The Knowledge Management Depot

KM in Specific Industries

2012-01-27T11:41:00.000-06:00

Over the next few weeks I will examine several industries in which knowledge management (KM) is making an impact. I will take a brief look at Customer Service Centers, Research Institutions, Talent Management, Legal Institutions and the Military. In this blog post I will take a look at what’s happening with KM as it pertains to Customer Service Centers.

Customer Service Centers are looking to leverage their knowledge assets, KM processes and tools in order to get knowledge to the customer service rep to convey to the customer or directly to the customer in a timely manner. The KM concepts of collaboration through live chat, content management and search as well as KM workflows and expertise locators to enable the “right” resources to solve customer problems are being deployed.

Used properly, knowledge assets with the proper KM tools will enable the customer service centers to not only answer customer questions and solve problems but also increase sales and customer satisfaction through an improved customer experience. KM being leveraged at Customer Service Centers achieve the following:

Lower service cost by reducing repeat calls, call handling/resolution times, and brings down the cost of agent training

Better Quality of Service, Customers are more likely to receive the right answers faster

Consistency in service, with the right KM processes, procedures and tools in place KM ensures that customers with the same question receive the same response, regardless of agent as well as interaction channel or mode

Speaking of tools, some of the tools being utilized for KM in Customer Service Centers include salesforce.com, Kana, and SharePoint. In considering the use of these tools organizations must understand first their knowledge management strategy, how such tools fit within the KM strategy as well as their specific requirements for using one or more of these tools. Keep in mind that if multiple tools are being used to deliver on the KM Strategy your organization should look at ways to integrate the tools in order to deliver consistency in response and service to the customer.

For those organizations leveraging KM or want to utilize KM as part of your Customer Service Center solution I want to hear from you. I look forward to knowing more about what is happening at your Customer Service Centers.

KM Blog in Review 2011

2011-12-31T14:00:00.000-06:00

It has been an interesting year for me as a knowledge management consultant and educator, I had the pleasure of working with a leading on-line financial brokerage company, teaching knowledge management at the Knowledge Systems Institute, in particularly knowledge management within healthcare, developing KM processes and tools for my latest venture Tacitware as well as presenting at the KM World Taxonomy Boot Camp.

Along the way I presented several topics in this blog for discussion and comment. I would like to thank all those who have made comments and have taken the time to stop by and read the postings. I sincerely hope that each posting stimulated some thought and that by reading it you were able to take something away in which you can apply to grow your own KM practice and/or enhance your understanding of KM.

The topics I presented ranged from knowledge management at your organization to details about taxonomies and search engine optimization and content management to the challenge of capturing tacit knowledge and wondering “where have my experts gone”. I also presented the seven steps of the Knowledge Acquisition Unified Framework (KAUF), which is a comprehensive and repeatable KM process for capturing knowledge. I rounded out my postings with talking about social media and its role in collaboration, KM for collaboration and innovation, KM trends for 2012 and my personal favorite “Drinking the KM Kool-Aid”.

Although I do not post as many blog entries as others, I will continue to post information that I believe will add value and stimulate conversation. I wish everyone the best year ever in 2012 and I look forward to hearing from everyone throughout the year!

What’s Hot in KM for 2012!

2011-12-31T13:44:00.000-06:00

As we close out the year and start to look forward to the new challenges of 2012 I want to take a look at what will be Hot in Knowledge Management (KM). In other words what will be the trends in KM as we enter into and progress through the year 2012? Here are a few trends in what I believe will be relevant in KM through the next year:

- KM in the Cloud: Leveraging and continuing to evolve cloud environments and mobile devices to capture, collaborate, and share knowledge

- KM in HR: As the baby boomers retire and the workforce becomes more transitional human resource departments and organizations will leverage knowledge management to capture relevant worker knowledge before it leaves; understand who are the key knowledge holders and where new knowledge for innovation will come from

- KM in Customer Relationship Management and Service: Customer facing organizations across all industries (Financial, Retail, Insurance, Healthcare, etc.) will look to knowledge management in order to get knowledge to the customer service rep or directly to the consumer in a timely (close to real-time) manner in order to make better decisions, improve the customer experience and increase revenue

If you know of other KM trends for 2012 and/or want to comment on the ones I have posted, feel free.

I look forward to hearing from you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Drinking the KM "Kool-Aid"

2011-12-19T11:55:00.003-06:00

Many organizations have begun to understand the value and promise Knowledge Management (KM) can bring to their workforce. Delivering innovation through collaboration and sharing remain the cornerstones of KM. However, once your organization has established its KM Strategy, and/or rolled out it's initial KM offering (i.e., KM System, KM Process, Tools, etc.) what happens next? What happens next is the adoption process. Whether its a new process, procedure, or system; getting your workforce to leverage and use it in the course of executing activities and delivering on their task will be essential to your KM program's success. In order to achieve this there must be processes and vehicles in place to allow, encourage and reward staff members as they work within this new paradigm. It will not be easy. As with anything new it will take some time for adoption to occur. To move this along there must be KM supporters, mentors, and/or evangelist at all levels of the corporate infrastructure to encourage the workforce to "drink the KM Kool-Aid". In other words buy in and practice KM in all aspects of performing tasks and activities.
Developing an organizational culture of knowledge sharing, collaboration and lifelong learning should be the goals of any KM program. Organizations such as Fluor Corporation have been successful in infusing KM within it's culture. From human resource activities, to leveraging knowledge for strategic purposes to engaging with clients, Fluor remains an example of how KM can be leveraged effectively at an organization. Drinking the "KM Kool-Aid" is a slow and deliberate activity grounded in a basic KM process of Connect-->Collect-->Catalog-->Reuse-->Learn and Innovate. When practiced effectively this process will be a cornerstone to enabling the adoption of Knowledge Management throughout your organization. I am very interested in hearing comments on this subject as well as examples of how your organization has or suggestions or will adopt KM.

KM for Collaboration and Innovation

2011-10-31T21:17:00.001-05:00

This blog post is centered around a conversation I had with Preston Simons, CIO of Abbott Laboratories during the National BDPA Technical Conference in August. Our conversation was initiated from a question I posed to Mr. Simons concerning how Abbott was utilizing Knowledge Management (KM). At the heart of his response he mentioned how Abbott researchers were using KM as a collaboration and sharing mechanism to foster innovation and leverage similar research across the organization. Over the past couple of months, the idea of leveraging KM within the research areas of organizations came up several times in conversations with marketing, product owners, and technical colleagues at other organizations. The central theme here is that research areas are critical to new product creation and the speed to market for new products are essential to stay ahead of your competitors. KM plays a central role not only from the perspective of innovation by knowing what has been done and/or what is being done in other areas of research that can be utilized, but also from the collaboration and knowledge sharing among researchers contributing to the speed of new products to market.

To foster and support an environment of knowledge sharing and collaboration for researchers, KM offers a process of Connect -- Collect -- Catalogue -- Reuse -- Learn. This process is supported by several KM tools such as Communities of Practice (CoP), Wiki, white boarding and brainstorming tools, knowledge maps as well as knowledge Cafes. Instituting KM will uncover what you know, who knows it and facilitates the diversity of thought you need for innovation and speed to market.

One questions remains... What is your organization doing to assist researchers in fostering innovation and to speed these products to market? If you are not leveraging what KM will do for you I bet your competitors will!

Where Have My Experts Gone?

2011-10-01T22:33:00.000-05:00

Recently I had a conversation with one of my colleagues regarding his organization's loss of critical expertise. As people started to move in and out of the company valuable knowledge gaps appeared. In a statement of exasperation he ask; Where have my experts gone? To address these gaps the organization began hiring short term (6 months or less) expertise to perform specific duties. When these resources moved on the organization was back to square one. This lead him to ask; How can we address this long term? Where can we find experts to fill these positions long term? and... How would you address this issue? Well I guess this is the million dollar question. The first task I told him I would do is to prioritize the areas that have experienced knowledge loss and based on that perform a knowledge audit of the area that has been identified as the higher priority. In addition further knowledge audits should be scheduled for the remaining areas as his organization became more comfortable with executing knowledge audits. I did inform him that the knowledge audit will tell him what specific knowledge gaps exist, who are the current knowledge holders, and what percentage of knowledge is tacit, explicit or both.

Understanding if the knowledge gap is tacit and the specifics of this tacit knowledge would help you determine the type of expertise you need to hire and for how long. In understanding if the knowledge is explicit; your key knowledge holders may have access to this knowledge somewhere in the organization (knowledge repository/portal, network folders, on the shelf, etc.), you may also have the ability to purchase this knowledge or perform research to document this knowledge. I also believe engaging the key knowledge holders when it comes to identifying the "right" personnel to bring in to fill key positions will start to address his concerns around where to find the experts he needs.

I know this is just a start to address his problem I would like to know what others believe he should do and why. In this current economy it's only a matter of time before all of our organizations start to face this same problem!

NATIONAL DAY OF LABOR

2011-08-17T10:26:00.001-05:00

The following post is from my guest blogger Mr. Howard Hill, CPA. We welcome your comments!

NATIONAL DAY OF LABOR

I have requested that President Obama call for a “NATIONAL DAY OF LABOR “, THIS LABOR DAY. He should have a summit on Labor Day and invite the largest 1000 corporations in America. He should ask each of the top 1000 companies to Pledge to hire at least 1000 new employees, in the United States, by the end of the year. These pledged jobs should be posted on a national federal “Job Bank “website. The president should institute a Jobs credit for all employees hired by the end of the year of 10% . Offer a 15% credit for anyone hired in the month of September. The employee has to keep his job for at least 1 year in order for the employer to get the credit.

Additionally the president should ask every employer in the United States to hire at least 1 person by the end of the year. The job credit would be available to all employers. Any employer who pledges to hire at least 50 employees should be included in the national Job bank website.

This is an opportunity for the President to lead on the jobs issue. I believe that this leap of faith will get America back to work and set the economy on fire. The key is that all the top employers need to hold hands and Jump off the cliff at the same time. If they do so they will reap 10 fold what they pledge and create enormous wealth. The effort should be bipartisan. Those corporations and individuals who refuse to participate will be conspicuous by their absence.

