Presentation to Fort Leavenworth Army Operational Knowledge Management Qualification Course (AOKMQC)

on5 May 2011

Presentation slides courtesy of R.A. Dalton, CKMP, Master Facilitator, Author of the Ebook "Knowledge Transfer for the Military Leader"

The background graphic used in this presentation may not be used in other presentations.

My mission as a Knowledge Manager is to connect people to

allow them to resolve their problems and improve their

performance.

As a Knowledge Manager the only direct power I have is the ability to persuade and influence people in

order to affect outcomes.

I will accomplish my mission by primarily utilizing Knowledge

Transfer techniques and methodologies.

The two primary strategies currently in use among military KM Professionals

• Techno-Centric Strategy: Relies almost solely on highly centralized technology controlled and driven by the HQ as the primary method of knowledge transfer within the command. Currently the majority of military Knowledge Management professionals use this approach as it is easier to execute, is more visible to leadership and controllable by them, and there are less “human problems” to deal with.

• Human-Centric Strategy: Relies primarily on empowering organizational leaders and improving human-to-human knowledge transfer at all unit levels with technology purely in a supporting role as needed. More difficult to execute as it requires a good knowledge of human psychology and motivation but has a much better payoff at all levels when done correctly.

While technology will be an important enabler, Knowledge

Management is first and foremost a human centric field. Lose sight of

this and you will fail!

The goal of military knowledge transfer is very simple

Find those that have military experience and knowledge of value and transfer it as rapidly and easily

as possible to those who need it.

Knowledge is a highly individual commodity having an extremely short shelf life, especially in war

time.

In the online environment we deal with individual Soldiers, not units. In the online

environment Soldiers want and expect to deal directly with other Soldiers just as they do in the

physical world they face every day. Senior leaders tend to talk units. Military knowledge

transfer must primarily talk Soldiers.

The validation issue:Who validates Soldier generated informal

knowledge to ensure its correct?

Answer:The profession does, and this has

almost always been the case either online or in person.

Falling into the traps

• Don’t focus the majority of your efforts on your commander or the staff!

• Avoid the urge to control!• Don’t over-rely on technology to

execute KM within your organization

Socialization and social learning

• Unstructured socialization

• Structured socialization

On the battlefieldand in the classroom

• Tactical debriefings.

• In the classroom or in training.

Major KnowledgeTransfer Impediments

• Knowledge Transfer Impediment #1 - What’s in it for me? (WIIFM)

• Knowledge Transfer Impediment #2 - Military security

• Knowledge Transfer Impediment #3 – Perceived erosion of traditional authority and control

• Knowledge Transfer Impediment #4 - Lack of middle to senior level leader buy-in

• Knowledge Transfer Impediment #5 - Lack of trust

• Knowledge Transfer Impediment #6 – Culture

Level of trust I have in the other individual

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Level of Trust Versus Willingness to Share

Knowledge and Experience Shared

Three Knowledge Transfer Technologies which we know work

• Communities of Practice

• Wikis

• Games

Missed Opportunities

• Harnessing Retirees

• Analyzing excellence.

• Exploiting ARFORGEN

Let’s now talk about your tasks as a knowledge manager

KM Section Task #1

To work with leadership to build a casual knowledge sharing environment and culture throughout the organization.

KM Section Task #2

To improve situational awareness throughout the organization.

KM Section Task #3

To train our leaders on knowledge sharing and transfer techniques they can use with

their Soldiers.

KM Section Task #4

To train and promote the use of online collaborative publishing throughout the

organization.

KM Section Task #5

To train and promote the use of military gaming for knowledge transfer.

KM Section Task #6

To train and promote the use of communities of practice and professional

forums.

KM Section Task #7

To analyze excellence, when it is recognized through organizational award

programs, and allow others to benefit from lessons learned from those who were

recognized.

KM Section Task #8

To transform the traditional training process through the integration of social

learning techniques when and where appropriate.

KM Section Task #9

Integrate structured socialization into the fabric of our organization in order to build

trust and increase communications between our organizational personnel.

KM Section Task #10

Provide easy to use global online reach-forward and reach-back capabilities to access in near real time knowledge and

experience 24/7 to our leaders and Soldiers when needed and where needed.

KM Section Task #11

Eliminate organizational continuity breaks caused through loss or turn over of

personnel.

KM Section Task #12

Decrease the use of email internally throughout the organization when and

where practical.

KM Section Task #13

Work with organizational security personnel to minimize security policy

impact on knowledge transfer.

KM Section Task #14

Identify new knowledge and experience of value to our organizational lessons learned

section for further exploitation.

KM Section Task #15

Shorten the learning curve for new organization personnel by providing immediate online access to relevant,

knowledgeable and experienced subject matter experts and mentors.

KM Section Task #16

Decrease negative outcomes for first time real world contact experiences for our

personnel.

KM Section Task #17

Set up and operate an organization wide program that utilizes and exploits retiree knowledge and experience to the benefit of our organizational Soldiers and leaders.

KM Section Task #18

Work closely with our organizational IT section to ensure availability to our

personnel of state-of-the-art knowledge transfer software tools.

A practical social learning andknowledge transfer exercise

• Break down into small groups based on the group number chit you selected earlier.• Each person in your group tells his/her story of the most significant professional or

job based experience that occurred in their last assignment and what they learned from it. This story must come from the paper which you prepared prior to arrival at the course as part of course requirements.

• At the end of the story the rest of the group members may ask questions of the story teller.

• Number chits marked with a green highlighter “X” start first in their group. Go clockwise from there until all members of the group have had a chance to tell their story.

• Your group has 40 minutes to complete this exercise.• At the completion of the exercise each person will turn in their papers to the

course leader and you must also post your story from the paper as a discussion thread in a military community of practice which serves your profession, branch or job function in order to share what you have learned with your peers.