www.straitsknowledge.com© straits knowledge 2006information records and knowledge information,...

© Straits Knowledge 2006 Information Records and Knowledge www.straitsknowledge.com

Information, Records and Knowledge: An integrated approach for organizational

effectiveness

Patrick Lambe

© Straits Knowledge 2006 www.straitsknowledge.comInformation Records and Knowledge

Issues1. Information Infrastructure and Organizational

Effectiveness2. Information, Records and Knowledge

Management3. The OzWater Decision Game

Techniques4. Revealing Culture5. Revealing Knowledge and Information Flows6. Mapping and Arranging Knowledge

Agenda


Organisational Effectiveness: ability to set and achieve organisational goals within target timeframes at a competitive cost and effort; ability to respond appropriately to emerging risks and opportunities in the environment

Info & Knowledge Infrastructure: supports organisational effectiveness by providing:

Consistency - especially in customer facing processesCoordination - especially for minimising errorsControl - for ensuring timely and relevant decisionsCompliance - for facilitating accountabilityCost Control - for avoiding re-work and redundancy.

Effectiveness


Information Infrastructure


Knowledge Infrastructure

Know-how

Know-why

Knowledge domains

Inculturation strategies

Experienced users

Collaboration Patterns

Experience

Experience

Learning

Skills

Innovation


Knowledge Records & Information

IM, RM and KM:

What do they have in common, and where do they compete?

Task: create a working definition of IM, RM and KM, and identify their commonalities and differences


Knowledge Records & Information

IM, RM, and KM all have claims to make on the document or database

IM primarily serves the timely availability of accurate information to serve tasks and decisions

RM serves the ability to preserve evidence of business transactions and decisions for future reconstruction and reference

KM serves the ability of the organization to leverage its strategic information and knowledge assets for improved effectiveness in managing risks, customers, processes or innovation.


IM, RM and KM

Documents & Data,

Infrastructure

IM

Operational

KM

Strategic

RM

Memory


Managing the Information Lifecycle

InformationManagementFramework

Description Ow

nership

Sec

urity

Compliance

Sharing

Qua

lity

Creation & Collection

Storage

Access

Use &

Disposa

l


Information Management


Access RightsOpenness

Reuse

StandardsLegislation/ Regulations

PrivacyConfidentiality

Sensitivity

CustodianshipCopyright

Accountability

ConsistencyMetadataTaxonomy

AccuracyTimeliness

ValueDescription O

wnership

Sec

urity

Compliance

Sharing

Qua

lity


IM (working info)

KM (sharing)

IM, RM and KM


Access RightsOpenness

Reuse

StandardsLegislation/ Regulations

Records Management•Records of organisational activities, decisions, and the direct context for

those activities and decisions•Evidential value

•Informational value•Historical value

•Compliance issues

Knowledge Management•Assuring access to knowledge assets

•Transparent availability•Discriminating relative value of

knowledge assets•Investing effort in high value, sharable

assets•Promoting reuse and avoiding

redundancy and reinvention

RM

EFFORT

© Straits Knowledge 2006 Information Records and Knowledge www.straitsknowledge.com

OzWater

a management decision game


OzWater - Background

• Australia-based OzWater is the product of water utility privatization. Formed in 1991 out of three state-owned utility companies, OzWater grew rapidly through acquisitions in Australia through the 1990s. In 2001 it started setting its sights overseas, and targetted municipal water services contracts in Asia Pacific and in South America.

• Shareholder value has grown tremendously, and OzWater is touted as one of Australia’s privatization success stories.

• The company is finding it difficult to sustain its growth as it takes on larger and more diverse water management contracts. Led by a charismatic Chief Engineer, it had formerly prided itself on the experience and skills of its engineers and managers. Training in consistent methodologies and approaches had been a major emphasis. This is now difficult to sustain as the company is recruiting and absorbing staff at great speed to support its growth.

• Meanwhile, the core team of engineers and managers who launched OzWater are heading for retirement.


