Tools to Enable Knowledge Management

LIS 880

Knowledge Management

Types of Tools & Approaches

• Knowledge Capture Tools & Approaches• Qualitative and social in nature

• Knowledge Representation Tools• Technical Tools

Knowledge Capture Tools & approaches

• Communities of Practice (CoP)

• Lessons Learned

• Transfer of Best Practice

• The Knowledge Jam

• Mentoring

• Identification of Subject Experts• People Directories• Social Network Analysis (SNA)• Knowledge Mapping

Communities of Practice

• Loosely formed and regulated

• Voluntary

• Not attached to projects or initiatives

• Transcend the boundary formed by workflow, geography or time

• Identify via interview processes, SNA, Knowledge Mapping

Lessons Learned/learning

histories• Capture lessons

• Must represent lessons in a way other projects can assimilate (i.e. translate lessons to common language)

• Identify through projects, subject experts, technology

Transfer of best practices

• Who else has had this problem?

• Lit review or research

• Locate mostly outside organization

• Sometimes internally you can locate best practices

The Knowledge Jam*

Select

• Develop Target list

• Choose Projects & Teams

• Sponsorship

Plan

• Hold Meeting to ID Topics

• ID Knowledge Originators & Brokers

• Get Approval• Capture event,

logistics, templates and technology

• Review expectations

• Study business acronym, team dynamics, histories

Discover/Capture

• Conduct Knowledge Jam events

• Facilitate Conversations with brokers, seekers

• Summarize and review findings

• Review with sponsor

Broker

• Publish on platforms, tag, seed discussions, encourage linking

• Conduct warm transfers with team and other stakeholders

• Integrate knowledge into processes, guidelines, training

• Redefine Knowledge Asset Types & categories

Reuse

• Reuse knowledge acquired just in time

• Innovate and build upon knowledge

• Measure reuse and benefits

Pugh, K. B. (2011). Sharing hidden know-how: How managers solve thorny problems with the knowledge jam. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Storytelling

• Stories provide emotional connection

• Stories provide contextual connections

• Heartbreaking stories about patients hurt, success stories, stories that invoke humor

• Think of Aesop’s Fables

Mentoring

• Good way to transfer best practice

• Expert Novice relationship

• Good mentoring programs are a lot of work and energy

Subject Experts, SNA & Knowledge Mapping

• SNA uses software to identify expert or subject clusters• Looks like a mindmap with clustered nodes

• Knowledge map identifies experts with subjects• Looks like a spreadsheet

People Directories

• Think Yellowpages that lists subjects of expertise and matches them with user

• Valuable tool to find out who knows about what in an organization when you are attempting to solve a problem

Knowledge representation tools

• Intranets – Sharepoint

• Social Networking – Yammer, Forums, Twitter, Basecamp, Knowledge Bases

• Wikis

• Specialized Tools – Inmagic, for example• Presto Video Link• http://www.inmagic.com/staticfiles/

prestodemo.html

Summing it up

• How do you choose which tool?• What works with the culture?• What are you most comfortable with?

• Some organizations will gravitate in one direction or another

• Many choices will be made for you prior to hiring in