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.
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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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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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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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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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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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
46
Editor's Notes
Today’s topic – a performance based approach to KM A non-traditional approach to KM that links employees to the knowledge needs and sources to perform their critical job outcomes An approach and solution to meet the demands of the high tech – information age we currently are in. It is a solution to manage and harness the valuable knowledge generated and held within your organization and also includes an effective social networking component to help tackle the social networking challenge
Why is it important to know the difference- We rely greatly on other people’s knowledge and experience to produce critical job outcomes A knowledge worker is 5 times more likely to turn to another person for information rather than an impersonal source such as a database or KM system *When we turn to another person, we not only end up with the information we are looking for but we also get more information and feedback. We learn where it is to be found, how to reformulate our question or query, whether we are on the right track, and where we strayed.Additionally and perhaps most importantly, the information is coming to us from a known and usually trusted, credible source. In other words, people are the best means of getting not only a direct answer but additional critical and important knowledge about the knowledge or information we are seeking. Talking to other people provides a highly valuable learning activity that is primarily tacit-tacit knowledge transfer, for this type of knowledge is seldom rendered explicity, nor is it captured in any form of document. ….learning is a predominantly social event*Taken from Mishra, J. K. 2009. Knowledge Management Complexity, Learning & Sustainable Innovation. Global India Pubns. What this means for our knowledge management solutionClassifying knowledge sources as explicit or tacit helps us to better organize and arrange our KM system (we will talk more about this process later) Will helps us to identify and map the knowledge flows between people to see where people seek and share knowledge
Ask someone for an outcome, kn and ks
Traditional KM systems/solutionsADD Are organized by knowledge ‘type,’ or some other organizational schema, information taxonomy which requires an individual to know all of the various types of knowledge, multiple variations of the schema and taxonomy ASK But what if you are new to the organization – how to you find what you are looking for? ASK How do I find out who are experts in what I need to do – experts are people with valuable tacit knowledge that can teach me more
An interesting thought to consider
How many of those who have taken Analyzing HP have access to and or use PDNA?
Review definition of outcomeThe output or end result of a set of actions by a performer that is directly linked to producing a desired business resultThis process to identify critical job outcomes is a core skill taught in ASTDs Analyzing Human Performance class. As a side note: Knowledge Management is one of the many solutions an HPI or performance based approach can help you to solve. It is important to start with the identification of outcomes when building a knowledge management solution, because the outcomes define the critical outputs or artifacts people produce in their job that drive business results. Critical to provide people with the knowledge they need, and easy access to this knowledge so that they are able produce these critical outcomes successfully
How ID performance portalsTop knowledge needs and knowledge sources – should in theory align with the important job outcomes produced within the organization – these top job outcomes can be categorized into major centers of performance or performance portalsExamples – from one of the worlds largest high tech companies – sample performance portal Delivering world class results on-time – individuals in R&D and engineering, logistics and sales and marketing all have key outcomes to deliver world class results on timeFrom a state DNRPromoting and maintaining health partnerships with other state, federal and private businesses – state foresters as well as scientists and central office staff all have an accountability to produce outcomes related to….
Using a tool like NodeXL you canBuild the organizational knowledge map to map the flow and exchange of knowledgeIdentify the top knowledge needs and sourcesIdentify the major centers of performance produced within the organization – ie the Performance PortalsAll of this information helps to build the KM solution in line with what people need to produceSTOP HERE AND ASK FOR QUESTIONS
Using a tool like NodeXL you canBuild the organizational knowledge map to map the flow and exchange of knowledgeIdentify the top knowledge needs and sourcesIdentify the major centers of performance produced within the organization – ie the Performance PortalsAll of this information helps to build the KM solution in line with what people need to produceSTOP HERE AND ASK FOR QUESTIONS
Some additional – notable findings we identified were….These were used to help us focus and validate our proposed solution
As with any new system built an introduced into an organization, there is much more that needs to be in place and considered when introducing it – it will likely not be “build it and they will come” It is important that use is measured ie, by some sort of perf management system, rewarded, and supported.Individuals need to see what’s in it for them and trust that using it will be safe and help them to achieve what they need to achieveAll of these are important cultural characteristics – so it’s important to assess your organizations culture and readiness and develop a change management strategy to help introduce a new system like a KM system into your organization