Transcript Training Conference

Passing the Torch: Knowledge
Management and Transfer
Techniques
Nancy B. Kiyonaga
Director of Workforce and Occupational Planning
NYS Department of Civil Service
(518) 485-9274
[email protected]
What is this all about?
“Knowledge is the most important raw
material of government; working with
knowledge is its most important process;
and knowledge is what citizens expect
government to provide.”
Thomas A.Stewart
Editorial Director
Business 2.0 Magazine
What’s Going On?
• The work force is aging
• Fewer candidates are in the "pipeline" due to
downsizing over the past decade
• Finding qualified candidates may be difficult in a wide
range of occupations
• There are fewer people in succeeding generations than
there are in the “baby boom” generation
• Retention of remaining employees may be difficult due
to interagency competition
Work Force & Succession
Planning in New York State
Commissioner’s Breakfast
Guide Issued
Interagency Workgroups
Agency Reports
Fall Conference
Local Governments
Website (www.cs.state.ny.us)
Interagency Work Groups
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Knowledge Transfer
Management & Leadership Competencies
Management Mobility
Mentoring
Retiree Resource Pool
Recruitment & Selection
Retention
Staff Development
How Knowledge Fits . . . .
Wisdom
Knowledge
Information + Judgment
Information
Data + Context
Data
Unorganized Facts
Types of Knowledge: Explicit
Structured - Data elements that are
organized in a particular way for future
retrieval; e.g., documents, databases,
spreadsheets
Unstructured - Information not referenced
for retrieval; e.g., emails, images, audio or
video selections
Types of Knowledge: Tacit
Knowledge that people carry in their heads.
It is difficult to access and most people are
not even aware of what they possess or how
it is of value to others. It provides context
for ideas, experiences, people, and places
and is not easily captured.
Knowledge Management
 A systematic approach to finding,
understanding and using knowledge to
achieve organizational objectives.
Consists of deciding:
– what is to be shared
– with whom it is to be shared
– how it is to be shared
Sharing and using it
Knowledge Transfer
The process of sharing knowledge between
one person and another
If knowledge has not been absorbed, it has
not been transferred
Knowledge Transfer /
Management Strategies
• Best Practices Sharing
• Communities of
Practice/Interest
• Documenting Processes
• Document Repositories
• Job Aids
• Job Rotation
• Job Shadowing
• Knowledge Audits
• Knowledge Fairs and
Open Forums
• Knowledge Maps/
Inventories
• Learning Games
• Lessons Learned
Debriefings
• Mentoring
• Storytelling
• Structured On the Job
Training
Community of Practice /
Interest: What
A group of individuals sharing a common
working practice over a period of time,
though not part of a formally constituted
work team
– generally cuts across organizational boundaries
and enables individuals to acquire new
knowledge faster
Community of Practice /
Interest: Examples
 NASPE
 IPMA
 ASPA
 ASTD
 NYS Recognition
Network
 NYS Organization
Development
Learning Network
 NYS Personnel,
Training, &
Affirmative Action
Councils
 Federal Gov’t.
Knowledge
Management Group
Community of Practice /
Interest: Why
Provides a sanctioned mechanism for
sharing knowledge
Leads to improved network of contacts
Provides peer recognition and continuous
learning
Provides a mechanism for sharing tacit
knowledge
Community of Practice /
Interest: When
When sharing tacit information is
important to achieving better results
When knowledge is being constantly
gained and sharing it is beneficial to
meeting organizational goals
Community of Practice /
Interest: How
Determine what knowledge people need to
share
Determine the purpose of the group, e.g.
solving everyday work problems,
developing and disseminating best
practices, etc.
Clarify roles and responsibilities
Provide resources and support
Community of Practice /
Interest: Steps
Identify community members
Devise ways to collaborate, e.g meetings,
on-line messaging or chat rooms, shared
databases, etc.
Hold initial event to engage member
interest & explain mechanics
Check on progress
Community of Practice /
Interest: Roles
Functional Sponsors
Core Group
Community Leaders
Members
Facilitator
Logistics Coordinator
Historian
Community of Practice /
Interest: Do’s & Don’ts
 Membership should be  Management should
not dictate action
voluntary
 Recruit those who are
seen as experts and
trusted as information
sources
Document
 A container for information
Paper
Electronic
Document Management Systems
Management of the intellectual property
that is locked up in the documents of an
organization
Management of the entire life cycle of a
document from creation through multiple
revisions and finally into storage and
records management
Document Repository
Where documents repose. . .
A formal document
repository is a collection of
textual showrooms that can
be viewed, retrieved and
interpreted both by humans
and by automatic systems
A document repository adds navigation
and categorization services to the
information stored
Job Shadowing - What
Spending a day or more
accompanying someone
in their work place to observe
and learn about a particular
occupation.