President Obama or congress did not layoff the 15 Million Unemployed Americans, corporate America layed them off and it is high time that they hire them back. I just watched a program that showed the pictures of the 30 American soldiers who lost their lives when their helicopter was shot out of the sky in Afghanistan. These soldiers and thousands of others have lost their lives in these and other wars protecting “vital American interest”. We all know these are vital corporate interest, so they can expand their international operations, while at the same time closing plants and laying off American workers. It is time that they repay the American people for all we have done for them, Hire Americans!

Howard Hill, CPA

Cardhill1@aol.com

Information Dissemination with Twitter

2011-07-31T15:23:00.003-05:00

It is my opinion that the best use of Twitter is centered on information dissemination. I'm not referring to the myriad of useless gibberish about the time you woke up, or what you ate for dinner or the fact you had a hard time finding your shoes in the morning. What I am referring to is information on events, relevant news from the people you follow, situations that are rapidly evolving, and opinions on relevant happenings.

Twitter has the ability to call into action a massive amount of people in a limited amount of time for any cause or purpose. It can also be harmful by propagating negative and erroneous information that is difficult to recover from. Information dissemination on this platform must be used wisely. This power to share must be handled with a sense of privilege and responsibility. From a negative perspective we have seen more and more often; our tweets, has cause loss of jobs, lawsuits, and some cases public outrage. However, the positive aspects of increase awareness, promoting ideas, launching careers, entertaining, bringing people together for a cause, outweigh the negative impacts of Twitter and it has become a major part of many organization's social media strategy.

What I'm interested in is what everyone out here thinks about Twitter and its power to influence, rally the masses, and make a difference in our society as a whole. I believe that this is a valuable tool and can serve as a catalyst in letting the world know what we are thinking!

Seven (7) Steps of the KAUF

2011-06-25T14:52:00.001-05:00

As mentioned in my earlier post on capturing tacit knowledge, I have developed a framework in which to accomplish the task of harvesting tacit knowledge. The seven steps of the framework were identified in my previous post. The seven steps which represent the core of the Knowledge Acquisition Unified Framework (KAUF) will be briefly described here:

Step 1 - Define Domain Knowledge:
The first step in the knowledge acquisition unified framework is to identify what domain (business unit/division/department, etc.) will be the focus of your knowledge elicitation and what knowledge is pertinent to be captured in this domain. In order to determine what knowledge to capture an identification of the key knowledge holders and SME’s in the specified domain must take place. This is typically done through a knowledge mapping exercise. Once this occurs the knowledge management analyst must ascertain what knowledge is essential to be captured. This can be accomplished through a series of interviews/surveys and analysis working closely with the key knowledge holders and SME’s.

Step 2 - Decompose the Domain Knowledge:
When attempting to solve any large-scale problem, we would typically break the activity into a number of smaller tasks; to help a domain experts (SME’s, Content Managers, Contributors, etc.) populate the knowledge repository, we should similarly break the activity of knowledge acquisition into a number of smaller tasks. Structuring the task of populating the knowledge repository into a number of distinct sub-steps (typically based on the taxonomy/ontology that has been established). This will ease the process of populating the knowledge repository gradually.

Step 3 - Determine Interdependency:
Interdependency is when two or more pieces of knowledge/information depend on one another equally (one component depends on another). Finding the interdependency's between different pieces of knowledge (documents/artifacts, and/or expertise) will guide the knowledge analyst and domain expert(s) in completing the knowledge acquisition task. Determining the interdependence's between aspects of knowledge/ information will facilitate identifying the missing pieces of knowledge, determine what pieces of knowledge are related and determine any inconsistencies with the knowledge gathered for that domain.

Step 4 - Recognize Knowledge Patterns:
When analyzing knowledge/information, the process of Connect, Collect, Catalogue and Reuse will uncover patterns of knowledge and recognizing these patterns will contribute to increase efficiencies in the knowledge/information being captured.

Step 5 - Determine Judgments in Knowledge:

If the knowledge being captured is determined to be judgmental (uncertain or “fuzzy”) analysis has to occur to understand if conflicts exist. In addition, consulting with expert resources to come to a consensus as to what represents the "correct" knowledge may also be necessary.

Step 6 - Perform Conflict Resolution:
There are situations in which sufficient expertise and/or documents are unavailable to solve conflicts within the knowledge being gathered. If the knowledge being captured has some uncertainty or is fuzzy, you must first specify preconditions in the context of one or more of the conflicting elements of the knowledge to prevent those conflicting elements from being considered.

Step 7 - Capture/Catalogue the Knowledge:
Tacit knowledge is now sufficiently ready to be cataloged and transformed into explicit knowledge to be prepared for inclusion into a knowledge management solution.

Let me know your thoughts.... In the meantime access amazon for their references to Knowledge Acquisition and CRC Press. Also, feel free to contact me on twitter at Tony Rhem.

The Challenge of Capturing Tacit Knowledge

2011-06-13T19:18:00.000-05:00

Within Knowledge Management (KM) the ability to harvest/capture the knowledge of workers has been a challenge for many years (see blog post: Capturing Tacit Knowledge). The capturing, cataloging and reuse of explicit knowledge of workers has been accomplished effectively through the use of content management systems. However, capturing, cataloging and reuse of tacit knowledge remains an elusive often controversial subject within KM. To address the issue of capturing, cataloging and reuse of tacit knowledge I have developed a methodology which I believe effectively addresses this issue. This methodology is the Knowledge Acquisition Unified Framework (KAUF). The original bases for this framework is detailed in my publication from CRC Press UML for Developing Knowledge Management Systems. This framework has been utilized for the military at the Surface Deployment Distribution Command (SDDC) and also leveraged at a major retail company with some measurable success.

The framework's flexibility allows for many project management and software tools to drive and implement applications based on the guidance of the framework. The framework consist of seven (7) major steps:

1. Define Domain Knowledge, 2. Decompose The Domain Knowledge, 3. Determine Interdependency, 4. Recognize Knowledge Patterns, 5. Determine Judgments in Knowledge, 6. Perform Conflict Resolution and
7. Capture/Catalogue the Knowledge
These steps provide a repeatable process for identifying, understanding and cataloguing the tacit knowledge of the organization during the knowledge elicitation process.

In the post to follow over the next couple of weeks I will detail more about the KAUF and welcome your questions and comments. In the meantime I can be reached via twitter at Tony Rhem.

Selecting The Enterprise Search Engine

2011-05-18T21:12:00.000-05:00

The final post in this series puts all the parts together that we have been talking about and incorporating a viable enterprise search engine that will satisfy our needs. Depending on your platform of choice and your search needs there are several search engines to select from. To get a jump start on determining what search engine works for you I have included information from New Idea Technologies on Enterprise Search Engines by Mark Bennett.

In his article Mark Bennett presents a summary of the core features and functionality that many enterprise search engine customers are concerned with (see diagram on the left). To summarize his findings Bennett points out that the majority of customers want the capability of the search engine to crawl large numbers of documents, enable secure content features, provide search analytics and content promotion, enable metadata & tagging, the ability to search (crawl) multiple repositories, while also providing faceted and taxonomy based searching.

In addition Bennett identifies the various vendors that are prominent in the search engine space and how they stack up against each other (see diagram on the right). You have your usual suspects such as Microsoft and Google, but he also mentions other vendors such as Lookout Software and IBM along with Oracle who are becoming more involved in the search market. The bottom line is determining what are your specific search requirements, identifying the vendors that meet those requirements and letting them show you (not just tell you!) how they will meet your needs.

I would like to know what your experience has been in identifying and selecting an enterprise search solution and vendor. I look forward to your comments,

What About the Content? Crafting the Content Migration Strategy

2011-03-29T15:44:00.010-05:00

In this continuing series about finding pertinent content on our knowledge repositories we must not forget about how we are going to get the content on to the knowledge repository. Having a clear, concise and workable plan for content migration is a critical ingrediant in our ability to later find "knowledge nuggets" that will help us in performing our tasks. The following steps outline best practices that should be considered when developing your content migration strategy:

1. Content Identification – Each business area involved in the content migration to the new/existing knowledge repository must perform a knowledge audit, developing an inventory of what the area has and how it relates to the users. This is the most time consuming task in the effort.

2. Content Analysis – Once existing content has been inventoried the analysis of this content can begin. This analysis will determine what content is to be moved, re-purposed, archived, or deleted. At this stage content can be properly tagged with appropriate terms/keywords. In addition during this step discovery of knowledge gaps will occur and must be documented.

3. Stakeholder/Management Engagement – In managing this effort it is essential that stakeholders understand the effort, it is properly scheduled, staffed and expectations managed.

4. Knowledge Repository Design – Before content migration begins the Knowledge Repository design must be completed with all associated components including look-and-feel and navigation of the environment.

5. Taxonomy, Content Types and Metadata Mapping – Content mapping activities provide the opportunity to understand how content will be placed into the taxonomy of the Knowledge Repository.

6. Training – In order for the appropriate staff to start migrating content on to the Knowledge Repository they must be trained on how the system works and the steps necessary to “on board” content on to the environment.

7. Content Migration – Now it is time to populate the Knowledge Repository with content. In order to successfully perform this task specific steps communicated in training must be executed.

For additional information on crafting your Content Management Strategy check out the resources below and I look forward to comments and discussion!

Tools for Implementing Taxonomy and Search Capabilities

2011-03-19T23:16:00.001-05:00

Continuing our conversation about building a better search using taxonomies, ontologies, content types, and metadata; the following represents a few tools to consider if we every hope to not only find information on our knowledge repositories but to provide solutions to our inquiries.

Knowledge Management Suite for SharePoint 2010 from Layre2 is focused on improved content tagging and discovery. Although this product has not been rated with any reviews it promises to deliver many features that a taxonomy structure will be able to take advantage of. These features include:
- Tag Suggester: While tagging an item or document, display a suggestion list based on given Term Store taxonomies, tagging rules, item properties, context and document content.
- Auto Tagger: Tag items and documents in background without any user interaction, based on given Term Store taxonomies, tagging rules, item properties, context and document content. Auto Tagger could be helpful for initial tagging, e.g. after content migration from any system to SharePoint 2010, as well as for daily background operation.
- Taxonomy Manager: Manage the Term Store with additional managed metadata properties (e.g. tagging rules, related tags), export and import, change management, workflows.
- Tag Navigation Web Part: Provides collaborative tagging by using the SharePoint 2010 managed metadata taxonomy tree directly for content discovery and navigation.
- Tag Directory Web Part: Render the SharePoint 2010 managed metadata taxonomy tree as flat A-Z directory category index directly for content discovery and navigation.
- Tag Cloud Web Part: Navigate the content by its importance using a familiar taxonomy-based tag cloud.
- Related Content Web Part: Automatically display related content in a given context using managed metadata.
B y the way Layre2 provides shareware (free) version of there Knowledge Management Suite.

