Developing Policy in the 21st Century: Working Smarter, not Harder

Developing Policy in the 21st Century

Working Smarter, Not Harder

Albert SimardKnowledge Manager Defence R & D Canada

INFONEX: Developing Policy in Times of Fiscal RestraintNovember 15-16, Ottawa, Ontario

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Outline

• Overview

• Increasing productivity

• Retaining corporate memory

• Leveraging value

• Increasing capacity

• Engaging diversity

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Challenges in the 21st century

KnowledgeEconomy

DiverseWorkforce

InformationSociety

SustainableDevelopment

FiniteResources

InternationalPartnerships

GlobalizationAccelerating Change

Life-LongLearning

ComplexTechnologies

CitizenEngagement

Safety & Security

US National Science Foundation (2001) Overview

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Working Smarter, Not harder:

an organization of smart people

into a smart organization.

Transforming

Overview

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• Knowledgeable and competent in core areas.

• Alert and responsive to environmental stimuli.

• Astute in perceiving and interpreting its environment.

• Capable of quickly learning and adapting to change.

• Proficient at recalling past experience from memory.

• Clever in finding innovative solutions to old problems.

• Imaginative at relating seemingly disparate things.

• Skilled at analysis, synthesis, and reasoning.

• Resourceful at accomplishing objectives.

A Smart Organization is:

Overview

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Policy Development Cycle

Australian Policy Handbook

Issue Identification

Policy Analysis

Policy Development

Consultation

Coordination

Decision

Implementation

Evaluation

Organization

Overview

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Policy Development Infrastructure

Peoplelearning, motivation,

creativity, innovation,

skills, staffing

Governance roles, responsibilities, authorities, resources

Processes

work methodsprocess flow, best practices

Policies

politics, management, operations, finance,

administration

Systemstools to capture, store, share, and process content

Overview

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Policy Development Is Knowledge Work

Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge Assets

Knowledge Sharing

Knowledge Work

Knowledge Infrastructure Increase Productivity

Retain Memory

Leverage value

Increase Capacity

Engage Diversity

A policy is explicit knowledge that has been embedded and authorized in rules.

Overview

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Business Case• Implementing knowledge management yields an

average 5:1 return on investment.

• Adapting and reusing existing knowledge reduces production costs by two-thirds or more.

• Frequent assignments requires effective knowledge transfer between incumbents and replacements to maintain productivity.

• Enterprise and domain-wide collaboration are essential to mobilize the best expertise to solve complex problems.

Overview

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Value Proposition

• Knowledge is the most valuable resource in a policy organization. It should be managed accordingly.

• Knowledge workers spend one-third of their time looking for information. Imagine the savings if search time were reduced by half.

• Most employees don’t know what already exists across their organization. Imagine the value of reusing knowledge rather than recreating it.

• There is a wealth of expertise dispersed across an organization. Imagine the total knowledge that could be brought to bear on an issue.

• You can’t solve today’s problems with the same thinking that created them. Imagine the diversity of views available in global networks.

Overview

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Outline

• Overview

• Increasing productivity

• Retaining corporate memory

• Leveraging value

• Increasing capacity

• Engaging diversity

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Productivity of Knowledge Work

• Knowledge Flow: Knowledge moves from its source to its end use through a complex network of interactions.

• Interactions: Every interaction in the network involves people, governance, processes, and/or systems.

• Simplification: Interactions become easier, faster, more useful, and higher quality because knowledge is easier and faster to provide, find, and use.

• Productivity: People spend more time on interpretation, creation, and innovation and they produce higher-quality outputs.

Productivity

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Interactions Between People (Directory of Expertise) Productivity

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People and Systems (Knowledge Asset Inventory)

Productivity

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People and Governance (Briefing Notes Database) Productivity

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People and Process(Frequently Asked Questions) Productivity

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Outline

• Overview

• Increasing productivity

• Retaining corporate memory

• Leveraging value

• Increasing capacity

• Engaging diversity

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Most Organizational Memory is not Managed

Publications

Publications

DocumentsDocuments

PresentationsPresentations

LostLost

DuplicatedDuplicated

DataData

ExpertiseExpertise

TacitTacitInnateInnate

CommunityCommunity

MisplacedMisplaced

Memory

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Explicit Knowledge

• databases, statistics, collections

• documents, reports, books

• photos, diagrams, illustrations

• computer code, expert systems,

• presentations, speeches, lectures

• recorded experiences, stories

• education, teaching, and training materials

• laws, regulations, procedures, rules, policies

• embedded into products Memory

Knowledge that has been formally expressed and transferred in a tangible form.

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Tacit Knowledge

• Awareness• Skills• Experience• Mental models• Wisdom• Corporate memory

The Thinker - RodinMemory

Intangible personal knowledge gained through experience and self-learning; influenced by beliefs, perspectives, and values.

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Capturing Tacit Knowledge

• Conversations, discussions, dialogue (colleagues, peers)

• Questions & answers, problems & solutions (novice/expert)

• After-action reviews, lessons learned (event/group)

• Capture, document, interview, record (expert/facilitator)

• Extraction, identify, codify, organize (expert/know engineer)

• Advising, briefing, recommending (subordinate/superior)

• Teaching, educating, training (teacher/student)

• Storytelling, narratives, anecdotes (teller/listener)

• Explaining, demonstrating, describing (technician/user)

• Presentations, lectures, speeches (speaker/audience)

Memory

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Organizing Knowledge

• Classification systems

• Indexes, Catalogues

• Thesauri, Taxonomies

• Ontologies, Mind maps

• Folksonomies

• Automated methods

• Artificial intelligence

• Interdisciplinary issues

• Linguistic issues

Memory

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Storing, Finding, and Retrieving Knowledge

• IT infrastructure

• Repository

• Interfaces (3)

• Access control

• Search engine

• Extraction tools

• Retrieval system

Memory

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Maintaining Knowledge Assets

• Content integrity

• Content security

• Access to content

• Service standards

• Life cycle management

• Technology migration

Memory

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Outline

• Overview

• Increasing productivity

• Retaining corporate memory

• Leveraging value

• Increasing capacity

• Engaging diversity

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Sharing Leverages Value• Produce once and use many times• Avoid duplication and redundancy• Accelerate teaching and learning• Spread experience and best practices• Enhance and speed problem solving• Implement organizational capabilities• Enhance trust and build relationships

The more people who know something,

The more valuable the knowledge.

