We’ve discussed why we start off creating text-based digital snacks in blogs, the iterative process that follows, and the goal of reaching a critical mass. What comes next is, from our critical mass, we decide which snacks need the fidelity turned up – which ones would be better in graphical, audio, video, or other complex formats. It’s easier to glance at the diagram of an engine, for instance, than to read through a long description of the engine. People also retain knowledge best when information comes in a variety of formats.

Of course, deciding what form a snack takes isn’t arbitrary. The needs of our clients as well as the information consumers drive the delivery types. For example, we had a client in the games industry that wanted to improve the training program for their new hires. As we worked to break down the training program into manageable snacks, it became clear the company struggled with high turnover. Through exit interviews, we learned that employees were internalizing the chaotic working environment and felt they were not successful in their jobs because of it.

Instead of writing down many words that basically conveyed, “Don’t worry about the chaos,” we said to the client, “Let’s create a video of a person working at a desk. Let’s have a war game going on all around that person, and let’s say, ‘Is this how you feel? Great! Because that’s what life is like around here.’” By turning up the fidelity on a snack that required it, the message was conveyed succinctly – and in a way that really resonated with people.

With digital content creation, it’s vital to present information in a format that engages your audience. What strategies are you deploying to maximize the effectiveness of your materials?

Michael Pruitt is an Engagement Manager at VMC Consulting. You can contact Michael at MichaelPru@vmc.com or 877.393.8622.

Another such story appeared in The Daily Telegraph last weekend.  The story was of an interview with Sir Chris Hoy, and recounted the “thousands of miles on the bike” and the “hundreds of hours in the gym” Hoy puts himself through in order to perfect his art.  However, the main focus of the story was to highlight the ways in which British Cycling will select the rider for the one GB place available for the men’s individual sprint at this summer’s Olympics – with both Hoy and Jason Kenny being capable of challenging for a gold medal.  As the story reminds us “two into one does not go”. 

The interesting knowledge management angle to the story is that the decision will be informed by the reams of data, graphs and computer readouts, numbers and figures available from the two riders’ performance data.  This includes data and information on power, torque, cadence and speed – factored against atmospheric pressure and temperature; “so that you can work out a good peformance”.  But should a computer ‘make the decision’ who represents BG and who does not?  

You could argue that there is a danger that the decision could be made largely on ‘explicit knowledge’, and that not enough consideration and weight will be applied to each rider’s ‘tacit and implicit knowledge’; for example – judging when to make the final push for the line; dealing with the pressure of the situation; not getting overawed by the occasion; and the ability to bring years of experience and training to bear in an extremely fast-moving environment where split second decisions can result in the difference between success and ‘failure’.  As Sir Chris Hoy points out “it’s not something you can quantify, but they (the performance director and head coach) will take that into consideration, I’m sure”. 

As knowledge managers will know, connecting people together to share knowledge about things that are difficult to quantify and write down is vital if well-informed decisions are to be made.  So, the next time you are about to make an important decision, re-tell yourself this story.  As the interview reminds us, “before conquering the world, Hoy must first conquer the machines” – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/cycling/9260858/London-2012-Olympics-Sir-Chris-Hoys-fate-in-individual-sprint-will-be-decided-by-a-machine-not-humans.html

By and large, you should keep a tab on some of the online communities, and focus on social media (including Twitter). These platforms can help you in finding out what your customers have to say, and taking the requisite measures accordingly. In other words, you should try to hear the online voice of your customers, and toil to provide them with what they actually need rather than making your own assumptions. Believe it or not but you can actually enjoy the following benefits if you get the hang of CRM customer service:

a)     A noticeable increase in loyalty

b)    Improvement in research efficiency

c)     Increase in the number of satisfied customers

Here, it is worth mentioning that you can also try to convert the online boom into an opportunity, and grab it before your competitors do. In other words, it is high time that you become familiarized with web customer service, and make it work for you. First things first; you should leave no stone unturned to make the online experiences worth their while, and do everything you can to create a balance between your goals and the needs of your customers.

Last but not least, you must learn the nuances of knowledge management, and implement the same, when required. By and large, you must ensure that your data works for you, and helps you bring about a considerable improvement in customer service.

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Since building knowledge may require the analysis and synthesis of information, the lines between working with information and working with knowledge or knowledge artifacts easily become blurred. Under the aegis of ‘knowledge management’, there are three types of processes that are generally considered to be essential: finding or uncovering knowledge [Ehrlich, K., 2003, Learn, L., 2002, Zack,M., 1999], sharing knowledge [Ackerman et al., 2003], and the development of new knowledge [Argyris and Schon, 1978, 1996,Baumard, P., 1999,Harvard Business Review, 1998].

6.1 KM IN PRACTICE – PROCESSES

6.1.1 FINDING INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE

Finding information and knowledge refers to processes that allow organizations to make sense and make use of data, information, and knowledge objects that may be present but are not codified, analyzed, nor accessible to members. One aspect of finding and dissemination of information is the organization of knowledge objects so that they can be found easily. Assigning index terms, tagging or, in the case of an intranet and theWeb, metadata, allows ease of retrieval [Learn, L., 2002]. Digitally recorded presentations, brochures, reports of lessons learned, and best practices can all be made accessible through careful indexing and intelligent information architecture [Morville, P.,2005,Rosenfeld and Morville,2002].

6.1.2 SHARING INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE

Sharing of information for knowledge development is the most traditional collection of processes, easily understood, but often overlooked in a systematic knowledge management program. Sharing refers to the willingness and ability of the knowledgeable to share what they know to help others expand their own learning and knowing.

