“The Rise of the Knowledge Librarian: Knowledge Sharing Strategies and Roles”

Art Murray, D.Sc.CEO

Applied Knowledge Sciences, Inc.amurray@aksciences.com

SLA 201014 June 2010

Ken Wheaton, MLISWeb Services Librarian

Alaska State Courts Law Librarykwheaton@courts.state.ak.us

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

Outline

• What we already know about special libraries but don’t want to admit

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

• What to do about it

• Yes, it really works!

• Your turn…

• Added bonus… jazz treat!

Outline

• What we already know about special libraries but don’t want to admit

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

• What to do about it

• Yes, it really works!

• Your turn…

• Added bonus… jazz treat!

Traditional Corporate Library

Industrial Age

Automobile Industry

Globalization

High Labor Costs

Quality Sacrificed to Cut Costs

Lost Opportunities

Businesses Close High Unemployment

Outline

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

• Your turn…

• Added bonus… jazz treat!

• What we already know about special libraries but don’t want to admit

• What to do about it

• Yes, it really works!

What To Do About It

Transformation In Three Easy Steps:

1. Know yourself

2. Know your organization (“who knows what”)

3. Apply “The Secret”

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

See: www.sla.org/io/2009/09/743.cfm

What To Do About It

Transformation In Three Easy Steps:

1. Know yourself

2. Know your organization (“who knows what”)

3. Apply “The Secret”

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

Begin Transformation Consulting with Human Resources Department

Self Assessment Tools

Learn About Each Other

Focus on People’s Strengths

Cultural Diversity

What To Do about It

Transformation In Three Easy Steps:

1. Know yourself

2. Know your organization (“who knows what”)

3. Apply “The Secret”

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

Leadership

Vision and Mission

Match Library’s Mission with Organization’s Mission

Model for the Organization

Information Needs Assessment

What To Do about It

Transformation In Three Easy Steps:

1. Know yourself

2. Know your organization (“who knows what”)

3. Apply “The Secret”

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

“The Secret”

• A picture is worth a thousand words

• A diagram is worth a thousand pictures

• A story is worth a thousand diagrams

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

Use the Organizational Chart to Understand Knowledge Flow

Mentoring

Storytelling ©Howard Terpning

Individual knowledge…

31

Is passed on to others…

32

And eventually spreads to the entire community…

33

A

B

C

“I havesomethingto share...”

“I wantto knowsomething...”

Connecting Knowledge Seekers and Sources

Shift focus from documents to knowledge

Current view (document-centric):

War stories

Out of sight

Critical knowledge is shared here

Folders and documentsForefront

Little, if any, critical knowledge

contained here e-mails and newsletters

Background

Knowledge begins to

emerge here

©2008 Applied Knowledge Sciences, Inc.

New view

(knowledge-centric):

Knowledge “nuggets”Forefront

Discussions begin here

Stories and lessons-learned

Background

are expanded here

Shifting the focus (continued)

Supporting data

Out of sight

and analyzed in-depth

here

©2008 Applied Knowledge Sciences, Inc.

Goals and Objectives

Alignment

Buy-In

Top Down Reporting

Problem Solving

Knowledge Gaps

Root Cause Analysis

Good Data

Value Stream Mapping

Visual Management

Visual Management

Shared Workspaces

50

Typical Workspaces - Physical

51

Typical Workspaces - Electronic

52

Typical Workspaces - Electronic

53

From Personal to Organizational Knowledge

My Desktop

My Stuff

My Junk

My Brilliance

My Jokes

My Resume

Personal Workspaces

Organizational Workspaces

Capabilities Processes, events

Communities of Practice

Communities of Interest

Best practices, broader issues, etc.)

Discussions begin here

Knowledge is developed and

vetted here

and published here

Alerts

SME LocatorDocument

Corpus

Search Tool

Project Management

Cross Functional Teams

Team Decisions

Learn from Failures

Knowledge Life Cycle

capture

Has the right knowledge been identified and captured so it can be reused and refined?

shareIs the right knowledge made available to those who need it, when they need it?

appl

y

Is the right knowledge being used consistently, in the right way?

©2009 Applied Knowledge Sciences, Inc.

Plan Execute

When Do People Need Access To Knowledge?

Review

Source: Greenes Consulting

Learn Before Doing

captureappl

y

share

Learn While Doing

captureappl

y

share

Learn After Doing

captureappl

y

share

Enabling Continuous Learning

Plan ReviewExecute

Learn Before Doing

Learn While Doing

Learn After Doing

Shared Lessons-Learned Portal/Workspace/Repositories

Shared Lessons-Learned Portal/Workspace/Repositories

Source: Greenes Consulting

Community (SME’s, peers, practitioners, etc.)Community (SME’s, peers, practitioners, etc.)

captureappl

y

share

captureappl

y

share

captureappl

y

share

Overcoming resistance…

“Resistance Is Futile”

© 2007 Applied Knowledge Sciences, Inc.

Why is everyone afraid to change?

Lack of knowledge!

Fear stifles innovation, and the primary cause of fear is …

©2009 Applied Knowledge Sciences, Inc.

Hides Problems

Deer in the Headlights Look

Hoarding

Disconnect

Departmental Silos

A Good Place To Start:

Instead of saying,“That’ll never work here”

©2008 Applied Knowledge Sciences, Inc.

Always say,“How can we make this work?”

Outline

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

• Yes, it really works!

• Your turn…

• Added bonus… jazz treat!

• What we already know about special libraries but don’t want to admit

• What to do about it

Training

Knowledge Flow

Innovation

Knowledge Capture and Increased Profits

Outline

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

• Yes, it really works!

• Your turn…

• Added bonus… jazz treat!

• What we already know about special libraries but don’t want to admit

• What to do about it

Outline

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

• Yes, it really works!

• Your turn…

• Added bonus… jazz treat!

• What we already know about special libraries but don’t want to admit

• What to do about it

In summary…

What is the Message?

• Business as usual won’t work

• Transform yourself from a librarian to a “knowledge broker” and ultimately a knowledge enabler

• Be obsessive about:

• Knowing yourself

• Knowing your organization

• Applying “The Secret”

©2010 Ken Wheaton and Art Murray

So, what’s it gonna be?

This?

Or this?

One final word…

Do try this at home!

“You create the future by what you do right now”