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What is the starting point of Managing Knowledge?

Is it knowing what you know; about what you do?

And that might not seem as obvious a statement as it appears, indeed wasn’t it HP (Hewlett Packard) that famously said “If only we knew, everything that we know!”

If we start at the lowest level - The process!

This is a genuine example, because I know one of the individuals who did this. He worked in a Franchised Main Agent Car Dealership as a mechanic. Now Franchised dealerships receive instructions directly from the manufacturer regarding how to undertake the repairs and service of the vehicles.

So if we look at an example of a process associated with one of their cars; it doesn’t really matter which model of car it is, and we’ll look at the process for changing a camshaft drive belt.

The mechanic is given 4 ¼ hrs to change the belt. The process says that you must disconnect the engine mounts from both sides of the engine, remove both the drive-shafts, and lift the engine clear of the engine bay to give enough room to change the cam-belt, and if you follow the process, and everything goes exactly how it should it actually takes…..have a guess……..4 ½ hrs.

Herein lays the problem, as the mechanics receive a bonus if they can get the job done in less than the manufacturers ‘recommended’ time, and as you can see from the example, by following the Manufacturers process, the ‘recommended’ time cannot be achieved.

So what happens?, the Knowledge Workers; and by this I mean everyone, because we all do it, it’s what we do best and innovate, look for alternative ways to do things, improve, and modify the way the job is done.

So, back to the example of changing the Camshaft Drive Belt. I know that my friend, and one of his colleagues, worked out that if you disconnect the engine mount and drive-shaft on the offside only, and then raised the engine slightly and supported it on a trolley-jack, pushed the engine forward so it was diagonally across the engine bay, there was just enough room to remove the front cover, remove the Camshaft Drive Belt, fit a new belt, retention the belt and refit the cover. Then with only one drive-shaft and one engine mount to re-attach the job was complete.

So the process had been modified and knowledge created. The result?, well the time taken to do the job using the new-found knowledge was 3 ¼ hrs and this meant that a bonus payment equivalent to 1 hr was given to the mechanic. So now, rather than trying to avoid the Camshaft Drive Belt jobs, they were treated as a desirable job. So here we have an efficiency created by the process user to make it easier to do their job, but by doing so it also provides them with a self generated reward.

Now this sort of thing happens a lot. From my Quality Audit days, I know that there are companies where the written process says you do A – B – C, but when you audit the process they are doing A – B – D, and when you ask the process user why they are not using the so-called official way of doing it, they reply “because it’s easier this way”, or “it saves time”, or the “so-called official way doesn’t work”.  So, again, there is an improvement in the process driven by the workers ‘Knowledge’.

Now I believe that there is a need to capture this knowledge and share it, so that everyone becomes more efficient, and the organisation becomes more efficient.

We can even introduce the argument about Tacit and Explicit Knowledge here.  If the Knowledge of the process stays in the head of the individuals, then it remains Tacit. If we can capture this Knowledge and modify the so-called way of doing it then the ‘Knowledge’ becomes explicit….is it of any less value, no I don’t think so, can it be shared, yes, has it been captured…..yes! However, if the so called ‘owner’ of the Knowledge leaves the organisation; for whatever reason; and there are many…..the Tacit Knowledge is lost.

So at its basic level and perhaps the starting point of managing Knowledge is finding out whether you are actually doing what you think you are doing, and maybe knowing what you know about what you do is the starting point of Knowledge Management.

Knowledge Management - Where Next?

I came across this post by Nick Milton; http://www.nickmilton.com/2010/09/importance-of-definitions-in-km.html, and as usual I find myself agreeing 100% with him. I am actually in the process of writing a short piece on this subject. I not only think there needs to be a clear definition, I would go as far as to say there needs to be a standard, it needs to be regulated, and it needs to be policed. It could then become a benchmark of business excellence to show that an organisation is thinking long term and protecting knowledge.

Knowledge Lost!

I posted this message on one of the Knowledge Pad groups on Facebook in June 2009, but it is still as valuable today, and should be viewed as a message to all organisations.

(In June 2009) I was Listening to the BBC1 News at 10.00pm and heard this quote from an LDV Worker who had just been made redundant "the Knowledge is going and it won't be coming back".

This echoes what I have been saying for years about Knowledge Management "By the time you realise that you need Knowledge Management, it is too late"

The History of Knowledge Sharing.

The Sharing of Knowledge is essential, and it is something that we all do naturally. Think about it you visit an area that you are not familiar with and need to find a particular place, what do we do?, we ask someone for directions and they tell us where to go, they are sharing their Knowledge of the local area. I have never had anyone say to me “I’m not going to tell you, it’s my local Knowledge!”

Knowledge sharing starts very early on in everyone’s life, from the moment we are born our parents pass on their knowledge, although it isn’t formally recognised as Knowledge Management.  They teach us talk, eat, walk, and it doesn’t stop there. Just think if they hadn’t told you things like, “Don’t touch that it’s hot!”, or “Don’t do that it will hurt!” Think about stinging nettles, did your parents ever say “Don’t touch them, they will sting you?” and it’s then up to you whether you use that knowledge, but at least it was available.

And what about “Don’t mess with that Wasp it will sting you”, or “Don’t put your fingers in that electricity socket”…..well actually my parents didn’t say that, they said “go on put your fingers in the socket!” (I’d better point out that was actually a joke before the Child Welfare people go after my parents).

Teachers in school, stand in front of us and pass on Knowledge, ok it may not be their Knowledge, but it is Knowledge that has been collected and deemed worthy of collection and being shared.

We are bombarded with Knowledge from every angle; David Attenborough tells you that the Anaconda lies in ambush and drops out of trees onto its prey, and that it is capable of eating small humans!  Try telling your seven year old son, or daughter, that Anacondas don’t frequent the local country park, and there is no need to check every tree before walking under it. Knowledge needs to be put into context, and in terms of business knowledge it needs to be relevant to the context of the business.  The mating habits of the three toed Sloth might be very interesting, but not of value to a company that manufactures low volume, self assembled sports cars.

However, if one of their customers has problems getting their car through the Local Testing and registration process, or has problems with assembly, then this is useful ‘Knowledge’ that can be used to drive future decisions and product improvements, etc.

Tribes in remote areas, such as the Amazon pass on Knowledge through dances, songs, Cave paintings, etc., showing representations of the knowledge, because they don’t have lap-tops, PDA’s or web based Intranet systems, however, they are practising Knowledge Management at its rawest level. And if they didn’t share this Knowledge, and some form of disaster occurs then their knowledge gets wiped out; and this has happened. 

At the turn of the 20^th Century there were dozens of tribes wiped out when western explorers introduce viruses, like the common cold, and these tribes had no immunity and their knowledge was destroyed.

Sharing Knowledge is about survival. If you think about it, we all have been practising this raw level of Knowledge Management since we were born. Wikipedia is the free Knowledge Management capability, and in principle is very good.  However, it lacks governance, and loses credibility as some of the “Knowledge” is speculative and based on opinion.  Wikipedia also has a totally different focus to what a business requires.

The means of capture and storage, whether it be IT based, paper based, writing on the walls, or singing and dancing, is secondary to the main issue and that is sharing the Knowledge.

Knowledge Test Sheets (Vers 2.3.) 12th August 2010

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Knowledge Test Sheets (Vers 2.3.) 12th August 2010

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