David Bennet's talk at Knowledge Management Middle East 2013

1. The Role of Knowledge Sharing
in Decision-Making and
Implementation
Dr. David Bennet
Mountain Quest Institute
david@mountainquestinstitute.com
What is knowledge and
why is it critical to our success?
Hypothesis: The Performance of your
organization every day depends
completely upon what every individual in
your organization does that day--Actions.
So, what determines what they do that day?
Do they want to do what is best for the Organization?
Do they know what is best for the Organization?
Are they empowered to do what is best?
Do they know what to do that is best for the
Organization?
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2. Basic Concepts
Information is: any non-random pattern.
Knowledge is:
…the human capacity (potential & actual ability)
to take effective action in varied and uncertain
situations.
Knowledge tells us:
What actions to take
How to implement those actions
The Knowledge Cycle
Social
Interaction Create Morale
Ideas
Make Take
Experience Learning Knowledge Decisions Performance
Action
Solve
Thinking Problems
Empowered
Feedback
Learning = The creation of knowledge!
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3. What goes into the creation of
knowledge?
Processes that support knowledge creation:
Awareness
Understanding
Meaning
Insight
Intuition
Creativity
Judgment
Anticipating the results of your actions
Intuition
Intuition is the sense of knowing coming
from inside that influences decisions/
actions.
Patterns in the unconscious developed through
experience, contemplation, and unconscious
processing.
Becomes a natural part of our being.
Continuous learning through experience.
“The mysterious mechanism by which we arrive at the solution of a
problem without reasoning toward it” (Damasio, 1994)
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4. The Systems Space
Levels of Knowledge
Information Surface knowledge
Complicated Shallow knowledge
Complex Deep knowledge
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5. Characterization of Organizational Needs
ORG LEVELS PROBLEMS ORG DECISIONS SOLUTION SOURCES
ONTOLOGICAL Purpose Higher
Mission Authority
Values Leadership
Complex Leadership
CRITICALITY OF DECISIONS
STRATEGIC DEEP Management
Situations
Decisions
Complicated Management
OPERATIONAL SHALLOW Supervisory
Situations
Decisions
Simple Routine
SURFACE
TACTICAL Situations Decisions
NUMBER OF DECISIONS
Routine decisions made in organizations are at the
surface level. Decisions requiring deep knowledge
are fewer, and tend to be more critical.
Decision-Making in a MECHANISMS FOR
Complex Environment UNDERSTANDING
Observation
Analysis
Reasoning
A Critical thinking B
Intuition
Lucid dreaming
Synthesis
Dialogue
Effortful
COMPLEX ADAPTIVE reflection EMERGENT IDENTITY
MESS
New
Boundaries INFLUENCE behaviors
People New ontology
Networks New structure
Events, trends AS A FUNCTION OF TIME
New
Culture leadership
MECHANISMS
Structure FOR INFLUENCE New culture
Emergence Ontology
Feedback loops Tipping points Boundary
Nonlinearities Power laws management
Surprise prone
Time delays Auto catalysis Absorption
Multiple
Butterfly effects Correlations Optimum Unknown but can
connections
Relationships Unpredictable complexity be characterized
Trends & patterns Simplification similarly
Events & Sense and
processes respond
Sinks & sources Amplification
Seeding
Key success
CURRENT LANDSCAPE factors FUTURE LANDSCAPE
The decision strategy is a sequence of actions to move
the situation from A toward B.
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6. Sharing Knowledge
Sharing information is easy—talk and listen.
Sharing knowledge is much harder--?
You may be sharing feelings, hunches, and past
experiences
You may be explaining an insight you have
You may have to explain a judgment call
You may not know how or why you know what you
know about the situation
Mind/Brain Support for the
Sharing of Knowledge
Over the course of evolution physical
mechanisms have developed to enable us to
learn through social interactions.
The brain actually needs to seek out an
affectively attuned other for learning.
People are in continuous, two-way interaction
with those around them, and the brain is
continuously changing in response.
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7. Sharing Knowledge
Occurs both consciously and unconsciously
Not necessary to make knowledge explicit in
order to share it!
