mind the gap, a personal view on knowledge work in the construction industry

8/9/2019 MInd the Gap, A Personal View on Knowledge Work in the Construction Industry

1/37

Mind the Gap. Knowledge Work in the UK Construction Industry. Victoria Ward, October 2007 - -1

MIND THE GAP

A View of Knowledge Work in the UK Construction Industry

Overview

This paper explores the following questions:

1. What is knowledge work?2. Who is a knowledge worker?3. What are the characteristics of a high knowledge economy and a firm in it?4. What kinds of knowledge issues are there in the UK construction industry?5. What kind of knowledge and collaboration-intensive processes work?6. What kinds of encouragement do people need to engage in knowledge work?

It makes six main points:

1. Everybody is a knowledge worker. The construction industry as a livingknowledge system challenges the view that knowledge work is done in the head.

2. The dominant metaphors of knowledge work hinder. A move towardsmetaphors of ecology, culture and environment and away from metaphors of

capture, capitalisation and resources would help.

3. Knowledge lies in the gaps in between - between participants in a project, in thetime between the generation of an idea, the execution of a project and its

subsequent management, between disciplines. Knowledge is activated only in

context in a particular moment. Only information can be codified.

4. Information infrastructure, economic incentives, innovation systems, andeducation and learning the four pillars of the knowledge economy are a

useful lens through which to assess the state of knowledge in construction.

5. The UK construction industry, by its nature has a lot of gaps in between.Its knowledge-rich but not yet very able in managing the gaps to generate

competitive advantage.

6. Tools and techniques might be under any label, of which knowledge is onlyone, but are subordinate to an intent to create values and a culture which

encourages effective knowledge behaviours at all levels.


2/37


Some early readers have suggested that I put section 5, on construction up front. Its a

good idea but Ive decided to keep the sequence as it is. So the narrative sweep of this

paper is to start with people, then move out and look at the biggest picture, to help frame

a more detailed vignette of the UK construction industry. You might choose to skim

section 5 first, then come back and start at the beginning.

Threaded through the main text are 3 different ways of developing an understanding,

making sense of the subject and finding avenues to explore for yourself.

1. PAUSE FOR THOUGHT. MAKING SOME BREATHING SPACES.

There are as many questions as answers. Your own experiences and observations will be as

valuable as anything you read here. So take a little time as you read to note what comes to mind

for you. It might be a good paper youve read, something you noticed in a recent project, or inbeing on the receiving end of some kind of knowledge-intensive service yourself. It might even

be something you spotted on the bus. Every part of life is rich with possibility to build your own

understanding of knowledge work and put this to work for your own satisfaction and fulfillment,

as well as to the advantage of the teams and organizations you work with as you develop your

career. There are boxed suggestions for you to stop and use as reflection points as you go. By

the end you should be able to make a practical plan, for yourself, your team, or your organization

and use this as a framework in which to collect ideas for tools, techniques and approaches, or case

studies which illuminate some aspect of knowledge work in the construction industry in a waywhich holds meaning for you personally.

2. PERSONAL NOTES

To supplement the breathing space for you to piece together the puzzle as you go, there are

occasional personal observations on how Ive developed my own ways of exploring knowledge

concepts over the past 10 years.

3. ENDNOTESIve deliberately also made the endnotes quite exploratory and discursive for the reader who is

interested in exploring some of the detours and byways and footpaths that lie behind the fairly

well asphalted main road of the subject on offer in the body of the paper.

Victoria Ward1, October 2007


3/37


PAUSE FOR THOUGHT. HOW DO YOUR MANAGE YOUR OWN KNOWLEDGE?2

Before you get started, take 30 minutes or so to write a short description of a typical

workday, what you have learned, and what you use. For example:

- Where do you learn about the latest sector, organisational or project news?

- How are you keeping up with the policies and procedures of your organisation?

- How are you keeping abreast of regulation in the industry as a whole?

- Where are you finding inspiration and new ideas to take to work?- What technologies, documents, people and networks do you draw on to find out what you

need to do?

(Note, keep the list short and manageable. Its just a way to reflect on your own practice before

looking at the wider subject. Try to stay factual and describe a particular week rather than

generalities.)


4/37


1. WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE WORK?SECTION SYNOPSIS

This section uses vignettes of typical work that might be being done in construction and

uses them to explore the attributes of knowledge work. It moves on to make some more

general points, drawing on the theory, about knowledge existing in the gaps in between

between people, between people and object, between organisations and in time passing.

The section ends with a brief consideration of the role of metaphor as an important piece

of for knowledge work, but one that should be used with caution.

Lets start by considering a few examples of what might be knowledge work in

construction. Take a look down the following list and put a tick, a cross or a question

mark in the right hand box depending on your immediate reaction as to which of these

activities is, is not or may be, knowledge work.

ACTIVITY KNOWLEDGE

WORK X ?A librarian at the Royal Institute of British Architects helps you to find the reference

for, and order, an obscure book on building design.

A plasterer plasters a tricky wall using new fiberglass techniques.

A construction firm has to come up with a way to install a footbridge over a road

without disrupting traffic.

A lighting specialist writes a blog on new low-energy lighting.

A construction worker listens to a podcast on new building techniques on his way to

work.

A building materials supplier offers you an online ordering system for specialist

plumbing material.

The trade association for steel construction publishes a research paper funded by the

Health and Safety Executive into safety notices on construction sites.

An architect enters a competition for building a new school.

A health and safety officer closes down a construction site because nobody is

wearing hard hats, safety jackets or the right boots.

A small building company turns up to carry on with the building project which

stopped when the last firm went bankrupt.

A premises manager has to handle all aspects of a major move to open plan and

handle disgruntled and unhappy workers as well as the technical and practical aspects

of the move.


5/37


Its not so easy is it?

The plasterer may be doing his job to a very high standard, but perhaps not doing

knowledge work? He has been trained, or apprenticed, and built a competence or a body

of tacit knowledge over time which allows him to do his job without a great deal of

reference to knowledge from other sources. Or, he may be using a new material in which

he is one of a handful of specialists, plastering a complex curve and be a master

craftsman in his profession who also runs a small plastering firm which specializes in

renovation work. If you knew his particular circumstances, would this adjust your view?

The lighting specialist and the librarian may have simply done desk research or may have

called on networks of others to form a paper or source a reference book. We dont know.

We do know that the lighting designer will have organized many sources of information,

perhaps visited shops or tried out new lighting and drawn this research together into a

document he has authored. And that the librarian will have called on years of

professional experience and possibly personal networks, to deliver the service. But how

much of that would qualify as knowledge work? Suppose the lighting specialist creates

designs for theatre sets which can be executed by electricians? Suppose the librarian is

also installing a new electronic and documents records management system according to

National Archive guidelines in a big specialist library. Would your views change?

