+

The OTHER KM Adoption

Challenge

V. Mary Abraham

Above and Beyond KM

18 November 2014

+KM Enterprise Adoption:

How to Make it Stick!Stan Garfield

Jean-Claude Monney

Deirdre Walsh

Mary Abraham

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Half of all knowledge

management initiatives fail in

the 1st year,

2/3 of the remainder in 3 years.

John Ragsdale

VP Research, Technology Services

Industry Association

+

Solve the Adoption

Problem

Business Rationale

Culture

Leadership

KMWorld 2014

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+What makes adoption so hard?

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We know what we’re

supposed to do, but

we fail to do it.

http://pixabay.com/en/shear-office-metal-cut-480551/

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Once_Upon_a_Time_Logo.jpg

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A man has no ears for that

to which experience has

given him no access.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

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Encounter Problem

Stumble Through

http://pixabay.com/en/signs-stumbling-stumble-fall-24034/

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Work Smarter,

not Harder

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http://www.animalleague.org/assets/images/feature-window/adopt-a-dog.jpg

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Read Theory

Encounter Problem

Apply Theory

Solve Problem

+Knowledge Management

StrategyHansen, M., Nohria, N., and Tierney, T. (1999), `What’s Your Strategy

for Managing Knowledge?’, Harvard Business Review, 77/2:106

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+Codification vs. Personalization

Knowledge Strategy Codification Personalization

Business-Knowledge

Link

Competitive

advantage through

knowledge reuse

Competitive

advantage through

knowledge creation

Relevant Knowledge

Process

Transferring

knowledge from

people to documents

Improving social

processes to facilitate

sharing tacit

knowledge

Human Resource

Management

Implications

Motivate people to

codify their knowledge

Focus training on IT

skills

Reward people for

codifying knowledge

Motivate people to

share their knowledge

Focus training on

inter-personal skills

Reward people for

sharing their

knowledge

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+

Explicit Knowledge ChallengeSnowden, D. `Rendering Knowledge,’ Cognitive Edge Network Blog,

11 October 2008

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+Seven Principles of Knowledge

Management

Knowledge can only be volunteered it cannot be conscripted. *

We only know what we know when we need to know it. *

In the context of real need few people will withhold their knowledge.

Everything is fragmented.

Tolerated failure imprints learning better than success.

The way we know things is not the way we report we know things. *

We always know more than we can say, and we will always say more than we can write down. *

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+Collaboration / Knowledge

FlowHansen, Morten T., Collaboration (Boston: Harvard Business Press,

2009)

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+Why doesn’t the knowledge flow?

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Lazy

Mean

Competitive

Paranoid

http://cdn8.steveseay.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/hoarding-reasons.jpg

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The not-invented-

here barrier

Insular Culture

Communication mainly inside a group

Status Gap

Don’t want to cross status lines

Self-reliance

Should fix your own problems

Fear

Do not want to reveal problems

[Hansen, M.T., Collaboration, p.51]

People are unwilling to go outside their

own unit to seek input from others

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The hoarding barrier

Competition

Competition with colleagues and units

Narrow incentives

Rewarded for personal goals/accomplishments, not team goals/accomplishments

Too busy

No time to help others

Fear

Loss of power if sharing knowledge

[Hansen, M.T., Collaboration, p.54]

People are unwilling to help and share

what they know

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+

The search barrier

Company size

Big companies face search problems

Disparate technology

Different languages

Physical distance

Distance makes search difficult

Information overload

Too much information degrades search

Poverty of networks

Lack of links undermines search

People with better networks tend to find resources faster

[Hansen, M.T., Collaboration, p.57]

People who look for information and

people cannot easily find them

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+

The transfer barrier

Tacit knowledge

Difficult knowledge to transfer

No common frame

No shared language

No shared experience

Don’t know how to work together

Weak ties

No strong relations to ease transfer

[Hansen, M.T., Collaboration, p.61]

People are unable to transfer

knowledge easily from one place to

another

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+Knowledge Manager as

Change AgentBattilana, J. and Casciaro, T., `The Network Secrets of Change

Agents’, Harvard Business Review, July 2013 (Available at:

https://hbr.org/2013/07/the-network-secrets-of-great-change-agents)

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+The Network Secrets of Great

Change Agents

Change agents who were central in the organization’s

informal network had a clear advantage, regardless of their

position in the formal hierarchy.

People who bridged disconnected groups and individuals

were more effective at implementing dramatic reforms, while

those with cohesive networks were better at instituting minor

changes.

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http://www.animalleague.org/assets/images/feature-window/adopt-a-dog.jpg

+What’s your favorite KM framework?

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frame·work

ˈfrāmˌwərk/

noun

noun: framework; plural noun: frameworks

: the basic structure of something : a set of ideas or facts that provide support

for something; a conceptual structure

: a supporting structure : a structural frame

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/framework

+Sources

Battilana, J. and Casciaro, T., `The Network Secrets of Change Agents’, Harvard Business Review, July 2013 (Available at: https://hbr.org/2013/07/the-network-secrets-of-great-change-agents)

Hansen, Morten T., Collaboration (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2009)

Hislop, Donald, Knowledge Management in Organizations(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)

Snowden, Dave, `Rendering Knowledge’, Cognitive Edge Network Blog, 11 October 2008 (Available at: http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/entry/5576/rendering-knowledge)

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+Questions?

Further Discussion?

V. Mary Abraham

Above and Beyond KM

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https://twitter.com/VMaryAbraham

KMAdvice@gmail.com

www.linkedin.com/in/vmaryabraham