Seeking information is a vital human activity that contributes to learning, problem solving, and decision making. To best locate knowledge management initiatives, organizations should foster strategic inquiry with powerful questions.

1. The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian
Development Bank, or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included
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Managing Knowledge: What,
How, When, Where, and Who
Follow Why
Olivier Serrat
2014

2. Quid Knowledge Management?
In context and framed by values,
knowledge is in our minds a fluid mix
of data, information, and experience,
enriched by expert insight, that aids
decision making. In organizations, it is
embedded not just in documents and
repositories but also in norms,
practices, processes, and routines.
Hence, in that environment, the
immediate purpose of knowledge
management is to provide support for
improved decision making; similarly,
its higher objective is to advance
organizational performance.

3. A Problem Well Stated
A problem well stated is half-
solved. Therefore, before we
devise knowledge services and
offer knowledge solutions, we
should make sure they are
connected to mission and
operations: knowledge
management is a means to an
end—that being a more
effective and efficient, "fit for
purpose", organization.

4. Asking Effective Questions
Seeking information is a vital human activity that contributes
to learning, problem solving, and decision making. For this
reason, questioning is a vital tool of human thought and social
interaction with which to open doors to data, information,
knowledge, and wisdom. Powerful questions, typically
beginning with why, what, and how, encompass more people,
more resources, more volume, more time, and more concerns
than those beginning with when, where, and who. (Which is
another low-power question.) Where knowledge management
initiatives fall short, the reason lies in confusion over means
and ends, in other words, failure to ask effective questions
from the onset.

5. The Architecture of a Question
Why
What, How
When, Where, Who
Yes or No Questions
High
Power
Low
Power

6. Fostering Strategic Inquiry
• A question that asks "why" calls for an explanation.
• A question that asks "what" invites a description.
• A question that asks "how" requests an instruction
or procedure.
• A question that asks "when" inquires about time or
duration.
• A question that asks "where" looks for a location.
• A question that asks "who" solicits identification.
To catalyze insight, innovation, and action for knowledge
management, organizations should use effective questions
to (i) assess the current situation, (ii) discover the big
questions, (iii) create images of possibilities, and (iv) evolve
workable strategies.

7. Questions to Focus Collective
Attention on a Situation
What question, if answered, could make the most difference to the future of
our specific situation?
What is important to us about our specific situation and why do we care?
What draws us to this inquiry?
What is our intention here? What is the deeper purpose (the big "why") that
is really worthy of our best effort?
What opportunities can we see in our specific situation?
What do we know so far or still need to learn about our specific situation?
What are the dilemmas and opportunities in our specific situation?
What assumptions do we need to test or challenge in thinking about our
specific situation?
What would someone who had a very different set of beliefs than ours say
about our specific situation?

8. Questions to Connect Ideas and Find
Deeper Insight
What is taking shape? What are we hearing underneath the variety of
opinions being expressed? What is in the center of the table?
What is emerging here for us? What new connections are we making?
What has real meaning for us from what we have heard? What has surprised
us? What has challenged us?
What is missing from this picture so far? What is it that we are not seeing?
What do we need more clarity about?
What has been our major learning, insight, or discovery so far?
What is the next level of thinking we need to progress to?
If there were one thing that has not yet been said to reach a higher level of
understanding and clarity, what would that be?

9. Questions to Create Forward
Movement
What would it take to create change in our specific situation?
What could happen that would enable us to feel fully engaged and energized
about our specific situation?
What is possible here and who cares? (Rather than "What is wrong here and
who is responsible?")
What needs our immediate attention to move forward?
If our success were completely guaranteed, what bold steps might we choose
to take?
How can we support one another in taking bold steps? What unique
contribution can we each make?
What challenges might come our way and how might we meet them?
What conversation, if begun today, could ripple out in a way that creates new
possibilities for the future of our specific situation?
What seed might we plant together today that could make the most
difference to the future of our specific situation?

10. The Why of Knowledge Management
Diverse motives can drive knowledge management
initiatives. Most frequently, they aim to:
• Achieve shorter product (or service) development cycles.
• Boost internal and external network connectivity.
• Harness intellectual capital.
• Increase knowledge content in the development and
provision of products and services.
• Leverage the expertise of people across the organization.
• Manage business environments so staff can access insights
that are appropriate to their work.
• Promote creativity, innovation, and organizational learning.
• Solve intractable problems.

11. The What of Knowledge Management
A business model is the core
design, the logic, that enables
an organization to capture,
create, and deliver value to
meet explicit or latent needs
(and in so doing derive some
form of profit). Most business
models pay attention to five
interrelated elements: (i)
markets, (ii) products and
services, (iii) processes, (iv)
people, and (v) economics.
One popular typology
identifies nine elements.
Customer Segments
Value Propositions
Channels
Customer Relationships
Revenue Streams
Key Resources
Key Activities
Key Partnerships
Cost Structures

12. The What of Knowledge Management
If an organization's business
model is the theory of its
business, targets for
knowledge management
initiatives can be identified in
light of the organizational
configuration and the norms,
practices, processes, and
routines that draw from it.
Business Structure
Organization
Supply Chain
Products and Services
Customer Service
Customer Experience
Administration

13. The How of Knowledge Management
In step with the motives that drive knowledge
management initiatives, the perspectives that
conduce them are:
• Technocentric, with a focus on how
information and communication technology
can enhance knowledge generation and
sharing.
• Organizational, with a focus on how an
organization can be designed to better
facilitate knowledge processes.
• Ecological, with a focus on how to foster the
dynamic evolution of knowledge interactions
between entities.