Its likely that the architect will have worked in a team to pull together a proposal to enter

the competition which needs inputs from different disciplines. Not only that, they may

have had to take a brief from the client, understand something about schools, something

about the locality, something about the site itself and its possibilities and constraints and

most probably, something with a current flavour of social responsibility and

environmental awareness to demonstrate that their submission reflects the zeitgeist

concerns. Its very likely that the competition entry has needed a great deal of

resourcefulness, lateral-thinking innovation and value-added thinking which crosses

boundaries. The same applies to the construction team who installed the footbridge


6/37


although of course they are likely to be able to draw on plenty of patterns, since its a

reasonably common circumstance.

The steel construction association and the health and safety executive are likely to have

commissioned the work from an academic institution and used it to gain a perspective on

a hard-to-see aspect of safety on construction sites. This is research which is likely to

feed back into changed site practices. Is that pure research or is it knowledge work.

The builder stepping in to deal with the mess by his bankrupt predecessor will have to

assess a situation where, most likely, little has been set down on record and the previous

firm is most likely, unwilling or unable, to help put him and his team in the picture. And,

while doing all that hell need to manage a client, money issues, a team, a set of plans and

materials, while complying with building regulations.

The premises manager has a tricky situation as a go-between in a charged situation where

he is likely to be the lightning rod for a lot of emotions. Hell have to work with empathy

and firmness to judge what to concede and what to insist on and negotiate commitments

and actions between parties with very different views. Thats emotionally intelligent

work coupled with a lot of processing of information of many kinds. But is it knowledge

work as we would be inclined to define it?

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

One of these situations is in fact real, rather than hypothetical. Can you guess which?3

The boundaries between knowledge and other work are fuzzy at the best of times. But

one way to think of things is to consider the amount of personal experience and judgment

which needs to be brought to bear in taking any action. The next part of this section

considers three general principles which might be applied to knowledge work.


7/37


1. Speed, slowness, repetition, re-incorporation and using events well.

Its common to draw a distinction, which says that knowledge work shows itself in

adding value to information. Thats one useful criterion but it needs breaking down into

work of different types to consider the different rhythms of knowledge work:

- Increasing the speed of knowledge moving from one place to another- Increasing creativity and innovation (increasing the slower work spaces which

make this possible)

- Managing cyclical processes better (embedding lessons into regularly repeatedprocesses)

- Using defining moments well (making sure that the lessons from one-off eventsare well recorded and put to work in other times and places)

4

2. From conversation to commodity, then abstraction into a new setting.

Another view might be to look at knowledge work in two dimensions as Max Boisot5

does in his work on knowledge assets. Imagine a spectrum of work activities with

conversation at one end and commoditised working procedures at the other (say quality

control stamping widgets as they come off the production line). Anywhere along this line

theres a kind of information-plus-knowledge work going on which results in a more or

less repeatable or adapted event taking place. It might be that the conversation is more

intense when something less well understood is happening and different people need to

be consulted. So it may be that, towards the conversation-end, more knowledge work is

happening than towards commodity-end. However, the really valuable knowledge work

takes place when there is some kind of innovation which results from putting something

known into a new context where it generates fresh activity. Max Boisot calls this

abstraction.

A recent example was reported in the newspaper:


8/37


Patch needles out the Pain

A revolutionary skin patch using printer cartridge technology could soon put an end to

painful injections. The new smart patch is similar to a nicotine path and uses hundreds

of tiny needles to deliver medication directly into a patients bloodstream.

Nozzles used inside Hewlett-Packard printer cartridges were redeveloped to create the

drug-delivery system. [Metro, 19th

September 2007]6

Here, somebody or a team, took the way printer cartridges worked, put it into a new

setting, and came up with an entirely new application in a new setting. In fact, what is

going on here is an intelligent piece of lateral thinking in the space provided by a

metaphor in the world of medicine printer cartridge operation is a metaphor which

allows for an existing procedure to see itself afresh and renew itself.

3. Metaphor as an essential piece of equipment for the knowledge worker.

A whole separate paper could be written on the role of metaphor in knowledge and its

creation and thats beyond the scope of this paper. But, by way of a muscular historical

illustration, consider the 1,500 years it took to establish that the heart operates as a pump.

The evidence was there all along, but not the analogy.

The heart could be seen as a pump only when such engines began to be widely

exploited in sixteenth-century mining, fire-fighting and civil engineering.

[Jonathon Miller The Body in Question]7

Miller points out that the discovery difference was made not by scientific progress, not by

ingenuity and skill but by the availability of what he calls metaphorical equipment. For

the earlier inquirers the best available analogies were lamps and the smelters furnace. It

took technological invention in an entirely different place for a plausible analogy for the

operation of the heart to give scientists a new take. Bear this in mind as you consider

knowledge work. A carefully chosen metaphor might be one of the best things an

effective knowledge worker can equip himself with.


9/37


And youll notice too that the construction industry as a whole is rich in metaphor and

poetic reference. Thats how buildings get built. To paraphrase an article by Simon

Armitage in the New Scientist8

a short while back about poetry and science, it was

poetry, which got man to the moon, and trigonometry, which helped with the journey.

Take a look at any ambitious building project and youll find the same.9

ON A PERSONAL NOTE. A mobile army of metaphors.

Friedrich Nietzche held that truth was a mobile army of metaphors10

As I juggle with the jargon and obscure ways in which terms are created and defined in the

knowledge arena, I find it useful to draw heavily on real or plausible situations, richly described,

to help me make sense of things. That is to say I find it necessary to look at the theoretical

dimensions quite intensely but bounce them hard against actual, or real-feeling events, people

and situations in order to develop my own understanding of the subject. I find that careful use of

metaphor and imagery can open up a conversation space which was previously not available. At

the same time, the knowledge arena is full to bursting with ill-chosen metaphors, poor branding

ideas and clichs which have served their time and should be quietly retired to a clich sanctuary

somewhere. Theres a real danger that the confusion of terms and ill-tempered arguing over

definitions can be used either as a smokescreen or as a way of avoiding the subject. Neither

course of action makes sense.


10/37


2. WHO IS A KNOWLEDGE WORKER?

SECTION SYNOPSIS

This section looks at the typical definition of a knowledge worker and proposes that the

general distinctions that have been developed in the context of knowledge economies do

not hold up well when applied to construction where so much knowledge is developed

operationally and is highly contextual. The section explores, through illustration, the

dangers of assuming the superiority of recorded knowledge or professional qualification,

both of which can be unhelpfully close-minded in exploring solutions to problems and

starts to build profiles of effective knowledge workers in action. It suggests three main

category of knowledge worker and urges a move away from the dominant metaphors of

knowledge as a resource to be capitalised,

all individuals andallorganisations, not just so-called knowledge workers or

knowledge organisations, are knowledgeable [Frank Blackler11]

The folklore of knowledge management has it that Peter Drucker12

coined the term

knowledge worker some 50 years ago. Then, he intended to describe a class of work

where people were working with their heads rather than their hands. Nowadays, this

comparison has faded in relevance.

