A CEO's view of KM - the organisation as a knowledge factory

It's always insightful to read a CEO's view of KM. Here's one that might surprise you.

One of the more interesting essays on Knowledge Management in the mid 1990s was written by John Browne (now Lord Browne of Madingley),  who at the time was the Chief Executive of BP.

It is interesting because it gives a CEO's view of KM, which is a view we don't often see.

In the quote below, we read not just what this CEO saw as the value of KM and Organisational learning, but also how the importance of Knowledge changed how he saw the organisation itself.

"Learning is at the heart of a company's ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. It is the key to being able both to identify opportunities that others might not see and to exploit those opportunities rapidly and fully. This means that in order to generate extraordinary value for shareholders, a company has to learn better than its competitors and apply that knowledge throughout its businesses faster and more widely than they do. The way we see it, anyone in the organization who is not directly accountable for making a profit should be involved in creating and distributing knowledge that the company can use to make a profit"

Let me stress that last sentence again

"anyone in the organization who is not directly accountable for making a profit should be involved in creating and distributing knowledge that the company can use to make a profit"

That is a remarkable view of an organisation as a profit-focused knowledge factory, creating and distributing knowledge for the benefit of the front-line knowledge workers.

The same "knowledge factory" image came to me recently, working with a public sector educational organisation, who's whole raison d'etre was to create knowledge. Here we took a new process-focused view of the organisation, and started to identify the knowledge and information inputs and outputs for each step in the value chain. It was really illuminating.

If you think of your organisation as a profit-focused knowledge factory, then you can start to think about applying manufacturing thinking to the flow of knowledge - thinking such as debottlenecking the knowledge flow, or lean approaches to knowledge supply. You can start to ask, who is in charge of production? What is the knowledge supply chain? Can you use Japanese style processes such as Kaizen and quality circles to improve the flow?

Take a look at how well your organisation operates as a knowledge factory, and ask - just how well do we process knowledge? Does everyone who is not making a profit or delivering a service, actually realise that their job is knowledge production?

A useful matrix for mapping senior stakeholders

We know that senior level support for Knowledge Management remains the greatest challenge for KM, and that once established, it is by far the greatest enabler. But how do you gain this support?

My Knoco South Africa colleague Ian Corbett uses the matrix shown here to identify areas where KM sponsorship is likely to be forthcoming. This is controlled by two factors;

1. The corporate need for change (either the need for growth, or the need to close a performance gap, or fix a problem)
2. The character of the senior manager (whether they are open to help, closed to help)

You can plot your senior stakeholders onto this matrix, and look for those in the green quadrants who are open to improving the business performance, and then start a conversation with them to discuss how better access to better knowledge can either aid the growth or help to close the performance gap.

For those who plot in the orange or red sectors, you can decide whether to continue to work with them in order to change their perception of KM (often a long term struggle), or to wait until either circumstances force them to be more open to help, or the success of their colleagues is demonstrated through the application of Knowledge Management.

We also use these two factors (potential business impact, and the openness of the business sponsor) when we shortlist Knowledge Management pilot project opportunities, in combination with two other factors - the complexity of the pilot project and the ability to scale up the results.

However when it comes to getting senior management buy-in, then you need to look for two things

A real business need, and a senior sponsor who is open to receiving the help that KM can bring

Gaining senior level support for KM

We know that senior level support for Knowledge Management remains the greatest challenge for KM, but once established is by far the greatest enabler. But how do you gain this support?

My Knoco South Africa colleague Ian Corbett uses the matrix shown here to identify areas where KM sponsorship is likely to be forthcoming. This is controlled by two factors;

1. The corporate need for change (either the need for growth, or the need to close a performance gap)
2. The character of the senior manager (whether they are open to help, closed to help)

You can plot your senior stakeholders onto this matrix, and look for those in the green quadrants who are open to improving the business performance, and then start a conversation with them to discuss how better access to better knowledge can either aid the growth or help to close the performance gap.

For those who plot in the orange or red sectors, you can decide whether to continue to work with them in order to change their perception of KM (often a long term struggle), or to wait until either circumstances force them to be more open to help, or the success of their colleagues is demonstrated through the application of Knowledge Management.

We also use these two factors (potential business impact, and the openness of the business sponsor) when we shortlist Knowledge Management pilot project opportunities, in combination with two other factors - the complexity of the pilot project and the ability to scale up the results.

However when it comes to getting senior management buy-in, then you need to look for two things

• A real business need
• A senior sponsor who is open to receiving the help that KM can bring

Knowledge - the asset you already own

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This is an argument you can use with your senior management, when trying to sell Knowledge Management.

Knowledge is like treasure buried in your own back yard - it's a resource you already own; you just haven't uncovered it yet. 

Any organisation is rich with knowledge, any organisation pays a lot for knowledge already (60% of the non-capital spend according to Larry Prusak). That knowledge is a very powerful resource, but it's mostly locked away in silos, and in the heads of individuals. 

All you need to to, to release the value of that knowledge, is start to link up the people.  