Leveraging

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Sharing Barriers

• Trust and safety• Organizational culture• Incentives and motivation• Difficulty of explaining • Different expertise

• Security and privacy• Control and hoarding• Large distances• Different languages• Inadequate technology

Leveraging

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Motivating Sharing

• Communicate sharing goals

• Train employees on using tools

• Demonstrate sharing benefits

• Highlight sharing successes

• Practice good sharing behavior

• Reward good sharing behavior

• Discourage poor sharing behavior

• Encourage communities

Stan Garfield (2010)Stan Garfield (2010) Leveraging

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Sharing KnowledgeLeveraging

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Outline

• Overview

• Increasing productivity

• Retaining corporate memory

• Leveraging value

• Increasing capacity

• Engaging diversity

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Community of Practice

• Government, department

• Sector, branch, division

• Policy analysts, regulators

• Finance, purchasing, HR

• Scientists, lawyers

• Information technologists

People who share common expertise, skill, or profession (position, work, colleagues)

People who share common expertise, skill, or profession (position, work, colleagues)

Capacity

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Communities and Knowledge

• Knowledge exists in the minds of people. Experience is as important as formal knowledge.

• Knowledge is tacit as well as explicit. Transferring tacit knowledge is more effective through human interaction.

• Knowledge is social as well as individual. Today’s knowledge is the result of centuries of collective research.

• Knowledge is changing at an accelerating rate. It takes a community of people to keep up with new concepts, practices, and technology.

Capacity

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Participants- Help with their work- Solve problems- Find experts- Receive feedback- Place to learn- Latest information- Enhance reputation

Participants- Help with their work- Solve problems- Find experts- Receive feedback- Place to learn- Latest information- Enhance reputation

Management- Connect isolated experts- Coordinate activities- Fast problem solving- Reduce development time- Quickly answer questions- Standardize processes- Develop & retain talent

Management- Connect isolated experts- Coordinate activities- Fast problem solving- Reduce development time- Quickly answer questions- Standardize processes- Develop & retain talent

Communities Increase Capacity

Outputs- - Tangible: documents, reports, manuals,

recommendations, reduced innovation time and cost- - Intangible: increased skills, sense of trust, diverse

perspectives, cross-pollinate ideas, capacity to innovate, relationships, spirit of enquiry

Outputs- - Tangible: documents, reports, manuals,

recommendations, reduced innovation time and cost- - Intangible: increased skills, sense of trust, diverse

perspectives, cross-pollinate ideas, capacity to innovate, relationships, spirit of enquiry Capacity

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Community Characteristics

• Self-governed: norms and guidelines govern practices.

• Self-organized: purpose, direction, and management.

• Practical dialogue: answer questions based on practice.

• Collaborate: synchronous and asynchronous channels.

• Generate knowledge: new knowledge is created.

• Support members: provides a forum for mutual support.

Saint-Onge & Wallace (2003)Saint-Onge & Wallace (2003)Capacity

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Community Behaviors

Positive• Dialogue

• Trust

• Safety

• Meritocracy

• Equality

• Outliers

Negative• Discussion

• Debating

• Arguing

• Agenda

• Authority

• Assuming

• Majority

• Consensus

• Groupthink

Capacity

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Outline

• Overview

• Increasing productivity

• Retaining corporate memory

• Leveraging knowledge value

• Increasing capacity

• Engaging diversity

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Social Networks Large numbers of people who share a common

interest or passion (enjoyment, hobbies, friends)

Diversity

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Social Networks add Diversity

• Linux – open-source operating system developed by thousands of programmers around the world

• GoldCorp – released geological data in an open contest to find gold; increased reserves by factor of 4.

• Procter & Gamble – uses network of 90,000 external scientists to leverage internal research capacity.

• Leggo – uses imagination and creativity of worldwide toy owners to create new products.

• GCPedia –Government of Canada collaboration site has 25,000 registered users and 13,500 articles.

Diversity

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Network Attributes

• Networks are much bigger than communities (100s to 1,000,000s of members).

• Participants don’t know most other participants, limiting trust and security.

• Large numbers of nodes leads to complex behavior.

Diversity

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Network Behavior

• Positive feedback - The bigger the network, the bigger it gets.

• Biological growth - Crossing a “threshold” yields self-sustaining, exponential growth.

• Synergy & emergence – Networks can yield more than any individual can accomplish.

• Winner take most – There is a tendency for one member to dominate.

• Extreme leveraging – A small effort can trigger network domination.

Kevin Kelly (1998)

Diversity

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Network Value• Value is proportional to the number of

participants squared.

• Value is created by all; not by an individual or organization.

• Value is external to member organizations.

• Value is shared by all; capturing value is often uneven.

Kevin Kelly (1998)

Diversity

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Capturing Network Value

Network members bring it into the organization.

Communities validate it; the organization structures it. Diversity

• Increases productivity

• Retains corporate memory

• Leverages knowledge value

• Increases policy capacity

• Engages diverse viewsWork Smarter, Not Harder

Managing Your Knowledge