The Work Foundation published a report on the knowledge economy13

, which identifies

3 key characteristics of a knowledge worker:

1. By occupational classification managers, professionals, associate professionals2. Those with high level skills, indicated by degree or degree-equivalent

qualification

3. All those who perform tasks that take expert thinking, good communication skillsand the assistance of computers


11/37


By these lights, the plasterer and the lighting specialist from our first section fall outside

the category. The architect, the construction firm, the librarian and maybe the health and

safety worker and premises manager are knowledge workers. We dont know about the

building materials supplier because we have no way of assessing his professionalqualifications, but he has, at least, built an online presence. Does that count?

Its worth paying a little careful attention here because the Work Foundation list implies

that three core criteria define a knowledge worker:

- Professional education and training- Ability to work in a multi-disciplinary team- A facility with information, communication and technology

This is a useful start, but does seem to leave out some of the implied skills, which one can

detect in the vignettes. Still, the report is worth reading and does go on to be quite

concerned about the arbitrariness of the criteria and their exclusion of, say, small business

and shop-owners. It also says that if the criteria are applied, knowledge workers

accounted for about 42 per cent of all employment in the UK in the first quarter of 2006.

I would say that in the construction industry, it is likely that there are quite substantial

exceptions. As much of the knowledge that is built up in workers in this sector is built up

by a combination of on-the-job and operational experience as well as through

apprenticeship and professional training. Or it is knowledge held in (sometimes

temporary) networks and applied in a particular context when it is called for. While there

is a strong and constantly changing, body of published guidance in the form of standards,

rules and regulations (which is a mix of established and emergent in the case of some of

the emerging standards around sustainability), much of the knowledge that is needed to

make a decision is highly contextual and hard to record. So the picture is complex.


12/37


Its not evident that it is always wise to prize professional qualification and equipment

over personal experience and resourcefulness, in any case. Let's look at a couple of

situations to explore this a bit further.

Take the example of the Health and Safety Officer who closed the building site in the

earlier example. Shes qualified professionally, she knows her regulations and keeps

abreast of new ones through training, networks, personal knowledge development, but

her real competence is to take her operational experience which allows her to assess from

subtle clues, as well as more obvious failures, where the site is not complying. Shell be

relying on past experience, her education, and keeping abreast of current regulations.

Shell also need to know how to use her eyes and ears as well and ask people questions

and listen to what they are (and arent) saying in making a judgment call. She may not be

working with her hands but shes certainly working with more than her head.

Another example, which goes against the idea of professional skills and a high-

technology environment as necessary attributes of the knowledge worker, is a story from

a client with extensive connections in the Sudan. Here the reconstruction of schools,

hospitals and villages is sometimes hindered, rather than helped, by the introduction of

highly skilled, well-equipped teams of professionals. What works is a realistic sourcing

of local methods and materials, which can be used by local people to continue with

reconstructing institutions, buildings and society after the international teams have

withdrawn. The temporary ability to forge a team from many different cultures,

understand the problem together and find the most practical sustainable solution is what

works best, with the result that traditional local knowledge is validated in modern global

circumstances. Most likely its necessary for outsiders14 to do this in order for local

contractors to feel confident in drawing on their own resources rather than looking

outside. And there are dangers in validating indigenous knowledge without testing and

comparing it with what else is on offer.


13/37


PAUSE FOR THOUGHT. THE ATTRIBUTES OF A GOOD KNOWLEDGE WORKER.

Pause for a moment, make a cup of coffee, then sit with a blank sheet of paper and look back

over the vignettes at the beginning and at the two descriptions youve just read and try and draw

up a list of attributes for a good knowledge worker. You can use this a bit later to develop

knowledge worker profiles and at the end, to develop your own personal knowledge development

plan.

Someone who wrote to me while I was researching this paper said:

We are not using the term knowledge worker at all. Initially, we used it but

there was never a consensus on who is a knowledge worker (and what its

characteristics are). Instead, we focus on business processes as a whole (and

their support). People can more easily relate to it. Very often the argument wentlike this: Every employee even a worker on the factory floor has to apply

knowledge in his or her job. Accordingly, he or she is a knowledge worker.

Then, as anyone seems to be a knowledge worker it does not help to introduce this

concept. [A respondent to enquiry through David Gurteens newsletter]15

This is partly helpful, and certainly true. Another way to view it might be to break the

role of knowledge worker into 3 distinct categories:

1. Domain specialists experts with a primary professional specialisation (science,architecture, law, and engineering) who need to keep abreast of the profession and

develop their effectiveness in different work situations and teams.

2. Information professionals - who specialize in meta-knowledge (or knowledgeabout knowledge). Archivists, curators, librarians who are able to work

effectively with knowledge, information, records, collections and can help others

develop these skills, or work on their behalf to source people and things.


14/37


3. Those who act as brokers and facilitators, go-betweens to translate and sustainforward momentum in multi-disciplinary, multi-organisational, often multi-

national multi-lingual teams and networks. They manage a mix of interventions,

formally and behind the scenes, which will help manage a network or communitywork well towards their goal, in an atmosphere of mutual trust and conviviality,

which can survive a bumpy ride of discomfort and learn hard lessons as it goes.

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT. BUILDING YOUR OWN KNOWLEDGE WORKER

PROFILES.

Youll be able to build some of these ideas from suggestions in the rest of this paper and in other

modules from the course. Dont be blinded by terminology. Look around and see what works,

under any label, in your organization, or in those you are studying. Hold in mind the role of the

individual, the team, its extended network and the networks of individuals on the team, the

project, and the organization as a whole.

Now identify a small number of people who might fall into the categories ofdomain specialist,

information professional orknowledge broker. Invite each of them for a coffee and ask them

the same questions that you asked yourself at the beginning

- Where do you learn about the latest sector, organisational or project news?- How are you keeping up with the policies and procedures of your organisation?- How are you keeping abreast of regulation in the industry as a whole?- Where are you finding inspiration and new ideas to take to work?- What technologies, documents, people and networks do you draw on to find out what you

need to do?

Use the material from the conversations and your notes to develop one-page profiles for each

kind of knowledge worker. To give them a kind of factional (fact woven into fiction) identity,

lets call them:

Dom, the domain specialist

Libby, the information professional

Noleen, the knowledge broker


15/37


For example, Noleen, the knowledge broker, might be described as a knowledge worker

who observes and filters knowledge through sharp observation, belief, experience and

judgment and put it to work in decision-making and practical action, whether acting orreacting. Not only will she seize the opportunity of serendipitous encounter - she can

spot neglected resources, idle knowledge assets and gaps and turn this astuteness to her

advantage. Shell be comfortable in building networks and allegiances, a tactful but

gently prodding facilitator, operating as much behind the scenes in the backchannels as

well as in the public eye. Shell also be a cunning communicator, able to translate

between one discipline and another and forge a common vision and a conversation space,

which others can step into and engage with others.

Before leaving this section, Id like to come back to the dominant metaphors in the

knowledge arena. There is a strong tendency towards metaphors of capture and

capitalization, of knowledge as a resource that can be valued in some way and that can be

separated from the "knower", transferred and put into repositories or banks of knowledge.

