Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) Dave Pollard KMWorld & Intranets 2005

Confessions of a CKO: My Story

Why We Have to Try Harder to Make KM Work The answers to critical business problems are out there Most time spent working with computers today is wasted time The Cost of Not Knowing is astronomical and growing The crowd is smarter than the experts, but no one is listening A crisis in confidence over corporate conduct is brewing Physical meetings are becoming too expensive We are moving towards a World of Ends … So we need to find a better approach to KM

The answers to critical business problems are out there

Most time spent working with computers today is wasted time

The Cost of Not Knowing is astronomical and growing

The crowd is smarter than the experts, but no one is listening

A crisis in confidence over corporate conduct is brewing

Physical meetings are becoming too expensive

We are moving towards a World of Ends

From know- what collection just-in-case… acquire store disseminate add value synthe- size connect canvass apply … to know- who connection just-in-time PKM: The Model

From Contributing Know-What … to Harvesting Know-How PKM: The Strategy Users contribute best practices to large central content repositories for re-use to reduce costs Context-rich stories and conversations are automatically harvested from shared personal repositories to discover and learn From Central Content Management … to Personal Content Management Knowledge managers administer Intranets and create databases and websites for departments enterprise-wide Individuals administer personal databases and websites and share them peer-to-peer From Enterprise Application Training … to Personal Productivity Improvement Classroom and CBT training and newsletters teach users how to make effective use of central K/T/L resources Knowledge managers observe and advise individuals how to make more effective use of K/T/L resources on their desktop

PKM: A New Equation for Knowledge Management Know-Who Canvassing & Connection + Know-How Harvesting + Personal Content Management + Personal Productivity Improvement = PKM

Know-Who Canvassing & Connection +

Know-How Harvesting +

Personal Content Management +

Personal Productivity Improvement

PKM’s Value Propositions Capitalize on best available knowledge & experience Tap collective wisdom of employees & customers Facilitate more robust collaboration Improve the quality of decisions & assessments made Enhance agility and innovation Improve the effectiveness of knowledge workers … A long way from KM’s value propositions of saving cost, saving time, and accelerating organizational learning !

Capitalize on best available knowledge & experience

Tap collective wisdom of employees & customers

Facilitate more robust collaboration

Improve the quality of decisions & assessments made

Enhance agility and innovation

Improve the effectiveness of knowledge workers

Knowledge (Know- Who ) Canvassing & Connection Process Create simple process for network coordinators and others to use the Canvassing Lists & Templates to find people “who know about X” just-in-time Establish and distribute Canvassing Lists (e-mail groups) and create and distribute Canvassing Templates Identify & distribute Maps of Social Networks with appointed network coordinators Create one-click methods to make it easy to connect with people once you’ve found them

Know-How Harvesting Process Establish automated mechanism to regularly harvest and index this information centrally Create folders on each employee’s hard drive for ‘shareable’ knowledge, and ‘save as’ and ‘copy’ processes that encourage people to keep knowledge in these folders; launch internal weblog program Consider software that also automatically harvests content from e-mails Also create RSS and other automated and just-in-time peer-to-peer searching mechanisms to access this knowledge

Personal Content Management Process Develop RSS and other subscription and publication lists and processes for each Knowledge Worker Work with each Knowledge Worker to develop a ‘personal filing cabinet’ taxonomy of their knowledge that works for them Deploy Google Desktop or other desktop search tools Develop Personal Knowledge Management processes for groups and individuals

Personal Productivity Improvement Process Conduct one-hour face-to-face sessions: assist each Knowledge Worker to use knowledge & technology more effectively, answer questions, get immediate feedback. Pre-interview each Knowledge Worker to understand their job, what knowledge they use and how they use it. Pre-assemble file of possible improvement opportunities and ‘leave-behinds’. Compile a list of observations & additional needs for senior management attention.

What Needs to Change to Get PKM Accepted? Stories, ideas, advice ‘ Best practices’ What knowledge is most valued In networks In hierarchies Where power resides Management preoccupation What motivates people How knowledge flows What drives decision-making Ineffectiveness Inefficiency Personal satisfaction Promotion, raise Peer-to-peer through collaboration Top-down from ‘leadership’ Long-term resilience Short-term profits Tomorrow’s Businesses Traditional Businesses

The Greatest Challenge is not Technology or Content Scarcity : The 24 Dysfunctional Information Behaviours Information Politics Shoot the Messenger Peer-to-Peer Preference Help Friends / Hurt Foes Cult of Leadership Louder Voices Anti-Stories Like-Mind Groupthink Cult of Expertise Sense-Making Frame Dependency Info Overload Can’t Tell All We Know Preference for Images & Stories Different Ways of Learning JIT vs. JIC (Half-Life of Learning) Information Unawareness Cost of Not Knowing Unawareness Unawareness of What Others We Meet Know Reward Systems From-Scratch Satisfaction Better Safe than Sorry Tragedy of the Commons Competing on the Curve Reward-Driven Behaviours Don’t Last No Reward for Sharing Fun vs Effectiveness Work-Arounds

Information Politics

Shoot the Messenger

Peer-to-Peer Preference

Help Friends / Hurt Foes

Cult of Leadership

Louder Voices

Anti-Stories

Like-Mind Groupthink

Cult of Expertise

Sense-Making

Frame Dependency

Info Overload

Can’t Tell All We Know

Preference for Images & Stories

Different Ways of Learning

JIT vs. JIC (Half-Life of Learning)

Information Unawareness

Cost of Not Knowing Unawareness

Unawareness of What Others We Meet Know

Reward Systems

From-Scratch Satisfaction

Better Safe than Sorry

Tragedy of the Commons

Competing on the Curve

Reward-Driven Behaviours Don’t Last

No Reward for Sharing

Fun vs Effectiveness

Work-Arounds

Making Knowledge More Meaningful: Ten Interesting New Tools Visualizations

Making Knowledge More Meaningful: Ten Interesting New Tools Mind Maps and Concept Maps EcoLanguage

Making Knowledge More Meaningful: Ten Interesting New Tools Single Frame Presentations

Making Knowledge More Meaningful: Ten Interesting New Tools Next Generation ‘Weblogs’ Open Space Technology + Next-gen Wikis

Making Knowledge More Meaningful: Ten Interesting New Tools “ Crowd” Canvassing Tools Stories Cultural Anthropology

For More Information… Personal Knowledge Management - http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/stories/2003/05/02/businessPapersTableOfContents.html#06 MindMaps - http://www.innovationtools.com/resources/mindmapping.asp Stories & Narrative, and Tools Dealing With Complexity - http://www.cynefin.net/kbase.php The US Energy Visualization - http://eed.llnl.gov/flow/ The Wisdom of Crowds - http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2004/11/15.html EcoLanguage - http://ecolanguage.net/ Open Space Technology - http://www.openspaceworld.org/wiki/wiki/wiki.cgi?AboutOpenSpace