Word Map Taxonomy Management Software
Wordmap's software enables organizations to develop classification schemes or taxonomies, upload and store documents by reference to them, then publish rich information resources for their users to search and navigate. Using taxonomies and classification schemes enables the Taxonomy Management Software to provide structured to content enabling precise and relevant answers to searches quickly. Some World Map Taxonomy Software clients include AstraZeneca and the Harvard Business School. The complete product set can be deployed standalone - or easily integrated to improve the performance and consistency of existing systems. Learn more about the Word Map Search Integration Framework and how it connects enterprise applications such as SharePoint & Endeca to centralized taxonomy management.

Data Harmony: Expert Knowledge Management with Powerful Semantic Tools and Intelligent Design
Data Harmony software indicates that it provides knowledge management solutions to organize your information resources by applying a taxonomy/thesaurus structure. Data Harmony's software tools enable you to construct a logical framework of topics, reflecting the vocabulary of your business or subject area - and then apply these topic terms to your resources precisely and consistently.

Data Harmony tools include:
• Thesaurus Master - Taxonomy and thesaurus construction and management
• M.A.I. (Machine Aided Indexer) - Automatic indexing or editorial aid in indexing
• MAIstro™ - Combine Thesaurus Master and M.A.I. for maximum efficiency in both automatic indexing and taxonomy construction
• Additional Knowledge Management Tools - supplement the abilities of these primary products for even greater power in knowledge management.
• Integrates with numerous content management systems, including Microsoft SharePoint
• Exports taxonomy files in XML, OWL, SKOS, and 11 other formats
• Handles taxonomies in virtually all languages
• Uses concept categorization for precise tagging and smarter search

Smart Logic provides an ontology software tool to build and manage complex ontologies. This software package is their Ontology Manager: The tool is designed for anyone with a basic knowledge of taxonomies and information science to develop 'models'. A business analyst can use the tool to assist in the process of building a model. For Information Scientists and Information Architects, the tool conforms to industry standards and has the flexibility and functionality they need to develop complex models.

Some of the Features Include:
- Creates the model of links and structure between language elements that can drive a new user experience
- Holds any term 'metadata' to drive or enhance connected applications.
- Ontology Manager is designed to allow multiple users to create, enhance and browse several types of semantic model which include Lists, Controlled vocabularies, Taxonomies, Thesauri and Ontologies.

If anyone has experience with any of these or other tools I would like to hear more from you!

Dude where's my car? Using Taxonomies and Ontologies in Search

2011-02-28T19:30:00.001-06:00

Have you ever experienced a situation when you just could not find that document on your content management system you were looking for? You may have known part of the title or what some of the contents were but you couldn't put your finger on it. You executed the latest search mechanisms on the site and you had to weed through several pages of content searching for that elusive piece of information. Then finally after a period of time (who knows how long) you either find it (OH Yea!) or give up in frustration (@%#&#^#).

A possible cure for your dilemma as well as mine and countless others is to implement a taxonomy and/or ontology into the information architecture of your intranet, SharePoint, or other orgainizational content management/knowledge repository. You now may be asking yourself, what in the world is a taxonomy? or ontology?

Simply put a taxonomy is a hierarchical classification or framework for information retrieval. ontology is a classification/specification of concepts (see more on ontology). For you SharePoint users out here leveraging Content Types and Metadata along with a solid taxonomy will greatly enhance your search to return what you are looking for. While leveraging an ontology will provide another level of search accuracy leveraging concepts or conceptual searching. Taxonomies are the basis of classfication schemes and indexing systems in information management (see more on taxonomy).

There are many tools and possible solutions available to solve our serach dilemma. Therefore, over the next few weeks I will be looking into the various solutions and finding out what folks are doing to address our search dilemma. So, once and for all we can answer the question: Dude Wher's My Car?

Knowledge Management at Your Organization

2011-01-31T22:23:00.000-06:00

Have you ever wondered what all the fuss is about concerning knowledge management (KM)? What is knowledge management anyway? At its core KM is about sharing and collaborating about what you know, capturing what you know, and reusing that knowledge as to not reinvent the wheel and/or to combine with other ideas to foster innovation. Recently I had the privilege to attend a KM meeting conducted by the APQC (APQC's January 2011 KM Community Call), which had representatives from Conoco Phillips, Fluor, IBM, GE and Schlumberger. What I came away from this meeting with is the need to have KM become part of an organization's culture. I believe that this is important because we do not want KM to be "another task to complete on the checklist", but the way we conduct business. This includes the business between the various individuals and entities within our corporations as well as with our customers. Talking, listening, capturing and applying what we learn from each other is a constant never ending and always evolving process.
I challenge all of us to take this attitude into our workplace and remember that when you share what you know you don't loose that knowledge, but rather you enhance that knowledge with the other individuals you share it with. Take a minute to review the slides from the APQC Jan 2011 KM Community Call as well as this video from YouTube Discover What You Know. Feel free to comment and share your knowledge!

Politics and the Diversity of Thought

2010-12-09T01:32:00.000-06:00

I know it has been some time since my last posting. Since then one significant event in particular has occurred that was foreseen on the horizon; is that we now have a Republican controlled House. With this control comes a new found revelation (as if this is new) that there must be a sharing of power and the willingness to collaborate to move this country forward. The fact that collaboration is something that has been forced to happen I personally see as a good thing! This should have been the mode of operation from day one. President Obama came into office with the mantra of change and the notion of working “across the aisle” to bring about this change and to bring a new perspective in the way we govern.

Now it is time for everyone to open their minds to the possibilities of the diversity of thought this new found collaboration can bring. Is the latest tax compromise a glimpse into the type of results that can come from this era of collaboration? Is this tax compromise good for the country? Will this collaboration continue? It is my hope that the results of collaboration and leveraging the diversity of thought in our political arena will be a catalyst for the type change we believed we were getting when this new administration came into office.

I welcome your thoughts….

Why do Knowledge Management (KM) Initiatives Fail?

2010-12-07T17:32:00.000-06:00

The following blog post is by my guest blogger - David Schneider - I look forward to your comments:

Why do Knowledge Management (KM) Initiatives Fail?

The fact is that few knowledge management initiatives are successful. But, why is this result? What is the cause and effect? Is it because under qualified professional? Or is their more to it than that? What about a magic “silver bullet”? Is a cultural issue?

I believe the reason why knowledge management initiatives fail are varied as there are stars in the sky. I believe one of the main reasons knowledge management initiatives fail is based on how the organization views knowledge management. Knowledge Management is viewed just as a function of the call center. KM is more than a function of a call center and its benefits are far reaching as any Lean process or any other initiatives a corporation take put into practice. KM is mainly viewed by most corporations that have a KM effort as a cost of doing business. This is an error in philosophy, KM is a method of reducing expenses, improve productivity, and enhancing value.

KM will improve efficiencies that will increase a corporations’ profitability, enhances the quality of work, performance, and overall value of the corporation. KM allows tacit knowledge to be leveraged, transferred to increase the quality of work performed across the corporation. This tacit knowledge allows KM to eliminate the “reinvent the wheel” syndrome. This transfer of knowledge is the essence of knowledge management.

Outside of a corporations’ philosophy error there are several reasons for KM initiatives fail. Some of those reasons are as follows:

• Expecting KM technologies to replace KM processes or create processes where none exists.

• Lack of participation from all levels of a corporation.

• Forcing inadequate processes into new technology.

• Lack of maintenance and resources after initial standup.

• Lack of education and understanding of what KM means to the individual.

• KM does not become ingrained into the corporations work culture.

• Lack of involvement in creating and evolving KM content.

• Lack of metrics to measure the impact of KM on the corporation or insufficient/incorrect metrics being captured.

• Lack of monitoring and controls in place to ensure the knowledge is relevant and is current and accurate.

KM initiatives are essential to a corporations’ growth and is more than just the cost of doing business. Successful KM initiatives once completed and funded correctly it increase a corporations’ profitability, enhance the quality of work, and overall value of the corporation.

David Schneider
dschneider1023@yahoo.com

The Need for Diversity

2010-09-27T23:15:00.000-05:00

The power that Knowledge Management (KM) brings to an organization is it's ability to leverage the power of diversity. I am not speaking of just diversity of race, gender and/or religion, but diversity of thought. Through collaboration, knowledge sharing and knowledge reuse it is important to leverage different points of view, different experiences and different cultural backgrounds to stimulate diversity of thought. This diversity of thought leads to innovation. This innovation will enable organizations to deliver unique and or improved products and services to its customers as well as improve the way the organization does business.

Diversity of thought is encouraged and utilized today in the push by corporations to support Board Diversity in expanding the makeup of their corporate boards, through Affirmative Action programs to promote a diverse workforce and through a myriad of organizations that understand that diversity of thought will improve everything from our educational system, healthcare system, create new jobs, and improve how our politicians work together!

Communities of Practice (CoP) is a tool utilized within KM which provide environments where people can collaborate, catalog, and reuse knowledge centered around a certain topic, practice area, or profession, to name a few. This community will bring "like minded" people together regardless of their race, gender and/or religion to stimulate thought, exchange ideas and learn for each other. All focused on innovation, and improving performance. The need for diversity of thought will continue to be a catalyst for our culture to improve the way we live, work and play. I welcome everyone to share their stories where this diversity is happening, where it should be happening and where it has been successful or not!

The Context of the Obama Presidency

2010-08-31T22:09:00.000-05:00

Fresh off of his speech to the nation, I thought I would print this excerpt from an article by Frank Schaeffer "Obama Will Triumph -- So Will America"

I welcome your thoughts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Context of the Obama Presidency

Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe, the Second
World War and the Depression has any president faced more
adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more
bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial
integration has any president faced a more consistently short-
sighted and willfully ignorant opposition - from both the right
and left.