However, everything weve looked at so far suggested a different frame. It suggests that

the individual is responsible for their own knowledge resources and abilities and that the

organization, or industry and its leaders, are responsible for creating the conditions that

make this possible - a move away from metaphors of capitalization towards an idea of a

delicately balanced ecology where knowledge stays with the knower and systems

encourage networks and systems of knowledge to blossom. A living system rather than a

power structure. Cultural systems need to encourage knowing and the generation of

knowledge rather than a drive towards its capture16

(which one colleague described, a

long time ago, as like trying to stick butterflies on pins17

). You might want to consider

Max Boisots current position, as laid out in a recent email:

I guess that, since I now view knowledge as something that resides in someone's

head, I only ever see data being transferred between agents. Some of this data is


16/37


information-bearing and when it is, it gives rise to knowledge - some modification

of what an agent has in its head. [Max Boisot, email exchange]

This doesnt weaken notions of knowledge to some kind of hippy flim-flam. It does

make for a subtler and more complex view of a living system, which nourishes the

knowledge worker and supports their progress as an individual. And it does demand

rigour in the day-to-day effectiveness of the information utilities (documents, records

management, information and communication technology) which underpins the system.

PERSONAL NOTE. The Turkish astronomer.

Im going to end this section with a short cautionary tale for any knowledge worker - an

extract from The Little Prince by Antoine de St Expurey (which may seem like hippy

flim-flam at first sight, but it holds an important truth, so Ill risk it).

I have serious reason to believe that the planet from which the little prince came is the

asteroid known as B-612. This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope.

That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909.

On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International

Astronomical Congress in a great demonstration. But he was in Turkish costume and so

nobody would believe what he said. Grown-ups are like that...

Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a

law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume. So in

1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style

and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report.18

If youre not sure of the message behind this extract, take a look at the footnote.


17/37


4. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A HIGHKNOWLEDGE ECONOMY AND A FIRM IN IT?

SECTION SYNOPSIS

This sections pans out to a so-called helicopter view. It surveys the knowledge economy

as a whole and 4 pillars of a competitive knowledge economy, and then looks at the

exemplar of Ireland which has transformed itself into a high-knowledge economy over

the past 20 years. It proposes a high-knowledge indicator that can be used to develop

self-awareness about knowledge in a firm, a cluster or a construction project.

Its useful to be aware of the wider context of the knowledge economy. This is a term,

whose popularisation is again attributed to Peter Drucker in the literature that started to

gain currency perhaps some 15 to 20 years ago when it was used to start to frame an

understanding of the intangible and tangible assets, which underpins a vibrant economy.

Generally, theorists and researchers would identify 4 pillars to a knowledge economy,

which are perfectly well adapted to be used as a starting point when viewing a sector, a

firm or even a particular construction project19

:

1. Information infrastructure that creates widespread availability of informationthrough technology, allowing broader access to government services, employment

from distant locations, higher participation and transparency of government.

2. Economic incentive regime that provides incentives for efficient use ofknowledge that is local and global and mechanisms for employing this such as

entrepreneurship.

3. Innovation systems that encourage the application of knowledge in new ways toenhance economic growth and competitiveness, that brings old players together in

new ways to spark new relationships and ideas.

4. Education & learning that supports on-going renewal of the workforce and thepopulation in general that allows for enhanced productivity, improved living

standards, greater flexibility to meet world trends.


18/37


When I asked the question through my networks while researching this paper, What are

the characteristics of a high-knowledge firm? I got back one email, echoing the Frank

Blackler quote at the beginning of this section, which said:

Every firm is knowledge intensive. The question is: what needs to be captured

created, stored, disseminated and measured???

[A respondent to David Gurteens newsletter enquiry]

Another respondent pointed out that plumbers and heart surgeons are as knowledge-

intensive as you can imagine and they work with their hands not their heads, in direct

opposition to the Drucker definition.

Yes, thats true. But perhaps there are some things one might be able to generalize from

the available research and anecdotal evidence.

The OECD20

defines knowledge-based industries as high to medium tech manufacturing,

finance, business services, telecommunications, education, and health. According to the

Work Foundation report mentioned before, this grouping indicates that Ireland was the

most knowledge-based economy in the OECD, with these industries accounting for 48

per cent of GDP. So its worth taking a short trip to Ireland to take a closer look.

A recent article about the Irish knowledge economy21

has some useful things to say

about the shift to being a knowledge economy with knowledge-intensive firms and what

that means in practice to the nature of work in Ireland over the past 20 years. One

example it cites is that of medical technology. Sean Dorgan, who is CEO of the Irish

Development Agency, says:


19/37


Go back 20 years and we were producing disposable items products that

would be used once in a hospital and thrown away. Now we are producing

cardiac stems and we are producing orthopaedic instruments. What has

happened with all of those is that they are high-value-added products that requiregood engineering and technical skills.

Dorgan illustrates this through the shift from employing operatives at 25,000 to 30,000

euros salary to engineers and technicians who are earning 40,000 to 100,000 euros each

a shift he describes as the high knowledge economy where people have skills, are able

to innovate and aim to improve processes.

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT. DEVELOPING INDICATORS OF HIGH KNOWLEDGE

Building on whats been said so far, perhaps we could say that the qualities of a knowledge-

intensive firm are that it emphasizes and prizes certain things which can be developed into a

starting point for a gauge of a knowledge-rich culture. Think of an organization, or cluster of

organizations in the construction industry, or perhaps a particular construction project and try and

apply these indicators from what you know, or can find out or surmise.

Once youve done that, and probably assembled a rich set of supporting information and

evidence, write a short but rich, description of the knowledge patterns of the chosen subject as

theyve been highlighted by this process and see what that tells you about it as a knowledge-

intensive firm. Try and write a description in such a way that would set the scene for a

newcomer, as you might write it to them as an informal email, or tell it to them over a coffee at

the local coffee shop.

PERSONAL NOTE. Why telling a friend works better than writing an official report.

This combination of narrative and analysis is one that has worked well for me over the years. Its

consistent with the idea of bouncing theory and practice up against each other that I mentioned

earlier. The idea of relocating the writing task from a formal report to an imaginary, more

informal description to a friend is a useful one, to stop the shriveling up of vivid description

which is so apparent when we speak or write informal emails and which disappears the moment

we put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, to write something official.


20/37


A possible set of indicators to assess the high knowledge firm/ cluster/project

Mark your selected firm on the following criteria where

H=High M=Medium L=Low N=not at all

DOES THE ORGANISATION. H M L N

1 INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE

1a make information easily and quickly available

1b have a robust ICT infrastructure, supported by effective individual and

collective discipline around document and record management

1c prune its information assets so they are refreshed and current

1d seek a sensible and lively balance between stocks and flows of information

1e have management information systems, which allows it to watch itself and

benchmark its competition effectively?

2 ECONOMIC INCENTIVES

2a protect intellectual capital through patents and licenses

2b provide encouragement to those who take responsibility for developing their

own knowledge and the firms knowledge-effectiveness?

2c prize risk taking and challenge to the status quo?