6.1.3 DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge development takes place when individuals work to create new understandings, innovations, and a synthesis of what is known already together with newly acquired information or knowledge.

6.2 KM IN PRACTICE – PROCEDURES AND PRACTICES

6.2.1 KNOWLEDGE AUDIT

The obvious first step in launching a formal KM program throughout an organization is to conduct an information or knowledge audit. An audit answers the questions of what information and knowledge exists in the organization and where is it?Who maintains it?Who has access to it? Etc.

6.2.2 TAGS, TAXONOMIES, AND CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Having identified and located information and knowledge, the obvious next step is to make it relocatable and retrievable, made possible by tagging and creating taxonomies. (Note that the term used by far the most frequently in this context in KM is “taxonomy”. The tag and taxonomy stage of KM consists primarily of assembling various information resources in some sort of portal-like environment and making them available to the organization. An interesting token of the increased emphasis paid to this subject is that since 2006 the KM World Conference has been accompanied by a two-day well received and well attended “Taxonomy Boot Camp”.

6.2.3 LESSONS LEARNED DATABASES

Lessons Learned databases are databases that attempt to capture and to make accessible knowledge that has been operationally obtained and typicallywould not have been captured in a fixedmedium(to use copyright terminology). In the KMcontext, the emphasis is typically upon capturing knowledge embedded in persons andmaking it explicit.The lessons learned concept or practice is one thatmight be described as having been birthed by KM, as there is very little in the way of a direct antecedent. One possible antecedent for “Lessons Learned” was the Hepatitis Knowledge Base [Bernstein et al., 1980] developed in the 1970’s by the National Library of Medicine.

6.2.4 EXPERTISE LOCATION

Expertise location systems are another aspect of KM that certainly predates KM thinking. TheMitre Corporation, for example, developed such a system in 1978. It was based upon creating a database developed from reformatted resumes retrieved from word-processing tapes, and upon the development of a competence area thesaurus to improve retrieval.

6.2.5 COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (COPS)

Communities of Practice (CoPs) are groups of individuals with shared interests that come together in person or virtually to tell stories, discuss best practices, and talk over lessons learned [Wenger, E., 1998a,Wenger and Snyder, 1999]. In the context of KM, CoPs are generally understood to mean electronically linked communities. The organization and maintenance of CoPs is not a simple and easy undertaking. As Durham,M. [2004] points out, there are several key roles to be filled, which she describes as manager, moderator, and thought leader.They need not necessarily be three separate people, but in some cases they will need to be.

For a CoP, some questions that need to be thought about are:

Who fills those roles? manager, moderator, and thought leader. How is the CoP managed? Are postings open, or does someone vet or edit the postings? How is the CoP kept fresh and vital? When and how (under what rules) are items removed? How are those items archived? (Stratification again) Who reviews the CoP for activity? Identifies potential for new members, or suggests that the CoP may have outlived its usefulness?

6.3 PROCESSES, PROCEDURES, AND PRACTICES MATRIX

If we create a matrix in which the rows are KM Processes and the columns KM Procedures and Practices, and in which the ordering, top to bottom and left to right is roughly in chronological or developmental order, and we check which process a practice or procedure is primarily designed to serve, the matrix looks like:

That matrix reveals several interesting things.Almost everything one does in KMis designed to help find information and knowledge.

Download full source pdf : “Knowledge Management (KM) Processes in Organizations Theoretical Foundations and Practice – by Morgan & Claypool”

5.1 QUESTION ASKING AND ANSWERING

Question asking and answering is a foundational process by which what people know tacitly becomes expressed, and hence, externalized as knowledge. To support such a view, we borrow from speech acts theory [Searle, J., 1969] that amongst others categorizes question asking as a form of a speech act.

5.2 POSTING CONTENT TO REPOSITORIES

Contributing content such as lessons-learned, project experiences, and success stories is another approach to knowledge sharing. Selvin and Buckingham [2002] describe a tool, Compendium, that claims to support rapid knowledge construction.They ground their claim on an empirical case study of its use in a corporate contingency planning situation by demonstrating the creation of knowledge content in a real time ‘on-the-fly’mode of content authoring, complemented by collaborative validation.

5.3 (RE)USING KNOWLEDGE

Desouza et al. [2006] assert that the decision to consume knowledge can be framed as a problem of risk evaluation, with perceived complexity and relative advantage being identified as factors relating to intentions to “consume” knowledge.However, it is essential that the knowledge consumer is able to reasonably frame his or her knowledge needs.

For such a purpose,Hicks et al. [2002] propose a practical framework for the requirements of capturing, storing, and reusing information and knowledge in engineering design.They distinguish between the process that generates knowledge and the knowledge element generated by the process.

5.4 KNOWLEDGE-BASED DECISION MAKING

In general, decision making involves identifying alternatives, projecting probabilities and outcomes of alternatives, and evaluating outcomes according to known preferences and implications for stakeholders.Choo, C. [2002] suggests that decision making activity requires the establishment of shared meanings and the assumption of prior knowledge. Sharedmeanings and purposes aswell as newknowledge and capabilities, converge on decision making as the activity leading to the selection and initiation of action. Choo further proposes that information flows area central process that bridges knowledge creation and decision making activity. Information used in one activity that results in new knowledge will, in turn, be used to guide selection of alternatives in future tasks that involve decision making.

>>>Next CHAPTER 6

Download full source pdf : “Knowledge Management (KM) Processes in Organizations Theoretical Foundations and Practice – by Morgan & Claypool”

4.1 GATEKEEPERS, INFORMATION, STARS,AND BOUNDARY SPANNERS

The seminal work was that of Thomas J. Allen of MIT [Allen and Cohen, 1969, Allen,T.,1977] who conducted a number of studies relating to information flow in industrial and corporate R&Dlaboratories. Allen coined the term ‘Gatekeeper’ to describe the information flow stars that he discovered, the heavily connected nodes in the information flow pattern.