Job Shadowing Tips
 Share a little history of the job
 Talk about the roles & responsibilities
 Describe the personal attributes that match the job
 Discuss educational requirements,the career ladder
for the job and related positions
 Describe your experience, likes, dislikes
Information Audit - What
Identifies the information and resources and
services people need to do their jobs
Shows how resources and services are
actually used
Knowledge Audit - What
Identifies the knowledge assets of an
organization
Provides information on how the knowledge
assets are produced
Identifies where there is a need for a
internal transfer of knowledge
Knowledge Audit - Why
 To identify the people issues that impact on
knowledge creation, transfer and sharing
 To identify which knowledge can be captured,
where it is needed and can be re-used
 To determine the most effective and efficient
methods of storing knowledge
 To facilitate access to and transfer of knowledge
Information & Knowledge Audit
Together
Gives you the ability to assign a level of
strategic significance or importance to the
knowledge assets
Provides an indication of the criticality of
the information
Knowledge Mapping
An effort: to discover the location, form,
ownership, value and use of knowledge; to
learn about people’s expertise; to find
opportunities to make better use of
existing knowledge in the organization;
and to identify barriers to knowledge flow
Knowledge Mapping
• Highlights areas of specialty knowledge
and expertise
• Encourages better use of information and
knowledge and reduces “reinventing the
wheel”
• Saves time searching for experts in a
particular area
• Saves the time of experts by helping others
locate needed information quickly
Assess Categories of Knowledge
1. What do employees NEED TO KNOW
2. What do employees ALREADY KNOW
3. What do employees ALREADY KNOW
that ORGANIZATION DOESN’T NEED
4. Measure the GAP between NEED TO
KNOW BUT DON’T ALREADY KNOW
Need
X
Don’t
Know
Know
Don’t
Need
Mapping “Who Goes to Who” for
Knowledge
A Sociometric Map
A
F
G
B
C
H
D
J
E
K
I
L
Chain
Star
Sinks
Isolate
Pair
Your Personal Map
Starting with a “node” representing
yourself, map the people with whom you
share information, both internally and
externally. Try to represent whether you are
only receiving information, whether you are
only giving information, or whether it is a
two-way exchange.
Knowledge Fairs - What
An event that showcases information about an
organization, or a topic.
Examples - Xerox “Team Day”
NYS Tax Department “TaxPo”
NYS Organization Development
Learning Network Meeting
Learning Games: What
A type of structured learning activity used
to make learning fun. They can be used to :
–
–
–
–
help prepare people for learning
review material presented
evaluate how much learning has occurred
practice what has been presented
Learning Games: Why
Increase participation
Engage people’s creativity
Address different learning modalities
De-stress learning
Add variety to training programs to keep
people engaged
Learning Games: Types
Scavenger Hunts
TV Quiz Shows, e.g. Jeopardy, Family
Feud, ….
Board Games, e.g. Trivial Pursuit
“Name That” games
“20” Questions
Lessons Learned Debriefings
What: Session(s) conducted at the
completion of a project where members of
the team evaluate the team’s process and
the project’s results. They identify what
was done right and what could be done
better the next time
Lessons Learned Debriefings
Why: Identify and capture the things that
went well and the things that could be
improved so that team members are aware
of and can use the broader team’s learning
in their future projects. These can also be
shared with future teams so that they can
learn from experiences of others.
Storytelling: What
The use of examples to illustrate.
Two types:
– Organizational stories - narratives of actions,
interactions or events that are communicated
formally or informally.
– Future scenarios describing how things will be
different once a particular initiative, change is
fully implemented.
Storytelling: Why
 Capture context
 Familiar format
 How we make sense
of things
 Easy to remember
 Engage feelings &
minds so more
powerful than logic
alone
 Help listeners see
relevancy to own
situation
Storytelling: When
To impart meaning and context to ideas and
facts
To aid communications
To engage buy-in, market an idea
To capture attention
Storytelling: How
 Have a message, an
underlying idea
being conveyed
 Be relevant to
listeners’ situations
 Be simple, brief,
concise
 Test before using
 Be true rather than
invented (if at all
possible)
 Be plausible
 Provide easy mental
leap from story facts
to message
Structured OJT - What
Instruction that takes place on the actual
job site , usually involving learning skills
or procedures in a hands-on manner
following a defined process.
Structured OJT- Tips
 Use good performers who can also teach & coach
 Provide training & resources for those coaching
 Analyze the job, breaking into tasks, and develop
procedures and aids for teaching
 Describe, Describe & Demonstrate, Trainee Performs,
Trainee Describes & Performs, Trainee Practices
 Tell trainee where to go for help
 Follow-up with trainee
Discussion Questions
 What role can/should HR staff play in a
KT/Km effort?
 What kinds of things is your organization
already doing that can be built on?
 Which of these strategies could be useful in
your organization?
 What are you personally doing to ensure
sharing of the knowledge you have?
Getting Started...
Get the word out into the organization
that this is important
Start with “high-value” knowledge - core
business processes & programs where
most vulnerable to departures
Start small yet work along multiple
fronts
Leverage existing approaches
Contributors to Success
 Organizational Culture
 Relationships
 Rewards & Incentives
 Trust
 Senior Leadership
Support
 Infrastructure
 Link to economic
value
 Clarity of vision for
KT/KM
 Language for KT/KM
 Multiple Channels
Selected Resources
 KM.gov
 Common Knowledge
Nancy M. Dixon
 Working Knowledge
Thomas H. Davenport
 The Springboard
Stephen Denning
 “Communities of
Practice,” HBR JanFeb 2000
 If Only We Knew What
We Know Carla S.
O’Dell
 www.brint.com/km/
To contact us…
Nancy Kiyonaga
NYS Department of
Civil Service
(518)485-9274
Debbie Berg
NYS Governor’s Office
of Employee Relations
(518) 474-0101
[email protected]>
[email protected]
www.cs.state.ny.us
www.goer.state.ny.us