You don't need to buy the knowledge - you own it already. All you need to do it free it up to move to where it is needed.

Roles in the Knowledge Management organisation

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A fully mature KM organisation will contain several recognised KM positions in order to ensure and facilitator the creation, transfer and re-use of knowledge. Some of these are listed below. Sometimes several of these roles are combined into a single position.

Note that, in this list, I am assuming that the KM organisation is in place, so do not include any task force, or KM implementation team. I have not given names to these roles - each company seems to use a different set of names (some examples are given). Not all roles are required in every organisation - many are optional. Each company will need to do their own knowledge management organisational design - look at the list below as a series of options, not a template.

• There is one role, to monitor, champion and support Knowledge Management for the entire organisation. This can be referred to as the Chief Knowledge Officer, and this role is described here

• The CKO can lead a small team to help with the support activity. The role of that team is described here.

• There is often a senior management role to which the CKO reports, who provides steer, high level support and resource to Knowledge Management, This could  be known as the management sponsor for KM.

• This sponsor could be supported by a high level steering team. The role of this team is described here.

• There can be a similar role in each business division, to monitor, champion and support Knowledge Management within that division. The Samsung version of this role is described here - they call it a Knowledge manager role, other companies call it KM Champion. In Legal firms, this role is often taken by paralegals. Our view of this role is here. 

• In the US Army, there is a role within each operational  unit, which is less about championing KM, and more about acting as the conduit for lessons. This role is described here, and is called the Lessons Learned Integrator.

• In project-based organisations, that run major capital projects, there may be a KM-specific role within the project itself, to monitor, champion and support Project-related KM activities (learning Before, During and after).

The Communities of Practice, or Social networks also require roles, with a whole variety of names (here are 32 options). These include the following.

• The role that facilitates communication between community members on a day to day basis. This could be known as the community facilitator or moderator role.

• The role that takes ownership of the health and effectiveness of the community, and delivery of its purpose and aims. This could be known as the community leader or network leader. In smaller communities, the community leader is the same person as the facilitator.

• The management role which gives direction, steer and high level support to the community or network. This could be known as the community sponsor.

• A series of roles who support the leader, sometimes known as the community or network Core Team.

Often linked with the community are the roles associated with documented knowledge, with knowledge bases, or with areas of knowledge.

• The role who takes ownership for an area of technical knowledge, ensuring that it is well supported, well documented, that the training is in place, that the organisational capability is in place, and that knowledge on this topic is well managed. This role can be known as the practice owner, process owner, functional chief, subject matter expert, knowledge owner, technical authority, or many other names. This role is often combined with network leader, and is described here and here.

• The role of "go to" person for a topic, though without the weight of accountability described above. These are the subject matter experts in the organisation.

• People who are accountable for specific areas of online content - the content owners.

• People who are accountable for managing the entire content of knowledge bases - the cyberarians or librarians (see here).

There are other specialist roles which certain organisations may need, including the following.

• A role, or set of roles, for managing the Lesson Learned process.  This could be known as the Lessons team, or (in the case of the British Army), the Lessons exploitation centre. These roles ensure lessons are collected, validated, actioned, acted on, and closed out. They are accountable for, and report on, the effectiveness of lessons learning.

• A role for collecting observations and converting these into lessons. This is sometimes referred to as an Analyst role, and is often seen in military and government organisations.

• A field role, for collecting observations and lessons, through personal observation or through interviewing or facilitating meetings such as AARs. This role can be known as a Learning Engineer, a Learning Historian, an Operational Learning team, etc.
• A role for facilitating knowledge management meeting processes, such as Peer Assist, After Action Review, and Retrospect. 

Have I forgotten any? Are there additional KM roles in your organisation?

Strategies for engaging your KM pilot sponsors

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I am recycling this Boston Square that I first published in 2009, as only 6 people ever looked at it, and to be honest, it's an important topic. If you can't manage your high level stakeholders, and gain the sponsorship you need,  then your KM initiative is not going to go far. This is particularly the case when selecting pilot areas during KM implementation, where identification of an engaged influential business pilot sponsor is a key step.

I blogged yesterday about the three roles in a KM pilot, including the role of the business pilot sponsor.  My Knoco South Africa colleague Ian Corbett uses this matrix to identify areas within a business, where sponsorship for business pilots is likely to be forthcoming. The Square is from the excellent book "The new strategic selling"

The Boston Square is built from two factors

1. The corporate business need in the pilot area (need for growth, or need to close performance gap). Remember that KM always has to be driven by business need!
2. The character of the potential business pilot sponsor (open to help, closed to help)

The potential pilot sponsor who is open to being helped is obviously the one to work with initially, but you need to recognise those two types of help - "get me out of trouble" or "help me grow" - and plan your approach accordingly.

With the other managers, the ones that are closed, you really need to ask yourself, is it worth trying, at this stage, to get them to change their perception? This will be difficult, because if they perceive no need, then there is no perceived opportunity for business-led KM.  Maybe it is better to wait until you have success from the other managers, and use the power of the success story to change their mind.