Chapter 5 Knowledge Transfer. Knowledge Transfer How can an organization transfer knowledge effectively? Hire smart people Let them talk to one another.

Chapter 5 Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge Transfer

How can an organization transfer knowledge effectively? Hire smart people Let them talk to one another

How does knowledge transfer? Knowledge Transfer Dilemmas

Looking nearby only, Larger corporations

Strategies of Knowledge Transfer MCC vs Sematech

MCC tried liaisons, assignees, workshops, training, technical reports, third-party licenses, production and support of products, and many other techniques FAILED

Sematech success due to sponsors (assignees) who come to participate in research

Water Cooler Discussion

Place of knowledge transfer

IBM Chairman, John Akers Stay away from water coolers, get back to work

Water cooler discussion – “hit-or-miss”

Talk Rooms

Japanese Pharmacy Company – Dai-Ichi 20 Minute Talks With Co-Workers After hours get togethers Hardly use email to communicate Prefer face-to-face

“When you need to transfer knowledge, the method must always suit the culture.”

Knowledge Fairs

Informal & unstructured gathering of co-workers Allows for knowledge transfer, co-workers to

interact and meet one another Companies: Ernst & Young, CSIRO

Versus Structured Corporate Seminars Tightly woven schedules, no chance for

interaction among co-workers

Other Strategies

Mentorship program Bringing together experienced employees with

less experienced employees Database of co-workers

Who is willing to meet with what expertise Videoconferencing System

Link people with knowledge to who need it

Knowledge Transfer Friction

Friction Possible Solutions

Lack of Trust Build relationships and trust through face-to-face meetings

Different cultures & vocabularies Create common ground through education, discussion, teaming,

job rotation

Lack of time & meeting places Establish times and places for knowledge transfers

Status and rewards go to knowledge owners

Evaluate performance and provide incentives based on

sharing

Direct Contact

Contracting firm for Boston Harbor Tunnel project Overseen similar project in New Zealand Tried to transfer the tacit knowledge explicitly via

email, phone, memorandums Unsuccessful Engineers gathered, face-to-face interaction and

transfer of knowledge Success

“In some cases, there’s no substitute for direct contact”

The Status of the Knower

Be cautious that successful knowledge transfer can depend heavily on who it is coming from

People may judge by reputation Case: CEO (Market Conditions Malaysia)

Librarian, Senior VP

Reflect - Strategies of Knowledge Transfer Try to focus more on the human aspect of

knowledge transfer

Don’t confine knowledge transfer to email, improved access, communication, document repositories, etc

Chapter 6 Knowledge Roles & Skills

Knowledge Oriented Personnel Planning managers, business analysts,

design & manufacturing engineers, marketing professionals, secretaries, clerks Create, share, search out, and use knowledge

Knowledge management is everyone’s job

Knowledge Management Positions Growth in Knowledge management jobs

Andersen Consulting – 200 KM Jobs Knowledge integrators – expert in one domain Knowledge administrators – capturing, storing,

maintaining knowledge that others produce Ernst & Young, McKinsey, IBM ~ 200 KM Jobs Coca-Cola – 40 KM Jobs Hewlett-Packard – 20-30 KM Jobs

Managers of Knowledge Projects Functions:

Developing project objectives Assembling & managing teams Determining & managing customer expectations Monitoring project budgets & schedules Identifying & resolving project problems

Comfortable with technology Web-accessed databases

Should speak the common language & understand values

Managers of Knowledge Projects “A little humility goes a long way when you’re

managing a knowledge project.”

Be humble or knowledge may be withheld

Chief Knowledge Officer

Function: “evangelize” for knowledge and learning from it Design, implement, oversee firms knowledge infrastructure Manage relationships with external providers of information

& knowledge (negotiate prices) Provide critical input to the process of knowledge creation Design / implement a firm’s knowledge codification

approaches Measure and manage value of knowledge Manage the knowledge managers Lead the development of knowledge strategy

Chief Knowledge Officer

Three most important roles of a CKO: Building a knowledge culture

Long term plan, hinge on whom you hire, educate Creating a knowledge management infrastructure

Managers, databases, knowledge bases, various applications

Making it all pay off economically Blend of technical, human, financial skills

How To Implement CKO?