As the President's poll numbers have fallen so has his support from
some on the left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago;
all those lefty websites and commentators that were falling all
over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the
2008 election.

The left's lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling "prophecy"--
snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and
then pretend you didn't have anything to do with it!

Here is what Obama faced when he took office-- none of which was
his fault:

# An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries
# Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral
# The worst economic crisis since the depression
# America's standing in the world at the lowest point in history
# A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war
# A health care system in free fall
# An educational system in free fall
# A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions
(about which the Bush administration and the Republicans had done nothing)
# An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left
# A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration.

And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President's desk!

DIRECT LEVERAGED STIMULUS

2010-08-31T21:40:00.000-05:00

I was presented with this compelling paper from Howard Hill, CPA. Given our current economic situation I wanted to share this letter in its entirety. I welcome your comments:

ECONOMIC STIMULUS 2010/DIRECT LEVERAGED STIMULUS

The American economy is in need of a boost to get people back to work. The best policy to achieve this goal is Direct Leveraged Stimulus. You have seen it in the past 2 years in various forms “Cash for Clunkers”, “The Energy Star” appliance discount program and the new “Home Star” energy efficient discount program. All of these programs are based on a premise that I suggested to the Obama Administration at the beginning of 2009, Direct leveraged Stimulus. I am calling for the expansion of these programs and the creation of others to the tune of $100 Billion, which will create 1 million direct manufacturing Jobs and at least that many ancillary jobs. The best part is the program will pay for itself.
Direct Leveraged Stimulus suggests that you give subsidies directly to consumers for the purchase of goods, which cost 5 to 10 times the amount of the subsidy, preferably for durable goods or services, substantially, if not entirely manufactured or performed in the United States. The subsidy is direct to the public requiring the purchaser to borrow or use his own cash to pay for the lion’s share of the good or service. No money is given directly to the purchaser; it is rebated to the retailer directly from the United States Treasury or local Government pass through agent.

“Cash for Clunkers”, is an example of this program. In order to get the $4500 subsidy you had to Purchase a vehicle. I was not in favor of the Clunker portion of the program, but the program still was very successful. The stimulus was direct as the money benefited the consumer directly. The stimulus was leveraged as the consumer had to borrow or pay from his own funds the balance of the car purchase. Most vehicles were purchased for $20,000 to $25,000. The program was initiated to get some of the older gas guzzling cars off the street and replace them with more fuel efficient vehicles. At the time it helped pull the American economy out of the economic ditch.

Direct Leveraged Stimulus is far better than any other stimulus program because it requires the consumer to put 5 to 10 times more money into the economy than the government subsidy. It is better than tax credits that everyone does not qualify for or understand and often don’t benefit taxpayers equally, and as we have seen with home buyer credit program, is open to fraud. It is better than the suggestion of reducing payroll taxes because consumers don’t have to spend the payroll tax savings. It is better than building roads because for every dollar you spend on roads you get a dollar of road. In the case of Direct Leveraged Stimulus you get 5 to 10 times of the amount of the stimulus you provide. Obviously it is better than unemployment for all of these reasons and the fact that Direct Leveraged spending will stimulate employment and boost consumer confidence. We need to put Americans back to work preferably in manufacturing jobs.

The best example of the policy is the Energy Star appliance program. This program gave a discount paid directly to retailers if a consumer purchased an energy efficient appliance. In this example the funds were given to the State of Illinois which administered the rebates. On April 23, 2010 $6.5 million of rebates were made available through local retailers. The discounts or rebates were 15%, and were used toward the purchase of an Energy efficient home appliance. The lines began to form outside retail stores at 4am. The program was suppose to be in effect for a couple of weeks or until the funds were expended, which ever came first. By 7pm the same day all the rebate funds were depleted. $45,000,000 of appliances were purchased in that one day, more than 7 times the amount of the subsidy.

Direct leveraged stimulus is without a doubt the best way to stimulate the economy and create meaningful jobs. Best of all the program is revenue neutral; it pays for itself in state and federal tax collections and expenditure reductions, for unemployment and other programs. The consumer is happy because he receives a subsidy, business is happy because they directly receive the subsidy and make a sale and best of all it costs the benefactor, we the tax payer nothing as it pays for it self in increased payroll, income and sales taxes. It also decreases the amount we have to subsidize unemployment as we put people back to work. The reduction in the unemployment rate will boost consumer confidence and stimulate growth in all sectors of the economy.

Direct leveraged stimulus works and is a current policy of the United States government. This program should be expanded to $100 to $200 billion. You can also include the manufactures themselves instead of giving a depreciation credit for the purchase of equipment made in the United States; give them a direct subsidy at the time of purchase paid directly to the manufacturer of the equipment. Provide subsides for natural gas buses, construction equipment or pollutant efficient manufacturing machinery. Require at least 70 percent of any equipment, good or service involved in the program to be made in the America. All in all Direct Leveraged Stimulus is the fastest, cheapest, easiest and most direct way to stimulate the economy. Congress needs to seriously consider this proposal.

The policy can be applied at the state and local level as well. State and local governments can provide subsidies for products produced and purchased within their boarders. It can also be used for the purchase of homes in lieu of tax credits.

Howard Hill, CPA
773.317.6247
cardhill1@aol.com

Universities and Colleges Offer Healthcare Informatics Programs to Address Healthcare Reform

2010-07-20T15:21:00.001-05:00

With the advent of healthcare reform and the move to digitize health records, streamline medical costs and enable better medical decisions, many universities across the country are offering certificate and degreed programs in healthcare (or medical) informatics. Healthcare Informatics incorporates information technology and healthcare to support clinical workflow, collect, organize, and secure health related data, information and knowledge. It also supports the growing knowledge base of physicians in order for them to make better decisions, reduce the costs of treatments, eliminate (severely cut) mistakes and improve overall patient care.

Some of the universities offering certificate and degreed programs (Bachelor and Masters) include, University of Illinois at Chicago, Walden University, Northwestern University, Knowledge Systems Institute and University of Maryland University College to name a few. There are literally over a hundred (100) universities and colleges offering these programs, check out GradSchools.com for additional information on these schools. Many of these colleges offer on-line or web based courses, which offer a degree of flexibility for the medical professional that is likely to enroll in one of these programs.

A major objective of healthcare informatics is to formulate standards such as the Health Level Seven International (HL7) Standard, address HIPPA 5010/ICD-10 standard implementation and to provide protocols, procedures, and policies around informatics tools, techniques, and concepts. However, the challenge remains getting medical providers committed to what will be a widespread implementation of the information technology needed to support healthcare informatics. Although this challenge exists, our universities and colleges are already ramping up to meet this challenge. In an economy hurting for jobs, healthcare informatics will provide a future workforce to meet the challenges that healthcare reform brings. This newly equipped workforce will be a catalyst for Americans to realize the benefit of creating a standard and comprehensive healthcare system that will assist medical professionals in providing an overall effective and efficient as well as lower cost patient care experience for all us.

Leveraging KM for M&A Transactions - Part 3: Human Capital Management

2010-07-01T21:28:00.000-05:00

People are at the core of Knowledge Management (KM). Mergers and Acquisitions thrive and survive on the strength of how corporate cultures and its people can be meshed together. A sound Human Capital Management strategy will be an integral part of an overall KM strategy to be leveraged in an M&A transaction. Understanding who are the critical knowledge holders and there relationships through Knowledge Mapping is the beginning of understanding roles, responsibilities and work products that the various employees perform throhghout the organization.

This understanding will lead to determining which positions and personnel perform duplicate functions, which will lead to knowing the employees that should be terminated (better yet receive a package and convinced to leave!). Not only do you have to determine which personnel perform duplicate functions, but also who is more valuable through his/her experience, education, and importance to the organization going forward. The Human Capital Management Strategy is also an investment in employee selection and development. This contributes to the organization meeting its goals and objectives of not only the merger but for the organization on an on going basis.
Another aspect to Human Capital Management that we must keep in mind is that it can be the catalyst to increased adaptability, enhanced worker performance and with the current economic climate, having the ability to do more with your existing personnel resources.

Leveraging KM for M&A Transactions- Part 2: Valuation

2010-06-30T07:22:00.000-05:00

For a potential merger, understanding the value of the organization to be acquired is critical to positioning a price that is both equitable and acceptable to the acquired company. If your organization is positioning itself to be sold understanding how knowledge management (KM) can increase the overall value of the company is essential to obtaining a fair price. So, how do we leverage KM to understand the value of the organization? One such way is to apply the concepts presented in The Knowledge Value Equation. This equation examines the use of discounted cash flow (DCF) and presents an equation: KM Value = F (cost, benefit, risk) = Total DCF created over life of KM investment. The equation states that the value created from managing knowledge is a function of the costs, benefits and risks of the KM investment (project or strategy) in leveraging and protecting the knowledge (Clare, 2002).

An important concept identified in determining the knowledge value equation is to build a knowledge value tree. A knowledge value tree makes the connection between knowledge and value in an organization more visible by understanding the relationship and connection of KM Functionality, Business Impact, and Financial Impact (Clare, 2002). This viability of the value of knowledge in the organization can be directly tied back to understanding what competitive advantage your organization has in its marketplace, its percentage of that market, and the potential capture additional market share. An examination corporate valuation can be found in this book: McKinsey & Company Inc.'s - Valuation. I believe that this is an important factor when considering to buy an organization as well as if you are positioning your organization to be sold.

Leveraging KM for M&A Transactions - Part One: Knowledge Map

2010-05-24T14:09:00.000-05:00

During this challenging economic time many corporations are facing the prospect of merging with other firms to not only survive but to have a sustainable and viable business in the future. With the consolidation of the telecommunications industry underway (see CenturyLink/Qwest Merger) as well as the airline industry (see United Continental merger) there is a need to identify the key knowledge holders in order to ensure the success of mergers and acquisitions.

The effect of these mergers will and often lead to a loss of valuable knowledge from both sides of the merger/acquisition equation. This loss of knowledge is due to positions being consolidated and/or eliminated, other personnel taking early retirement package or other financial incentives. The question is how do we identify who the key knowledge holders are and what knowledge do they hold? Also, has it been determined that this is viable knowledge to the "new" organization going forward and what is our plan to retain, capture, or acquire this knowledge?

