Guy Benchimol, 18-Jul-05 @ 10:39AM

KM Paradox

When Stephen says "KM...should be embedded into key...business processe", he is right and even this ought to be the ultimate step of KM implementation.

But be careful because it exists a KM paradox: on one hand, people aim to be selective (refer to Neil's Olonoff's KB comment of 09 September 2004 "Knowledge Strategy vs KM Strategy" in the thread entitled " Definition of a KM Strategy"); on the other hand, you need to be rather holistic because knowledge may have applications across the boundaries of functions, business units and stakeholders.

So, think of an unique data repository (which may be a virtual one) with multi-users access (context-based presentation and individual-based habilitation)if you want to facilitate cross-fertilization and innovation as well as complete views of an employee (see the third reference quoted in my last comment), a customer or a supplier.

Stephen Manton, 18-Jul-05 @ 07:55AM

Key business processes

Dear Frederik,

To me the starting point is to find out what are the organisation’s most important existing business processes. These may include processes used to; approve the release of funding to projects, track correspondence with customers, record findings or diagnoses, etc. In most instances there is the opportunity to embed KM criteria within such management processes. These new criteria may do no more than seek confirmation that the activity has checked whether there is knowledge that should be imported from, or flagged to, other groups or individuals. In the event that such confirmation cannot be given, then an explanation should be requested. In other cases a much more detail review may be appropriate, and in certain instances the submission of a knowledge plan should be required.

I often find that creating entirely new processes to manage knowledge is counter productive as it creates the perception that KM is an “add on” activity; this ultimately reduces the visibility of knowledge, lowers the usage of KM tools and leads to a failure to identify critical issues. Instead KM management criteria and actions should be embedded into key existing businesses processes.

Kind Regards

Steve

Guy Benchimol, 17-Jul-05 @ 18:23PM

How to choose?

Frederik,

Your question is a very pertinent one and at the same time very difficult to answer in a genaral way.

Indeed, you could make detailed investigations to identify in each activity what kind of knowledge is needed to work up specific or recurrent tasks; nevertheless, it may take a lot of time and money.

Another solution which is not so exhaustive but much more speedy is to draw one's inspiration from the quality manual of the company (if it does not exist, you may refer to the one pertaining to another company possibly having a similar activity).

Indeed, in a quality manual, you will not directly find knowledge but documents are quoted which indicate, for each activity, the major input informations or resources and the major output informations or products. This coud be a good hint as for the knowledge to be "managed".

You will find underneazth some examples but they are perhaps too far from the activity which you are interested in:

http://www.advanced-monolithic.com/pdf/qualitymanual.pdf

http://www.circuitboardexpress.com/quality_manual.htm

For a more philosophical survey, please refer to

http://www.doug.kalish.com/EnterpriseKM.htm

I shall go on with pleasure along this discussion if it may help you.

All the best

Guy

Frederik Haentjens, 17-Jul-05 @ 15:29PM

Select business processes that are relevant for a KM initiative

Hello Steve,

I am working on a list of business processes categorized as follow:
Manage Human Capital
Manage Information Technology
Manage Financial Resources
Manage External Relationships
Manage Knowledge, Improvement, and Change

I try to find a methodology or rule that helps me to select those processes that are relevant to integrate in a Knowledge Management program.

Of course I could go through the list of f.e. Human Capital:
6.2.5 Manage new hire/re-hire
6.2.5.1 Draw up and make offer
6.2.5.2 Negotiate offer
6.2.5.3 Hire candidate
6.2.6 Track candidates
6.2.6.1 Create applicant record
6.2.6.2 Manage/track applicant data
6.2.6.3 Archive and retain records of non-hires
6.3 Develop and counsel employees
6.3.1 Manage employee orientation and deployment
6.3.1.1 Create/maintain employee induction program

... And select those processes that I "feel" could be relevant to integrate in my KM approach. But is there a rule or methodology? Do you know if such thing exists?

Looking forward to your response and thank you for your feedback.

best regards,

Frederik F.F. Haentjens

Stephen Manton, 01-Aug-04 @ 08:24AM

A project or service level knowledge plan

Chris,

Examples of the issues that could be addressed in a (project or service level) knowledge plan include:
• Ensuring sensitive knowledge is not disclosed to customers in a bid document.
• Ensuring that suppliers or/and distributors; do not have physical access to sensitive documents, their ability to learn from working and talking to key members of your staff is managed, etc.
• Ensuring that key background knowledge is not given to customer’s to enable them “tool-up” and make use of your competitors – this may involve the use of patents and other intellectual property rights.

However, there are obviously many occasions when it is desirable to share information externally – sometimes even your competitors. This is why I advocate the preparation of a (company level) knowledge strategy that provides individual projects and services with guidance on the actions they should be taking. It should for instance:
• Identify differentiating knowledge that should not be shared. This could, for instance, be an understanding of your customer’s needs.
• Identify enabling knowledge where an organisation simply wishes to ensure it has ongoing access to knowledge – and is therefore ultimately happy for this to be spread and developed in both the internal and external community.

Cheers

Steve

Chris Macrae, 26-Jul-04 @ 16:45PM

example

Stephen

an extract from your article:
in the case of a project, say for the building of a waste treatment plant, such
a knowledge plan would need to address:
The completeness of actions being taken to control competitor, customer, supplier and distributor's access to the organisation’s knowledge.

could you amplify with a little more example of what this could mean in each of the 4 stakeholder cases you mention?

thanks