The document discusses a research project on how organizations manage expertise. The project uses narrative collection, workshops, and an online survey to understand challenges in expertise management. Over 180 stories have been collected from the project blog. Workshops have been conducted in several countries. The survey has received 132 responses so far, mostly from knowledge management and related fields in public sector, consulting, and education. Preliminary findings suggest expertise is less valued in large public sector organizations and there are regional differences in expertise challenges.

1. Using Expertise - The Story So Far Matt Moore Innotecture April 2010

3. Our purpose Human expertise critical to organisations (if we believe management rhetoric)... ...and yet very little research carried out on how organisations manage this expertise (or fail to). Joint project between Straits Knowledge in Singapore (Patrick Lambe & Edgar Tan) & Innotecture in Sydney (Matt Moore).

5. Our methods Narrative collection & sense-making (based on Cognitive Edge). Blog for collecting & sharing stories. Workshops with anecdote circles & archetype/issue extraction (outputs available on wiki). Online survey. All outputs are publically available under CC.

7. Blog http://usingexpertise.blogspot.com/ Seeded with stories from previous projects. Responses from all over the world (Singapore, USA, Australia, UK, India). Supplemented with anecdotes collected in workshops. 180+ stories so far. Some commenting. Press interest (Australian Financial Review).

8. Workshops Workshops completed so far: Melbourne, Australia Canberra, Australia Sydney, Australia San Jose, USA Washington DC, USA 15-40 participants per workshop Happy to do more (just pay for travel)‏

9. Anecdote circle 8-20 people per circle, 45-90 mins Focusing question – e.g. “Can you remember a time when you saw expertise being valued – or not?” Guide participants away from generalised opinions or facts – otherwise sit back and let them talk. Starts slowly but difficult to stop.

10. Sensemaking Stick stories on the wall - from participants and other sources (e.g. blog). Ask participants to identify characters & incidents -then apply adjectives. Remove adjectives & ideas then mix. Create archetypes & challenge statements. http://usingexpertise.wikispaces.com/

12. Survey Web-based (Surveymonkey). Promoted through emails lists (e.g. actKM, SI KM Leaders, KM4Dev). 132 responses so far. Australia & US heavily represented. Significant responses from those in non-commercial (government, development, NFPs), services firms (consulting & law) and education. Respondants predominantly KM, IM, L&D, HR or IT.

13. What have we found?

14. Scoring 0-3: Mostly public sector organisations “ The organisation is so large that our piece is invisible until there is a catastrophe.” “ It could be much more important if the value and importance of human resources is recognised.”

16. Challenges: Sector Differences

17. Challenges: Regional Differences

21. Role Knowledge Relational Knowledge Experience Technical Knowledge Skill Memory Know-how Templates, procedures, routines, practice, OJT Know-who Directories, introductions,networking, trust-building Can-do Training, coaching, practice Remember-why Documentation habits, storytelling, team-based working Can Diagnose and Decide Repeated and improving practice, career planning, placements, OJT, mentoring, shadowing, cognitive task analysis Know-what Training, study, qualifications What do we need to retain? Source: Patrick Lambe

23. Scoring 0-3: Mostly public sector organisations “ The organisation is so large that our piece is invisible until there is a catastrophe.” “ It could be much more important if the value and importance of human resources is recognised.”

25. Expertise Failures Inexperienced person misinterprets rules, doesn’t check with experienced staff CEO gets 2 different answers to same question, gives to public 6 weeks apart 2 lead experts leave organisation, several clients lost, 3 years to recover Inexperienced person chosen to lead project, client loses confidence, cancels project New manager has his own agenda, pushes out expertise, leading to loss of capability and morale Not knowing what expertise is available leads to substandard work and missed opportunities Senior manager declared medically unfit, too dependent on him, lost staff, clients and suppliers Environmental spills and plant accidents Time lost re-learning lessons we learned ten years ago Cross-site expertise does not transfer, not taken seriously: “we know best” Buying same expertise in multiple times because we can’t retain it

28. Risk Mitigation Succession planning Knowledge transition/ handover process Documentation Team-based working Job rotation Contracts: notice periods, non-competes Post retirement contracting

31. Expertise Development Processes Personal/ career development plans Job rotation New starter training, OJT Lessons learned processes Mentoring Succession planning Team-based working

33. “ Everybody knows” - consulting and research “ Everyone has access to a skills database … across several hundred areas of technical & soft skill knowledge. Everyone in the firm has access to everyone's scores.” “ Nobody knows” - government & healthcare “ Most people know about the expertise in their local 'silo'. Not much cross-dept under-standing of broader expertise available. Also expertise is misunderstood to be associated with roles rather than with individuals.”

34. Ways of Improving Expertise Management (Respondents talked about how they could improve the way they managed expertise. Their responses were coded into common themes. Theme statements are scaled by frequency of occurrence in responses)‏

35. Participative research project: “ Using and leveraging expertise in organisations” http://usingexpertise.blogspot.com Organised by Patrick Lambe Straits Knowledge www.straitsknowledge.com and Matt Moore of Innotecture http://innotecture.wordpress.com N.B. Matt Moore in the UK in July Take our “Managing Expertise” Survey! http://tinyurl.com/expertisesurvey