3 INNOVATION SYSTEMS

3a invest in research and development

3b value constant reinvention to stay abreast of scientific, industry and competitor

changes and respond to customer demand

3c have a capacity to manage and respond to unpredictability, surprise and risk

3e stay open to external influences, even when they are uncomfortable

3f enjoy a climate of innovation fuelled by multi-disciplinary teamwork

4 EDUCATION & LEARNING

4a have a clear framework to support the development and mobility of human

capital, talent and skills, including effective mentoring systems?

4b have good conversations and wide corridors22

4c embrace failure, repetition and redundancy in pursuit of progress

4d convey its history, its current values and its vision in a way that places

individuals in a coherent narrative that allows them to understand their location

4e Have good knowledge networks, internally, and between it and the outside

world?

4f have a built environment which distinguishes and supports different types of

knowledge work23


21/37


4. WHAT KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE ISSUES ARE THERE IN THE

UK CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY?

SECTION SYNOPSIS

This section zooms in to look in some detail at the knowledge patterns in the UK

construction industry, both good and bad. It suggests some ways of considering, for

yourself, a number of construction vignettes which will allow you to develop your own

perspective on the issues. It ends with a personal note on the rich potential in enquiring

into social construction as a way to understand the creation, use and transmission of

knowledge in the construction industry, followed by a recapitulation of whats been

covered so far, as a segue into the final two sections.

Before going on to look in detail at what kinds of knowledge strategies that high

knowledge firms can apply for competitive advantage, its time to consider construction

in the UK as a sector. According to the Construction Skills council

24

the sector countsfor 9 % of gross GDP, contributing some 203 billion a year, employing 2.5 million

people and estimating an annual need for another 86,000 a year until 2011. Its useful to

distinguish three main kinds of knowledge in the sector:

1. Explicit knowledge ofrules, regulations, standards, products and materials.

2. Organisational knowledge, a hybrid of tacit and explicit specific to the company.Including knowledge of history, clients, suppliers and network.

3. Project knowledge, largely tacit with some explicit. The knowledge each companyhas about the project and the knowledge that is created by the interaction between

firms.


22/37


Bearing these three domains in mind, lets try and describe some of the knowledge

patterns in the British construction industry today. (Note that the patterns are grouped

under the categories identified in the knowledge economy literature of Information

Infrastructure, Economic Incentive, Innovation Systems and Education and Learning.

They are not complete. But they do provide a useful grammar to help with thinking

things through.)

KNOWLEDGE PATTERNS IN THE BRITISH CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY25

KNOWLEDGE

PATTERNS

DESCRIPTION KNOWLEDGE IMPACT

(-) or (+)

1. INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTRE

Information is

archived only at the

end of a project.

Information is not archived when it is created,

but at the end of the construction phase.

People who have knowledge about the project

are likely to have moved on.

(-) There is a loss of institutional

memory.

Lack of records and

reports of limited

value without the

author.

The reason for decisions is often not recorded

or documented, and may lie in messages

phone calls, memos and conversations.

(-) The firm is exposed to risk

and unable to learn lessons.

There are knowledge gaps.

Reports do not capture the

context fully and are not

meaningful without the authors,who have moved on.

Some of these gaps may have

extremely long term and risky

consequences in industries with

very long cycles e.g. nuclear

power plants.

2. ECONOMIC INCENTIVES

The culture of the

sector is one of

knowledge hoarding.

New approaches need major changes to roles

and processes and people resist.

Their allegiance is to themselves not to the

firm.

(-) Knowledge is seen as power, a

personal assets, not as something

that will grow by sharing.

Fragmentation Many different firms and suppliers carry only

a part of the picture and its impossible to

create a whole. The financial system

(-) Project knowledge is held in

records and in recorded and

unrecorded memories of the


23/37


discourages a knowledge system. network and is largely wasted.

There are economic and legal

incentives to protect the

immediate firm rather than create

a coherent whole system

Financial pressures Very often financial pressures lead to corners

being cut, teams changing, or a large

temporary workforce for short periods.

(-) There is no incentive to create

or share knowledge, just a need to

get the job done at minimum cost.

3. INNOVATION SYSTEMS

Innovation and risk

management

In particular the demands of new building

designs and new regulations push the industry

to reinvent itself.

(+) New knowledge is created.

Knowledge gaps between

different parts of the supply chain

can be a virtue, forcing

clarification and better

understanding.

European design

processes

Compared with the US there is a high degree

of collaboration very early on in the design

process. Architects, engineering disciplines,

cost estimators, are often brought together at

concept design.

(+) There is an opportunity to

generate knowledge-intensive

multi-disciplinary, innovative

approaches, without the burden of

conscious risk transfer that would

be experienced in the US.

4. EDUCATION AND LEARNING

Poor understanding People responsible for collecting and

archiving project may not understand the

needs of those who will use it e.g. those

involved in later maintenance of buildings.

(-) Records cannot be found or

are not filed. The wrong records

may be thrown away. There is

lack of knowledge to pass on to

those who need it.

Lessons learned are

not organized.

Lessons learned are buried in detail,

summarized to the point of blandness, or not

conveyed because they are too sensitive and

likely to damage the sharers own immediate

career trajectory.

(-) It is difficult to disseminate

useful knowledge to other

projects. There is limited change

for personal lessons to be

exchanges as people have moved.

The important insights lurk

unseen.

Failing

apprenticeship

schemes

In 2007, 42% of college-based construction

apprentices failed to fulfill NVQ requirements

because of lack of work placements.

(-) The sector is failing its new

recruits, creating a huge

knowledge gap at the base level.


24/37


Many project tasks

are complex.

There is a trend, exemplified in construction,

towards increased personal and social needs in

complex tasks, which makes them hard to

teach and learn.

(-) or (+)?Knowledge can't be

procedurized and often rely on

interpersonal co-operation,

competence and trust.

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT. REFLECTING ON THE KNOWLEDGE PATTERNS.

Take a moment, a piece of paper and a pencil and write down the four headings Information

Infrastructure, Economic Incentives, Innovation Systems, Education and Learning. From your

own studies and observations, what other patterns are you aware of that you would add to this list

to build a rounded picture? What other big categories might be useful to identify new patterns?

PERSONAL NOTE. Inhabitable ways of going on together.

Ken26

and Mary Gergen offer inspiration and insight in their work on social construction. They

hold that, knowledge is socially constructed. It lies in the gaps between people and is brought

forth by dialogue that invites us into new spaces of understanding from which a more promising

world can emerge.

The richness of knowledge held in networks in the construction industry is incalculable

probably its most neglected knowledge resource. More than almost any other industry,

construction needs to find ways to juice the knowledge from networks, without killing them

through over-formalising them.


25/37


RECAPITULATION.

Were well over half way through in terms of pages still to be covered, but much

less than half way in terms of pulling the threads together and weaving a

knowledge fabric from them that can be useful to you in your work. By way of an

aide-memoire, weve travelled through:

An exploration of the types of work which constitute knowledge work, taking

in key ideas that knowledge work is on a continuum between conversation and

commoditisation but at its most exhilarating when an innovation results from

placing existing knowledge in new contexts, which metaphor can help to achieve.

