Has anyone found a good method for uncovering the knowledge that is trapped in the heads of the workers? I've discovered that many individuals only share knowledge under protest; these are the same individuals that seem to possess the most corporate knowledge. How do you pry it loose from them for use in a distributed environment such as a KM portal? Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Allen, nice post and very nice replies. Just last week I attended the Sun Coast PMI chapter meeting in Clearwater, Florida, and this topic came up. One of the PMI Chapter members was a director at Nielson Media and he commented that 25% of his team's incentive compensation is awarded for process improvement and knowledge sharing related to process improvement. Nothing like a little incentive to pry lose the goods and to establish a culture of process improvement oriented thinking! Cheers. -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
Hi Mark! I would agree incentive definately helps. What I have found in many organizations if you ask several performers who THEY go to when they need to know how to do "X" you'll find the same name or two come up over and over on the same subject. Capture that person, identify them as a subject matter expert (SME), and have them help lead an expert to bring in some others for an excercise on process modeling to document the knowledge. But don't forget the most important step - PUT IT WHERE IT CAN BE FOUND/UTILIZED! So often we forget that.
Sun Coast PMI eh? Do you live there or were you a visiting speaker? Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Lindsay, I have enjoyed reading and learning from your posts. And yes, I was a visiting speaker at the Sun Coast PMI chapter in Clearwater, Florida. It is a very nice chapter headed by Marie Kostamo and Eileen Peitsch. And the visit was not too far as I was recently relocated from New York to Orlando. Do you also live in the area..? I would be delighted to make your acquaintance..! Saving Changes...
Managing processes and people, I've found that chatting with people from other areas in the company helps me learn where many untapped islands of knowledge are residing -- waiting to be used. I was listening to "Sam" in the breakroom talking about a project he's working on. He mentioned software and a certain task that struck me as similar to a component in a new process I had to implement. So I asked questions, and sure enough, here was someone who already knew how to do the necessary activities. It made my life (and my staff's life) a lot easier -- I got Sam's director's approval for Sam's time to be looped in my process -- with simple movement of files to take process out of dept. -- to his area -- and then back to my staff to continue our process where Sam's part ended. It was easy -- I was on good terms with Sam's director because we chit chatted occasionally, which greased the approval process, and I learned of Sam's talents by chit chatting in the breakroom. Many times I find the more I talk to people across depts., the more solutions present themselves, and the more I can facilitate effective knowledge management in real practice. BTW, interesting notes about the event in Clearwater, Florida -- I grew up there (long ago). Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
Nice post. This partially answered my questions I had logged elsewhere. Saving Changes...
Selva Saravana PuvananthiranDelivery Lead Senior Manager| Accenture Solutions Private LimitedChennai, Tamil Nadu, India
One thing that I would suggest is a casual "Lunch & Learn" sessions unless the team members are too busy that they can't even spend time for lunch breaks. We can let a SME or any senior person in the team to talk about his/her knowledge in the systems. The more the team listens, the more they learn/understand. It is really a gradual process but helps.
Saving Changes...
A couple of things have worked relatively (at least for me) well:
- Have a project KM phase just like any other project phase, have it measured and signed-off by SMEs. Once KM is given the basic shape (baselined) it should tracked by a KM change management to keep the knowledge repository up to date
- Develop an internal project certification: all active members must get certified
- Have a detail induction program
- Leverage Wiki type system to share knowledge, it is quite effective
- Last but not least KM should be part of one's performance evaluation
-----------------
=PMP Prep course (online, class or self-study) with 35 PDUs or contact hours.
=We also offer 35 or 10 PDUs toward continuing your PMP certification.
=Please refer our location 11Concepts.com for more information. Saving Changes...
There have been several mentions of SMEs. Does anyone have a generic (i.e. not discipline specific) process for SME identification? Saving Changes...
Wikipedia has rightly defined SME as A Subject Matter Expert (SME) is a person who is an expert in a particular area. Invariably, the term is used when there are professionals with expertise in the field of application but without technical project knowledge. Sometimes the acronym is voiced ("smee") and other times spelled ("S-M-E"). In software world the SME tells the software developers what needs to be done by the computer system, and how the SME intends to use it.
Saving Changes...
Rick Vasko MBA PMPspecialist Leader| Deloitte Consulting LLPMoyock, Nc, United States
Uncovering tacit knowledge can be very difficult. In my experience, people are generally reluctant to share all of their personal knowledge with others because of the "knowledge is power" idea. Some people view this as job security.
What I've found is that if you are willing to give knowledge then you will be more likely to get knowledge. There are some great examples in this thread and some that I have seen work.
Wiki's are great when people start looking through them when they need to find out something. People naturally feel compelled to contribute when a Wiki shows value to them.
I've used the lunch and learn method as a way to promote some of the KM tools out there such as KM portals and Wiki's.
Creating document repositories on a portal is a great way to begin discussions on items of interest. Documents that are in draft should be posted to a common portal where people have the ability to read it and can create a discussion or comment on it is a great way to capture knowledge. People generally like to challenge potential new policies and would be likely to contribute some of their own knowledge on the subject.
If you meet people where they are, make it easy and meaningful, people seem to be more willing to contribute on their own terms. In reality, in can be a drastic culture change that will take time to develop. Saving Changes...
"Impartial observers from other planets would consider ours an utterly bizarre enclave if it were populated by birds, defined as flying animals, that nevertheless rarely or never actually flew. They would also be perplexed if they encountered in our seas, lakes, rivers and ponds, creatures defined as swimmers that never did any swimming. But they would be even more surprised to encounter a species defined as a thinking animal if, in fact, the creature very rarely indulged in actual thinking."
