Presentation delivered at ASTD's International Conference on Knowpedge Performance. Unlike traditional approached to KM, Beacon's approach pivots off a human performance stance - recognizing that knowledge assets are enablers of performance and not just data to be managed.

1. KNOWLEDGE PERFORMANCE
Learn/Do/Share – A New Approach for Linking
Knowledge to Performance
Presented by: Mason Holloway, Senior Director

2. Agenda
• Introductions
• Key terminology and concepts
• A new approach
• Case study example
• Questions
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3. Today’s topic
A performance based approach to knowledge
management based on identifying the critical
outcomes in the organization, linking those
outcomes to knowledge needs and
sources, aligning them in a learn-do-share
paradigm and ordering it all within a
performance portal.
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4. Well said…
"If only HP knew what it knows it would
make three times
more profit tomorrow"
-- Lew Platt, ex CEO Hewlett Packard
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5. Discussion
• How many of you are familiar with and/or
have participated in any of the ASTD HPI
courses?
• How many of you work for an organization
that currently has a knowledge management
strategy and/or tool in place?
– What results or changes has your organization’s
knowledge management strategy or tool brought
to the organization?
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6. KEY TERMINOLOGY
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7. Key Terminology & Concepts
• Knowledge vs. Information
– Knowledge consists of facts, truths and
beliefs, perspectives and concepts, judgments and
expectations, methodologies and know-how
• Knowledge is accumulated and integrated and held
over time to solve specific challenges and handle
specific situations
– Information consists of facts and data organized
to describe a particular situation or condition
• Knowledge is applied to interpret information about
the situation and how to handle it
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8. Key Terminology & Concepts
• Knowledge need
– Knowledge and information required to produce a job
outcome
• Knowledge source
– From where the knowledge or information is obtained
– Knowledge sources can be explicit or tacit sources
• Explicit vs. Tacit knowledge
– Explicit knowledge is often times documented knowledge
and information that can be accessed and stored easily
– Tacit knowledge is undocumented experiential knowledge
that exists within people’s heads
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9. Key Terminology & Concepts
• Human Performance Improvement
– The theory of human performance improvement (HPI)
focuses on the outcomes, results and accomplishments
achieved by a person, group or organization
• Outcome
– The output or end result of a set of actions by a performer
that is directly linked to producing a desired business
result
– Sample outcomes are:
• A strategic plan
• A quarterly report
• A succession plan
• A successful proposal

10. Key Terminology & Concepts
• Example
Outcome Knowledge Need Knowledge Source
Current news
24/7 Crisis Travel Service
Critical current security information
Overseas Security Advisory Council
Security briefings Project staff
Department of Defense
Regulations on security industry operations Department of State
Industry groups
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11. Key Terminology & Concepts
• Performance portal
– An integrated knowledge solution that allows
users to leverage, capture and share knowledge in
the context of their performance on the job
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12. LEARN-DO-SHARE
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13. A new approach
• A performance based approach to
leveraging knowledge that links
people directly to the knowledge
needs and source they need to
produce critical job outcomes
• The framework is organized first on
what the performer is trying to
achieve to create value for the
organization
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14. The a priori, a posteriori
problem
• A priori knowledge is knowledge that is known
independently of experience (that is, it is non-
empirical, or arrived at beforehand, usually by
reason).
• A posteriori knowledge is knowledge that is
known by experience (that is, it is empirical, or
arrived at afterward).
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15. Social media is nothing - an oxymoron at best:
media are simply media, incapable of being at
all social. People are social. Information isn't
social either - but it is everything. With that in
mind, it's important to understand what
information people need and how they access
that information in order to achieve results.
Adapted from Phil Baumann
Social Media Anxiety Disorder
Next Gen Pharma
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16. BUILDING A PERFORMANCE BASED
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
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17. A 4-step process
1. Identify critical job outcomes, knowledge needs and
knowledge sources from across the organization
a) Use a structured performance analysis process like
Performance DNA™
2. Create knowledge maps for each job role/function
based on outcomes
3. Develop an organizational knowledge map to identify
knowledge needs and sources and map the flow and
exchange of knowledge
4. Analyze results and identify major centers of
performance, to structure Performance Portals
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18. Identify critical job outcomes
• Outcomes link activity to business goals
• Identify outcomes using a structured
performance analysis process
• Sample questions
– What do you produce in your job that is the most
important?