‘Gruff’ PetersenCEO

Doug SimesDCEO &

Finance Director

Carly Sorrentina

Director Corporate

Development

Mark GettitCIO

Glenda BlaneRecords Manager

Dhasha VeluccaDirector

Human Capital

Charlie FranksChief Engineer

Suresh NarayanGM, Project & Quality Mgmt

Jane MaweLegal Officer

David SmithKnowledge

Manager

Danny Digges Asst Director

Business Development

Roy SteadGM Global ICT


OzWater – Key Players• OzWater was founded by the current CEO “Gruff Petersen”, Finance Director

Doug Simes and Chief Engineer Charlie Franks – all are now in their early sixties.

• Mark Gettit is CIO and has been with OzWater for five years – he has a strong background in IT control systems for utilities plants, and plays golf regularly with Charlie Franks.

• Carly Sorrentina has been with OzWater for only a year. She is American, and was brought in specifically to head up the newly restructured Corporate Development Division, and spearhead OzWater’s international expansion plans. Her background is in technology sales, not in engineering.

• Dhasha Velucca joined OzWater at the same time as Mark Gettit (five years ago), from a career in public sector HRM. At the time, OzWater was facing union problems with employees who were former public sector workers, so her experience in public sector employee relations helped in resolving the issues successfully.


OzWater – Key Players

• Suresh Narayan was previously GM of an acquired OzWater Asian subsidiary in Asia, and has been promoted to corporate HQ to address quality and consistency issues in its international projects.

• Roy Stead looks after global ICT infrastructure. He’s been with OzWater since 1995, and knows the systems inside out.

• Glenda Blane has been with Ozwater from the start, and was previously Registry Manager with one of the original state water companies that made up Ozwater.

• Jane Mawe joined OzWater two years ago.

• Danny Digges is a brilliant salesperson who led much of OzWater’s early expansion, and was a candidate for Carly Sorrentina’s job, but didn’t get it, largely because Charlie Franks was unhappy with the “messy” deals he set up. “If he talked to Engineering more often, he’d know how to sell contracts that we can deliver on”. Doug Simes felt that he lacked the strategic vision that Carly could bring to the company.


• You are David Smith, recently appointed Knowledge Manager for OzWater. This is your first senior post in KM, your previous post was as an assistant Knowledge Manager with a global mining company.

• You have just concluded a very successful KM strategy process with the senior management team. You will focus on four core areas to support OzWater’s growth:

a.“Up to speed” – rapid knowledge transfer for new staff, particularly project managers and water engineers – sponsor Charlie Franks

b.“Virtual experts” – cross border collaboration to give OzWater’s subsidiaries and project teams access to the expertise they need, when they need it – sponsor Suresh Narayan

c. “Knowledge base” - a reference resource comprising engineering standards, quality management tools, and project lessons learned repository – sponsor Mark Gettit

d.“Leadership knowledge” – pre-retirement interview processes for senior staff to be captured as stories in a special knowledge base, and integrated into OzWater’s leadership renewal programme – sponsor Dhasha Velucca


VERY GOOD

GOOD

SO-SO

NEUTRAL STEPS1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

NOT GOOD

BAD

VERY BAD

Evaluation Table. Evaluate each step in your case study by indicating on the chart whether you think it is a positive, negative or neutral contributor to your desired outcomes


Focus Questions

• What should David do? • What should OzWater do in relation to its

knowledge, information and records management?

• What else do you need to know to help your future decisions?

• What did OzWater get right, and what did it get wrong?

• What are the key learning points for knowledge, information and records management generally?