The 3 types of worker domain specialists, information professionals and

knowledge brokers and the attributes of an effective knowledge worker which

include social and communication skills, as the willingness to take risks and

exercise judgement, acknowledging that knowledge exists in the gaps in

between which challenges the current paradigm of knowledge as a resource to be

capitalised.

The 4 pillars of a knowledge economy (information infrastructure, economic

incentive, innovation systems and education and learning) and their application to

the construction industry in the UK, which shows up to be quite a downbeat

picture if one has a deficit model of thinking and full of potential if one applies an

abundance model of thinking.

The rest of this paper looks at some of the tools and techniques, which are being

applied and at the kinds of approach that will encourage and retain knowledge

workers.


26/37


5. WHAT KIND OF KNOWLEDGE- AND COLLABORATION-

INTENSIVE PROCESSES WORK?

SECTION SYNOPSISThis section shares some practical knowledge approaches being used in firms in the UK

construction industry, suggests taking a broader look at good practice that might be

happening under other labels and looks at an illustration of good knowledge practice

through the lens of an effective trade association. It warns of 4 things to avoid when

developing a firm-wide approach.

Theres a useful piece of DTI-sponsored research27

into knowledge strategies and tools in

construction. It comprises both a 49-page summary by David Bartholomew of DBA and

9 case studies of firms in the construction industry, ranging from architects to urban

planners and engineers:

A know-how manual for professional practices based on evidence from

organizations worldwide and practical experiences at Aedas, Arup, Broadway

Malyan, Buro Happold, Edward Cullinan, Feilden Clegg Bradley, Penoyre &

Prasad, Whitbybird and WSP.

Its true that most of these organisations have a design thrust, but the knowledge tools

picture is still a useful one.


27/37


Aedas

Management Information

Systems

Studio (workplace design)

Arup

Communities of Practice

linked to business

Storytelling

Knowledge-sharing

workshops

Broadway Malyan

Business process

Yellow Pages

Contact database

Induction process

Buro Happold

Workspace design

Edward Cullinan

Knowledge strategy

Feilden Clegg Bradley

Hindsight

Yellow Pages

Wiki knowledge base

Penoyre & Prassad

Knowledge bank

Whitbybird

Knowledge audit

WSP

Technical co-ordinator

workshops

You might notice a few things here. First, that the technical solutions are quite utilitarian

the most innovative seems to be the wiki knowledge base and in some cases very

simple face-to-face workshops. Second, physical spaces can be an important part of a

knowledge strategy, as well as apparently old-fashioned or simplistic tools like

storytelling. Thirdly, that there still seems to be quite a substantial gap between these

intra-firm endeavours and the bigger, more troublingly, dysfunctional knowledge patterns

of the industry as a whole.

Remember too that a great many tools, which might result in better flows of knowledge

or better records, may not show up here but under other descriptions of the organisations

equipment to manage itself and its projects. For example, one would expect to find a

whole set of visualisation and mapping tools, which are used at different stages of the

design & build cycle28. These are very valid knowledge tools and a highly effective way

to create common understanding which overcomes organisational, hierarchical and

cultural boundaries. That is to say, they work particular well with networks, which weve

already identified as a key way of working in this sector. Its important, while building


28/37


your own understanding, to look around at the things the tools do, rather than the names

they go by.

There are encouraging aspects to the picture too, often arising through the bridging and

benchmarking role of trade associations, which consolidate and communicate the

knowledge which might be hidden in networks or invisible, embodied, operational

knowledge at the front line.

Take one example of a trade association performing an active role as a knowledge hub,

the British Constructional Steelwork Association.29

It has an excellent website and

range of publications and activities. It has a sense of history30

(A Century of Steel), a

directory, up-to-date news and intelligence on rules and regulations, design competitions

to engage the younger blood of the profession & conferences. It has introduced the

SCIE kite mark as an assurance of quality. It supports continued professional

development in the industry. It plays a role in commissioning and propagating the

findings of research such as the Trojan Horse research into conveying regulations on

construction sites referred to earlier. In an industry where knowledge networks and

network knowledge are critical and under-utilised, vibrant associations of this kind have a

critical high-knowledge role to play.

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT. THE ROLE OF TRADE ASSOCATIONS IN EFFECTIVE

KNOWLEDGE- AND COLLABORATION-INTENSIVE PROCESSES

Take a little time to search online the activities of the Association and then consider these

questions.

What part those activities can play in the creation, transmission and use of knowledge?

What aspects of a professional association help it in playing a role?

When I was researching this paper 4 themes were repeated strongly in answers to the

question What kind of knowledge and collaboration-intensive processes work. I

summarise them briefly here. They are all negatives and so are useful to thinking about

what to avoid doing, which may be easier said than done.


29/37


1. Dont stockpile rubbish under the illusion that you are doing something useful.Anywhere between 85 and 99% of the information and so-called knowledge assets held

in repositories, on the intranet and so on are rubbish. Even in organisations which have

instilled filing standards and conventions, ill-discipline around simple naming

conventions means that its dauntingly hard to find things, or, more importantly, trace

decisions and developments which are scattered through a trail of emails and document

versions. Even where there are retention and disposal policies, they are rarely enacted

effectively. Equally, there is often little regard for the long-term preservation of

knowledge which will be needed a long time into the future (e.g. can someone remind

me - how did we build that bit of the nuclear reactor again, now that we have to

decommission it?)

2. Dont be technology-led.

Many technology departments have a build it and the people will come mentality which

has led to the accumulation of dusty rubbish and empty chat rooms and collaborative

spaces. Meanwhile, most individuals have developed survival tactics to handle the

increasing demands on them to perform their jobs, all the while responding to an

unsolicited email mountain, recording their actions, demonstrating their willingness and

ability to collaborate and developing their social and political capital and private

networks to shore them up and make work/life at least manageable, if not satisfying.

3. Dont make assumptions. The future will look very different.

There is a profound generational and hierarchical gap in understanding. The

management ill-understands that the information and knowledge and the tools and

processes, which support it, cannot be delegated or be considered separately from the

core activities of the business, because they are the core activities of the business.

Meanwhile a new generation of workers is arriving, entirely comfortable with social

software (Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, iChat) in their personal lives and more than

mildly surprised at the Byzantine old ways and clunky interfaces they are asked to endure

in the workplace.


30/37


4. Many apparently desirable knowledge processes are unrewarding both to the

individual and in their value to the firm.

Such work as has been done to capture to tacit knowledge of deep experts has been found

to be labour-intensive and unrewarding in terms of its value to the business.

A final observation in this section. As you go forward, be careful not to assume that

knowledge and collaboration-intensive processes must be complex or jargon-ridden. Its

true that SharePoint (Microsofts new tool for collaboration and record-keeping), Web

2.0, wikis, blogs, online project management and record-keeping spaces, RSS feeds,

podcasting, web-conferencing through tools such as Skype and so on place a certain level

of demand on the contributor (both for bandwidth and for facility with different media)

and open up all kinds of new avenues for individual contribution and collaborative work.