Implement with HR / IS Functions By implementing with HR / IS one may dilute the

importance of knowledge

Stand-alone role Senior level executive position Position is important & complex More desirable Shows importance of

knowledge

Review: KM Positions

Line workers

Knowledge Management Workers

Knowledge Management Managers

Chief Knowledge Officer

Chapter 7 Technologies For Knowledge Management

Technologies For KM Case in Point: Hewlett-Packard

Electronic Sales Partner (ESP) Hundreds of thousands of documents to help sales force White papers, presentations, technical specs, etc Readily available to all with access to the intranet Anyone within HP can submit to ESP

Reviewed by a ESP team to determine if appropriate Based on how system is being used, being called a

success – “most successful implementation of software I have seen in twenty years.” –HP Managers

Only problem: becoming difficult to navigate with too many documents

Technologies for KM

Case in Point: Hewlett-Packard “Connex” – Web-based system to connect HP

employees with experts within the company IE: electrical engineer that is expert in ISDN, lives in

Germany

Difficulty: Scientists don’t like to be connotated as “expert” and they don’t want to post a lot of info

Artificial Intelligence

Case in Point: McDonnell Douglas Developed computerized expert system to scan

aircraft approaching a runway Humans could intuitively determine what a good

landing looked like Attempted to put this into a computer After considerable expenses, the system was

found to be only 80% – 85% accurate (compared to a 2 second human glance)

Broad Knowledge Repositories Lotus Notes

Lotus Notes Programmers, Lotus Domino Web Server, Education (How to use Notes)

Web Technology HTML publishing tools, web server, relational

database system, search engines, an approach to managing the knowledge, some education

Some use both technologies

Focused Knowledge Environments Expert Systems

Helps enable the knowledge of one or a few experts used by a broader group of workers who need the knowledge

Constraint Based Systems Suited for situations where there are high levels of

data but less quantitative data Capture and model the constraints that govern

complex decision making

Real-Time Knowledge Systems Case Based Reasoning (CBR) systems

Branch of AI found in the customer support and service process in firms

Leading vendor: Inference Corp Works best when there are a few experts who

construct & maintain the ‘cases’ Must also have a domain expert – decide on

when a new case should be created, when an old one has become obsolete and whether a submitted case is valid

Real-Time Knowledge Systems SoultionBuilder

Built by Primus Corporation for the Customer Support Consortium

Breaking down a problem or situation into its knowledge components

Long-Term Analysis Systems

Neural Networks Statistically oriented tool that uses data to classify

cases into one category or the other Systems that learn Need a very knowledgeable user – at least initially Problem – Difficult to explain why it did what it did Also used along with other statistical analysis

tools in data mining

What Technologies can & can not do Technology alone

Won’t make a person with expertise share it Won’t make an employee who does not seek knowledge to start

using a knowledge base Won’t create learning organization, a meritocracy, or a

knowledge-creating company Technology not useful when it comes to knowledge creation itself

– still a job for individuals or groups & their brains However,

Technology can help in expanding access & helping in getting the right knowledge to the right people

Presence of knowledge technologies may also positively impact the culture of the organization itself

Chapter 8 – Knowledge Management Projects in Practice

Key Points

Studied 31 projects in 20 different companies to draw conclusions

None an optimal model Million dollar question – Is it really

KNOWLEDGE being managed? Most fall short of knowledge based

organizational transform

Types of KM Projects

Self funding projects Company funded projects Hybrid projects Centralized Coordination Decentralized projects

