From Content to Context and from Collection to

Connection

A Workshop in Making KM EffectiveSLA 2008

dave.pollard@gmail.comhowtosavetheworld.ca

Workshop Outline1. Where KM is going: KM 2.0 vs KM 1.0

– presentation; group discussion2. What this means for the role of the IP

– presentation; group discussion3. The Value Propositions for KM

– group discussion & personal exercise4. Creating a KM Framework

– group discussion & personal exercise5. Getting Buy-In for the Framework

– group discussion & personal exercise6. Innovation: What’s Next in KM

– presentation; group discussion & personal exercise7. Overcoming the Obstacles

– group discussion

Executives’ View of KM

• It’s a cost centre, not a profit centre, so outsource it• It’s everyone’s job, so disintermediate it• We have the knowledge we need• We care about costs, risks, relationships, new high-margin

products, and don’t see how KM relates to any of these

Front Line’s View of KM

• I can’t find the information I need, even on my computer• I’d rather talk with someone than look something up, if I only

knew which person• I need an answer now; it doesn’t have to be perfect• Don’t give me a firehose of news and data; filter it and tell me

what it means and what I (and customers) should do about it

What KM 1.0 Was Supposed to Solve

“Let’s centralize this to reduce wasted conversations”

“Let’s put all the important stuff insidethe firewall on Intranets & groupware”

“Let’s put all the marketing stuff on our website”

The KM 1.0 Model

acquire

store

disseminateaddvalue

Know-whatCollectionContentJust in case

Librarians are good at this

The Verdict on KM 1.0(Davenport’s Study)

• Workers spend an average every day of 3 ¼ hours processing work-related information

• Half of that is e-mail (processing and sending 17 e-mails, receiving and processing 44 e-mails)

• A quarter of that is phone (making 15 calls, receiving 18 calls and 8 voice messages and participating in 1 teleconference)

• Much of the remainder is looking for information• Multiple, un-integrated tools, not effectively used, not well

supported• Most workers have poor search, poorer research skills• Work effectiveness tends to be proportional to time invested in,

and size of, networks• KM pilot experiments lack rigour

The Rise & Fall of KM 1.0Chasing the Hottest IT: Effects of Information Technology Fashion on OrganizationsPing Wang

Trying Again: KM 2.0KM 1.0: all about content and

collectionKM 2.0: all about context and

connection

content management, search and delivery platform

large centralized just-in-case content repositories of 'submitted' 'reusable' documents with standardized taxonomy and search tools

personal content management tools - everyone manages their own content, just-in-time, harvestable

content publishing, browsing and information flow

large complicated centrally-managed intranets for 'publishing' and 'browsing' content; main information flows are top-down instruction (policies, directories), bottom-up submission

RSS-publishable and subscribable personal web pages, blogs and small-group-created wikis; main information flows are what matters to each person, peer-to-peer

communities communities of practice - centrally established and managed, content-focused

communities of passion - self-managed and ad hoc, conversation-focused 

content format paradigm

"best practices' (stripped down) stories (detailed, context-rich); visualizations

public presence and

'marketing‘

public websites (boundaries established by firewall)

everything inside is open and shared outside unless it's illegal to do so (community of the whole world)

Trying Again: KM 2.0KM 1.0: all about content and

collectionKM 2.0: all about context and

connection

researchlicensed databases purchased

from outside info-professionals (disintermediation)

high-value, high-meaning RSS-subscribable content produced by internal info-professionals (reintermediation):

• awareness alerts (what's new?), • research (what does it mean?), • guidance (what should we do?)

connectivity enablers

e-mail • IM• virtual meeting tools (desktop

video, other simple ubiquitous real-time tools)

• organization and facilitation of real & virtual community-self-initiated self-managed events, including Open Space hosting & facilitation

• people-finding and community-creating tools

what's served up on the public website

what the company wants you to know: press releases, sales material

what the customer wants to know: multimedia interactive self-assessment tools

The KM 2.0 Model

synthesize

connect canvass

apply

Know-whoConnectionContextJust in time

But can Librarians/IPsdo this?

acquire

store

disseminateaddvalue

Know-whatCollectionContentJust in case

Discussion Questions

• Will KM 2.0 succeed where KM 1.0 failed?• Do we, the KM and IP people in our organizations, have what

it takes to be KM 2.0 leaders?

The Evolving Role of the IP• Personal Content Management: helping people find, organize,

publish, subscribe on their own desktop (and portable devices) (stories from E&Y and KPMG; the 3 top business blog apps)

• Identifying and enabling simple ad hoc self-managed P2P networks: communities of passion (a CICA story)

• Environmental scanning• Teaching, collecting, organizing, promoting stories (Snowden,

Denning etc.)• Just-in-time canvassing• Adding meaning and value to information (visualizations,

business-savvy research & analysis, strategy canvases)• Championing new, simple, real-time connectivity tools (two

MOH stories)• Risk management: The cost of not knowing• Dismantling the old infrastructure: Admission of failure

KM 2.0: Visualization

https://www.llnl.gov/

KM 2.0: Visualization

https://www.msu.edu/%7Ehowardp/organicindustry.html

KM 2.0: Just in Time

Who’s AvailableTo Answer My Question

Right Now?

www.google.com/talk/

KM 2.0: Simple Virtual Presence

Desktop VideoConferencing:Simple Virtual Presence

Real Time Anywhere 7/24Free

vyew.com

KM 2.0: The Cost of Not Knowing

Group Discussion

• Will this new KM 2.0 role be valued (appreciated) in your organization?

