Strategy
Development
This competency relates to how an
organisation might start to look at its knowledge and learning
in a strategic manner. The tools presented provide different
frameworks which can be used to plan, monitor and evaluate knowledge
and learning initiatives. |
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The first tool in this guide explains how to apply the Five
Competencies approach, and therefore serves as a starting
point for readers, to help establish clear rationale and entry
points for using this toolkit.
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Knowledge Audit provides a structure for gathering data,
synthesising findings and making recommendations about the
best way forward for knowledge and learning initiatives against
a background of the broader structural, operational and policy
factors affecting an organisation.
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Social Network Analysis has been called the most systematic
way of analysing relationships and knowledge flows between
individuals and groups. Properly undertaken, SNA can yield
invaluable data about how to tailor and focus knowledge and
learning activities to organisational needs.
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Most Significant Change is a narrative-based mechanism for
planning programmes of change. As so much of knowledge and
learning is about change, and this change takes place in a
variety of different domains, the MSC tool could prove invaluable.
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Outcome Mapping is a participatory planning, monitoring and
evaluation methodology which focuses on the contribution of
a programme to changes in the actions and behaviours of the
'boundary partners'. Applied to knowledge and learning strategies,
OM has a number of potential benefits.
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Both of these tools focus on the future of an organisation,
and enable imaginative and creative ideas to play a central
role in developing and rolling out knowledge strategies.
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Management
Techniques
If leadership is the process of working
out the right things to do, then management is the process of
doing things right. Here are a range of simple approaches, from
assessing managerial responses to mistakes, to assessing the
forces for and against stated organisational changes, which
might prove useful to managers working towards the learning
organisation. |
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This approach, made popular by Japanese management specialists
Nonaka and Takeuchi, is based on systematically managing the
conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge, through four easy-to
apply-processes based on simple principles of group dynamics.
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Managing a learning organisation requires a managerial approach
to mistakes which is healthy and balanced, and which encourages
staff to take certain risks and to be honest about the consequences
of their actions. This simple process enables groups to reflect
on their own approach to mistakes and errors, and how they
might go about addressing these, through use of a series of
generic 'Blame' or 'Gain' behaviours.
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Force Field Analysis enables teams to work out what their
goals are, and systematically to identify the forces for and
against achieving them. This is the classic change management
tool developed by Kurt Lewin, pioneer of action research,
and can be an empowering and energising tool for teams.
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All activities require different inputs and generate outputs;
increasingly, these inputs and outputs are information based.
This tool, which has been drawn from the field of 'business
process re-engineering', enables the mapping of inputs and
outputs for key activities, with a view to improving their
efficiency. This provides managers with an in-depth understanding
of the different processes they are overseeing.
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This tool works by listing the characteristics of a specific
problem, and brainstorming the possible variations. Done correctly,
this tool enables groups systematically to generate new ideas
and assess their potential. This is useful for managers who
feel the need for more creativity.
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Everyone sees problems in different ways, and one of the
key problems with knowledge strategies is that knowledge is
in the eye of the beholder. This tool enables different perspectives
to be generated, and used in management planning processes.
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Collaboration
Mechanisms
When working together with others,
the whole of our efforts often proves to be less than the sum
of the parts. Why? Frequently, there is not enough attention
paid to facilitating effective collaborative practices. The
tools in this section can be applied to reflect on the workings
of teams, and to help strengthen relationships and develop shared
thinking. |
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This tool enables teams to work through five stages towards
a 'shared responsibility'. Either face-to-face or virtually,
teams can cross the five stages assessing where they lie in
terms of different areas, including atmosphere and relations;
goal acceptance; information sharing; decision making; reaction
to leadership; and attention to the way the group is working.
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Communities of Practice enable similarly minded interacting
people to work towards generating and collaborating on knowledge
and learning initiatives in a variety of ways, through a number
of overlapping functions.
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Action Learning Sets are a structured method enabling small
groups to address complicated issues by meeting regularly
and working collectively. This tool is geared especially learning
and personal development at professional and managerial levels.
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This tool offers a way out of the habitual thinking style
by enabling participants to use different approaches and perspectives
to analysing decision making. This is particularly useful
in that it allows a broad and objective view of decisions,
and one which covers more options and possibilities.
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Mind Maps are a graphic technique to enable participants
to implement clearer thinking in their approach to many different
tasks. It is useful both for individuals and for groups, and
provides as non-linear method of organising information.
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Social Technologies cover a broad swathe of tools, all using
technology to build collaboration and sharing of tacit knowledge.
There are many different fora for this, chiefly internet-based
tools but also including telecommunications, radio and face-to-face
socialising.
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Knowledge
Sharing and Learning Processes
So much of effective knowledge and
learning is about two-way communication which takes place in
a simple and effective manner, and applying simple techniques
to try and build on past experiences to improve activities in
the future. These essential tools are covered in this section.
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Storytelling is an approach which can both allow for expression
of tacit knowledge and increase potential for meaningful knowledge
sharing, particularly by permitting learning to take place
through the presence of a narrative structure.
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This tool encourages participatory learning, by asking those
with experience in certain activities to assist those wishing
to benefit from their knowledge, through a systematic process,
towards strengthened mutual learning.
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Challenge Sessions are a structure framework geared towards
solving problems by allowing participants to supplement their
habitual thinking with new methods, centred around working
towards dealing with problems that are made up of conflicting
requirements or challenges.
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The After Action Review facilitates continuous assessment
of organisational performance, looking at successes and failures,
ensuring that learning takes place to support continuous improvement
in organisational learning and change.
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Intranets can have a great impact on knowledge management,
particularly in the fields of information collection, collaboration
and communication, and task completion. Following the necessary
approach, this tool can substantially increase the likelihood
of an effective, useful system within an organisation.
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Email is one of the most commonly used communication tools
in the modern business environment; there is an increased
need nowadays to manage this tool to reduce the risk of overload.
This tool helps to control this tool and therefore increase
its effectiveness as a communication tool.
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Knowledge
Capture and Storage
Knowledge and information can leak
in all sorts of ways and at all sorts of times. To make sure
that essential knowledge is retained by an organisation requires,
a range of techniques can be applied, from traditional information
management tools such as shared drives, as well as more modern
techniques such as blogs and knowledge based exit interviews.
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This tool has been in existence for
many decades in the form of classification schemes and indexing
systems, and still can have a great deal to offer in terms of
structuring information for easier management and retrieval.
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Exit Interviews represent a specific
learning process, not just a way to leave a company, and one
which highlights the importance of capturing and storing know-how.
This can minimise the loss of useful knowledge through staff
turnover and ease the learning curve of new staff, benefiting
both the organisation and the leaving staff. |
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This tool enables the capture, documentation
and dissemination of know-how of staff within an organisation,
to help them make better and wider use of existing knowledge.
The ultimate goal is to capture an effective sequence or process
with enough accuracy so that it can be repeated with the same
good results. |
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Using this tool, an electronic directory
storing information about staff in a given organisation, can
facilitate connections among people through systematising organisational
knowledge and learning initiatives. |
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A Weblog in its various forms enable
groups of people to discuss electronically areas of interest
in different ways, and to review different opinions and information
surrounding such subjects. |
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Shared Network Drives work in most
organisations to store and categorise information. If used correctly,
and under systematised good practices, they can enable better
retrieval of knowledge and improved information sharing across
an organisation. |
