Passing the Torch Knowledge Management and Transfer Techniques

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 NBK@cs. state. ny. us

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 ü Commissioner’s Breakfast ü Guide Issued ü Interagency Workgroups ü Agency Reports ü Fall Conference ü Local Governments ü 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 ü Structured - Data elements that are organized in a particular way for future retrieval; e. g. , documents, databases, spreadsheets ü Unstructured - Information not referenced for retrieval; e. g. , emails, images, audio or video selections

Types of Knowledge: Tacit ü 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 ü A systematic approach to finding, understanding and using knowledge to achieve organizational objectives. ü Consists of deciding: – what is to be shared – with whom it is to be shared – how it is to be shared ü Sharing and using it

Knowledge Transfer ü The process of sharing knowledge between one person and another ü 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 ü NASPE ü NYS Personnel, Training, & ü IPMA Affirmative Action ü ASPA Councils ü ASTD ü Federal Gov’t. ü NYS Recognition Knowledge Network Management Group ü NYS Organization Development Learning Network

Community of Practice / Interest: Why ü Provides a sanctioned mechanism for sharing knowledge ü Leads to improved network of contacts ü Provides peer recognition and continuous learning ü Provides a mechanism for sharing tacit knowledge

Community of Practice / Interest: When ü When sharing tacit information is important to achieving better results ü When knowledge is being constantly gained and sharing it is beneficial to meeting organizational goals

Community of Practice / Interest: How ü Determine what knowledge people need to share ü Determine the purpose of the group, e. g. solving everyday work problems, developing and disseminating best practices, etc. ü Clarify roles and responsibilities ü Provide resources and support

Community of Practice / Interest: Steps ü Identify community members ü Devise ways to collaborate, e. g meetings, on -line messaging or chat rooms, shared databases, etc. ü Hold initial event to engage member interest & explain mechanics ü Check on progress

Community of Practice / Interest: Roles ü Functional Sponsors ü Core Group ü Community Leaders ü Members ü Facilitator ü Logistics Coordinator ü Historian

Community of Practice / Interest: Do’s & Don’ts ü Membership should be ü Management should not dictate action voluntary ü Recruit those who are seen as experts and trusted as information sources

Document ü A container for information üPaper üElectronic

Document Management Systems ü Management of the intellectual property that is locked up in the documents of an organization ü 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 ü Share a little history of the job ü Talk about the roles & responsibilities ü Describe the personal attributes that match the job ü Discuss educational requirements, the career ladder for the job and related positions ü Describe your experience, likes, dislikes

Information Audit - What ü Identifies the information and resources and services people need to do their jobs ü Shows how resources and services are actually used

Knowledge Audit - What ü Identifies the knowledge assets of an organization ü Provides information on how the knowledge assets are produced ü Identifies where there is a need for a internal transfer of knowledge

Knowledge Audit - Why ü To identify the people issues that impact on knowledge creation, transfer and sharing ü To identify which knowledge can be captured, where it is needed and can be re-used ü To determine the most effective and efficient methods of storing knowledge ü To facilitate access to and transfer of knowledge

Information & Knowledge Audit Together ü Gives you the ability to assign a level of strategic significance or importance to the knowledge assets ü 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 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 “Tax. Po” 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 ü Increase participation ü Engage people’s creativity ü Address different learning modalities ü De-stress learning ü Add variety to training programs to keep people engaged

Learning Games: Types ü Scavenger Hunts ü TV Quiz Shows, e. g. Jeopardy, Family Feud, …. ü Board Games, e. g. Trivial Pursuit ü “Name That” games ü “ 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 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 ü Capture context ü Engage feelings & minds so more ü Familiar format powerful than logic ü How we make sense of alone things ü Help listeners see ü Easy to remember relevancy to own situation

Storytelling: When ü To impart meaning and context to ideas and facts ü To aid communications ü To engage buy-in, market an idea ü To capture attention

Storytelling: How ü Have a message, an ü Be true rather than underlying idea being invented (if at all conveyed possible) ü Be relevant to ü Be plausible listeners’ situations ü Provide easy mental ü Be simple, brief, leap from story facts concise to message ü Test before using

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 ü Use good performers who can also teach & coach ü Provide training & resources for those coaching ü Analyze the job, breaking into tasks, and develop procedures and aids for teaching ü Describe, Describe & Demonstrate, Trainee Performs, Trainee Describes & Performs, Trainee Practices ü Tell trainee where to go for help ü Follow-up with trainee

Discussion Questions ü What role can/should HR staff play in a KT/Km effort? ü What kinds of things is your organization already doing that can be built on? ü Which of these strategies could be useful in your organization? ü What are you personally doing to ensure sharing of the knowledge you have?

Getting Started. . . ü Get the word out into the organization that this is important ü Start with “high-value” knowledge - core business processes & programs where most vulnerable to departures ü Start small yet work along multiple fronts ü Leverage existing approaches

Contributors to Success ü Organizational Culture ü Relationships ü Rewards & Incentives ü Trust ü Senior Leadership Support ü Infrastructure ü Link to economic value ü Clarity of vision for KT/KM ü Language for KT/KM ü Multiple Channels

Selected Resources ü KM. gov ü Common Knowledge Nancy M. Dixon ü Working Knowledge Thomas H. Davenport ü The Springboard Stephen Denning ü “Communities of Practice, ” HBR Jan. Feb 2000 ü If Only We Knew What We Know Carla S. O’Dell ü 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 NBK@. cs. state. ny. us> Dberg@goer. state. ny. us www. cs. state. ny. us www. goer. state. ny. us