Another finding was that the information flow structure was not at all closely related to the formal organizational structure, and that the information stars did not map onto any consistent pattern of organizational placement or level.

In the context of KM, this tradition relates very directly to the development of Communities of Practice (CoP). Given the relative non-alignment of organizational structure and information flowand sharing,CoPs can be seen as the setting up of an alternative structure to facilitate information flow and sharing.

4.2 RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY ANDKNOWLEDGE

The ‘Gatekeepers, Information Stars & Boundary Spanner’ tradition is very consistent with a substantial body of work studying research productivity. Koenig,M. [1992a], for example, in the context of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, studied the relationship between research productivity and the information environment in which that research was conducted.

There are also, in this overall tradition, two books in recent years that have been very well received and that offer valuable insights about information flow and information use in amodern organizational environment,Davenport and Prusak [1998a] WorkingKnowledge, andBrown and Duguid [2000a] The Social Life of Information.

4.3 LACK OF RECOGNITION OF THESE FINDINGS IN THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY

As Allen pointed out in his study, there is a surprising lack of recognition of these findings about the importance of information stars in the business community. This is, in fact, a subset of an even larger problem – the lack of recognition of or even obtuseness to the importance of information and information related managerial actions in the business community. For example, one major study that reviewed a large corpus of work on R&D innovation, [Goldhar et al., 1976], concluded that there are six characteristics of environments that are conducive to technological innovations.

4.4 COMMUNITY-BASED MODELS

The idea of Community of Practice [Wenger and Snyder, 1999], which descends logically from the “Gatekeepers, Information Stars, Boundary Spanners” stream of development has been cited frequently as an important knowledge sharing model. Theres many system that no doubt, where systems will be replaced by others as technology advances, and their capabilities and functionality will increase. The system such as ComputerMediated Communication (CMC), GroupDecision Support Systems (GDSSs), and Decision Support Systems (DSS).

4.5 REPOSITORY MODEL

Markus,M. [2001] argues that the purpose and content of knowledge records in repositories often differ depending on who needs the documentation: the content producer, similar others, or dissimilar others. Those in the education and training fields may also see great potential in repository and reuse applications. For example, an entire course can be broken down into chunks with the smaller segments presented as just-in-time training on request.

4.6 ACTIVITY-BASED MODELS

Engeström, Y. [1999] research, using activity systems as cycles of expansive learning in work practices, also points to the importance of activities as providing the necessary context for grounding organizational knowledge. Hasan, H. [2003] proposed rudiments of a KM system influenced by activity-based models that would link work activities with people and content.

>>>Next CHAPTER 5

Download full source pdf : “Knowledge Management (KM) Processes in Organizations Theoretical Foundations and Practice – by Morgan & Claypool”

A video produced by the Indiana CPA Society highlighting some of the work that we are doing to assist them as they move towards the development of a Knowledge Management system for society members.

Excellent advisers are those who help their clients develop a state of knowing, understanding, awareness of, and insight into their own goals, values, and financial affairs. The process involves introducing their clients to theoretical and practical facts, truths, principles, information, and skills about achieving their highest personal goals through understanding their values and by applying basic financial disciplines. By “training” the client, the adviser empowers the client to make important life and financial decisions.

The ability of the adviser to identify and define the knowledge they transfer is a key to their success. Put another way, the adviser can only be as effective as the knowledge they transfer to their clients. Therein lays a problem however. I recall from my time as an HR and OD practitioner that as much as 80% of organization knowledge is tacit and remaining 20% of knowledge is explicit. The concept of tacit knowledge was introduced by the Hungarian philosopher-chemist Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) in his 1966 book The Tacit Dimension. Polanyi argues that we know more that we can tell.

Explicit Knowledge 

According to Polanyi knowledge that can be expressed in words and numbers only represents the tip of the iceberg of the entire body of possible knowledge. According to him explicit knowledge is formal information that has been or can be articulated, codified, and stored in certain media. Explicit knowledge can be described in terms of four criteria as follows:

1. Articulate: Explicit knowledge is relatively easy to identify, access, articulate, and communicate.
2. Codify: Explicit knowledge lends itself to being codified in a way which is objective, discrete or digital. It can be expressed in words and numbers and shared in the form of data, scientific formulate, specifications, manuals and the like. Put another way, explicit knowledge is expressed and recorded as words, numbers, codes, mathematical and scientific formulae, and musical notations.
3. Storage: Because it is relatively easy to codify, explicit knowledge is captured in records of the past such as documents, manuals, articles, procedures, manuals, books, encyclopaedias, databases, libraries, archives, videos, web sites, and other visual and oral means.
4. Transfer: Since explicit knowledge can be codified and stored it can be readily transmitted to others. This kind of knowledge can be readily transmitted between people formally and systematically.