Its also true that the new, social, softwares and the increasing trend to engage with many

media, not just documents, is transforming the way we communicate and make records.

But perfectly simple tools have a role to play. Simple new ways to conduct meetings,

after action reviews, peer assists (which allow you to call on the help of others in

problem-solving), world cafes, knowledge fairs, handy guides and manuals, are all

perfectly valid, repeatable ways to change the way people encounter and learn from each

other and make a useful record of things.


31/37


7. WHAT KINDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT DO PEOPLE NEED INORDER TO ENGAGE IN KNOWLEDGE WORK?

SECTION SYNOPSIS

This final section makes recommendations that assume the cultural climate is the priorityrather than the tools and techniques. Conditions of trust, transparency, two-way flows of

communication in an adult-to-adult environment encourage individuals in developing

their own knowledge competence and attitude.

The main motivation, in our experience, is the contribution of whatever KM

method to fulfilling the goals of the task at hand - what Im paid for and anything

that makes my life easier, is welcome. Second, there is also a fair degree ofreputation to be gained when participating in a knowledge process. [For

retention] first and foremost mentoring seems to be the most promising.. new

colleagues consider it very helpful to work together with an old hand. During

this interchange knowledge is retained / transferred. Other methods, such as

documenting concepts and/or contacts in a knowledge map, can be applied

additionally or as a last resort. [A respondent to the enquiry in David

Gurteens newsletter]

So, practical stuff that makes work more manageable is welcome, together with personal

support through mentoring systems. Anecdote31

published a list of knowledge

behaviours on their blog last year. They included sharing what you know, helping

someone to learn something, having an open and rigorous dialogue, discussing and

exploring assumptions and seeking out the best person to help me (who might not be the

expert but the most approachable and quite expert). It is worth turning the assumption

upside down that the firm must put in place the conditions of encouragement and imagine

that each individual, by manifesting such behaviours, will be contributing to a whole

system of encouragement by paying attention to their individual contribution to the whole

system. That is what the table overleaf seeks to suggest.


32/37


SOME THOUGHTS ON A CULTURAL FRAMEWORK

FOR RETAINING AND ENCOURAGING KNOWLEDGE WORKERS

Individual Team32

Ask good questions. Listen to others. Ask for

help. Help people out.

Try things out that other people recommend.

Facilitate conversations between others.

Do the dull stuff. Keep good records.

Preserve private time and space and be clear to

distinguish this from team time and space.

If the firm does not provide a mentor, ask for

one or find your own mentors outside work.

Make a personal knowledge development plan.

Assume a position of generosity, openness and

trust. Knowledge does not grow by hoarding.

Use language, metaphors and illustrations

consistent with your values round knowledge.

Value the time spent chatting in corridors.

Allow enough time for debriefs.

Make meetings fun and fruitful. Have them in

unlikely places museums, art galleries.

Make the conversations good

straightforward, direct.

Use all kinds of new team collaborative

techniques (from basecamp and project

management tools to pinboarding and peer

assists, after action reviews, anything digital

and analogue that you come across and like).

Set aside explicit time to knowledge work-

doesnt expect it to be fitted in round the day

job.

Draw attention to unhelpful behaviour.

Make sure theres a point to it.

Bring outsiders in sometimes. Carefully

Leaders Organisation

Give individuals time and space to develop

themselves professionally. Encourage mobility.

Tie good knowledge behaviours to the

appraisal system.

Put mentoring in place.

Dont insist on burdensome collaborative

processes that dont benefit the individual.

Do it yourselves. Pay thoughtful attention to

burnout and stress where a knowledge worker

has taken on and juggled difficult decisions in

the shifting sands of a project with constantly

changing goalposts, tight deadlines and no one

in authority to refer to.

Have a clear story about the purpose of the

work and its value to the organization.

Give individuals a sense of pride in the

heritage, where the firm has come from.

Take away choice sometimes and insist on

certain tools and behaviours.

Encourage productive challenge, discomfort

and vivid language. Align the language with

the values you seek to engender.

Recognise individual contributions.

Be realistic about which knowledge and

collaboration really matters and be willing to

kill of things that dont work.


33/37


PERSONAL NOTE. A hole, not a drill.

One of the most useful parables of the workplace Ive heard points out that nobody goes into an

ironmonger or hardware shop to buy a drill because they want a drill. They go into ironmongers

in search of a drill because they want a hole. Weve a tendency to get caught up in elaborate

descriptions of the technical specification of the drill wed like to make people use and mostly

forget to talk about the size and depth of the hole we need to make.

Think hard now that weve come to the end of this journey together, about the hole you want

knowledge work to make, or think it should make and then figure out the tools which will get you

there.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As ever, I must take responsibility for my own errors, omissions, wild-goose chases,detours and ox-bow lakes. But Id like to thank a small number of people whove helped

enormously, most likely more than they know.

Madelyn Blair, for her ability to cut through and simplify she sees the woods while

Im fumbling to find my way back through the trees, trying to leave a trail of

breadcrumbs.

Max Boisot, for always answering my emails with pungent insight and clarity, even if

they make little sense and I forget to thank him.

David Gurteen, for generously lending me his ears and eyes of his newsletter recipients

and those recipients who were willing to offer me their views and experiences.

Clive Holtham, for all our early work on knowledge, space and slowness and for ringing

me up every now and again to tell me either a] that hes just seen me get off the bus at

Old Street or b] that its time we wrote our knowledge potboiler, which would be so

much better than most of the things which hold out to be not-potboilers. Hes right.

The Sparknow networkfor keeping me on my toes for 10 years. Sparknow was

founded on 1November 1997 to design spaces for knowledge. I think weve done that.

My daughter and my partner, for tolerating my bursts of insanity on the rare occasions

I decide to accept assignments like this.

My parents, for lending me their holiday flat to finish it off. Im blessed.

Victoria Ward, Orford, Suffolk, UK, Monday 8th October 2007, just after 9 pm.


34/37


ENDNOTES

1Victoria Ward has been active in the knowledge-management, -sharing, -work, -transfer, -

economy, -space arena for over 10 years now. She founded Sparknow in November 1997 to

design spaces for knowledge, meaning physical, virtual and psychological spaces. Sparknow

has been involved in several designs and redesigns for knowledge, office and healthcare spaces.

She and Professor Clive Holtham from City University Business School have also written several

papers on the role of physical spaces in knowledge sharing and on the importance of slowness as

a condition for effective knowledge-exchange in the workplace. She and Clive are working on a

book to bring their research and insights together into one place. If youd like to contact her with

feedback on this paper, you can get her at [email protected]. The papers, case studies

and previous work are deliberately not referenced here other than in this footnote, with one

exception.

2I am indebted to Madelyn Blair at Pelerei for this introductory exercise.

http://www.pelerei.com/

3The Health & Safety Executive commissioned a research project from Loughborough

University Business School which reported in 2006. Trojan horse health and safety messaging:

An assessment of the long-term and behavioural impact on construction site operatives

Viken Chinien & Alistair Cheyne http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr505.pdf4

There is a growing body of enquiry into time, speed, slowness, rhythm and interruption at work.