All of these questions can be answered with a comprehensive Knowledge Management Strategy geared to identify viable initiatives that will address these questions. One such initiative will be to develop a knowledge map of the organization to be acquired. A knowledge map is a mechanism used to identify key knowledge and the knowledge holders of the organization. Once these maps are completed further analysis is needed to determine the process, procedures and initiatives necessary to prioritize, retain, and/or acquire knowledge that may leave. Often organizational knowledge is the reason certain mergers happen. Knowledge Management is the mechanism to transition individual knowledge to corporate knowledge and make it available for all employees to access.

There will be additional parts of this blog entry to follow over the next week. I welcome your comments on this timely issue!

Knowledge Management for Law Firms

2010-05-23T22:37:00.000-05:00

Over the last several weeks I've been discussing knowledge management specifically in the areas of healthcare, telecommunications, government (military) and mergers/acquisition. During these conversations a colleague of mine mentioned law firms and if KM can provide viable assistance for lawyers and other legal personnel. The conversation went quickly to KM tools such as those provided by Lexis Nexis (www.lexisnexis.com). I cautioned however that KM is not about IT. Technology is an enabler for KM initiatives. You must first understand the business of the law firm and the lawyers who operate in it (every firm and lawyer has different knowledge needs). So, I suggested you start with crafting a KM Strategy to understand how KM will be leveraged by the firm.
Law firms focus centers around client relationships and understanding the clients' legal needs. These needs can range from but not limited to litigation, intellectual property, criminal, divorce, and bankruptcy. In understanding what a client needs the law firm partner has to determine who would be the best (lawyer/lawyers) to address specific needs of the client and how can they effectively and efficiently handle these needs. Therefore knowledge around servicing the client would be a good start for the KM Strategy to focus. The KM Strategy should address the knowledge needs, processes, initiatives and tools that will increase the performance of the staff, provide outstanding services and increase revenue of the firm.
Some resources to review are: Effective Knowledge Management for Law Firms, Knowledge management and the smarter lawyer, and Lawyer KM. I look forward to your comments.

KM for Base Realignment and Closures (BRAC)

2010-04-30T23:58:00.000-05:00

To continue the dialog about capturing tacit knowledge and managing human capital, Base Realignment and Closures (BRAC) represents a significant challenge for the United States military to continue operations without compromising mission activities and the soldier in theater. Due to a BRAC move many Commands will be transferring to other locations, while some bases will be closing. Many military personnel will not transition as these bases close and commands move to the new locations. This will undoubtedly cause a loss of personnel resulting in a loss of tacit and explicit knowledge. Leveraging knowledge management (KM) to address this challenge is essential to keep the various commands fully operational and effective for the solider in theater. The following table represents some contributing factors of a BRAC and it's effect on the Command:

This challenge has to be addressed and I welcome your comments on this important subject.

Capturing Tacit Knowledge

2010-04-03T11:16:00.000-05:00

Over the last week there have been messages going back and forth between the members of the Federal Knowledge Management Working Group http://km.gov/ about the ability and validity of being able to capture tacit knowledge and transitioning it to explicit knowledge. The conversation was initiated by Neil Olonoff, Lead Federal Knowledge Management Initiative, Federal KM Working Group. There were many views and opinions voiced on this subject. Some points stand out such as, it is difficult and considered unrealistic to think that you can fully transfer tacit knowledge in its entirety into explicit knowledge, instituting a mentor/protege (apprenticeship) program to transfer tacit knowledge is an optimal way to transition tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, and are there methods (tools) that can really convert tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge effectively and efficiently.
It has been my experience that you can capture specific kinds of tacit knowledge (declarative, procedural, rules based, ) very effectively and translate it into explicit knowledge and make it available across the enterprise. This knowledge becomes among other things "tips and techniques", "standard operating procedures", and "lessons learned". There are also methods to codify tacit knowledge and that knowledge can be utilized in an expert (knowledge Based) system see UML for Developing Knowledge Management Systems.
Tacit knowledge has been translated into explicit knowledge throughout history, from the ancient Egyptian carvings through storytelling, through the semantic web. Phil Murray, Chief Architect from The Semantic Advantage has an interesting article in KM World: Putting Meaning to Work, that talks about the connectedness we share through semantic networks.
What are your thoughts on this subject? Sharing our knowledge both tacit and explicit is the cornerstone to the success of any knowledge management program!

KM for First Responders - The need for a National Alert System

2010-02-27T06:43:00.000-06:00

During a time of crisis, (such as natural disasters, pandemics, acts of terrorism) relevant information and knowledge is not received by the individuals or groups of individuals that need it the most. For instance many times First Responders are not able to respond quickly and effectively without the right information and knowledge during a crisis event. The lack of timely and accurate information increases the level of confusion, resulting in their ineffectiveness that may cause loss of life. Our current emergency broadcast systems are ineffective, see National Public Radio September 30, 2009 "GAO Faults FEMA on Nationwide Alert System (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113345772).

This ineffectiveness is due to the lack of timely, accurate and meaningful information being delivered to the correct recipients during emergencies. This also prevents first responders, key government leadership and the public from preparing for imminent danger, compromises the ability to make informed decisions and enact the proper emergency preparedness operations.

Knowledge Management (KM) applied to the preparedness, response and recovery mission of First Responders will enable the first responder organizations to arrive at the scene in a timelier manner, be equipped with the right knowledge of the situation and have the right tools and technology to execute their job, resulting in saving lives. In many urban areas of the country, when a first responder team is dispatched they often do not arrive in a timely manner, are not fully aware of the situation and are not fully equipped to handle the situation. Applying KM to disaster preparedness, response and recovery will save lives not only in the communities' first responders serve but also within the first responder teams themselves resulting in a safer, fully knowledgeable team responding to a crisis event.

With the current crisis event happening in Hawaii, and the recent events in Haiti having an Intelligent National Alert System is critical! Let me know your thoughts, I look forward to your comments.

Developing a Social Media Strategy

2010-02-24T12:22:00.000-06:00

Over the past few weeks I have been working on a social media strategy. One of the challenges I have faced is determining what will work or make sense for the organization (university) I'm developing/executing this strategy for. The use of social media is being debated in the military and at fortune 500 companies. The use of social media I believe will drive potential customers to your business (or student to the university in my case) as well as become an essential vehicle in informing your consumers about what is going on at your place of business. This recent article "Fortune 500 Companies Using Social Media to reach Customers" http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?article_id=32875 and the recent DoD decision http://www.defense.gov/NEWS/DTM%2009-026.pdf is supportive of the need for ALL organizations to consider developing/executing a social media strategy.

Developing a social media strategy really starts with understanding how the organization intends to leverage social media (awareness, gain customers, push out news and events, announce new products, etc) and what benefits will you gain by having a social media strategy. For the university I have looked at this from the standpoint of awareness of university educational programs, promote what makes us difference and the benefits of becoming a student at the university.

I would like to hear from those who have developed and executed social media strategies. What exactly has worked for you? Am I on the correct path to social media success! Share your thoughts with me. Yes... I am also on twitter: http://twitter.com/bigtonyrhem

The Case for Knowledge Management

2010-01-31T23:30:00.000-06:00

The following was a previous post from the "Process Waterhole". In this time of massive job loss and when employers are asking more for less from their employees I believe this is worth mentioning again:

If your organization is either loosing valuable knowledge due to staff retirement, staff moving to other departments, or dismissed for a variety of reasons, then your organization has a strong case for Knowledge Management (KM). Managing your human capital when staff enters your organization through employee orientation, mapping their roles, responsibilities and their work products as they perform their duties and executing a comprehensive exit interview are all aspects of a KM strategy aimed at moving your human capital to corporate capital.

Take a careful examination of your organization and determine if this situation is something you are dealing with and take the necessary steps to keep your organization viable by instituting a comprehensive KM Strategy.

I look forward to your comments.

Knowledge Management Education

2010-01-11T13:35:00.000-06:00

I recently read the discussion and the associated comments around KM education, which includes university courses (Masters programs), Certification programs and Certificate programs. This discussion is hosted by Art Schlussel in the CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer) Forum in Linkedin. This discussion inspired me to elaborate on my thoughts concerning KM education. As I stated in my comments to Art for any education to be effective it must be supported by practical application including having experienced mentors work with participants who have recently completed any number of various KM training venues.

In this discussion Art mentioned that a partnership between the US Military and a well know accredited university to build a comprehensive KM training program is in its preliminary stages. However, the major issue is what does or will this training consist of and the fact that the US military wants it to follow their KM Competency Model (see above):

I believe that the KM Training should have a holistic approach, which will cover the following:
The Basics and differences between, Data, Information and Knowledge
Establishing "your" definition of Knowledge Management
Developing/Executing Knowledge Management Strategy (Including Knowledge Audits, Knowledge Mapping, KM Process)
Identifying and Address Knowledge Gaps (result from knowledge audit)
Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing (Communities of Practices
Knowledge Transfer Planning (Mentor Protege, Knowledge Codification)
Collecting/Applying Knowledge Management Metrics
Identifying, Planning and Executing KM Projects/Initiatives
Knowledge Management Tools (Wikis, Blogs, Search, KM Systems)

While this is not an exhaustive list, the approach must include the planning, strategy and processes applied for knowledge management as well as the software that will enable and support the execution of the KM program initiatives. The Army's KM Competency Model serves as a foundation to how the Army will approach KM and forms the basis of what KM will address from the Army's perspective. The Army's Enterprise KM Competency Model represents one holistic approach to institutionalizing KM. I believe that a holistic approach to KM is where we must begin in our training as well as our execution of KM at our organizations.

Managing Time!

2009-11-30T20:08:00.000-06:00

I recently read a blog post from Knowledge Jolt with Jack http://blog.jackvinson.com/ about how successful leaders manage time. I recently started working with a Virtual Assistant (VA)http://www.peppervirtualassistant.com/ company so that I can get a better grasp on managing my time more effectively. In looking for a virtual assistant I reached out to by fellow twitters and this collaboration lead to my VA selection.

In reaching out through social media I have found that this is NOW the most efficient and effective way to collaborate, and share knowledge as well as to market and expedite the flow of business. In effect web 2.0 tools such as twitter, facebook and linkedin when use effectively assist us in managing our time by getting our work done more effectively. The world of social media allows us to not ever feel like we are working alone. In fact we have an entire world of knowledgeable people ready to "pay it forward" by sharing their knowledge on a wide variety of topics. I can't way to see how we all will leverage web 3.0!