Tacit Knowledge

Polanyi argues that the great majority of knowledge rests within the tacit domain. Like the submerged part of an iceberg it forms the bulk of what one knows. According to him tacit knowledge is more subtle information that is elusive and difficult to articulate, codify, and store. Tacit knowledge can be described in terms of the same four criteria as follows:

1. Articulate: There are some things that people may know which they find difficult to verbalize and express. They may wish to articulate it but they struggle to find appropriate words to express what they mean. In these circumstances people often rely on metaphors or analogies to express what they can not describe directly. In many instances the holder of the knowledge may not be aware of the knowledge they have. That is tacit knowledge often consists of skills or competences we do not recognize in ourselves rendering us unable to articulate, communicate and describe what we know. Examples include the ability to speak a language, use algebra, ride a bicycle, or design and use complex equipment. These actions require all sorts of knowledge that is not always known explicitly, even by expert practitioners.
2. Codify: Tacit knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalize. It consists of subjective insights, intuitions and hunches and is deeply rooted in a persons experience, ideals, values, perceptions, ideals, values, emotions, mental models, and skill derived from experience so ingrained that they are taken for granted. These personal qualities make tacit knowledge hard to codify, formalize, write down and communicate.
3. Storage: Since it is hard to articulate and codify tacit knowledge most of it is an unwritten, unspoken, and hidden storehouse of knowledge. Where it is documented it is very often open to subjective interpretation.
4. Transfer: It is difficult to communicate to or share tacit knowledge with others via words and symbols – it is not easily shared. Effective transfer of tacit knowledge generally requires extensive personal contact and trust. Tacit knowledge is acquired largely through association with other people and is learned through observation, imitation, practice, on-the-job training and usually takes years of practice to perfect.

Implications for transferring knowledge to your clients

Within the field of knowledge management the problem of managing tacit knowledge is widely recognised as a real challenge. There are no simple answers to the question of how we manage, leverage, and growing tacit knowledge. It is however recognised that these are seen as the keys to achieving sustained competitive advantage.

We may find some clues about managing tacit knowledge by employing the four criteria used to describe explicit and tacit knowledge as follows:

1. Look for ways to identify and extract tacit knowledge: What is the knowledge in people’s heads that would make a meaningful difference to our clients if they could get access to it? Can we identify these elements? Once identified how can we work closely with these people to extract the knowledge inside their heads?
2. Look for ways to codify tacit knowledge / make it explicit (write it down): What is the best way to record this information? Is it words, tables, charts, diagrams, pictures?
3. Look for ways to store tacit knowledge: What medium should we store the knowledge in? Do we store the knowledge in writing, visual, audio, or in a website?
4. Look for ways to transfer tacit knowledge:  Simply put, identify and establish a way to communicate and share the knowledge. What is the best way for us to educate our clients? How do we include knowledge transfer in our advice process? Do we prepare videos, DVDs, YouTube clips, articles, blogs, newsletters, workshops, or seminars?

Concluding Comments

If you worked through these questions you may have been left with a sense that this is somewhat akin to a teacher’s job. If you did get that feeling then I believe that I managed to get through to you. That is exactly where you want to be going. If educating your clients is an important part of your client value proposition then you should be thinking about planning and delivering valuable knowledge, skills, and competencies to your clients which will allow them to make meaningful and powerful decisions about their financial affairs.

So–even though I rarely write blog posts–I started a new blog: www.IslandHealth.Info It’s explicitly about things like healthy food consumption; not about leadership and knowledge work. So I was amused today when I came across a blog post by one of my favourite social media connections: Luis Suarez (@elsua). In this post, he writes: “One of those folks I have been truly admiring for a long while is  JP Rangaswami a.k.a. @jobsworth”

Luis embeds a March 2012 TED salon presentation by JP Rangaswami in this post. It is well worth 8 minutes of your time if you care about work in a knowledge era and appreciate the power of metaphor. This TED talk explores the idea: “what would happen differently in your life if you saw information the way you saw food.” It left me both inspired, and feeling sheepish about my decision to publicly fragment spheres of thinking, which this authentic thinker has integrated so beautifully and provocatively.

 

Training8m Corporate Technologies Pty Ltd , Queensland , Australia

Chief Financial Officer – Global Business Solutions – Training8m

We require Chief Financial Officers – Funds – Immediate assignment and start

Stake holding management based Position leading to Chief Financial Officer / Director – Funds and Global Finance

Based in Gold Coast – Australia

A Really Challenging Job !!

Recession Proof Industry

Are you A professional with international experience and contacts to open up potential new markets , partners and investors for our training projects? An executive ready to lead our start-up companies or become a director with stake holding in the company? A motivated person looking to join and develop a stimulating , challenging and fun-loving team? VC / PE Funds connections is necessary and the assignment contains preparation of projected balance sheets for 5 years , and also drafting / approval of Draft agreement from VC / PE funds.

These positions are for Australian Citizens / Australian Permanent Residents.

We specialize in Global Business Management:

1. Corporate Training and Development in Business Management
2. Finance Management , Corporate Business Solutions
3. Sales and Marketing Management
4. Human Resource Management
5. Personality Development
6. Organizational Development
7. Financial Restructuring
8. Financial Crisis Management
9. Turnaround Management
10. Business Solicitation
11. Recruitment Solutions

We at Training8m , Australia are witnessing high exponential and rapid growth in very fast paced working environment – to remain busy all year round. We offer Global Business Solutions , custom designed solutions , HR and recruitment Solutions , Marketing and Sales solutions to all our clients within Global Business Solutions Group. For the purpose of Start up Funds from VC / PE funds we require Chief Financial Officer

This is stake holding management based position with immediate start.

