Albert SimardKnowledge ManagerDefence R&D Canada

Presented to 17th Conference on Knowledge-Based organizations November 24-26, 2011

Becoming a Knowledge Organization

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Knowledge-Based Organizations

KBOs are in the knowledge business. Creating and using knowledge is their

core activity.Knowledge is a KBOs most valuable

asset. They often spend 10 to 15 times more to create and use knowledge than on facilities, equipment, and infrastructure.

KBOs must become knowledge organizations to remain relevant.

They must create, manage, and use knowledge as a strategic resource.

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Outline

• Management Levels

• Knowledge Flow– Creation

– Validation

– Organization

– Authorization

• Management Regimes

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Knowledge Management Levels

Knowledge Assets

Knowledge Sharing

Knowledge Work

Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge Infrastructure

Stock

Flow

Business

National Defence, National Security, Public Safety

Defence R&D Canada

Markets

Resources Government

LevelsLevels

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Knowledge Infrastructure

Processes

work routineslessons learned, best practices,

Peoplelearning, motivation,

rewards, incentives,

staffing, skills

Governance roles, responsibilities, authorities, resources

Content, Services

data, risk analysis, reports, monitoring, operations, policies

Toolssystems to capture, store, share, and process content

LevelsLevels

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Knowledge Assets

• Capture: Represent explicit or tacit knowledge on reproducible media

• Inventory: Find, list, and describe knowledge; map to business needs, value and prioritize

• Needs: What needs to be known to accomplish organizational goals; identify core knowledge

• Gaps: Difference between what is known and what needs to be known

• Preserve: organize, store, search & retrieval, maintain and migrate throughout life-cycle

LevelsLevels

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Knowledge Sharing

• Exchange: Develop & implement internal systems to enable people to find and retrieve knowledge.

• Integrate: Combine diverse knowledge from many sources to create a holistic view of complex issues.

• Transfer: Disseminate knowledge from the organization to enable its use by partners, clients, and stakeholders.

• Monitor: Acquire knowledge from the environment to identify events and developments of interest to the organization.

• Monitor: Acquire knowledge from the environment to identify events and developments of interest to the organization.

LevelsLevels

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DRDC Knowledge Work

Inputs

Direction

Monitoring

Intelligence

Needs

Priorities

Establishment

Transformation

Programs

Services

Acquire

Create

Develop

Mobilize

Learn

Output Report

Integration

Innovation

Mitigation

Advice

Adaptation

Clie

nts

DND

(management)

(R & D)

LevelsLevels

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Knowledge Transfer• Communications: one-way dissemination of

approved messages and positions.

• Transaction: two-way exchanges of knowledge products & services.

• Parallel: Transferring knowledge products & services from or to two or more providers or users.

• Sequential: Multiple organizations sequentially produce and transfer knowledge products & services.

• Cyclic: Knowledge service “value chains” continuously create and transfer new knowledge.

• Network: Interactions among large numbers of participants in a “knowledge ecosystem.”

LevelsLevels

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Outline

• Management Levels

• Knowledge Flow– Creation

– Validation

– Organization

– Authorization

• Management Regimes

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Organizational Knowledge Flow

CreationCreation ValidationValidation

OrganizationOrganizationAuthorizationAuthorization

FlowFlow

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Incentives

• Compliance (you will)– Pay, job security, duty, work ethic, penalties– Military, manufacturing, law, regulation, policies– Meet quotas, minimum standards, routine tasks

• Motivation (you’ll be rewarded)– Ambition, challenges, bonuses, rewards, recognition– Efficiency, productivity, quality– Increases, improvements

• Engagement (would you like to?)– Meaningfulness, ownership, self-esteem, enjoyment– Creativity, innovation, discovery– Commitment, involvement, willingness, enjoyment

Flow-Creation

Flow-Creation

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Engagement• Autonomy: (agreed task, flexible schedule, select

technique, choose team)

• Mastery: (is a mindset, it takes time and effort, it is asymptotic)

• Purpose: (meaningful goals, words are important, policies)

