1.7 Understanding the framework for action
1.7.1 About each stage
We are now ready to outline the various stages of the framework before the subsequent chapters go into further detail.
Stage 1is all about developing an approach to gain a clear view of the challenges and issues facing the organization, and relate these to the various ways knowledge management principles can be applied in pursuit of larger goals. Using this under- standing we are able to move on to strategy definition.
Stage 2is where the current situation regarding knowledge and information access and use within the organization is assessed, and a knowledge management vision created which directly addresses the main strategic concerns facing the organization.
How radical the thinking and analysis that goes on in these early stages will depend on the amount of control, choice, and resources that managers involved in a KM programme have. For example, in public service organizations a significant amount of direction and resources are defined by central government, restricting the amount of control and choice of managers. Within large, independent and successful companies the degree of control and choice may well be far wider as there may be fewer constraints imposed centrally.
In Stage 3, using the vision as a guide, detailed analysis and definition of required changes will be carried out – enabling the new reality to be ‘designed’. It is important that we understand all the key structures and attributes of an organization before we go about reinventing and changing things. This is one of the essential principles of any change project: to build on existing strengths, and move away from areas that hold little value. The degree of experimentation – how radical ideas can be – will determine the scope of this stage. Encouraging experimentation is the cornerstone of innovation for many companies – and KM can play a key role in turning this experimentation into organizational success. Organizations must be clear from the outset of the level of discretion and scope for change that may challenge the existing culture, beliefs, and procedures.
An example of a company that has, for many years, actively encouraged experimentation is 3M, where staff, for 15% of their time, are free to carry out ‘pet’ projects, drawing on company resources to do ‘blue skies’ research or to mix and match across organizational areas. Some of 3M’s more high-profile innova- tions – such as BluTac and Post-It notes – could not have come about without this toleration of activity at the margins.
Design the new reality Leadership
Technology
Content Process
People
Stage 3 focuses on how to work with five broad ‘levers and enablers’ of change, pulling them together into a detailed strategy with a plan of action. These are represented in Figure 1.5.
Leadership: Analysis leading to development of vision and strategy for the role of knowledge and information in the organization. Apportionment of responsibility for delivery of a knowledge management programme and interpretation of the meaning of the vision for knowledge within the organization at large, and for providing direction, boundaries, inspiration, and role models. KM strategy development activity should begin the process of helping leaders and managers define and demon- strate the sorts of knowledge sharing behaviours that need to be developed in order to build value.
People: Analysis of the role of people in the knowledge management programme – looking at behaviours around communication and knowledge sharing, and the skills to carry these out using the various tools at their disposal. This all occurs within an environment and culture that may encourage or hinder effective knowledge management – motivation and reward are key areas for analysis and action.
Process: Business processes exist to add and deliver value to the end customers of the organization. The strategy should examine the potential for new processes to improve knowledge identi- fication, use, creation, sharing, and recording. Processes in an Figure 1.5
The five levers and enablers of change to shape the new reality
organization can be likened to clothes in a wardrobe – it is very easy to add new clothes but sorting and clearing out those not required any more is a challenging task. In a similar way, processes tend to build up and need clearing out every so often.
With knowledge processes, there will likely be significant opportunities to improve the value they can add, and to link them together to improve end-to-end performance.
Technology: Addressing the technology component as it is often confused with the disciple of knowledge management itself.
Technology offers significant potential in terms of tools that are important enablers of business processes, and as catalysts for changing the culture and behaviours of people in the organiza- tion. Any knowledge management strategy needs to look at the issues and potential offered by technology infrastructure, collaboration tools and specialist KM software, while recogniz- ing the very real change management problems that go along with technology implementation.
Information: Finally, any strategy must consider the basic ingredient that underlies the personally held knowledge of the organization’s employees and partners. The relevance, availabil- ity, context, and quality of available information in and across organizations will determine in large measure the success of any knowledge initiatives. Included within the definition of informa- tion is what has become known as ‘content’, information that resides within web-based solutions such as the internet, extra- nets, and intranets, plus information contained in structured repositories such as databases and data warehouses, and in docu- ment management systems and online text or image libraries.
Stage 4 is concerned with implementation of the knowledge management strategy, and delivering planned improvements in the way the organization operates. It is rare that a corporate- wide knowledge management programme will be initiated solely from the top of the organization and stretch across and down in one single wave. Due to the very people-focused nature of knowledge management it is more likely that a number of smaller projects will build from the bottom or middle of the organization, creating interest and involvement as they grow, bubbling up and organically growing through the rest of the organization. Introducing knowledge-based change will need to follow similar patterns – activities must be encouraged at all levels of the organization to evolve and develop. Projects will then either build on successes and thrive, or have difficulty in delivering the benefits required and be stopped.
Finally, Stage 5 is concerned with improving the results of the changes and on delivering measurable benefits. The pressures and circumstances of an organization are constantly changing and there must be a permanent monitoring and improvement process.
1.7.2 Golden rules for mobilizing