Eligibility Criteria:

Job Profile:

1. To Draft terms and conditions with the VC / PE funds for start up funds to the tune of more than $ 1 Bn.

Preparation of five year projected balance sheets as per Funding norms and certifying the same is mandatory part of the job

2. Negotiate the financial terms with the PE / VC firms and procures the funds , this will be continuous process

3. Renewal of Licenses with ASIC and comply with all the requirements of all the financial Authorities

4. Registration of the company worldwide with all the financial authorities and tax authorities in Australia and globally

5. Maintain records of revenues , expenses and projections of the first five years to me met

6. Listing of the companies on ASX , DAX , Singapore Stock Exchange and major global stock exchanges in the world. This factor is mandatory as per the company and funding norms

This position will lead to additional commission on procurement of $ 750 Mn to the last round of funding within the first 6 months $ 1 Bn. The position will lead to Chief Financial Officer or Director – Finance and funds and have stake holding in the company. The candidate will have to individually lead a team of experts globally and continuously monitor the financial activities of the company and compliance and risk issues

Candidate Profile:

1. CPA / CA from reputed institution in Australia

2. Should essentially be a Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident

3. Should be well conversant with Venture Capital Funds / Private equity Funds in Australia and worldwide. Experience working with PE / VC funds will be preferable.

4. Preferably Member of Australian Finance Group , Financial Services Institute of Australia , Financial Planning Association of Australia.

5. Knowledge of listing agreements with the major global stock exchanges is preferred.

Stake holding in the company can be discussed on appointment.

Please Note: Only Australian Citizens / Australian Permanent Residents can apply to the positions. Candidate residing in Australia currently will be preferable.

Training8m Corporate Technologies Pty Ltd , Queensland , Australia

“Proudly Australian”

Source: Flickr. Andres Musta’s photostream

Today I had the opportunity to meet with a colleague who is fairly new to business librarianship. In lieu of the Vulcan Mind Meld (a la Spock in Star Trek), I shared with her some of my favorite web sites, blogs, and journals. These are things that I read to stay current, and where I go for help, because, as hard as it might be to believe, I don’t know everything! So, in the interests of furthering the community of practice of business librarianship in general, and academic business librarianship in particular, and making some of my tacit knowledge explicit, here are some of my favorite tools:

For help with tricky reference questions

• Zimmerman’s Research Guide(on the LexisNexis InfoPro site):
  • Tagged as an online encyclopedia for legal researchers, it has lot of business-related guidance in it. It was created by Andrew Zimmerman, a law firm librarian.
• RUSA BRASS Libguides(American Library Association)
  • The Best of the Business Websites guides (by broad topic) and the Selected core resources guide are chock full of advice and tips on researching business questions and list the core sources in each category.
• Find Answers Quickly(C.B. Bud Johnston Library, University of Western Ontario
  • Another great place to get a sense of which databases to look in for specific types of business information, with the added value of Canadian content.
• I also use the FAQ database from the University of Alberta Winspear Library’s BizFAQ and their Winspear Canadian Industry database.

Issues/trends in Business Librarianship

• Academic Brass (American Library Association)
  
  • A newsletter with articles on academic business librarianship.
• Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship(Routledge, Taylor & Francis)
  • A peer-reviewed academic journal

How I Keep up with Business / Management Education

• BizEd Magazine (AACSB)
• Journal of Education for Business (Routledge, Taylor & Francis)
• Academy of Management Learning & Education

Curious about Communities of Practice and Knowledge Management? Here is a great place to start:

Communities of practice: a brief introduction (Etienne Wenger, June 2006)

I will also put in a plug for the research that I did for my MA in communications and technology in 2005. My project was titled “interaction and knowledge exchange among academic business librarians in Ontario” and you can read the full report online.

If you looking for an overview of knowledge management and some recommended readings, take a look at the handout that I prepared for a talk that I gave at the CAUT Librarians Conference in 2005 titled “remembering lessons learned: knowledge management techniques for building generational memory.”

Another category of questions, “What-if,” will also fall in the domain of knowledge activity. “what-if ” questions will require integrating understanding of “what” with “why” and “how” to arrive at reasonable resolution. Thus, what-if questions, primarily seen in the decision making domain, will likely call for exhaustion of all possible scenarios in order to arrive at any “best” alternative. Akin to decision support processes and systems, exercises in “what –if ” questions and creating possible scenarios can serve individuals to use existing knowledge and create new knowledge.Contributing content such as lessons-learned, project experiences, and success stories is another approach to knowledge sharing. O’Dell and Jackson [1998] point out the importance of frameworks for classifying information. The task of entering content into the system should be done by specially appointed people since busy professionals rarely have the time to enter a practice into the database unless it is their job. Nick et al noting the importance of learning by experience.

The decision to consume knowledge can be framed as a problem of risk evaluation, with perceived complexity and relative advantage being identified as factors relating to intentions to “consume” knowledge. McMahon et al., studying team work involving engineering design, suggest that both codification and personalization approaches to knowledge reuse are relevant. They recognize the notion of information value, allowing for the matching of information to the knowledge needs of the user. They propose that good representations of both information characteristics and user
characteristics are essential.

Choo, C. suggests that decision making activity requires the establishment of shared meanings and the assumption of prior knowledge. New knowledge and capabilities make possible new alternatives and outcomes, expanding the range of available organizational responses. Information flows continuously between sense making, knowledge creating, and decision making, so that the outcome of information use in one mode provides the elaborated context and the expanded resources for information use in the other modes. Information used in one activity that results in new knowledge will, in turn, be used to guide selection of alternatives in future tasks that involve decision making.

Duplicative development be very worthwhile insurance againts the failure of a key component of a system. This duplication provides a wonderfully robust context to examine information flows and distinguish the information flows in the more successful projects and the less successful.

Thomas J. Allen coined the term “Gatekeeper” to describe the information flow stars that he discovered, the heavily connected nodes in the information flow pattern. The reason he chose that term wasthat much of the development and project work he investigated was classified military work, seemed something paradox. How was a team to be successful if it didn’t effectively connect with external infmormation? But how did it do that in a classified and communication restricted environment? Information stars, the sociometric stars, were the answer of that paradox. They enabled the external information to reach the project team. They were not just the gatekeepers, they themselves were the gates.