– When your day (and job activities) has gone very
well and everything has fallen into place, what do
you leave behind when you are done with
everything?
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19. Identify critical job outcomes
• Sample outcomes
– Business development
• A completed proposal
• An organizational business plan
• A bid/no bid decision
– Project Director
• A strategy paper
• An analysis of current trends
• A successful country strategy
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20. Identify knowledge needs and
sources
• Using the critical job outcomes –
– Identify the knowledge needed to produce each
outcome
– Identify the source from which that knowledge is
obtained
Outcome Knowledge Need Knowledge Source
Current news
24/7 Crisis Travel Service
Critical current security information
Overseas Security Advisory Council
Security briefings Project staff
Department of Defense
Regulations on security industry operations Department of State
Industry groups
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21. Create knowledge maps
• Knowledge maps provide visual representation
of:
– The outcomes, knowledge needs and sources for a
given job role
– Complex relationships
• Use a tool like NodeXL to
– Build the organizational knowledge map to map the
flow and exchange of knowledge
– Identify the top knowledge needs and sources
– Identify the major centers of performance produced
within the organization
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22. NodeXL Data
A qualifed and appropriately utilized staff 1 5 917.000 0.005
A strategy to build the practice 1 3 545.509 0.005
A strong reputation of the practice 1 3 565.205 0.005
A successfully managed project 1 5 754.000 0.005
A talented and capable junior staff 1 2 358.654 0.005
A technical approach for a current project 1 3 661.076 0.005
A technical approach for a proposal 1 4 811.710 0.005
A well designed research project 1 2 348.029 0.005
An informed senior management team 1 3 613.000 0.005
Assignments of staff 1 1 36.000 0.004
Awareness of partner activities 1 2 40.400 0.004
Awareness of staffing issues 1 1 128.000 0.004
Benchmarks 1 2 40.400 0.004
Contacts/networks 1 0 0.000 0.003
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23. Organizational knowledge map
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24. Organizational knowledge map
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25. Sample knowledge map
• Sample
knowledge map
for a given job
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26. CASE STUDY
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27. Case Study – The Challenge
• Mid-size international development organization
whose major commodity is thoughts, solutions and
ideas that help people around the world realize the
positive changes they desire in their everyday life.
• The knowledge within the organization and important
ideas generated often have implications far beyond the
numbers on the balance sheet; they often mean
changes in the fundamental quality of life of entire
communities or in some cases the difference between
life and death
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28. Data Gathering Process
• Overview
– 31 interviews conducted with individuals from across the
organization
• Backstops
• Business Development
• COPs
• Division Directors
• Field Operations & Security
• Finance & Contracts
• HR
• IT
• Practice Area Leads
• Project Directors
• Senior Director
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29. Data Gathering Process
• Overview
– Individuals asked to describe:
• Critical outcomes they produce in their role
• Knowledge needed to produce those outcomes
• Sources of the knowledge
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30. Analysis Approach
• All outcomes, knowledge
needs and sources discussed
were mapped into role specific
knowledge maps
• Focus groups were conducted
to validate
outcomes, knowledge needs
and sources captured
• All data categorized to allow us
to analyze the top knowledge
needs and sources
– Knowledge sources were
categorized into explicit and
tacit knowledge sources
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31. Findings
• Top knowledge needs
Past performance
Budget for a project or internal initiative
Corporate financial information
Contract information
Top knowledge needs Knowledge of relevant topical information around the world
Project environment information
An actionable set of business intelligence
External sources for professional development
Proposal
Backlog assessment
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32. Findings
• Top knowledge sources
Field staff
Internal (HQ) project staff
Division Directors
Networking/Intelligence
Top tacit knowledge
Partners
sources Country visits
USAID
Networks
Consultants
Ministry
Research
SOW
RFP
Contracts
Top explicit knowledge
External literature
sources An institutional model
Country information
Organizational goals
HR staff
Project plan 32

33. Clustering Knowledge Needs
• Aligned knowledge needs into performance
portals
– Finding and winning new business
– Implementing and supporting current programs
– Developing and advancing the organization’s
intellectual position within the market
