisation, its management is essentially to do with communication and corporate culture.

In any event, information is shared whether or not the process is managed at all. Usually, however, its transfer is localised and fragmentary. It is often confined to seeking information or advice from the person closest to us, rather than the individual best fitted for the task. Obviously, this is not the optimum solution; for that we need a more formal arrangement. To be of benefit, a knowledge management system should incorporate such elements as:

• descriptions of previous projects with solutions to problems encountered, measures that succeeded and lessons learned (know-how)
• a guide to current and proposed projects, activities or operations
• competitive intelligence
• facilities for enabling collaboration and information sharing
• frequently asked questions (FAQs) and answers.

But, since knowledge management involves communication, the most valuable and effective knowledge-management systems will be based around a knowledge map or expertise database (2) - a directory of people possessing, or having access to, specific expertise. It should be a guide to the individuals possessing that expertise, not a record of the knowledge itself. Its value depends much more on the quality of its content (that is, its accuracy, clarity, comprehensiveness, and ease of use) than on the capacity or sophistication of the system or software used.

Records of external contacts (such as consultants, academics, researchers, journalists, analysts, senior executives and potential partners) will provide rapid access to pertinent subject and industry expertise. It will also encourage networking activities and offer greatly increased scope for the gathering and analysis of competitive and commercial information.

Records of internal contacts will help senior executives, project managers, public relations staff, receptionists and human resources departments to identify the most appropriate people to respond to specific inquiries, or to select individuals for particular tasks, projects or training programmes. At the same time, they will facilitate internal networks, communities of practice and discussion groups. But note well the point made by Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak (3):

‘The organizational chart is not a good guide for finding people with certain knowledge. If you want a map to who knows what, you've got to create one. And knowledge mapping is one of the best early activities in knowledge management'.

To ensure consistency and ease of use, the knowledge map should have some form of controlled vocabulary (for example, a thesaurus, taxonomy, or folksonomy), a glossary of terms and a set of rules for data entry (4). Since this aspect of knowledge management calls for specific expertise, you should consider appointing a librarian, information manager or archivist to carry out the task. Where such expertise is not readily available you might employ a scientist, journalist, linguist or classical scholar, as well as providing extensive training.

Managers tasked with performance improvement, as well as those whose roles include strategic planning, business development, competitive intelligence and innovation, should be capable of using a variety of tools and techniques to encourage an information-sharing culture. Additionally, one senior individual should be responsible for leadership and promotion, and for soliciting executive support and commitment.

What about the technology?

Computers do not acquire knowledge, people do. Computers do not yet have an analytical capability; they are unable to understand the data that they process; they cannot take the initiative, nor make sense of abstract, contradictory or incomplete information. Thus, knowledge management is about networking, putting people together, mentoring, establishing communities of practice and so on. Nevertheless, information technology can facilitate the transfer and exchange of information over great distances, help to manage dispersed networks and communities of practice and offer easy access to a knowledge map.

Data mining, intelligent agents, fuzzy logic, sophisticated information retrieval techniques and artificial intelligence are currently being employed in knowledge management operations. But there is a lot going on, and developments in these fields must be monitored closely for applications that may be of benefit.

Before you ask what contribution information technology might make, it is essential that you have in place the tools to encourage an information-sharing culture. David Weinberger (5) tells us that:

‘We make sense of information by talking with other people. We need rich relationships with diverse people. We need gnarly conversational networks. We need to get smart together. And talk is how we do it. That's also how we come up with new ideas. At least as important, it's how we quickly find out that bad ideas are bad'.

Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak (6) concur, and add a significant rider:

‘Much knowledge is passed through informal networks, across networks and communities of practice. You've got to facilitate the functioning of these networks if you want to manage knowledge. Once they are functioning well, you can apply technology to ease the capture and sharing of knowledge across a network. But don't start with the technology'.