There is a bit misleading in this term, so latter, Allen explain his gatekeeper with the term “sociometric stars“. But, there is a more apt term that brings to mind more multiple roles and function that such persons perform, “information stars”.

Allen found that productive teams were characterizing by having more diverse external information. Productive team would be the successful team. Successful team made less use of external consultants. Information stars were central to information flow both within the organization at large, and within thier project or projects.

Tushman, further extended the Allen tradition. He introduced and added the concept of “boundary spanning” or boundary spanner to describe the same phenomenon that Allen described as gatekeeping. Boundary spanning dinstinguished in two types of communication stars, “internal communication stars” and “external communication stars”.

The “Gatekeepers, Information Stars and Boundary Spanner” tradition is very consistent with a substantial body of work studying research productivity. From the research, found that the more successful companies found to be not just twenty or thirty percent more productive than the not so successful companies, they were two or three hundred percent more productive.

The idea of Community of Practice, which descends logically from the “Gatekeepers, Information Stars, Boundary Spanners” stream of development has been cited frequently as an important knowledge sharing model. CMC or Computer Mediated Communication is such systems provide the infrastructure for enabling the interactions needed for a group’s knowledge synergies and interactive activities, and may include bulletin boards, electronic meeting/ conferencing, or online chat.

GDSS or Group Decision Support System is a tool where groups came together, participated in brainstorming and then, through human facilitation, voted on items and issues important to the organization. The ability for groups to share knowledge and make decisions using decision technology tools is a beneficial way to combine human know-how and experience with database and display systems.

The knowledge management repository, a space to store and retrieve knowledge objects has long been a standard in kowledge management programs. It is a model that emphasizes the creation of quality knowledge content in online repositories with re-use as a goal. Adding context is also another aspect of making content more usable. Markus proposes the roles of human intermediaries in what she terms as “repurposing” of repositories to make them moreappropriate for use by others.

We have all known people who are not considered ‘educated’ to be some of the most knowledgeable people we have encountered. Opposing we also have known those whom we regard to have a highly credentialed ‘education’ that are equally ignorant. If ignorance is darkness than knowledge, your education, is the light. Be unique.

Know that One can!  One person can make a difference, change a life, altar society and change the world. That One is you.  Just have the knowledge to have the courage to try. You have the courage; You’re here are you not? That took courage and a lot of it. Take the knowledge of that courage to make a positive change.

For the most of us, you are young. Youth is your advantage. Take that advantage and make a positive difference. Appreciate us older generations and hold secure that you will be here someday.  So hey all you young’uns, don’t ridicule or discount us because we are old.  To those of us who are old as I am, respect the knowledge of the young. They are fresh, up to date and the improved model to our generations. Besides, be proud of the young, we made them!  And also to us older generations we should hang out with these young’uns more often, they help you to remember what fun really is. And they remind us we were once there too.

It is our differences, our diversity that makes us a community. It is our moral obligation as part of the educated in society, to take our knowledge and create a positive influence to our world. One of you sitting out there today is a future world leader, scientist, inventor, doctor or Nobel prize winner, reach your full potential. You owe that to society.

Always be true to yourself. Never let anyone change who you are. Let educated experience mold you into who you are to be. Never abandon your constant quest, for knowledge. Never stop learning.  Above and beyond everything, knowledge affords you freedom. Take that freedom and be happy. Live a happy and positive life. In return you will create a happy and positive environment.

But really, stay true to who you are, never let anyone change you, and learn from every mistake; because after all, a mistake is God teaching a lesson. So let us not disrespect all those great teachers & professors that worked to get us here or those not so great one’s either, Let us honor them and ourselves to become great and change our world, your world.

With only one person you can change the world! That one is you! Congratulations class!

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The seminal work was that of Thomas J. Allen of MIT [Allen and Cohen, 1969, Allen,T., 1977] who conducted a number of studies relating to information flow in industrial and corporate R&D laboratories. Allen coined the term ‘Gatekeeper’ to describe the information flow stars that he discovered, the heavily connected nodes in the information flow pattern. The reason that he chose that term was that much of the development and project work that he investigated was classified military work, where there seemed to be something of a paradox, how was a team to be successful if it didn’t effectively connect with the world of information outside the organization? But how did it do that in a classified and communication restricted environment? What he discovered was that the information stars, the sociometric stars, were the answer to that paradox; they were the information channels through which external information reached the project team. That role was so crucial in the contexts that Allen typically investigated what he termed his sociometric stars “Gatekeepers.

2.   Research Productivity and Knowledge

The ‘Gatekeepers, Information Stars & Boundary Spanner’ tradition is very consistent with a substantial body of work studying research productivity. Koenig,M. [1992a], for example, in the context of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, studied the relationship between research productivity and the information environment in which that research was conducted. The productivity measure was, at base, simply the number of approved new drugs (new drug applications or NDAs) per millions of dollars of R&D budget. This measure, however, was refined by weighting the NDAs in regard to: 1) whether or not the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) judged the drug to be an “important therapeutic advance,” 2) the chemical novelty of the drug, and 3) the filing company’s patent position in regard to the drug, an indicator of where the bulk of the research was done. The study is compelling because of the high face validity of the measure of success, the successful introduction of new pharmaceutical agents, since that is what pharmaceutical companies are about after all, and because of the statistical robustness of the results, a consequence of the fact that the more successful companies were found to be not just twenty or thirty percent more productive than the not so successful companies, they were two or three hundred percent more productive.