Knowledge Management Episodes

2009-10-28T19:50:00.000-05:00

In a recent Knowledge Management Certification class I conducted in conjunction with the Knowledge Management Institute (http://www.kminstitute.org/) we covered the concept of Knowledge Management (KM) Episodes (http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=637463). Being a student of root cause analysis (http://www.systems-thinking.org/rca/rootca.htm) which involves finding multiple paths to problem resolution, the KM Episode model is especially interesting.

KM Episodes depict "factors that need to be considered in the implementation of an organization's KM initiatives. KM Episodes focus on knowledge used to solve a knowledge need, specifically knowledge manipulation activities. KM Episodes depict what happens between the time a knowledge opportunity/need is recognized and when it is satisfied, in the process identifying influences, key learnings and resources. I believe that this is an excellent tool to use in examine potential KM initiatives.

Let me know your thoughts and especially if you have leveraged KM Episodes on any of your KM initiatives.

NSF SBIR/STTR Program

2009-09-30T16:27:00.000-05:00

I have the distinct pleasure to work with the National Science Foundation (NSF) in its Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program. This is an excellent program for small technology savvy companies to present/submit technology ideas for funding. The first phase award from the NSF SBIR program is $150K and the second phase award is $500K. If you have a small technology firm or perhaps you work for a college/university this is an excellent place to start to validate your technology, receive initial funding, and possible marketing and venture capital support http://www.nsf.gov/eng/iip/sbir/ Feel free to contact me and or post comments to receive insight and/or additional information on this exciting program.

Knowledge Management in Healthcare

2009-09-01T05:44:00.000-05:00

As the Obama Healthcare plan is being dissected by Politian's and the public alike, in order to stimulate innovation and bring down healthcare cost the federal government must leverage Knowledge management (KM). You may be asking yourself... How can we leverage KM to bring affordable healthcare to all Americans?

KM is about sharing know-how through collaboration, which includes the integration of systems to enable knowledge sharing. The knowledge being shared includes research, patient records, and doctor expertise. These collaborative work enviornments will bring more effective communication along with more responsiveness to patients. The following represent some links to information on leveraging KM in healthcare.

http://www.ikmagazine.com/xq/asp/sid.0/articleid.DDD4001B-931E-4375-8E64-EDD4D44D1000/eTitle.Your_Say_KM_in_the_healthcare_industry/qx/display.htm

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/research/ikon/research/leanhealthcare/

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1560470

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Transitional Workforce

2009-07-30T23:55:00.000-05:00

In the U.S. we are faced with potentially devestating transitional workforce issues. This situation is effecting organizations both commercial and government, large and small. So what is the basis of the transitional workforce issues? We are speaking of the retiring and rotational personnel and the tacit and explicit knowledge that many organizations will loose when this personnel is no longer available. In Knowledge Management one of the major challenges is finding methods to capture (and perhaps codify) this knowledge before it leaves the organization and make it available for others to access, leverage and maintain.

Across the military BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment Commission: http://www.brac.gov/) movements are fueling the transitional workforce issues within DoD. To capture this valuable knowledge from personnel not willing to move as their jobs transition I have utilized the Eclipse Process Framework Composer (http://www.eclipse.org/epf/) to build a knowledge base centered around the role/position, task/activity being performed, and the work products being produced. Along with specific guidance (lessons learned, tips and techniques, guidelines, templates, workflows, etc.) creates a repository that can be accessed and leveraged across the enterprise.

Although I have used the Eclipse Process Framework for military personnel transitions, it can be utilized anytime there is a potential loss of personnel knowledge within your organization. If transitional workforce issues are a concern for your organization I invite you to contact me for additional information about leveraging the Eclipse Process Framework Composer and other tools/methods for tacit and explicit knowledge capture.

KM Planning vs KM Strategy

2009-06-29T21:48:00.000-05:00

I have been working with several groups and organizations over the past few weeks looking to launch Knowledge Management (KM) programs. During my conversations one aspect of a KM program continues to come up... the KM plan v.s. the KM Strategy. Do we need both, what is the difference and what are they used for?

To start, a knowledge management plan involves a survey of corporate goals and a close examination of the process, and tools both traditional and technical, that are required for addressing the knowledge needs of the organization. The challenge is to establish what knowledge and knowledge management mean to your organization, understand what types of knowledge exist, what knowledge assets are going to be leveraged to improve performance and increase organizational innovation. In addition a KM Plan assists in the determination of software that fits the context of the overall plan and encourage people to share knowledge, information and data.

A KM strategy on the other hand entails a collective visioning as to how sharing knowledge can enhance organizational performance, and the reaching of a consensus among the senior management of the organization that the course of action involved in sharing knowledge will in fact be pursued. Implicit in such a process is a set of decisions about the particular variety of knowledge management that the organization intends to pursue. How the knowledge assets of the organization will be leveraged and the execution of the process and tools that will enable sharing and innovation to occur.

In short think of the KM Plan as the "what" and the KM Strategy as the "How" knowledge is leveraged.

I welcome your thoughts on this subject and to lively conversation...

Knowledge Management (KM) Roles and Responsibilities

2009-06-12T00:11:00.000-05:00

For anyone who is pursuing a career in knowledge management it is important to know what role (or position) you are best suited for. Depending on the organization (commercial, government, military, non-profit) there are different nuances to the KM job tile and duties. Some sample KM positions and there general descriptions are:

Chief Knowledge Officer manages the knowledge sharing process at the organizational level, leads efforts to move the organization to knowledge centricity; requires a dedication to KM principles, the ability to discuss the benefits of knowledge sharing and the vision to ensure that KM initiatives are adopted by the organization; ensures that the best, relevant information for the area of practice is accessible to all personnel and implements the knowledge sharing strategy in alignment with corporate guidelines; champions cross-organizational communities of practice, forms relationship with HR, IT, librarian, organizational learning; establishes incentive programs for knowledge sharing and re-use; fosters cultural change; defines roles, skill-set and opportunities for knowledge workers and facilitates training and education of knowledge workers.

Knowledge Engineer is involved in turning KM ideas into workable solutions by engineering appropriate knowledge sharing internet/intranet sites, rules based systems, portals, databases, etc. Requires intimate knowledge of the systems, architectures, technologies, standards and protocols for KM. Ensures performance of the knowledge-centric organization is optimized through utilization of KM tools and systems thinking applications.

Knowledge Manager works with the Chief Knowledge Officer to implement KM initiatives; manages KM efforts; requires looking across KM processes to capture tacit and explicit knowledge and often involves balancing technology, information, processes and individual and organizational learning within a culture of shared values. Creates ways to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Knowledge Process Manager focuses on the organizations processes of KM and content integration; manages the efforts of the Knowledge Transfer Engineer, Knowledge Research Engineer, and Knowledge Life-Cycle Engineer. Develops process models for optimal organizational effectiveness.

For additional information on KM positions access the following links:

http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/wiki/?id=2023

http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/Editorial/Feature/Knowledge-management-shaping-the-profession-9336.aspx

http://www.icasit.org/km/intro/kmcareer.htm

In order to prepare yourself for one of these exceptional positions the first step is to seek out educational opportunities. You can contact your local universities and colleges as well as look online to organizations that provide training and certification. The following are some links to organizations proving these educational opportunities:

Walden University: www.waldenu.edu
Knowledge Management Institute: www.kminstitute.org
eKnowledge Center: http://www.eknowledgecenter.com/
George Washington University: http://www.gwu.edu/~iki/
Knowledge Systems Institute: http://www.ksi.edu/km.html
Rutgers University: http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/component/option,com_courses/task,view/sch,17/cur,610/num,574/Itemid,54/
Dominican University: http://www.dom.edu/academics/gslis/programs/ms-knowledge-management.html

I look forward to everyone's comments!

Attend KM Certification Training in Chicago

2009-05-23T01:11:00.000-05:00

For anyone who is looking to establish themselves in Knowledge Management and/or have knowledge management programs starting, continuing or evaluating, sign up to attend the Knowledge Management Institute KM Certification Training in Chicago Sept 28 - Oct 2 http://www.kminstitute.org/cms/event.jsp?id=com.tms.collab.calendar.model.CalendarEvent_5d34b253-ac1020f0-fcdef300-c48a4ec9

This KM certification class will be hosted by my firm A.J. Rhem Associates and I will be teaching the course along with Douglas Weidner of the Knowledge Management Institute. Please take some time to review the information by using the above link. I welcome your questions and comments.

Knowledge Management Conference

2009-04-29T20:31:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple of days I had the pleasure on attending the Knowledge Management 2009 Conference and Exhibition in Washington DC. This conference focused on KM in the government and included representatives from many government agencies and most notable the military. I specifically enjoyed seminars around Federal CKO Perspectives, Storytelling as a way to transfer knowledge, KM Cafe facilitated by the Knowledge Management Institute, Knowledge Retention strategies, Government 2.0 with KM and Developing a National Knowledge Innovation Policy.

In addition this conference introduced me to the Federal Knowledge Management Working Group. Part of the vision of this group is to establish federal knowledge management policy, supporting knowledge strategy alignment, knowledge management practices, knowledge retention policies, change management and the establishment of a Federal Knowledge Management Center and Federal Chief Knowledge Officer. All of these initiatives are ones that I fully support and it is my desire to support this working group in the successful execution of these initiatives. To know more about this organization review their web site at http://km.gov/.

Opportunities for Knowledge Management

2009-04-21T14:51:00.000-05:00

When determining if or when you should incorporate Knowledge Management (KM) in your organization you must first look for opportunities where KM can be used. In addition where KM can bring about visible results that can be communicated throughout your organization. An immediate KM initiative that can be leveraged is what is called no or low budget KM. These initiatives include conducting, capturing and distributing "lessons learned" on projects and other corporate initiatives, writing a "trip report" and conducting a presentation to your team when you go to a conference and/or attend an important corporate function (this promotes knowledge sharing), and conducting "brow bags" presenting a topic of interest. These activities all address one of the central themes of KM, Knowledge Sharing and Transfer. Keep in mind that when I say no or low budget there may be no cost to the organization or very little cost. An important factor in these challenging economic times.