– Managing and supporting the business
– Managing my career (for internal employees)
– Working with the organization (for external partners)
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34. Additional findings
• Staff were generally not aware of the knowledge
available to them
• Roughly 27% of the knowledge sources were tacit
sources
– People rely on other individuals for their knowledge based
on past experiences and their individual expertise in order to
• Develop a technical approach for a proposal
• Locate information on past projects
• Assess what is going on in a country
• Some tacit knowledge sources could easily be
transformed into explicit knowledge sources
• Examples
– Trip reports
– Knowledge of staff education, credentials, past
experiences, published articles or papers
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35. Our soultion
– A performance based knowledge management
system based on:
• Defined set of employee and organizational
performance requirements
• A detailed map of the flow and exchange of knowledge
throughout the organization
– Top knowledge needs and knowledge sources identified
– Identified choke points to the flow and exchange of
information
• A Learn – Do – Share paradigm
• SharePoint 2010
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36. Performance Portal Design
• Structured performance portals on the findings of
PDNA™ Analysis to enable users to leverage, and
share critical knowledge through a consistent and
structured platform
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37. Performance Portal Design
• LEARN/DO/SHARE paradigm
– Allows the user to define their experience within the
performance portal
– Does not require the user to know anything about the
context of the knowledge or information, but instead only
the needs and context of their particular situation
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38. Performance Portal Design
• The importance of SHARE
– A core component of the value
and adoption of a knowledge
management system is the
‘living’ nature of the system as a
resource
– To accomplish this, users are
encouraged to share back
valuable lessons learned and
knowledge components through
the SHARE section of the portal
– Knowledge components that are
shared back into the system are
vetted through a formal
knowledge nomination process
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39. Before – Main Intranet portal
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40. Before - Traditional Document
Library and forms
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41. Before – KM Portal site
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42. After – Knowledge Management
Portal
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43. Taxonomy – the final piece
Metadata Specification
Cardinality Administrator Editor Author
Field Description / Function dc.equivalent Data Format / Source Min Max Set By Note Read Write Read Write Read Write
DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION
FIELDS
Use to record the file name of the content SP should autmatically assign the filename
filename item. dc.identifier text 1 1 SP of the file being uploaded. Y N Y N Y N
SP should automatically assign the
Use to record the file format of the filename extension of the file being
format content. dc.format text 1 1 SP uploaded. Y N Y N Y N
Use to record the size of the uploaded file SP should automatically generate the byte
bytecount in bytes. dc.extent integer 1 1 SP count for the file being uploaded. Y N Y N Y N
SP should copy title from the content.
People should be allowed to change the
Use to record the title for the content, title (or copy it from the content) if it is
suitable for display in search result listings, not correct. SP must not overwrite this
title bookmarks, window headers, etc. dc.title text 1 1 SP once it has been manually changed. Y Y Y Y Y Y
Use to provide a short description,
description summary or abstract of the content. dc.description text 1 1Manual Y Y Y Y Y Y
SP should copy the type from the template
if a template has been used to generate
the content. People should be allowed to
change the type. SP must not overwrite
contentType Use to identify the genre of the content. dc.type controlled vocabulary 1 1Manual this once it has been manually changed. Y Y Y Y Y Y
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44. Additional considerations
• Support structure and governance
– Reward structure – recognition for knowledge
sharing with peers
– Integrated into performance management
– Openness/transparency – no hidden agendas
– Sharing supported – communication and
coordination between groups
– Trust – shared objectives
– Top management support – upward and
downward communication
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45. Questions?
• For more information, contact:
• Mason Holloway
Senior Director, Consulting Group
Beacon Associates
• mholloway@beaconassociates.net
• 443-995-4797
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46. For more information, contact:
Mason Holloway
Senior Director, Consulting Group
Beacon Associates
mholloway@beaconassociates.net
443-995-4797
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