3.   Lack of Recognition of These Findings in The Business Community

As Allen pointed out in his study, there is a surprising lack of recognition of these findings about the importance of information stars in the business community. This is, in fact, a subset of an even larger problem – the lack of recognition of or even obtuseness to the importance of information and information related managerial actions in the business community. For example, one major study that reviewed a large corpus of work on R&D innovation, [Goldhar et al., 1976], concluded that there are six characteristics of environments that are conducive to technological innovations. The three most important characteristics are all related to the information environment and information flow – specifically: 1) easy access to information by individuals; 2) free flow of information both into and out of the organizations; 3) rewards for sharing, seeking, and using “new” externally developed information sources. Note the ‘flow in and out’ and the ‘sharing, seeking, and using’. Number six is also information environment related, 6) the encouragement of mobility and interpersonal contacts. Yet in a remarkable oversight, the studies’ authors never remarked on the dramatic win, place, and show finish of information and knowledge factors.

4.   Community-Based Models

This model is based on the premise that organizational members with similar interests or practices meet to discuss issues of mutual concern and to help each other solve problems. The meeting can often happen in electronic-based forums, and these online discussions are usually self-managing. The Information Systems literature points to an abundance of KM strategies in the category of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). Such systems provide the infrastructure for enabling the interactions needed for a group’s knowledge synergies and interactive activities [Maier, R., 2002] and may include bulletin boards, electronic meeting/conferencing, or online chat. In this model, the notion of space [Ruhleder, K., 2002], physical or otherwise, is important primarily because the meeting place or system provides an environment that allows for interactions to unfold, at the convenience of individual participants, often asynchronously

Group Decision Support Systems (GDSSs) were originally conceived of as collaborative tools where groups came together, participated in brainstorming and then, through human facilitation, voted on items and issues important to the organization. A Group Decision Support System (GDSS) is able to calculate the votes and display them graphically, so that an individual attending the meeting can see if she or he were an outlier on certain issues or to determine where his or her vote stood as compared with peers. Although anonymous, each participant can have a unique code, known only to the participant, and follow voting patterns on the graphic display.

5.   Repository Model

The knowledge management repository, a space to store and retrieve knowledge objects has long been a standard in KM programs. It is a model that emphasizes the creation of quality knowledge content in online repositories with re-use as a goal. Markus, M. [2001] argues that the purpose and content of knowledge records in repositories often differ depending on who needs the documentation: the content producer, similar others, or dissimilar others. She emphasizes that a great deal of effort is required to produce quality content, and, as such, part of the burden of documenting and packaging knowledge objects can be transferred to intermediaries, saving time and energy of the organization’s staff. In addition, adding context is also another aspect of making content more usable. Markus proposes the roles of human intermediaries in what she terms as “repurposing” of repositories to make them more appropriate for use by others. Examples of activities that could be performed include abstracting, indexing, authoring, and sanitizing or scrubbing content.

6.   Activity-Based Models

Based on such a historical-cultural perspective of activity, Hasan, H. [2003] proposed rudiments of a KM system influenced by activity-based models that would link work activities with people and content. Continued development of the model would focus on the motivation of people to contribute content and the meaningfulness of information and knowledge that can be extracted from the contents of such an activity-based system.

Source:

McInerney, Claire R. and Michael E. D. Koenig. 2011. Knowledge Management (KM) Processes in Organizations – Theoretical Foundations and Practice: Morgan & Claypool Publishers series

Digital Infrastructures have set the prefix of e- in front of every possible term, to emphasize the reasoning of electronic or digital. Question, does this really make sense today? The picture is really blurred. Where does the real world and the digital world end, where does means met ends? When we Internet savvy folks, speak of Internet of things do this echo in the minds-sets of our less connected peer human beings?

On a philosophical angle we buy things either to survive or to boost our personas with stuff related to who we think we are in the social fabric of life. Leaving a signal to other humans that I consume and because of this I am

Hence, Commerce is a Commerce is a Commerce is a Commerce transformed from the simple but yet omnipresent poem by G. Stein 1913. When traditional retail, brick and mortar, meets e-commerce on the social battle field what is the outcome for the everyday consumer? Well one could name tag this x-channel commerce, where intertwingularity really starts to happen.

Anybody who either have undertaken some kind of business school or baseline marketing diploma knows for sure there are some elements that one just do not take away that easily to make an prosperous business. Same goes for us who have been engaged in entrepreneurship in a small retail or local grocery store. Know your customers! Engage with them on their grounds, invite them to a conversation so you as a provider are able to align your brick and mortar store front and shelves with goods (ends) that meet needs. Second to this, secure a feasible supply to have your store up and running.

The disruptive technology leap with the digital infrastructures, relates to information flows and the social life dealing with this information. Hence in a less open environment with constraints in the information supply, we just either had to comply with the options given, and trust the service provider. Or tinker to find pragmatic solutions to a broken system, as the folks in former eastern Europe had to do due to policy makers with twisted minds. Today in the modern big city life, we all have devices that gives us instant access to information when needed. An upper-hand for the consumer. Power relations have slightly changed the ballpark. Or maybe not? In a local setting with only one ‘Store’ the dealer had to know the demand and personally listen to all locals. We are rather getting back to business, as it emerged on the local marketplace or bazaar still omnipresent in many countries.

e-Commerce pains?
Well first and last… the churn rate to buy stuff when they have entered into the shop is between 2-4% on average. If they find the store in the first place that is! Many users do a quick search using either aggregation measure (Google, Pricerunner) where they get a decent overview, window shopping. All these aggregator services tries to tie some extra value with enhancements or schemas on-top of the unstructured world. Emerging ways of get semantics into this play have been in the loop for 15 years, and we are seeing this mashup economy growing daily and standards being put into action. Second how to curate a nice storefront that is compelling, easy to navigate and vibrant with goods and services to the users preferences and liking? When the information flow back-end with aggregation, integration more reflect staggering data mazes from all the suppliers? Topping this easy to pay! Here still many online stores have über-complex schemas. The x-commerce platform using Ebay/Paypal or Klarna from Sweden are some possible solutions to this threshold. And lastly the social interaction both in term of delivery, service provided and the show-off persona attribute   My mind started to remember the Internet bombastic e-commerce failures, like Boo. Where users hardly could enter the store due to UX from hell, and those who got to the cashier couldn’t pay. Lastly the few bespoken people who actually managed to buy  something had hard time getting their stuff!