I also mentioned distributing this knowledge throughout your organization. One simple way to do this is to make the trip reports and presentations, lessons learned and brown bag presentations available on the corporate intranet and send out the appropriate communication to let everyone know that this information is available along with the principle person(s) contact information. You should encourage people who leverage this knowledge to send the principle person(s) an email letting them know how it has made a difference for them. All of the emails should be documented and presented to management to show how KM can bring about visible results and that an official KM initiative (with budget) should be examined and launched.

This is one effective way in looking for opportunities for Knowledge Management. I look forward to your comments and contributions on this subject.

Chicago Academy for Advance Technology (CAAT) Event

2009-03-10T22:23:00.001-05:00

I had the pleasure of attending an exciting event for the Chicago Academy for Advance Technology (CAAT) http://www.chicagotechacademy.org/ on Friday March 6 2009. This event was a student lottery, selecting the first 150 students for its inaugural class starting August 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oLfNKvQy-Q. This is the first High School of its kind, a part of the Chicago Public School system, which provides its students with the opportunity to learn state-of-the-art technology, shadow executives, and be mentored all the way through high school. This institution is supported by many local businesses and entrepreneurs as well as major corporations (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, too name a few), school officials, and government representatives (Mayor Richard J. Daley, Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan, and President Barack Obama, to name a few).

Being a technology advocate for many years, speaking to high school and college students about the opportunities that focusing on computer science and engineering will bring, brought me considerable joy to see a room full of enthusiastic young people and their parents being excited about their selection into this high school. Please join me in supporting this institution and its students as they represent the future of our country and our ability to compete technologically in a global economy.

Appointing a Chief Knowledge Officer at the federal Level

2009-03-10T19:23:00.000-05:00

Now that President Obama has appointed the nations first Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Names-Vivek-Kundra-Chief-Information-Officer/) I believe that it is time to appoint a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) for the nation. As many of you may know several government agencies already have CKO’s in place (US Army, US Air Force, USDA, Minority Business Development Agency). So, why a CKO for the nation?

In this age of the knowledge economy our intellectual assets are the most valuable assets that this nation has. As more and more baby boomers reach retirement age there will be a tremendous gap in knowledge at our government agencies as well as in the private sector (http://www.afcea-infotech.org/2007/media/bseminars_pdfs/tuePM3_308_KM_Human_Capital_Rhem.pdf). The nation’s CKO will begin to put in place a national strategy to address this phenomenon as well as people, process and technologies that will ensure our nation stays competitive and thrives during this time of the transitional workforce.

In general the nations CKO and its office will be responsible for mobilizing and maximizing the nation’s knowledge assets from the various agencies, being a catalyst for innovation in not only technology but in the way we work, learn, collaborate and share knowledge. I see this office meeting with the CKO’s at the various government agencies to promote the national knowledge management agenda as well as with CKO’s in the private sector to obtain a holistic view of what works and what can be done to effectively keep the United States as a leader on the world stage.

Let me know what you think, I'll be interested in knowing your views on this.

The Obama Affect - KM Systems

2009-02-25T19:03:00.000-06:00

This will be my final entry (for now) concerning President Obama's use of Knowledge Management. This post will focus on the Obama campaign and administration's continued use of Knowledge Management in particular Knowledge Management (KM) Systems. KM Systems can come in various forms. Its use however is very specific. The KM System is put in place to facilitate knowledge sharing (tacit and explicit), collaboration, creating new knowledge through eLearning as well as Knowledge transfer activities that can be distributed across the organization. Barack's team instituted a series of technologies under the web 2.0 umbrella. These technologies include: blogging, Ajax and other new technologies, Google Based and other free Web Services, social networking, mash-ups, wikis and other collaborative applications, dynamic as opposed to static site content, as well as interactive encyclopedias and dictionaries.

These technologies leveraged the Internet as its community or organization in which to distribute its message and create an environment of knowledge sharing (tacit and explicit), and collaboration. Obama's KM strategy served as the catalyst for the new generation of Knowledge Management. Incorporating the use of blogs, YouTube, and other social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin) the Obama team was able to push out the latest news, information and knowledge about every aspect of the campaign and now many aspects of his administrations' policies and initiatives.

In understanding the general view of the composition of a KM System you must consider that a Knowledge Management System (KMS) addresses the needs of an organization (in this case the Obama Team) that desires not to re-invent knowledge, spend excess time locating difficult to find knowledge, unsuccessfully absorbing and using the growing volumes of new knowledge, while seeking to collaborate and bring in new knowledge. However, one point must be stressed here is that knowledge management also combines cultural and process changes along with enabling technology to achieve bottom line results. It seems that President Obama will continue to leverage Knowledge Management and KM Systems through out his tenure as president.

I look forward to everyone’s response and comments!

The Obama Affect – Creating an Environment of Collaboration and Knowledge Acquisition

2009-01-09T02:12:00.000-06:00

As the President-Elect moves to select/fill his cabinet appointments as well as selecting his vice presidential running mate, the Obama Team leverage another important aspect of the Knowledge Management Strategy: Collaboration and Acquisition. Understanding that Barack Obama had to fill his knowledge gap in foreign policy the Obama Team selected Senator Joe Biden, essentially acquiring the necessary knowledge Obama needed or perceived to need in order to strengthen the opportunity for the democratic ticket to get elected. As cabinet selections proceeded, Barack Obama and his team worked together to acquire the “best” folks to fill cabinet positions, bringing in former opponents to work with him. The vetting process included collaborating with key team members to select candidates based on certain criteria to meet the duties of the cabinet positions ( www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703037.html ).

Collaboration (www.byeday.net/assets/documents/Patti%20Anklam%20Collaboration%20Thread.pdf) to leverage existing knowledge and knowledge acquisition (www.epistemics.co.uk/Notes/63-0-0.htm), (www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/ejrot/Vol7_1/blackman.pdf ) to acquire new knowledge is a cornerstone of the Obama governing policy. Evidence supporting this policy is rooted in Obama’s actions to reach out and speak to the nation’s governors for input into the proposed stimulus package to “kick start” the economy and his actions to engage in dialog with past presidents about life in the White House and the day to day function as President of the United States, and by building a coalition to support his job creation and other economic policies. I see this Knowledge Management Strategy for President-Elect Obama continuing to evolve and being leveraged throughout his presidency. Let me know your thoughts!

The Obama Affect – Knowledge Sharing and Reuse

2008-12-31T19:16:00.000-06:00

An important aspect of any knowledge management strategy is to establish an environment of continuous sharing, collaboration and knowledge reuse. During the democratic primary and the presidential campaign the Obama team leveraged email list gathered partly through their internet site and their push for campaign donations through the mail, including list harvested during Obama’s run for the United States Senate. The emails were leveraged (and are still being leveraged) to push out information and knowledge to supporters, solicit donations and to solicit additional email list of people that want to get involved, partly enticed by the possiblility of winning certain promotional items identified by the Obama email (see example - http://www.pic2009.org/page/invite/tickettohistory).

The Obama team would utilized these email list, determine where in the country these supporters live and dispatch teams to these locations to mobilize these and other supporters to get out the vote for Barack. This process was repeated (reused) all over the country. This created a “grass roots” effort to gain support and votes for Barack Obama. The emails served as a vehicle to build organic Communities of Practice (CoP) for Obama, to disseminate knowledge and build support for the Obama campaign and subsequent presidency. This strategy empowered supporters to hold their own functions (lunches, dinner parties, other special events) to showcase Barak Obama’s message and to talk about the issues.

Through targeted email marketing, development of communities as vehicles to share knowledge, and creating and executing a repeatable process, established a foundation to a knowledge management strategy that was able to expand. I will post more about this iterative expansion of the Obama Knowledge Management Strategy as we continue this dialog. I look forward to all thoughts and comments.

Happy New Year!

The Obama Affect

2008-12-21T10:43:00.000-06:00

Happy Holidays to All!

During the next several post I would like to examine the affect the Obama presidential campaign, cabinet selections and governing strategy is being shaped by the principles, practices, and technology of Knowledge Management (KM). I am referring to this as "The Obama Affect". This is the first time in the history of American politics that someone has leverage KM in a political campaign and has ultimately changed how politicians will be elected. KM has many facets. Among its many facets KM includes knowledge acquisition, collaboration, knowledge transfer/sharing, and the technology and strategy to effectively leverage knowledge to shape decisions.

The Obama Team has instituted a push strategy executing a knowledge sharing policy that includes disseminating information about the the campaign, transition team, cabinet selections and future policies via , email, mobile devises, and Internet. As the Obama Team continues to add cabinet positions and shape their policy decisions the following links provide some insight into their strategy:

http://change.gov/

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

http://www.ontheissues.org/Barack_Obama.htm

A good KM strategy Includes:

KM Vision
Valuation of Knowledge Assets (People, Process and Technology)
Conducting Knowledge Audit
KM Strategy Details
· Knowledge Acquisition Planning
· Knowledge Transfer Planning
· Knowledge Sharing/Collaboration Planning
· Knowledge Management System Planning

We will examine each aspect of the Obama KM Strategy and I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Knowledge Management In Politics

2008-11-06T12:37:00.000-06:00

My congratulations go out to our President-elect Barak Obama. He is not only our next President, he is my neighbor, and someone I have supported since his campaign for U.S. Senate. As many of you know the Obama campaign's use of the Internet has been the fuel for its message of change. Their strategy leveraged the latest in Web 2.0 technology, which is the catalyst for the new generation of Knowledge Management. Incorporating the use of blogs, YouTube, and other social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin) the Obama team was able to push out the latest news, information and knowledge about every aspect of the campaign. This increased the involvement of every supporter enabling them to feel a part of the campaign from start to finish. Supporters received text messages and emails at every turn encouraging them to hold parties with friends to "get out the vote", and donate their time and yes their money.

Leveraging the Internet (Knowledge Management) in a precise strategic manner that supports the mission of the Obama Campaign (Organization) is exactly how all organizations leveraging knowledge management (getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time) should position this evolving paradigm. I believe that many political organizations will study what the Obama campaign did in utilizing knowledge management and the Internet to successfully run and energise a campaign. Undoubtedly this will become a new trend in American politics.

