Context
Distribution Reversal of the human value between the intangible (intellectual) assets and tangible (physical) assets.
History
1700 : Income/capita gap between « rich » & « poor » countries = 0
99% of us in agriculture (oax, horses, human power)
50 % GDP World : China & India (50% of world population)
1800 : Income/capita gap between « rich » & « poor » countries = 20% (still small)
Then comes the « steam engine » and the industrial revolution
Rapidly subsituted agriculture (dominant human activity for 8000 years)
To become rich -> Join the industrial revolution
By order of $ : GB, Germany, USA
1900 : Second industrial revolution
1 « great idea » & 1 « great invention »
Great idea : « Systematic investmnet in industrial research & development based on academic science » (Germany)
Development of chemical industries
Speeding up of technical changes
Great invention : Electricity
Many different definitions of it (Each countries claims to have invented it!)
1950 : 2nd industrial revolution over
Income gap/capita between richest-poorest country : 140 to 1
Asia is the poorest region (missed both revolution)
Today : The 3rd industrial revolution
Based on interactions between 6 key technologies :
Micro-electronics
Computers
Telecommunication
Design & Materials
Robotics
Bio-technologies
-> Knowledge Intensive Technologies
Much more than Internet & Information Technology (IT)
Enable rapid diffusion on knowledge & information on a global scale
But Knowledge economy is not only a question of technologies
Consequences : Evolution/Change in workforce throughout time
Knowledge Workers :
Work (use) primarily with information and develop new knowledge at their workplace
Payed for « brain power » (not « muscle power »)
Apply, develop, share their knowledge
Via communication, collaboration, learning, sharing
Knowledge workers (e.g. lawyer, consultant, designer, architect…)
USA : 70% of working population
Scandinavia : 80%
UK : 50-60%
Far East : 40%
All predict increased knowledge working :
Demand in analytics positions
2013 : 15% of business intelligence knowledge workers will add collaboration and social software into decision-making
2014 : 43% of U.S. workers will telecommute
Broadband will become universal, allowing for greater mobility in the enterprise
« Contribution of management in XXth century : 50 fold increase in the productivity of the manual worker in manufacturing.
The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st Century ? Similarly to increase the productivity of the knowledge worker »
(Peter Drucker – Management Challenges of the XX1st Century)
In the knowledge-based economy:
– The highest value of organizations comes from their intangible (intellectual) assets (switch from tangible ones)
– Knowledge is the most valuable asset
– Organizations must have the ability to turn their collective knowledge into products & services
=> Knowledge is the key strategic asset to be managed (Core competency of Knowledge Economy)
Data comes about through research, creation, gathering, and discovery.
Information has context. Data is turned into information by organizing it so that we can easily draw conclusions. Data is also turned into information by "presenting" it, such as making it visual or auditory.
Knowledge has the complexity of experience, which come about by seeing it from different perspectives. This is why training and education is difficult - one cannot count on one person's knowledge transferring to another. Knowledge is built from scratch by the learner through experience. Information is static, but knowledge is dynamic as it lives within us.
Wisdom is the ultimate level of understanding. As with knowledge, wisdom operates within us. We can share our experiences that create the building blocks for wisdom, however, it need to be communicated with even more understanding of the personal contexts of our audience than with knowledge sharing.
Often, the distinctions between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom continuum are not very discrete, thus the distinctions between each term often seem more like shades of gray, rather than black and white (Shedroff, 2001).
Data and information deal with the past. They are based on the gathering of facts and adding context. Knowledge deals with the present. It becomes a part of us and enables to perform. However, when we gain wisdom, we start dealing with the future as we are now able to vision and design for what will be, rather than for what is or was.
Explicit knowledge can be articulated into formal language, including grammatical statements (words and numbers), mathematical expressions, specifications, manuals, etc. Explicit knowledge can be readily transmitted others. Also, it can easily be processed by a computer, transmitted electronically, or stored in databases.
Tacit knowledge is personal knowledge embedded in individual experience and involves intangible factors, such as personal beliefs, perspective, and the value system. Tacit knowledge is hard to articulate with formal language (hard, but not impossible). It contains subjective insights, intuitions, and hunches. Before tacit knowledge can be communicated, it must be converted into words, models, or numbers that can be understand. In addition, there are two dimensions to tacit knowledge:
Technical Dimension (procedural): This encompasses the kind of informal and skills often captured in the term know-how. For example, a craftsperson develops a wealth of expertise after years of experience. But a craftsperson often has difficulty articulating the technical or scientific principles of his or her craft. Highly subjective and personal insights, intuitions, hunches and inspirations derived from bodily experience fall into this dimension.
Cognitive Dimension: This consists of beliefs, perceptions, ideals, values, emotions and mental models so ingrained in us that we take them for granted. Though they cannot be articulated very easily, this dimension of tacit knowledge shapes the way we perceive the world around us.
Socialization: from tacit to tacit — Sharing experiences to create tacit knowledge, such as shared mental models and technical skills. This also includes observation, imitation, and practice. However, “experience” is the key, which is why the mere “transfer of information” often makes little sense to the receiver.
Internalization: from explicit to tacit — Embodying explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge. Closely related to “learning by doing.” Normally, knowledge is verbalized or diagrammed into documents or oral stories.
Externalization: from tacit to explicit — The quintessential process of articulating tacit knowledge into explicit concepts through metaphors, analogies, concepts, hypothesis, or models. Note that when we conceptualize an image, we express its essence mostly in language.