14. The How of Knowledge Management
• Business activities—to advance key elements of the
business model.
• Communities—to empower knowledge-based
communities and networks of practice operating within
and across organizational units.
• Content management—to operate and improve the
processes and technologies that support information
databases.
• Intellectual capital—to manage the human, relational,
and structural components of organizations.
• Knowledge benchmarking—to gauge knowledge
management capabilities and practices against
international good practice and raise performance.
The motives that drive knowledge management initiatives
are reflected in 10 main areas of activity:

15. The How of Knowledge Management
Cont'd
• Knowledge capture—to identify and harvest explicit and tacit
knowledge.
• Knowledge culture—to embed a knowledge management ethos
and knowledge behaviors into working practices.
• Knowledge partnerships—to contribute knowledge, experience,
resources, and connections, and participate in two-way
communications with key clients, audiences, and partners.
• Knowledge retention—to safeguard knowledge, especially before
staff leave and during periods of organizational change.
• Knowledge transfer—to convey knowledge, especially good
practice, among and between its various sources and forms.

16. The How of Knowledge Management
To note,
approaches
in the 10
main areas of
activity are
increasingly
modulated
by:
• Adaptive management, inspired by the
ideal of the learning organization
• Adoption of a wide variety of
modalities that govern rather than
manage
• Attention to social networks
• Convergence
• Open content, with possibilities to
reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute
• Stronger emphasis on influence, not
knowledge per se
• Transition from storage and retrieval of
information to active engagement with
knowledge seekers

17. The When, Where, and Who of
Knowledge Management
By fostering strategic inquiry into why,
organizations can focus collective attention
on a situation, connect ideas and find
deeper insight, and create forward
movement to deliver the what and how of
knowledge management initiatives. The
when, where, and who flow from these
high-power questions, with the important
caveat that the span of knowledge
coordination should be as close as possible
to relevant knowledge domains.
Distributing leadership is a key success
factor in managing knowledge, be that
with reference to well-structured, ill-
structured, or wicked problem solving.

18. Success Factors in Knowledge
Management
To sum up, powerful questions will best locate knowledge
management initiatives across an organization's business
model and satisfy eight common success factors:
• The motives that drive knowledge management are clear.
• A rationale for knowledge management initiatives is stated.
• Initiatives are connected to both mission and operations.
• Knowledge mobilization is planned for sustainability.
• Objectives are set at the right level.
• Work is conducted from combined technocentric,
organizational, and ecological perspectives.
• Roles, functions, and responsibilities are defined.
• Progress is sped by experimentation.

19. Beyond Strategy to Purpose
In the high-growth environment that followed the Second
World War, senior Management looked to strategy, structure,
and systems for much-needed discipline, focus, and control.
Today's globalized economy is different: technological,
competitive, and market changes, fronting overcapacity, are
the norm in most businesses. In response, large organizations
aim for softer, more organic models built on the development
of purpose, process, and people, reflected in the eight success
factors in knowledge management.

20. Beyond Strategy to Purpose
The New Model
• Purpose
• Processes
• People
The Old Model
• Strategy
• Structure
• Systems

21. Further Reading
• ADB. 2008. Notions of Knowledge Management. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/notions-knowledge-management
• ——. 2009. The Roots of an Emerging Discipline. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/roots-emerging-discipline
• ——. 2009. Asking Effective Questions. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/asking-effective-questions
• ——. 2009. Enhancing Knowledge Management Strategies.
Manila. www.adb.org/publications/enhancing-knowledge-
management-strategies

22. Further Reading
• ADB. 2010. Crafting a Knowledge Management Results
Framework. Manila. www.adb.org/publications/crafting-
knowledge-management-results-framework
• ——. 2010. Enriching Knowledge Management Coordination.
Manila. www.adb.org/publications/enriching-knowledge-
management-coordination
• ——. 2012. Business Model Innovation. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/business-model-innovation

23. Videos
• ADB. 2011. Building a Knowledge-Centric Organization:
Organization, People, Knowledge, and Technology for
Learning. Manila. vimeo.com/72471320
• ——. 2012. Harvesting Knowledge. Manila.
vimeo.com/67185512
• ——. 2012. Showcasing Knowledge. Manila.
vimeo.com/67185514
• ——. 2013. Managing Knowledge in Project Environments.
Manila. vimeo.com/77666878
• ——. 2013. The Empowerment of ADB-Hosted Communities of
Practice. Manila. vimeo.com/77752558

24. Videos
• ADB. 2013. Integrating Knowledge Management in Annual
Performance Reviews. Manila. vimeo.com/77754032
• ——. 2013. Integrated Knowledge Solutions. Manila.
vimeo.com/78128751
• ——. 2013. ADB's Progress in Using Knowledge. Manila.
vimeo.com/78129747

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