Unless the appropriate culture is in place, no amount of investment in information technology will succeed. Excessive emphasis on technology aspects is a common cause of failure in knowledge management (as well as in many other) operations. One possible explanation for this comes from Daniel Stamp (7):

‘People expect the technology to do the work for them and forget about basic management skills such as identifying priorities, managing time, planning and delegating. As a result of this management skills amnesia, we run the risk of being slaves to technology'.

What else can we do?

Because individuals vary in the way that they relate to, and learn from, each other, the means and media used for communication need to be as flexible and as varied as possible. In addition, there are several actions you can take that will have a significant effect on your knowledge management operations. For instance, implementing the following suggestions can make a substantial contribution:

• Conduct an audit to assess needs, to identify existing information collections and expertise and to select the most valuable content (knowledge map, best practices, know-how, competitive intelligence).
• Organise events and introduce facilities designed to engender trust and build relationships, to expose ideas and to encourage information sharing. These might include face-to-face meetings, networks, intranets, communities of practice, discussion groups, training programmes, ideas fairs, job rotation, bulletin boards, newsletters, databases, social functions and mentoring activities.
• Arrange briefings and debriefings before and after certain events (such as tours, visits to other organisations, seminars, conferences, and trade shows) as well as briefings for topics of interest or concern (such as market-related activities, potential business opportunities, emerging technologies, current and imminent projects and proposed changes to government policies). Briefings and debriefings are extremely effective for stimulating a learning and sharing culture.
• Organise ideas or knowledge fairs. These give people the opportunity to expose their ideas to the attention of senior executives, or to simply meet, face-to-face, those people with whom they have been communicating by other, more impersonal, means. Ensure that the selection team assess innovations rapidly, and that you introduce generous incentives for successful ideas (for example: using public expressions of appreciation, offering accelerated promotion or salary increases, providing rewards based on a points system or facilitating more opportunities for being creative). Most events of this kind are an excellent source of ideas, and may reveal levels of knowledge and experience that people were not aware existed.
• Distribute unsolicited items of interest or relevance to colleagues. Giving information to others, without prompting, is one of the most effective techniques for establishing long-term information sharing.

Reduce the number and scale of onerous and unnecessary rules and regulations. Ensure that senior executives are willing to delegate both authority and responsibility, and are willing to tolerate conflict and failure.

By way of a summary, I can do no better than to quote from Bill Gates (8):

‘Knowledge management . . . is not a software product or a software category. Knowledge management doesn't even start with technology. It starts with business objectives and processes and a recognition of the need to share information. Knowledge management is nothing more than managing information flow, getting the right information to the people who need it so they can act on it quickly'.

References

(1) Drucker, Dr Peter; Quoted in: Industry Week, 24 January 2000.

(2) Prior, Vernon; ‘Contacts database: your most useful intelligence tool'; Competitive intelligence Review 7(3), Fall, 1996, pp75-77.

(3) Davenport, Tom & Prusak, Larry; ‘Working knowledge' in: Executive Excellence 15(9), September 1998, p10.

(4) Prior, Vernon; ‘Choose your words carefully: vocabulary control'; SCIPonline 1(8), May 2002.

(5) Weinberger, David; ‘Knowledge in the age of abundance'; Knowledge Board online; 07 Oct 05.

(6) Davenport, Tom & Prusak, Larry; op cit.

(7) Stamp, Daniel

(8) Gates, Bill; Business @ the speed of thought: using a digital nervous system; New York; Warner Books; 1999; p238

Operating as Prior Knowledge, Vernon Prior conducts seminars and workshops on competitive intelligence and knowledge management throughout Asia, Australasia, the Middle East and South America. Vernon has a postgraduate Diploma in Information Science & Librarianship (DipLib); he is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (FRSA); a Member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) since 1990 and a recipient of the SCIP Fellow's Award (FSCIP).

He is an extremely grateful member of the Caterpillar Club, having survived bailing out of a burning Vulcan bomber. Vernon can be contacted at: vernonprior@a1.com.au

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