Daniel Pink (2009)Daniel Pink (2009)

Flow-CreationFlow-Creation

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Eliciting Methods

• Conversations, discussions, dialogue (colleagues, peers)

• Questions & answers, problems & solutions (novice/expert)

• After-action reviews, lessons learned (event/group)

• Capture, document, interview, record (expert/facilitator)

• Extraction, identify, codify, organize (expert/know engineer)

• Advising, briefing, recommending (subordinate/superior)

• Teaching, educating, training (teacher/student)

• Storytelling, narratives, anecdotes (teller/listener)

• Explaining, demonstrating, describing (technician/user)

• Presentations, lectures, speeches (speaker/audience)

Flow-CreationFlow-Creation

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Communities Create & Validate Knowledge

• Knowledge exists in the minds of people. Experience is as important as formal knowledge.

• Knowledge is tacit as well as explicit. Transferring tacit knowledge is more effective through human interaction.

• Knowledge is social as well as individual. Today’s knowledge is the result of centuries of collective research.

• Knowledge is changing at an accelerating rate. It takes a community of people to keep up with new concepts, practices, and technology.

Flow-CommunitiesFlow-Communities

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Participants- Help with their work- Solve problems- Find experts- Receive feedback- Place to learn- Latest information- Enhance reputation

Participants- Help with their work- Solve problems- Find experts- Receive feedback- Place to learn- Latest information- Enhance reputation

Management- Connect isolated experts- Coordinate activities- Fast problem solving- Reduce development time- Quickly answer questions- Standardize processes- Develop & retain talent

Management- Connect isolated experts- Coordinate activities- Fast problem solving- Reduce development time- Quickly answer questions- Standardize processes- Develop & retain talent

Community Benefits

Outputs- - Tangible: documents, reports, manuals,

recommendations, reduced innovation time and cost- - Intangible: increased skills, sense of trust, diverse

perspectives, cross-pollinate ideas, capacity to innovate, relationships, spirit of enquiry

Outputs- - Tangible: documents, reports, manuals,

recommendations, reduced innovation time and cost- - Intangible: increased skills, sense of trust, diverse

perspectives, cross-pollinate ideas, capacity to innovate, relationships, spirit of enquiry

Flow-CommunitiesFlow-Communities

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Harvesting Methods

• Service Center: repository for community outputs; interface with communities, minimize duplication, inform communities

• Leader: transfer community outputs; Identify emerging trends, prioritize issues

• Sponsor: endorse community outputs; bridge between the community and the organization, provide support, minimize organizational barriers

• Champion: ensure adoption of community outputs; communicate purpose, promote the community

Flow-CommunitiesFlow-Communities

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Organizational Structure

Technology

support

Manage

InterfaceContent

Research

Social

Common

Flow-OrganizationFlow-Organization

Governance

direction

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Knowledge Services Value Chain

Use Internally

Use Professionally

Use Personally

Generate

Transform

Add Value

Transfer

EvaluateManage

Extract

Advance

Embed

Legend

S&T PartnersCentre for Security Science

Practitioners & Stakeholders

Flow-OrganizationFlow-Organization

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Knowledge Creation Process

Statistical Apps.

Store

Analyze

Body of knowledge Review

Literature

Experimental design

Test

Experiment

inadequate

adequate

Write

Review

Publish

EditHypothesisHypothesis

DataData

TacitTacit

ExplicitExplicit

ProductProduct

GapGap

Legend: Work Output Service

Legend: Work Output Service

Library, Web, Search Expertise

Office App.

Data management Analysis Apps.