• What will you need to learn to fulfill this role, and how/where will you obtain that learning? Can you do it P2P?

Value Propositions for KM

• KM 1.0: Mostly Efficiency: cost savings, accelerated delivery, strengthened relationships, collaboration, innovation

• KM 2.0: Enabling trusted context-rich conversations, improved work effectiveness, awareness, insight, risk mitigation and adaptation

• Others to consider: improve decision-making, increase skills and capacities (learning VPs)

Why are we doing this? What is expected of us?

Group Discussion: What are the KM Value Propositions for your organization? Are they the right ones?

Personal Exercise: Identify the top 3 Value Propositions for your organization going forward.

The KM Framework(and why it’s important)

• To guide KM activities and provide context for KM projects• To explain the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of KM (over & over, consistently)• To frame elevator pitches

Value Propositions:• Why are we doing this?• What is expected?

KM Services & Products:• Content acquisition & provision• Research, knowledge transfer• Architecture, tools, spaces• Support & Training• etc.

Design & Development Principles• What guides what we do and how we do it?

Outcomes:• How do we measure success?

Customers:• Who are we doing this for?

Example of a KM Framework

Value Propositions: Why are we doing this? What is expected?1. Improve understanding of important &

emerging issues, risks, opportunities2. Improve connectivity, collaboration &

peer-to-peer knowledge transfer3. Improve effectiveness, quality, and

productivity of stakeholders’ work

Knowledge Services & Products:What do we offer?• Thought Leadership: Guidance & Research on:

• Business Performance Measurement & Reporting• Business Governance, Control & Attestation• Enterprise Management: Risk, Strategy, Capital, Value, IT, Knowledge, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Stakeholder Relations

• Awareness of Trends, Ideas, Risks & Emerging Issues• Facilitated Knowledge-Sharing Events• eKnowledge Products, Tools, Spaces & Connectivity Aids

Design & Development Principles What guides what we do and how we do it?1. There is an identified, unmet stakeholder need2. Leverage volunteers’ & members’ energies and knowledge3. Generate buzz / demonstrate innovation & thought leadership4. Focus on core competencies, not advocacy5. Balance of quality (peer review etc.) and timeliness6. Use new media to advantage

Outcomes:How do we measure success?• Customer needs assessment:

interviews, surveys, focus groups, customer anthropology Customers:

Who are we doing this for? Members and non-members acting as:• Business Executives & Entrepreneurs• Financial Executives• Business Advisors & Board Members• Financial Advisors• Investment Community• Students & Continuous Learners• Policy-Setters & Regulators• Professional Institutions• Public

Group Discussion

Group Discussion: 1. What are the key KM Principles, Offerings, Customers, and

Success Measures for your organization? 2. Are they aligned, and consistent with your KM Value

Propositions?3. Taken together, do they provide a useful framework for

setting objectives and priorities, assessing projects, and explaining KM to others in the organization?

Personal Exercise: 1. Sketch out the KM Framework for your organization.2. Draft an ‘Elevator Speech’ for investing more in an existing

or proposed KM project for your organization, that can be delivered within 1 minute (160 words).

Getting Buy-In for the Framework

• Group Discussion: What difficulties have you experienced or do you foresee in ‘selling’ investment in KM (people, resources, technology, training etc.) to decision-makers (executives) and potential blockers (IT security people)? How might have these difficulties be (or have been) overcome?

• Personal Exercise: Working one-on-one with another participant, recite your Elevator Speech. Critique the Elevator Speech (constructively) of the other participant.

Innovation: What’s Next in KM

Caveat: Social Networking tools that haven’t caught on:• Blogs and wikis have not received wide use in business• LinkedIn and similar friend-of-a-friend tools suffer from data

quality problems• Facebook is a hard sell, and needle in a haystack• Social Network Mapping was fun, but in most organizations

hasn’t told users much they didn’t already know (and sometimes told them things that were untrue)

Google Desktop (and similar tools), IM and Desktop Video have caught on:

And here are 11 new and interesting things that might catch on…

Blogs as Courseware

http://newmediaocw.wordpress.com/

Cultural Anthropology

• Observe and record behaviour of workers and/or customers, then ask questions

• Look for what doesn’t work, that they have found workarounds for• Look for what doesn’t work, that they no longer notice (or never did)• Help them use products, knowledge and technology more effectively• Report back systemic problems• Note and report problems with competitors’ products (when

observing customers)

Simulations & Scenarios

http://www.openthefuture.com/2008/05/simfutures.html

Proximity Locators

dodgeball.com

Affinity Detectors

ntag.com

Online Presentations

slideshare.net/DavePollard/

Online Doc Sharing

http://docs.google.com/

Mind Mapping

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/

GPS/GoogleMaps Mashups

http://healthmap.org/en

Open Space Technology

openspaceworld.org

Virtual World Collaboration

Group Discussion

• Group Discussion: Which of these KM Innovations have you tried, how did you use them, and how well did they work? What other innovative tools or methods have you used?

• Personal Exercise: Identify three KM Innovations that you would be most interested in exploring in your organization.

Overcoming Obstacles

• Group Discussion:– What problems have you encountered in trying to introduce KM

programs, projects or tools into your organization?

dave.pollard@gmail.comhowtosavetheworld.ca