Common Characteristics

Defined Objectives Dedicated champion for the project Specific financial and human resources

committed to the project Distinction between knowledge and

information

Objectives Shared

Create knowledge repositories Improve knowledge access Improve knowledge culture & environment

Knowledge Repositories

Three basic types External knowledge (e.g. competitive

intelligence) Structured internal knowledge (e.g. product

oriented marketing materials and methods, research reports)

Informal internal knowledge (e.g. discussion databases)

Knowledge Repositories

External Knowledge E.g. Automobile company

GrapeVINE

Structured internal knowledge E.g. Hewlett-Packard

Electronic Sales Partner

Informal internal knowledge E.g. Hewlett-Packard

Trainer’s Trading Post

Knowledge Access & Transfer Objective: Finding the right person with the

required knowledge and transferring it to the person who needs it Knowledge Repository = Library Knowledge Access = Yellow Pages

Knowledge Access & Transfer Implementation Strategies

Build & manage expert networks a.k.a maps of knowledge

Consolidating and categorizing knowledge Microsoft’s SPUD project

Tacit knowledge transfer BP’s Virtual Teamwork Project

Human Communication Sematech

Knowledge Environment

Measure/ improve the value of knowledge capital

Building awareness and cultural receptivity Changing behavior when it comes to

knowledge Improving the KM process itself

Reality

Most projects examined a combination of one or more of the types mentioned

Would expect KM projects working with more than one focus more likely to succeed

Drawbacks Absence of clear demarcations of project types and

fuzziness of project objectives may cause measurement problems

Prioritizing different aspects of a hybrid project becomes difficult

Linking knowledge and financial gains is difficult at times

Success in KM Projects ~Attributes to define success~ Growth in

Resources attached to the project Volume of knowledge content & usage

Project sustains beyond individuals involved Comfort level throughout the organization

with KM Some evidence of financial return either to

the project itself or to some unit of the organization

Factors leading to project success Knowledge oriented culture Technical & organizational infrastructure Senior management support Link to economics & industry value Modicum of process orientation Clarity of vision & language Non trivial motivational aids Some level of knowledge structure Multiple channels for knowledge transfer

Chapter 9 – The Pragmatics of KM

Common Sense about KM

Place to start is with high value knowledge Start with focused pilot project & let demand

drive additional initiatives Work along multiple fronts at once Don’t put off what gives you too much trouble

until it’s too late Get help throughout the organization quickly

Getting started in KM

Start small, achieve something and then harp about it

Start with a recognized business problem that involves knowledge

Consider the importance of the specific knowledge domain to the firm

Do not pick a domain that is under your control Knowledge is too complex a phenomenon to entrust

to narrowly targeted change programs

Leveraging Existing Approaches Most existing projects have better

management of what the organization knows as a key component

Already takes into consideration existing organizational issues

Leading with Technology

Most firms start KM in the domain of technology

Should not implement IT just for the sake of KM

Would be most likely to succeed in a technology oriented organization E.g. Andersen Consulting

Leading with Quality/ Reengineering/ Best Practices Build KM on the quality/ reengineering efforts

of a company Should only be used as a springboard to

other forms of KM Could prove problematic if considered the

ONLY form of knowledge worth collecting and sharing

Leading with Organizational Learning Focus on organizational learning ideal for

start Rarely ever done

Problem: World of organizational learning does little to

structure knowledge, to capture & leverage it

Leading with Decision Making Knowledge proves useful to organizations

because of the ability to improve decisions and actions taken on the basis of this knowledge

‘Who knows what when’ Tricky business

Difficulty in linking specific knowledge to specific decisions

Politics

Leading with accounting

Not recommended as a starting place for managing knowledge

Accounting systems and practices unlikely to change Sisyphian cause

KM Pitfalls

If we build it…… Let’s put the Personnel Manual online None dare call it knowledge Every man a knowledge manager Justification by faith Restricted Access Bottoms Up!

QUESTIONS?