SOMETHING TO SHARE ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

I have been one of the implementers of knowledge management (KM) in my organisation. We have the system up and running and put the change management in place. We had also formally launched the system sometime in June this year. Apar from that, I sometimes give presentations on KM to other organisations. Interestingly, I am also part of the project team who is implementing KM in the Malaysian Government as a pilot project in 2 ministries and 1 central agency. Another 1 central agency is queueing to particpate in this pilot project, making it 2 central agencies piloting this.

But, what is interesting to note is that as an organisation that claims to be the advocate of KM, we sure don't practise what we preach to the fullest. We told our KM clients that leadership is important. That the top management buy-in and support are crucial in the success of the KM implementation in their organisation. We have also been stressing to the clients that there should be a proper KM governance in place. There should be a dedicated internal team managing the implementation and change management to ensure the success of their KM initiative. Let's not start with changing the working culture, putting the right process, etc. ect. etc. And of course, a whole lot of other things as well... All in the name of successful implementation of KM.

But preaching is easier than practising... In reality, what happens in my organisation is that... YES there is huge top management buy-in, but very little support in terms of putting the proper KM governance in place. There is no full time KM Manager being hired. There are no clear and defined roles and responsibilities of those who are supposed to be the implementers of KM in the organisation. The KM KPIs are in place, but they are not properly measured in terms of ensuring that knowledge sharing, application and dissemination are taking place effectively. In short, the implementer team was pulled out of the project before we could see and measure the success of the implementation in our own organisation. Yet, we preach KM so vigirously to our clients on so many things...

Another interesting thing to note and observe is the project team that is implementing KM in the Government. You would think that these people would be the experts and be the SMEs on KM since we have our own KM implemented and since we are the KM consultants to these organisations. They are so confident when presenting their KM cases to our clients starting from the KM Strategic Blueprint, KM system and now the change management to ensure the success of the KM initiative in the respective ministry/agency. But the truth is... these people DON'T EVEN WALK THE TALK. They don't share at all... There are no knowledge sharing sessions take place, there are no documents being passed around to avoid the team members from re-inventing the wheels. There are no lessons learnt being initiated and shared to ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated. Everyone is working in silos. I don't even know what the other team members are doing in the other ministry/agency. These people don't even access to our own company's knowledge management system.

And we call ourselves the experts and the advocates of KM...

ieja

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

I am in Avillion, Port Dickson doing a workshop on knowledge management. My team and I arrived yesterday afternoon, and we're going to stay till tomorrow. I've mentioned knowledge management a lot in my previous entries and we are now developing a blueprint for an oganisation. The workhop is to present their current state - KM maturity level, as well as to get a consensus on their KM processes, KM governance structure and finally the strategic initiatives that need to be undertaken to ensure the KM journey is a successful one.

Today, I actually learn a lot of things. Things that we face every day but are not being recorded. I would like to record that for I am now an advocate of knowledge sharing ;)

I always believe that change is something that is very hard to do. I am not excluded. Once I am comfortable with a way of doing things, it's very hard for me to try a new way - regardless whether the new way is a lot easier than my old one. I learned today that when we face changes we first would deny them. We close our eyes to their benefits. Then we resist the changes. Without having any choice, we then explore the changes and discover the benefits they offer. The final stage of it is commitment - where we actually can't perform well if the new way of doing things is not part of our daily routine. A simple example, mobile phone - 10 years ago i didn't even have one. Today, I can't live without one. But how did I manage back then? How life is a lot easier by having one today!

Coming back to change management in knowledge management, the denial and resistance in the organisation that I'm dealing with are still very high, but of course not every one feels that way. There is still quite a number of people in this workshop who actually look forward to the KM system that we proposed. Those who resist are the ones who fear that it's going to burden them. they fail to see its benefits. They fail to realise that you have to put extra effort in the first phase of the project first to gain the benefits later. Well, I guess that is the first rule of having good things - pain first, then gain.

What I'm trying to say here is that in every initiative, every project, even in our every day life, change is constant. How we manage the change and how we culturalise and institutionalise the change would determine the success of the initiave, project or our quality of life. If you see the benefits of the change, why resist? Just live with it and manage it well. Once it is institutionalised in you, your transformation would be the best thing that happens to you.

ieja

Intellectual Capital

The title itself can be misleading. I'm not talking about something intellectual actually, just my thoughts on the sharing of our knowledge. On Friday (13/06/08), I had a very good discussion session with an intellect of my office. A 'doc' indeed. The group talked about intellectual capital or asset of an organisation. This particularly refers to tacit knowledge. My god... what the heck is tacit knowledge... hehehee.. why does my topic sound so intellectual all of a sudden.

To my understanding, our experience and knowledge that we gathered in our everyday lives are our tacit knowledge. We use this knowledge to make some important decisions in our lives, like when we agreed to marry someone. You may have had so many boyfriends before, but what made you decide to marry that particular someone. In the process of making that important decision, you have actually used your knowledge about him (of course making comparison between him and your other boyfriends is unavoidable) and your experience being with him for so many years. You actually derived that you can live with that special someone till eternity and beyond after you have calculated all the possibilities and teh what-would-have-beens. Well... that's a simply way of giving a meaning to a very intellectual word.

But what is interesting is that if capturing, storing, sharing and using knowledge is very important in an organisation (and in our personal lives for that matter!), why oh why our government didn't see that. Or... they may have seen how important that is, but being public servants, they are just too lazy to explore. Or... the initiative has been put forward, but there was no one to champion it... or, whatever..!!

Just imagine if our civil servants were highly effective people... we could become the most effective government in the world. And a lot of this sharing and using of knowledge would actually make them self-improved people. when I talk about civil servants, I really mean those from the top management to the lowest grade of staff. I believe that leadership by example really applies here.

And yes, when I talk about capturing, storing, sharing and using knowledge, I do make direct reference to the knowledge management.

ieja

KNOWLEDGE-BASED SOCIETY

This is my second blog for May. I know I've missed 2 weeks of blogging and I haven't been true to my words - to blog very week. But truth to be told, it isn't because of lack of time, or because I was deprived of any Internet Connection. I was simply being myself... putting things off until the last minute!

May has been a very rewarding month for me... in terms of career advancement as well as in terms of new knowledge acquisition. I think I've learned a lot these 3-4 weeks than I had been in the last 2 years. When I say learning, I mean in all aspects of consulting work as well as in my personal life.

First of all, I'm now involved in the development of a blueprint for Knowledge Management (KM). Take a wild guess who that is for... hehehhee... To my surprise, this whole KM thingy was actually highlighted by our beloved Tun M. (and guess in which year..) in 1991. WOW!!! How long ago was that...?? In 2001 (if I'm not mistaken), a govt. agency (which naming of it is unnecessary) came out with what they called "Knowledge-Based Economy Master Plan". The heading itself can send shivers down your spine. And in that so-called Master Plan, there is a specific chapter (Chapter 8 - Fast Forwarding the Public Sector into the K-Based Civil Service) - one whole bloody chapter dedicated to the public sector. And in that so-called Master Plan, it is also stated that our public sector should achieve K-Based Civil Service in (take a wild guess again...) YEAR 2005!!!

And here we are... (my team and I actually) just starting to develop the blueprint... so what does that tell you..?? When all the top guns on their leather seats are preaching about KM, the arms and legs are now scurrying about doing god knows what to make this happen. I just hope that this "initiative" won't be like other gov. project implementations where THEY DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW HOW TO ASSESS THE ROIs...

ieja