Combination: from explicit to explicit — A process of systemizing concepts into a knowledge system. Individuals exchange and combine knowledge through media, such as documents, meetings, and conversations. Information is reconfigured by such means as sorting, combining, and categorizing. Formal education and many training programs work this way.
Only discipline to deliver continuous improvement performance
Enablers
People (Clear accountabilities & roles for corporate knowledge, in the functions & projects)
Process (Simple, Quality controlled, Embedded in the work flow)
Technology
Two ways of sharing
By connecting (dialogue)
By collecting (exchange of written or recorded forms)
The value of KM lies in the learning curve :
The only thing you have at the bottom of the curve that you did not have at the top is Knowledge
Cultural Barriers
Knowledge is power. Too often people see knowledge hoarding as a way to personal power. However by the same argument, knowledge sharing is empowerment.
People need to move from Building empires to building new relationships.
The Individual work bias of the past ("I have to solve this all by myself") is shifting to a teamwork and a collaborative bias.
Local focus is often a perceived barrier to knowledge management, which can be converted to a network focus by the establishment of communities of practice.
"Not invented here" can be a real barrier to the import of knowledge, if the relationship of trust is missing. Trust will grow with face-to-face knowledge sharing, and few people resist a request for help.
People are often afraid that Errors will be Penalized, and are therefore unwilling to share what they may see as failures. That is why techniques such as Retrospects accentuate learning from success
People feel they are Not paid to share. Knowledge management is often seen as not part of normal business. Preserving the value of our knowledge assets is not seen as core business.
People feel they have No time to share. This is a very real barrier; most people are 'maxed out' at the moment. So we need to make knowledge sharing as quick and efficient as we can, because really we have no time NOT to share.
Do you know what you know? Avoid “reinvented the wheel” syndrome!
Prevent the loss of corporate memory
Locate your experts & expertises
Break the silos: encourage collaboration
Stay in the race: Encourage innovation!
Focus on your skills and reflective learning: An approach to learning organization
Identify and transfer your best practices
Promote access to knowledge
Organize information effectively in your organization
2 classical main approaches to knowledge management (KM)
Process-centered approach which treats KM as an interpersonal communication process
Product-centered approach which focuses on the artifacts for knowledge.
Knowledge asset-centric approach which fuses the previous two approaches together
Outer ring of the framework is referred to as the ‘knowledge networking levels’ : the interdependencies of which facilitate the natural emergence, leveraging, and flow of knowledge and knowledge assets.
We recognised four levels of knowledge networking: individual level, team level, organizational level, and inter-organizational level.
These knowledge networking levels surrounded the four inner ‘KM Infrastructure’ components: strategy, structure, processes and systems, which, in turn, surrounded the organizations key knowledge assets, as the primary focus.
In most organizations : ‘organizational’ knowledge management initiatives.
In many organizations : ‘team’ knowledge management initiatives.
In some organizations : ‘personal’ knowledge management initiatives.
In some organizations : ‘inter-organizational’ knowledge management initiatives.
Knowledge Goals :
Normative :
Creation of a « knowledge sensitive » corporate culture
Creation of the pre-conditions of effective knowledge management.
Strategic :
Definition of organizational core capabilities
Description of the future knowledge needs of the company.
Determination of competence portfolio for the future.
Extension of the traditional company planning processes.
Operational :
Translation of normative and strategic knowledge goals into action
Knowledge Identification :
Creation of sufficient transparency for internal and external knowledge and expertise
Employees supports in their knowledge-seeking activities
Examples for Internal knowledge transparency
Creation of knowledge maps which supports systematic access to partsof the organizational knowledge base.
Inclusion of opportunities for personal contact to enable talks between knowledge suppliers and demanders
Knowledge Acquisition :
Difficulties for companies to build up all the know-how they need for success by themselves (explosive growth and fragmentation ofknowledge)
Tendencies to use focused acquisition strategies (buy critical capabilities from many knowledge markets)
4 import channels:
Knowledge held by other firms
Stakeholders Knowledge
Experts
Knowledge products
Importance to be clear whether the acquisition is an investment for future (potential knowledge) or present (directly usable knowledge)
Knowledge Development :
Management activities intended to produce internal & external knowledge
Individual Level :
Creativity (Chaotic component)
Capability of problem solving (Systematic component)
Collective Level :
Learning dynamics of teams
Complementary skills of members
Realistic goals defined for each group
Atmosphere of openness and trust for better collective learning results
Internal think tank, learning arenas, internal centre of competencies
Process of self-reflection
Identification of critical « lessons learned » by teams at the conclusions
Report the information to future team to make them learn from past experience
Knowledge Distribution :
Who would know that ? To what level of detail ? Not everybody needs to know everything
Organizational support of knowledge distribution processes ?
Technical knowledge distribution infrastructure
Efficient knowledge echange within organizations
Connection of formerly separated experts through networks (virtual)
Generation of time and quality advantages and rise in customer satisfaction
Knowledge Preservation :
Selection of valuable knowledge for preservation
Ensuiring its suitable storage
Regular incorporation in the knowledge base
Knowledge Use :
Productive deployment of organizational knowledge in the production processes
Purpose of knowledge management
Adoption of the knowledge by the potential user if real advantage for him
Knowledge Measurement :
Must reflects the normative, strategic and operational dimensions of the organization
Simple measurement of central indicators in knowledge management processes
Examples : Knowledge-oriented cultural analysis, capabilities balance sheets …
