Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know [Paperback]

The final chapter was a wonderful summary of the practicals to implementation:
-start small
-business problems relates to knowledge (loss of customers and key personnel, low win rates on service engagements, poorly designed products, etc.).
-a knowledge system is more than technology. You may start with an intranet and Lotus notes. More than a third in $, time and effort on the tech part, you're neglecting the other key factors.
-Getting content will take a while. It's easy enough to put the technology in place but getting the organization contribute and use content is a behavioral challenge. So, assess the culture of your organization before launching a knowledge initiative.

"What makes knowledge valuable to organizations is ultimately the ability to make better the decisions and actions on the basis of the knowledge".

Thanks Tom and Laurence for a great book.

Today, the ï¿knowledge movementï¿ is picking up as more and more companies have instituted knowledge repositories, supporting such diverse types of knowledge as best practices, lessons learned, product development knowledge, customer knowledge, human resource management knowledge, and methods-based knowledge.

ï¿The only sustainable advantage a firm has comes from what it collectively knows, how efficiently it uses what it knows, and how readily it acquires and uses new knowledge,ï¿ the authors begin.

First, companies must understand the difference between data, information and knowledge. Generally speaking, data is transformed into information after it has been ï¿contextualised, categorised, calculated, corrected and condensed.ï¿ This becomes knowledge after a process involving ï¿comparison, consequences, connections and conversation.ï¿

ï¿Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information,ï¿ the authors state. Knowledge is fluid as well as structured, and involves experience, truth, judgement and rules of thumb.

ï¿Knowledge is aware of what it doesnï¿t know. Many wise men and women have pointed out that the more knowledgeable one becomes, the more humble one feels about what one knows,ï¿ the authors explain.

In contrast to individual knowledge, organisational knowledge is a more complex and murky dynamic, involving socio-political factors of knowledge buying, selling, brokering, pricing, reciprocity, altruism, reputation and trust.

The chapter on knowledge generation focuses on conscious and intentional techniques like acquisition (eg. of Lotus by IBM, NCR by AT&T), rental (sponsorship of research in academic institutes, hiring a consultant), dedicated resources (research centres and universities like Xerox PARC, McDonaldï¿s universities), fusion (via brainstorming and retreats), adaptation (eg. via learning sabbaticals), and knowledge networking.

Successful codification is implemented via a knowledge taxonomy suited for different knowledge types and attributes and which is aligned with business goals, as well as narratives and rhetorical devices for communicating knowledge behaviours. This can include external knowledge (eg. competitive intelligence), structured internal knowledge (eg. research reports), and informal internal knowledge (eg. know-how databases).

Instead of ï¿Stop talking and get to work,ï¿ Alan Webber recommends a better attitude: ï¿Start talking and get to work.ï¿

Other approaches, depending on organisational and national cultures, include corporate universities, KM workshops, group dinners, and even group drinking sessions in nightclubs as in Japan (where inebriation can sometimes be used as an excuse for voicing criticism!).

Key roles here include knowledge project managers, coaches, trainers, councillors, counsellors, officers, integrators, administrators, engineers, librarians, synthesisers, reporters, and editors -- capped by learning officers, CKOs, directors of intellectual assets, or CIOs. Consulting firms have hundreds of KM jobs; Buckman Labs even has a role for ï¿anecdote managementï¿ to develop stories about successful KM in practice.

Good knowledge workers need to have a combination of ï¿hardï¿ skills (structured knowledge, technical abilities, professional experience) and ï¿softï¿ skills (cultural, political and personal aspects of knowledge), the authors advise.

Three key CKO responsibilities include building a knowledge culture, creating a KM infrastructure, and making it all pay of economically, the authors recommend.

ï¿The recent dramatic rise in Internet and Intranet use is one manifestation of the expanding role of electronic technology in communication and knowledge-seeking. Firms are becoming aware both of the potential of this technology to enhance knowledge work and of the fact that the potential can be realised only if they understand more about how knowledge is actually developed and shared,ï¿ the authors explain.

The authors caution against a technology-centred KM approach, but argue that a technology ingredient is a necessary ingredient for successful KM projects.

ï¿Peter Senge, the influential author of The Fifth Discipline, has argued recently that organisations seeking to manage knowledge have placed too much emphasis on information technology and information management. We agree. However, the world of organisational learning places too little emphasis on structured knowledge and the use of technology to capture and leverage it,ï¿ the authors forcefully argue. In fact, the word ï¿knowledgeï¿ is not in the index of Sengeï¿s book!

Hoffman-LaRoche used KM to efficiently manage the drug application process, cutting it down by several months at a savings of $1 million a day. New England heart surgeons have jointly collaborated to cut down mortality rate for coronary bypass surgery. HPï¿s case-based reasoning KM tool for customer support helped reduce call times by two-thirds and cost per call by 50 per cent.

Other benefit calculations include better management of patents (eg. Dow Chemicals), improved cycle time, better customer satisfaction, and even phone calls avoided (HP).
Intangible but also important outcomes include higher workforce morale, greater corporate coherence, richer knowledge stock, more knowledge usage, and stronger meritocracy of ideas.

In terms of pragmatic steps, the authors have lots of recommendations. Start with a focused pilot project. Work along multiple fronts at once: technology, organisation, culture. Begin with existing information resources. Focus on weak areas. Lead with technology and organisational learning.

The book is also peppered with useful quotes about knowledge, and it would be appropriate to end this review with some of them:

ï¿In the end, the location of the new economy is not in the technology. It is in the human mindï¿ (Alan Webber);

ï¿The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computersï¿ (Sydney Harris);

ï¿The great end of knowledge is not knowledge but actionï¿ (Thomas Huxley).

Knowledge is the only unlimited resource, the one asset that grows with use, according to Stanford economist Paul Romer.

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