Why KM/IM/RM Projects Are Difficult

1. Too many decisionmakers, focus is not maintained2. Lack of clarity about the scope and objectives because the

needs are complex and the possibilities not well understood3. Lots of inherited baggage, lots of invisible dependencies4. Other factors such as budgeting, funding agencies,

stakeholders, related projects, impact and pressure the timelines

5. Long learning curves for external consultants and suppliers (even internal people don’t understand the infrastructural frictions)

6. A tendency to prefer slower, mechanical channels for information gathering, and a corresponding mistrust for personalised social networks

7. Too few people who are committed to and aware of the project goals and who act as vigilant “wardens” of the change, reminding their peers on a day to day and localised work level

8. Impact for stakeholders gets lost in the mechanical performance of project tasks


Strategies for Infrastructure Projects

1. Consult intensively, but keep decision-making simple

2. Establish and maintain clarity of purpose 3. Acknowledge the baggage 4. Manage the timeline 5. Shorten and leverage learning curves 6. Use social networks 7. Provide for habit-changing strategies 8. Demonstrate impact to stakeholders






Agenda


IssuesBaggage – invisible dependenciesLong learning curvesUsing social networksInfluencing changeUnderstanding stakeholders

TechniquesAnecdotes & ArchetypesSocial Network AnalysisBuilding Information NeighbourhoodsConcept mapping and knowledge subscriptions

Techniques for Infrastructure


Anecdote Circles - Why

Stories reveal context, engage the imagination, aid concrete understanding of abstract things

For a new employee an organization chart accompanied by anecdotes is much more effective than the organization chart plus a manual

Anecdotes are about people and situations – they reveal attitudes, values and common behaviours

They provide a window into culture


Anecdote Circles - How

12-15 peopleStarts with focus group component, then workshop

component2-3 hours (provide refreshments)Single focus question to elicit resonant storiesFacilitator avoids intervention except to balance

positives/negativesDo not mix superiors and subordinates in same groupFor large population, do 5-6 sessions, aggregate and

merge the resultsEnsure representation from diverse staff levels,

functions, length of service


Anecdote Circles - How

Anecdote session

Identify characters in stories

Adjectives to describe characters

Issues in stories

Cluster issues and write a theme or

problem statement

Cluster adjectives and create fictional

character

45-60 mins

60 mins

Debrief30 mins

mix people around


Elearning


Strategy Building


Charlie Brown

How is KM relevant to him?

•It can help him survive his first few weeks

What does he need to do?

•Use KM tools and processes to find his way around and start networking

•Take part in training for KM tools

•Network with key colleagues and peers

Consequences of doing this?

•Supervisors will be pleased with progress

•Will get a good performance assessment

Tools / Resources Available to Him

•Portal/Sages/Care Bear/Speedies

WIIFM

•Less painful start

•Enjoyable workplace, connections with colleagues

Communicating Change


Communicating Strategy


Awareness Raising


Intervention Planning


Social Network Analysis

• Maps real connections between people (as distinct from theoretical connections – eg org charts)

• Can be done by questionaire survey (eg “list the people you regularly consult for information on XYZ”)

• This is difficult to avoid bias, people may game their answers, and it’s hard to get complete returns

• Can be done by mapping email transactions, taking email to/from data from the mail server

• This has the advantage of objectivity and completeness, but doesn’t indicate nature of relationship - can only suggest patterns for investigation

• Should always be used with follow-up or complementary discovery techniques

• Can raise ethical and privacy issues, should be conducted with great care – best to engage experienced experts to do it


Information Flow & Roles


Information Flow & Roles

• Connector/Hub• Boundary Spanner/Gatekeeper• Influencer/Pulsetaker

Caution: these roles can also look the same as:

• Overdependency• Bottlenecks• Over-control

All maps need to be investigated


Latent Knowledge

Knowledge Sharing

- trust

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Information Seeking

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Mapping Invisible Impact on Infrastructure

Case Study: public sector organization, c.1400 employees

Undergoing major organization strategy implementation with recent restructuring

Wants to use knowledge management to support strategy implementation


Group – whole network all symmetric links

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Group – above 4 emails per week symmetric

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897

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870

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Group – above 10 emails per week symmetric


ABC neighbourhood symmetric links above 4 emails per week

892

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875874

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864

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859

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852

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849

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XYZ all links above 4 emails per week

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© Straits Knowledge 2006 www.straitsknowledge.comInformation Records and KnowledgeBlur Bob Neanderthal Neo

Busy Bee

The Idol

Ace Roboto Doubting Thomas

Fantastic Flo

Bob the Builder

Professor Owl Donald Trump The OstrichThe Lioness


Diagnosing Issues

• Stovepipe collaboration, top down• Peer collaboration diminishes as you go down the

hierarchy• Cross-group collaboration very poor• The more responsibility you have the more log-

jammed you become• Leadership distant from operations• Difficult to operationalise new strategy – bridging

competencies not present

What would you recommend?