Brick and mortar retail have not gone out of business, ask IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad. If they had the same churn rate for all people driving to their sites and entering the store as the eCommerce folks have. He wouldn’t been on the list of richest in the world. Even the times you visit their site only to get your moneys back for a broken or dysfunctional goods. You can’t resist to take a peek-view into the store and find yourself buying even more. The same goes for food-stores. No one enters them without buying stuff! That’s why we spend time and effort to go there in the first place.

The frontier of eCommerce have realised this, and done their utmost to lure us firstly into the store through SEO, banners and whathaveyous. Second have a curation process that makes their store sticky, mimic real world experience.  It is not as simple as copy the IKEA model, given that you are virtually not present in their store. Lack of sensory triggers! Might improve in 3D worlds with extra-embodied gadgets in near future. The most engaging experiences have basically a content factory with people infusing contextual data to the goods. Improve the appearance and findability across both their own site and in their value network. As the i.e. the fast growing Nelly.com from Sweden.

When you navigate in the store as in IKEA you follow a known path. Well designed so your sensory wayfinding skills don’t make you feel lost. Navigate any eCommerce site that lacks proper and sound Information Architecture and you instantly feel stressed and usually leave before even reaching for the cashier icon. Ask my dear wife who really loves to ‘shop’ compared to me who get the same mall-lost-in-shopping-hell-syndrome in any brick and mortar setting. She trashes many sites within seconds! or rather milliseconds!! Non functional!!! even if she knows that the store hold the searched for goods.

What amazes me, is how bad many eCommerce sites have settled pragmatic organising principles to their content? Maybe a better Content Choreograph assigned to this quest? Derived from this is the insufficient information supply chain. Data from their origin have so poor quality that not even the best automagic data-laundry helps. Why not crowdsource this obvious constraint to a viable and scalable business model? Shared responsibilities amongst all actors? Maybe a intermediary-data-laundry-model for data-flows could be of some help?

Without refined and enhanced raw-data, next step is basically impossible. Cross-channel commerce have to have sound organising principles, if not considering stove-pipes of different content factories in the back-end to a great cost! The improved digital assets needs to be smarter in all possible ways. When we talk about Internet of Things, as with RFID, NFC and other emerging standards within the UbiComp arena. Mobility First raises the bar for simplicity, cut the crap. Get to the point and deliver now.

The Social Creature
Living in a world of social means to capture our attention, it is no reason for a commerce provider to stay with a stale, stigmatised old school commerce model without the flavor of social intertwined all through. Some genres of products and services, do have better social flows, given that they are things people happily share. The travel and tourism industry is one of the business arenas, where user-generated-content really makes-sense. No one books a hotel without first checking out TripAdvisor, google maps/earth and many more sites to get a more nuanced picture of the planned trip. And both during your travel users annotate, share, curate and socialise around their experience, with a final reporting while being back home again. Same goes with fashion, and similar goods and services. Food chains have recepies.  Whereas other stuff never have had any social sharing either in brick-and-mortar or eCommerce realm.

A greenfield commerce project
The notion of greenfield gives us a fun journey when we develop the cues for future commerce. No strings attached and build from ground-up with the soil and plants. Cultivate and nurture this new space. New entrants in the retail business have done some remarkable assertions. A people centric view to shopping, make the online and store visit a compelling journey that is seamless. C. Wonder have developed a new experience, where there are only personal shopping assistants, no cash register lines. The staff are passionate about the goods served, use mobile devices and pervasive and ubicomp setting to get handy information and data while guiding their clients in the store. All items sold have been enhanced with RFID. In the background there is a back-bone ERP, Supply Chain, CRM and whathaveyou cloud instance. That serves up real-time data and do manage the data in a completely new fashion.

What runs the show? DATA! all over the place but with a pragmatic, agile, and make-do feeling. Tinker, try, build and engage, review and improve. With proper organising principles to information and data. Here cloud service delivery models interplay with the ubicomp and mobile devices to create an ambient data service.
How to engage, well obviously social have been built into the spines of all core processes for the commerce set-up. As other retailers in this scene do. Have your Customer Service with Facebook feeds, and so forth. Online stores in any relevant social space. Basically let the users share their love (or hate!?) for the services and products. Have talented staff members intersected into the different levels of conversations. Social Business by design if you will

Intelligence – pick my brain!
With the abundance of data flows in such a business design, big data. Tools and metrics to quickly align the practices on the floor have to be real-time. Consumer behaviour in all domains leave digital trails, combined with ‘smart things’ (RFID). But intelligence also implies tapping into the social conversations online pre- , during and post physical in store experience.

Intelligence also have to be the tuner to competitive outlook. Even if person centric service and human touch have a great impact on revenue, consumers still do have choices to make. So intelligent price-modelling and scanning will be key. These data backbone algorithms produce prices in constant flux Higher quality and experience taxes a bit more pricey level to things, but it still have to be on the same ballpark as the most low-cost option online. As with the Bazaar, where local store owners do mutual adjustment to prices, but then in the sales-pitch ‘haggle’