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...
Senior Advisor to the CEO| PMISterling, Va, United States
Hi Rick,
I agree about the use of wikis. They can be great. However, I think the single most effective way of uncovering trapped knowledge is by capturing interactions between SMEs and "knowledge-seekers" as they happen. People give and receive knowledge every day one-on-one. Other "knowledge seekers" have the same questions, so when you make these conversations public, they're searchable and accessible. Take this discussion as a case in point. Years ago, someone started this thread. Someone with the same initial question today has the benefit of this entire discussion - all of your opinions - just because the interaction took place in a recorded, public way.
Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
Good point, Dave.
These threads are themselves becoming a knowledge repository by itself.
In my opinion, nobody says it all. That said, it's relative: if I happen to know 10,000 things, I can give away 100 without feeling threatened. But, if I happen to know only 500 things, insecurity can creep in when I think about sharing 100 things- from a logical standpoint.
All said, I personally do believe that sharing it all can lead to an explosion in information sharing and gathering and can accelerate ones growth. Saving Changes...
Rick Vasko MBA PMPspecialist Leader| Deloitte Consulting LLPMoyock, Nc, United States
Great points and I agree that getting information from the SMEs is extremely important, probably the most critical. I work with the military and KM is the ticket if we are able to find ways of capturing tacit knowledge.
In the military, people rotate in and out very quickly and there is a lot of knowledge that is lost each time that happens. For example, let's say a radio operator is deployed to IRAQ and has found a particular radio to be troublesome. However, he or she has found some workarounds and has basically learned how best to use it after many failures (trial and error). How do we capture that? How can we gat that soldier or sailor to take the time and input the specific lessons he or she learned so that it will help someone else who may not be as good? This would be of great value to others during that particular operation, future operations, and for leaders "in the rear" to evaluate and maybe consider procuring a different radio in the future that does a better job.
Often times, lessons learned are captured and summarized at the end of an operation. Most of the time they are filtered and many of the good things such as the radio problem are not deemed important enough or too far down in the weeds to report to the Admiral. As a result, the people who have the ability to make a change never learn about the problem. Saving Changes...
Joe MooneySenior Technology Project Manager| Independent ConsultantOviedo, Fl, United States
One of the key reasons that our team of process analysts gets involved with our clients is because of retiring baby-boomers. Their tacit knowledge is the business intelligence of these government agencies and these walking encyclopedias on how to get the job done are about to walk right out the door. In these cases, the capturing of their knowledge is not threatening at all but is essential to their organizations.
I have also found that the use of embedded technical writers becomes a non-threatening resource to many people. In the guise of "removing the burden of always having to answer questions" from the SMEs, these excellent communications experts can uncover many organizational mysteries.
To gain cooperation from threatened SMEs, try these approaches:
- We need to tell other organizations/workers what it is you do so that work is not misdirected.
- I want to understand the exact requirements of how work should be delivered to you so that you do not have to perform someone elses job
- I need to understand what you produce so that those people downstream in the process do not ask you to fix something that did not come from you
I have many techniques for extracting this type of information, and I'm happy to share them with anyone who is interested. Saving Changes...
I'd be v keen to know more about your information extraction exercises... I'm currently working on a project documenting department/role responsibilities and will be meeting with various key individuals to gain an insight into their department's functionality/responsibility. The info you've mentioned below sounds like it may be of some help... thanks. Saving Changes...
Depending on the type of knowledge that you are looking for people to share, you could use different methods. For example, if you are trying to get a development team familiar with a business process, the business analyst or SME is the best person to task this with. Have the SME/BA draw diagrams and explain small chunks at a time if necessary.
If you are looking for a group of peers to share and learn from others experience, you could also exchange knowledge using an email distribution group and have the mails forwarded to say, a public folder in outlook so that anyone can view and learn from the discussions, anytime. You could also hold a knowledge-share session once a week/month/whatever frequency you need. Tell every person to come with at least one idea and go around the table and have each of them present their ideas. The key is to have management support and visibility for these efforts otherwise people may not be motivated. Having a Manager of the peer group present in the meeting and rewarding the ideas with some sort of credit into their performance review are a couple of ways to keep up the motivation.
Saving Changes...
John ReilingSeeking new opportunities | AcroVision Business Systems, Inc.Mendham, Nj, United States
I think that simply making knowledge public is the beginning of breaking down those barriers. I think those who horde information will be the losers in the long run, since they will choke themselves off from others. While many people want to horde info and power, in the long run the use of forums and online discussions to enable people to talk frankly about issues of concern will help to smoke out the right info and also expose the 'anti-collaboration' types! Saving Changes...
HEMAM RANJIT KUMAR SINGHFounder & Director| TechSure Global Consultancy LLPGuwahati, Assam, India
A great discussion. So the trend needs to be from "Knowledge is Power" to "Sharing is caring" for the greater benefit of the Organization and the individuals involved.
Thanks and best regards,
Ranjit Saving Changes...
Cindie PridySr. Project Manager Global Benchmarking| PTAIMissouri City, Tx, United States
I am also working on the concept of tacit and explicit knowledge but from the perspective of cross project knowledge transfer and the impact on project performance. I am a doctorial student at Capella Univerisity and this is the area of research for my dissertation. I have a short (15 minute) survey if you would like to help. Participation is anonymous and voluntary. The survey is located at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9TWNK27
You can reach me at [email protected] at any time. Thank you;
Cindie Pridy Saving Changes...
Karthik MenonCEO| Golden Ticket Singapore Pte LtdSingapore
I have agree with Ganeshram. If you indeed want an extraction of data without being overtly pushy - I have used workplace development schemes with rewards that are linked / balanced between individual contribution and department contribution to share that knowledge on a "process defining" document.
This uses the services of a research writer as a manual maker and requires the individual and his department to share / answer typical "Why/How/When/Where and Who" questions linked to the work progress as described.
Then comes a stage of cross functional discussion with people who are served by this individual or his department - both internally and externally. The objective is to get perspective on how people think or feel they work and deliver on their expectations. A lesser intense 360 review.
That creates a stage 1 KM bank and you have to keep iterating and recording hands on data for making your standard internal document Saving Changes...
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