What Makes a City Work?

• Think of a city that you like very much• What are the features that make you like it?


What Makes a City Work?

• Diversity of use draws human traffic• Infrastructure of different ages• Supports good range of primary activities –

manufacture, services, trade, education, shopping, entertainment, residential

• Spawns secondary activities – education, entertainment, small traders, SMEs, experimentation

• Diversity of use is not random – it has patterns, which are expressed through neighbourhoods, each of which have their own identity

• Neighbourhoods make the scale of the city manageable


Designing Information Neighbourhoods

• Purpose: Why would someone come to this neighbourhood?What are the primary activities that this neighbourhood supports?

• Target Information: What are the target (pertinent) information sources needed to support these activities?

• Secondary Information: What are the secondary (relevant) information sources and activities served by this neighbourhood?

• Follow-up: What additional actions might someone want to do after visiting the neighbourhood? Where next? Who might they want to contact?


Maish Nichani ‘Taming your target content’ 2006


Information Neighbourhoods

Pertinent Content

TR

EA S

UR

ETemporal Extension

Representation Extension

Expertise Extension

Spatial ExtensionAgent Extension

Usage Extension

Relatedness Extension

Entity Extension

Who might you want to contact?

Who might you want to contact?

What follow up tasks might you want to do?What follow up tasks might you want to do?


Concept Mapping

• Way of representing activities and knowledge• Similar to mind-mapping except the nature of the relationship

between concepts is explicit• Linked concepts should read like sentences

• Useful for mapping knowledge and activity domains (incl expert knowledge)

• Making implicit practices and conventions explicit (incl infrastructural dependencies)

• Can be used as a framework to attach relevant resources and documents (eg supporting information neighbourhoods)

• Useful as induction resources (eg supporting shorter learning curves)

• Can be used to uncover localised knowledge organization needs (eg in taxonomy development)


http://cmap.ihmc.us/


Knowledge Mapping

• Centres on the key business activities of the organization• Compiled according to business unit by several employees

working together for completeness• Includes 5 forms of access to knowledge – documents,

methods, skills, relationships, experience• Business units do a “gallery walk” and subscribe to assets

held by other departments as useful to their work• Duplicated effort, gaps, high value knowledge assets

identified

• Useful as input to taxonomy exercise• Useful for identifying shared knowledge neighbourhoods and

potential collaboration opportunities• Useful for identifying information infrastructure improvement

opportunities (minimum effort for maximum no of stakeholders)






Review of the Day


Mapping communication

patterns - Email SNA

Putting it all together

KM Vision

KM Strategy

KM Framework

KM Roadmap

KM Policies & Guidelines

Dis

covery

Pla

nnin

gK-Map

Cultural Map

Focus Groups

Knowledge audit workshops

Kick-off KM Strategy Workshop

Senior Management

Team

2 day workshop


Key Details

What Who Outcome

Focus Groups Representative spread of ABC staff population

Knowledge Sharing Culture map – cultural archetypes

Mapping Communication

I T support (mailserver logs)

Series of maps with analysis & commentary – issues and opportunities

Knowledge Audit Workshops

Operational managers Knowledge map with indication of sharing/ portal opportunities

KM Strategy Workshop Senior management team, KM team, corporate planning

KM Vision; Strategy; Framework; Roadmap; High level Policies and Guidelines


[email protected]

Questions?

http://www.straitsknowledge.com/projects/detail/alchemy_workshop_perth_oct_2006/

Resources?