While not in the mainstream of our enquiry here, it is useful to consider whether the primary

purpose of different kinds of knowledge work is to speed things up or slow them down.

5Max Boisot Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy

Oxford University Press, 1999. Of note is that Maxs origins are as an architect, so his thinking

about knowledge and information is very spatial, which is of particular use as a handle on the

subject for those working with physical spaces and buildings.

6 Metro 19th September 2007. Metro is a free newspaper distributed on the Tube in London.

Remember as a knowledge worker to read the things others leave lying around. You never know

what youll find or when it will be useful. Keep a journal or scrapbook of interesting fragments

and snippets, and review this monthly.

7Jonathon Miller The Body in Question, Pimlico, 2000


35/37


8Where Science and Poetry Meet Simon Armitage, New Scientist, issue 2566, 26 August 2006

9David Drake and Brian Lanahan have written a useful The Story Driven Organisation which

appeared in Global Business and Organizational Excellence May/June 2007. It sets out new

metaphors for business. Aimed at leaders, its guidance is equally relevant for any kind of

construction project. www.characterweb.com/images/story-driven-organization.pdf.

10On Truth and Falsity in Their Extramoral Sense by Friedrich Nietzsche quoted in An

Invitation to Social Construction by Kenneth J Gergen, Sage Publications, 1999

11Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations: An Overview and Interpretation

Frank BlacklerOrganization Studies. Sage1995; 16: 1021-1046

12Peter Ferdinand Drucker www.peter-drucker.com/ His first reference to knowledge workers

was apparently in Post-capitalist society, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993

13Ian Brinkley and Neil Lee The Knowledge Economy in Europe, The Work Foundation, 2006.

www.theworkfoundation.com/products/knowledgeeconomy.aspxoutlines the whole knowledge

programme, including forthcoming research on knowledge work.

14There is a whole line of enquiry here into the effective role of insiders and outsiders in

knowledge work. Although it may feel a long way from the subject, the best essay Ive come

across on this is by Walter Benjamin, an Austrian who wrote in the early 1930s with feeling

about the different roles of travellers and of those who stay at home in passing on craft skills and

about the loss of storytelling with the rise of information. The essay The Storyteller: Reflections

on the Works of Nikolai Leskov can be found in Illuminations: Essays and Reflections ,

translated by Hannah Arendt in 1968 and is available online at

http://www.slought.org/files/downloads/events/SF_1331-Benjamin.pdf

15David Gurteen www.gurteen.com/ has diligently created a large community with a common

interest in knowledge management in all its forms and a great willingness to share honestly. His

newsletter is an excellent source of up to date news and enquiry around knowledge management

and is free to subscribe to online.

16Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations: An Overview and Interpretation

Frank BlacklerOrganization Studies. Sage1995; 16: 1021-1046

17Im indebted to Matthew Holmes, now a CDT teacher in Brighton, for this metaphor. See also

the story of the one-winged butterfly a story of knowledge and narrative lost at an aid agency

http://spark.spanner.org/documents/sous_l_arbre_a_palabre.pdf


36/37


18Antoine de Saint-Exupery Le Petit Prince, Gallimard, 1943. There are several online

versions available. The quote comes from the beginning of Chapter Four and was first drawn to

my attention in an excellent essay by Bruno Latour, "Technology is society made durable" from

A sociology of monsters: essays on power, technology and domination, edited by John Law.

London & New York, Routledge, 1991, 103-131. Latour is a French philosopher, sociologist and

anthropologist who contributed to the development of actor-network theories as well as playing a

leading role in developing thinking about the social construction of science. His point here is to

do with knowledge claims, a useful concept. A knowledge claim is made of a sequence, in which

its not always possible to determine ahead of time which is the deciding factor. In this case the

Turkish astronomer, dressed in Turkish costume and telling his audience of something they didnt

want to hear, was laughed at. Replacing that with a conventional suit, he was taken seriously.

The only change in the knowledge claim is a change of dress. The knowledge worker, seeking to

introduce a new concept, would do well to follow the dress code of the dominant culture.

19Im again indebted to Madelyn Blair for permission to use her words which are a synopsis of

World Bank, OECD and other descriptions of the attributes of a flourishing knowledge economy.

20Sourced from the Work Foundation report cited above. The original report was called The

Knowledge-based Economy, www.oecd.org/dataoecd/51/8/1913021.pdfpublished in Paris in

1996.

21

John Walsh Steering Ireland Onwards Business & Finance, 13 July 2007. A magazine Ipicked up and browsed through which had been tucked into the pocket in the seat in front on an

aeroplane back from Geneva. You never know.

22Listen to The Power of Corridors, which can be downloaded, from

www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/thinkingallowed/thinkingallowed_20070613.shtml in which

Rachel Hurdley, a research associate at Cardiff Universitys School of Social Sciences follows

people during their working days to find out what takes place informally in corridors, and the part

they play in the life of an institution.

23

This is my sole reference to previous work. The Role of private and public spaces in

knowledge management by Victoria Ward and Clive Holtham, from the proceedings of

Knowledge Management: Concepts and Controversies 10 11 February 2000: University of

Warwick, Coventry. Available to download at thenext.ca/files/read-the-role-of-private-and-

public-spaces-in-knowledge-management.pdf

24www.constructionskills.net/


37/37

25This table has been developed from a variety of sources, including Construction Skills

www.constructionskills.net/ In particular two papers on knowledge management and

construction have been useful. The first is Knowledge Management for the construction

industry: the e-cognos project by Matthew Wetherill, Yacine Rezgui, Celson Lim and Alain

Zarli. It can be found at www.itcon.org/2002/12. The second is Knowledge across cultures in

the construction industry: sustainability, innovation and design by Adrian Demaid and Paul

Quintas, 2006 available from www.sciencedirect.com.

26An Invitation to Social Contruction by Kenneth J. Gergen, Sage Publications, 1999

27http://www.knowledgeboard.com/download/2520/SharingKnowledge1.pdf

28A useful list of mapping and visualisation tools and techniques being used in sustainable

construction can be found in Knowledge Mapping and Bringing about Change for the

Sustainable Urban Environment: A Report of A Transition Project Research Funded by the

EPSRCs, Sustainable Urban Environment Programme (EP/C009649/1) www.sue-

km.org/tpr.pdf

29www.steelconstruction.org/

30Increasingly, paying attention to the heritage of a firm plays a role in knowledge-intensive

firms with strong culture and values. Take, for example, John Lewis, which uses its archive of

patterns and materials to induct new graduates in a sense of the birthright of the firm and its

innovative approaches over the years.31

www.anecdote.com.au/index.phpare based in Australia. They are one of the more interesting

firms looking at how to put story to work in organisations, often in the context of knowledge

management and collaboration.

www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/Display.aspx?MasterId=85216f42-b4a0-4921-84ab-

65239c68c92d&NavigationId=761

32Try No More Teams and Serious Play by Michael Shrage as a way of rethinking concepts

of team, innovation and invention.

mind the gap, a personal view on knowledge work in the construction industry

Documents