Interface

CollaborationCollaboration

Flow-OrganizationFlow-Organization

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Organizing Knowledge

• Classification systems

• Indexes, catalogues

• Thesauri, Taxonomies

• Ontologies, Mind maps

• Folksonomies

• Automated methods

• Artificial intelligence

• Interdisciplinary issues

• Linguistic issues

Flow-OrganizationFlow-Organization

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Service Governance Framework

Negotiation

Negotiation

Negotiation

Flow-AuthorizationFlow-Authorization

Direction, Authority, ResourcesProgram

Governance

Project Governance

Work

Systems

Reports, Advice, Issues

Corp. Service Governance

Centre Service Governance

KIT Services

Technology Content

Reports, Advice Issues

Other services: science, HR, finance, purchasing…

Mandate Resources ConstraintsAuthority Responsibility Accountability

Budget Staff Capacity

Laws TB Policies DND Policies

Corporate Governance

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Authorization

• Understanding – Keep it simple; one message with stories and multiple analogies from different perspectives.

• Experience – Do your homework; pre-brief decision makers, solicit opinions, negotiate objections (to a point).

• Resources – Pick low-hanging fruit; plan low cost, small effort, low impact activities.

• Management – Think big, start small; divide into small projects with measurable, high-impact deliverables.

• Submission – Leadership is essential; bypass unjustified objections, accept majority vote, authorize work.

Flow-AuthorizationFlow-Authorization

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Sustainability

• Leadership – Outputs must be delivered within a leader’s tenure; preferably, get them institutionalized.

• Governance – Representative, federated decision making is the only sustainable governance for knowledge work.

• Reorganization – Align a project/activity with the organizational business model.

• Priorities – Align the project/activity with the organization’s long-term strategy

• Support – Deliver initial outputs when & as promised; be prepared to adapt to changing priorities.

• Culture – Develop favorable policies, reward desired behavior, leverage work, implement helpful systems.

Flow-AuthorizationFlow-Authorization

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Outline

• Management Levels

• Knowledge Flow– Individuals

– Communities

– Organization

– Authorization

• Management Regimes

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Management Regimes

Authoritative Hierarchy

Organizational Structure

Negotiated Agreement

Responsible Autonomy

Purpose (Why) Authorize Organize Collaborate Create

Entity (What) Decisions & Actions

Objects & Tasks

People & Connectivity

Environment & Interests

Process (How) Decide & Act Capture & Structure

Connect Communities

Engage people

Interactions Hierarchy Work Process Agreements Dialogue

Knowledge Authoritative Explicit Tacit Innate

RegimesRegimes

KnowledgeKnowledge

AuthorityAuthority

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Definitions

• Authoritative Hierarchy: Knowledge creation, management, and use can be completely, totally, or entirely mandated, governed, structured, and evaluated.

• Organizational Structure: Knowledge creation, management, and use can be predominantly, generally, or mostly mandated, governed, structured, and evaluated.

• Negotiated Agreement: Knowledge creation, management, and use can be partly, nominally, or incompletely mandated, governed, structured, and evaluated.

• Responsible Autonomy: Knowledge creation, management, and use can be slightly, minimally, or not mandated, governed, structured, and evaluated.

RegimesRegimes

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DRDC Knowledge Agenda

Management levels

Authoritative Hierarchy

Organizational Infrastructure

Negotiated Agreement

Responsible Autonomy

Knowledge Transfer

Promulgate Products & Services

Exchange Knowledge markets

Knowledge Work

Mandate Structure Agreement Self-interest

Knowledge Sharing

Vertical Horizontal Community Network

Knowledge Assets

Embed Sole IP rights Joint IP rights Open source

Knowledge Infrastructure

Authorize Organize Collaborate Create

Management RegimesManagement Regimes

RegimesRegimes

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Management Regimes and Strategic Trends

Authoritative Hierarchy

Organizational Structure

Partnership Agreement

Responsible Autonomy

knowledge assets

generation capacity

structured processes

individual abilities

Re

lativ

e Im

por

tanc

ehigh

low

Management Regime

Competitiveness

Sustainability

RegimesRegimes

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Key Messages

Key Messages

Management authorizes the use of knowledge to enable action.

Management authorizes the use of knowledge to enable action.

A knowledge organization engages people to enhance creativity

A knowledge organization engages people to enhance creativity

Community collaboration validates individual knowledge

Community collaboration validates individual knowledge

Community knowledge must be put into an organizational context.

Community knowledge must be put into an organizational context.