Example: Mentoring and shadowing (through
imitation and mimicry)
Mirror Neurons
Group learning
– Where communities/teams engage in dialogue and,
over time, develop a common frame of reference,
language and understanding
Knowledge Sharing: Key Factors
Trust Social Bonding
Respect Listening
Honesty Affective
Open Mind Attunement
Dialogue Empathic
Interaction
Good Holding
Environment
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8. ACTIVE
EXPERIMENTATION
(ACTION)
Premotor
and Sensory
motor and
CONCRETE
postsensory
Frontal
ABSTRACT EXPERIENCE
Integrative
CONCEPTUALIZATION cortex
(APPREHENSION)
(COMPREHENSION)
al x
or rte
mp co
Te tive
ra
integ
REFLECTIVE
OBSERVATION
(REFLECTION)
The learning cycle arises naturally from the
structure of the brain.
Sensing
CONCRETE
Feeling
EXPERIENCE
Awareness
(Senses; Reliance on
Attention direct information
from the world)
Intuition
A Physical mechanisms have
developed in our brain to Understanding
enable us to learn through
social interactions. Meaning REFLECTIVE
OBSERVATION
Truth/How things work
B Physical and mental exercise Intuition
(What happens
during reflection)
and social bonding are
significant sources of Integrate/Look for unity
Neuroscience Kolb/Zull Model
Finding Area (8) stimulation of the brain. of Experiential
SOCIAL Concepts, ideas, logic
Learning (Kolb,
1984; Zull, 2002)
INTERACTION C Social interaction mechanisms Problem solving
foster the engagement in ABSTRACT
affective attunement, consider Creativity
CONCEPTUALIZATION
the intentions of others,
Build models and theories
understand what another (Creation and use of
person is thinking and think Anticipation representative ideas,
about how we want to interact. concepts, patterns,
Control, rigor, discipline pictures)
Act on environment
Focus attention ACTIVE
EXPERIMENTATION
Object-based logic
(Action; Testing of
Heightened boundary abstractions)
perception
Sensory feedback to brain
SUBITEMS SUBELEMENTS
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9. Sensing
Feeling CONCRETE
EXPERIENCE
Awareness
(Senses; Reliance on
Attention direct information from
the world)
A Language and social Intuition
relationships build and shape
the brain.
Understanding
B Adults developing complex Meaning REFLECTIVE
neural patterns need emotional OBSERVATION
support to offset discomfort of Truth/How things work
Neuroscience
Finding Area (9) this process. Intuition
(What happens during
reflection)
SOCIAL Integrate/Look for unity
SUPPORT C Affective attunement Kolb/Zull Model
of Experiential
contributes to the evolution Learning
and sculpting of the brain. Concepts, ideas, logic (Kolb, 1984; Zull, 2002)
Problem solving
D The brain actually needs to ABSTRACT
Creativity
seek out an affectively attuned CONCEPTUALIZATION
other for maximum learning. Build models and theories
(Creation and use of
Anticipation representative ideas, concepts,
patterns, pictures)
Control, rigor, discipline
Act on environment
Focus attention ACTIVE
EXPERIMENTATION
Object-based logic
(Action; Testing of
Heightened boundary abstractions)
perception
Sensory feedback to brain
SUBITEMS SUBELEMENTS
Knowledge creates the path and moves us into the future.
KNOWLEDGE
OF WHY
KNOWLEDGE OF
The
WHAT AND WHERE Knowledge
Journey
KNOWLEDGE OF
HOW
KNOWLEDGE
SHARING
KNOWLEDGE
SHARING
X
KNOWLEDGE
SHARING
Knowledge Sharing provides an accurate map.
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10. Further Reading
Bennet, A. and D. Bennet. “Leaders, Decisions, and the Neuro-Knowledge
System” in Wallis, S., Cybernetics and Systems Theory in Management:
Tools, Views and Advancements, IGI Global, Hershey, PA, 2010.
Bennet, A. and D. Bennet. “The Decision-Making Process for Complex
Situations in a Complex Environment” in Handbook on Decision Support
Systems 1: Basic Themes, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2008.
Bennet, A. and D. Bennet. Organizational Survival in the New World: The
Intelligent Complex Adaptive System (A New Theory of the Firm). Elsevier,
Boston, MA, 2004.
Bennet, D. and A. Bennet. “The Depth of Knowledge: Surface, Shallow or
Deep?” in VINE: The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management
Systems, Vol. 38, No. 4, 2008.
Bennet, D. and A. Bennet. “Engaging Tacit Knowledge in Support of
Organizational Learning” in VINE: The Journal of Information and
Knowledge Management Systems, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2008.
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