As many of you know President-elect Obama and his team did not shut down all of this infrastructure once the election ended. This infrastructure is still in place and running to keep the momentum behind the movement alive and to keep the nation informed on what our government is doing and why. At the end of the day President Obama knows that he and his administration will be held accountable for moving our nation forward, correcting this ever evolving economic mess, resolving our current and future conflicts, and restoring the world's faith in our country. Knowledge Management has become an essential part of many government agencies. In the coming weeks I will highlight many of these existing programs. I welcome your comments.

Personal Knowledge Management

2008-10-31T17:01:00.000-05:00

As a knowledge management professional and professor I must ask are KM professionals practicing what we preach? This brings me to the adoption of personal knowledge management. Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is about getting your life (personal, professional and otherwise) in order. It can be as simple as managing your personal library (books, files and digital material), having more effective meetings (agenda items, strict meeting time frame, inviting the right people) and capturing decisions and ideas through journaling. Some of the more popular PKM tools involve wikis and blogs. PKM can be a powerful tool in this never have enough time to do what we want world. In practice leveraging these simple techniques will allow us to manage our time better and hopefully alleviate some stress at the same time.

At the core of PKM is the idea of "connect and collect". We must connect with what we need, and the people and resources that have it. Once we make that connection we must collect and store the knowledge gained from the experience of connecting. As mentioned before journaling is an excellent way to capture the knowledge from your connections in addition establishing a mentor/protege relationship where appropriate will strengthen the connection and the knowledge gained from the experience.

The following are some links to additional information on personal knowledge management:
http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Found-Things-Information-Technologies/dp/0123708664/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225492741&sr=8-9

http://www.amazon.com/Informal-Learning-Rediscovering-Innovation-Performance/dp/0787981699/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225492741&sr=8-15

http://www.millikin.edu/webmaster/pkm/

So all you KM professionals and those who are inspiring to be KM savvy, lets go out there and "drink our own kool-aid" and connect and collect!

Realizing ROI in KM Initiatives

2008-10-24T23:33:00.000-05:00

I know it's been some time since I written an entry into the Knowledge Management Depot blog. I have been working with a number of clients keeping busy during these tough economic times. One of these clients is the United States Air Force. During a briefing with Randy Adkins the Air Force Knowledge Now (AFKN) Program Manager (AFMC/A8C at Wright-Patterson AFB) he mentioned that ROI (Return On Investment) for knowledge management initiatives at Wright Patterson are not measured in a traditional sense, however it is measured by how well it supports the mission. Taking this into account at the end of the day what maters is did the KM initiative increase the performance of its users or how well did it support the strategic mission of the organization.

When we are looking at achieving a return on our KM initiatives historically it can take a considerable amount of time to show results or visible ROI for an organization. However, there is an approach by Mark Clare who originally presented this in the KM Review, Volume 5 Issue 2, May/June 2002, to estimate the value of the intangible benefits of KM. This approach , the Knowledge Value Equation (KVE) simple states that the value created from managing knowledge is a function of the costs, benefits and risks of the KM initiative. Thus mathematically stated: KM Value = F (cost, benefit, risk), which equals Total Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) created over the life of the KM investment. This formula attempts to quantify the intangible impacts of KM relating it back to cash flow. This includes improved problem solving, enhanced creativity, and improved relationships with customers and other performance related activities.

Knowledge Management projects produce a stream of benefits over time. This will enable KM projects to be evaluated based on a series or stream of cash flows. However eliciting feedback from the KM user community in your organization, asking if and how something they leveraged as a result of practicing the KM policies, practices, procedures and technology contributed to thier performance will be a key indicator on how well the KM initiative is working. This will provide feedback on a more timely manner than quantifying results using KVE and allow for adjustments to be made to improve the KM environment.

I am particularly interested in what others have done to demonstrate the value a KM initiative has brought to their organization. I look forward to your comments.

Human Capital Management Strategies - Part 3

2008-09-30T23:08:00.000-05:00

This is the final post in this Human Capital Management Strategy series addressing the topic of capturing worker knowledge. Traditionally the mission of capturing worker knowledge was done through the use of an Expert or knowledge base system. Expert systems showed great promise in capturing procedural and rule-based (if-then-else) knowledge in the fields of medicine in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases as well as in predicting credit risk, and financial forecasting. Over the last couple of years I have researched knowledge modeling techniques, specifically expanding the use of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to model knowledge of workers in a specific domain and/or expertise in a specific role or function. UML is a commonly used notation in information technology for analyst, architects, designers and developers to design and model the behavior of software systems. This notation can be successfully leveraged to capture knowledge that will lead to the development of an expert systems and/or become a part of a knowledge management system to capture and deliver specific domain knowledge through out the organization. A resource to understand how UML can be leveraged to capture worker knowledge is my latest publication "UML for Developing Knowledge Management Systems". Other resources that address knowledge modeling can be accessed by the following links: http://www.ihmc.us/users/acanas/Publications/IKS2002/IKS.htm, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel5/10065/32280/01506442.pdf?arnumber=1506442 and http://www.tarrani.net/kate/docs/KnowledgeModeling.pdf. I am interested in obtaining your comments and feedback.

Human Capital Management Strategies - Part 2

2008-09-23T23:52:00.000-05:00

In order to properly manage your organizations human capital assets it is important to identify who are the knowledge holders within the organization. Creating a knowledge map is an excellent tool to facilitate the identification of the key knowledge holders, knowledge gaps and identifies areas to leverage existing knowledge and where knowledge is eroding. However, performing a knowledge mapping exercise should focus on a particular department, functional area, or specific organization domain and gradually built upon until an entire knowledge map of your organization exist.

Knowledge mapping is an essential component of conducting a knowledge audit. The knowledge map serves as a navigation aid to explicit (codified) and tacit knowledge. This mapping directly leads to identifying candidates for tacit knowledge capture within the organization. The knowledge map should be an interactive knowledge map with accessibility through the organizations intranet. For more information on knowledge maps and/or knowledge audits access the following link: http://kmwiki.wikispaces.com/knowledge+mapping

Above is an example of a Knowledge Map of A.J. Rhem & Associates, Inc. (http://www.ajrhem.com/)

I welcome your comments, questions, and insights on using knowledge maps and in particular knowledge maps for human capital management and capturing worker knowledge.

Discover What You Know

2008-09-18T12:10:00.000-05:00

The following link on Knowledge Management is made possible by Eric Weidner at the KM Institute and YouTube.

Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_x78XLBBVM

Human Capital Management Strategies - Part 1

2008-09-18T06:39:00.000-05:00

As part of a comprehensive Human Capital Management Strategy an understanding of the roles, work products (artifacts), and tasks (activities) are key for persons on-boarding and/or gaining understanding of what is required for a particular job. It is important for any organization to not only identify the corporate roles, tasks and work products but to also provide the necessary guidance around this aspect of the corporate structure. In doing so creating an environment in which all employees can go to for the specific role knowledge is essential. One way I found to accomplish this is to utilize the Eclipse Process Framework (http://www.eclipse.org/epf/). This framework provided by the Eclipse Foundation will enable your organization to build a knowledge base of corporate roles, the tasks that each role performs, the work products that are produced along with the guidance (i.e., whitepapers, templates, FAQ's, key contacts, PowerPoint presentations, video, audio, etc.).

For a moment consider the value of having such an environment and its many uses. Some that immediately come to mind is being able to quickly have a new person filling a role to come up to speed and create assigned deliverables. Or, perhaps having a repository of "knowledge nuggets" supplied by the experience people in that role that can serve as repository to capture worker knowledge, which will lead to performing that role more effectively and efficiently. This will undoubtedly lead to increased performance within the workforce.

Let me know what you think, more strategy “tid bits” to come.

Human Capital Management Strategies

2008-09-05T09:36:00.000-05:00

If your organization is either loosing valuable knowledge due to staff retirement, staff moving to another department or leaving the company altogether then your organization has a strong case for Knowledge Management (KM). Specifically I want to address leveraging KM to manage your Human Capital. This is a continuation of thought around capturing worker knowledge. Managing your human capital when staff enter your organization through employee orientation, mapping their roles, responsibilities and their work products as they perform their duties and executing a comprehensive exit interview are all aspects of a KM strategy aimed at moving your human capital to corporate capital.

During the next several days I will post more aspects of this strategy and what I believe has to occur to be successful in Human Capital Management. I welcome your thoughts, comments concerns and examples of what works for your organization.

Capture Worker Knowledge

2008-09-02T15:32:00.000-05:00

Over the past year I have heard many experts talk about capturing the knowledge of the workforce before it leaves an organization. While there are many techniques for capturing knowledge (mentor/Protegee, Video, Expert (Knowledge Based) Systems, Wiki's, and Blogs) no one method can be used alone. Although you cannot capture a person's intuitive nature (wisdom), these methods have been proven useful in capturing mostly procedural knowledge. I have however been working on methods for knowledge capture around utilizing knowledge modeling concepts. If anyone would like to comment on methods for capturing knowledge I would like to hear from you. Also, my latest book UML for Developing Knowledge Management Systems is a good source to start this conversation. Here is the link to the book on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/UML-Developing-Knowledge-Management-Systems/dp/0849327237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220390826&sr=8-1

I welcome your comments....

KM Certification - Chicago Sept 15th - 19th

2008-08-04T10:04:00.000-05:00

AJ Rhem and The KM Institute are hosting another KM Certification Class in Chicago the week of Sept 15 - 19th.

The CKM Blended Program combines the highly acclaimed 5-day workshop,
with cutting-edge e-Learning; video/computer animation/interactivity.
Certification is awarded by Friday afternoon of the 5-day week. And,
students can now access their e-Learning modules post-class (and keep
the material fresh) for up to one full year.

Chicago, IL, KM Essentials Class, 2 days, Sep 15-16, 2008
Chicago, IL, CKM Class, 5 days, Sep 15-19, 2008

Registration/Questions
You may pre-register online with no obligation
here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3Cm6c9XuyFUOCNxq8IoWKQ_3d_3d

Contact: Eric Weidner, CKMMarketing Director/Student Success CoordinatorInternational Knowledge Management Institute (KM Institute)PH: 703-815-8782 eric.weidner@kminstitute.org www.kminstitute.org

New Corp. Video: http://www.kminstitute.org/cms/video1/player.html