What We Know About Knowledge and Learning

1. Performing and Learning at the Speed of Change… For the Second Army Knowledge Symposium April 1, 2002 What We Know About Knowledge and Learning Peter J. Engstrom Chief Knowledge Officer SAIC Strategies Group Vice President for Corporate Knowledge Development

2. We Are Drowning in Information and Starving for Knowledge Hubert Saint Onge: Claricia

3. KM Challenges Facing The Government • Organizational impediments • Size and complexity of the organization • Contradictory policy and directives • Lack of coordination across the Service stovepipes • Multiple, non-sequenced, IT strategies and technologies created with inadequate integration strategy • Cultural impediments • Differences between X/Y generation and “baby boomers” • Natural resistance to change • 50 percent of government knowledge is contained in e-mail and is easily lost as change advances • Most military knowledge is embodied in practice, not books • Competition for resources limit Service’s collaboration • Local knowledge is hard to convert into universal knowledge

4. Knowledge Is Everywhere • In the experience of the members of the organization • In the interactions between members of the organization • In the written artifacts of the organization

5. So, What Is Knowledge? All the information in an Enterprise All the experience in the Enterprise Focus Knowledge is the combination of critical information and collective intellect that enables an organization to make a decision, create a solution, or change a position.

6. Knowledge Management Is Not Information Management Knowledge Management is designed and deployed to enable active learning in the moment, capture that learning, leverage it across other information sources in order to create and share enabling information Information Management is designed and deployed to enhance, rather than substitute for the social practices that underlie knowledge creation and organizational sharing.

7. Knowledge Creation and Sharing: Friction at Every Level Types of knowledge Explicit (artifacts) Tacit (skills possessed by the individual) Tacit-Tacit Individual Receiving Individual Sharing Tacit-Explicit-Tacit Individual sharing Increased knowledge lost due to friction Explicit storage Individual receiving Explicit-Explicit Explicit Archive Explicit Reuse Explicit Capture Organization capturing information

8. Thinking Holistic: Integrated Knowledge Architectures Codification Strategy Personalization Strategy Explicit Knowledge Tacit Knowledge Information Portal Knowledge asset Intel Search Engines Virtual Collaboration Knowledge mapping Expertise Locator Best Practice Capture Communities of Practice Integrated Knowledge Architecture

9. Working the Knowledge Edge?Where KM Really Makes a Difference KM Critical Gap Greater Organizational Agility Rate of Normal Knowledge Loss Cost of Change to Organization Rate of Loss Mitigated by good KM Time

10. Learning While Doing ? Doing ? Performance Through Learning: The Secret of Tacit Transfer Greatest Leverage for KM Cost of Doing Business Time 2 months

11. Again, and Again, and Again! Using KM to create organizational agility and stay on the curve Cost Savings, $, etc Time

12. People instinctively seek and share know-how, and new ideas Right Actions Processes, tools, and skills for managing knowledge Right Means Leadership, performance focus, and common infrastructure Right Conditions What It Takes to Learn Fast: Tacit Transfer

13. Tacit Knowledge Functions • Tacit knowledge promotes member identification with an organization. • It coordinates social interactions within the organization. • It is the ultimate way we pass on what we know to others. • Establishes norms and rules by which action within organizations is guided. • Inclusion of these conventions within each employee promote identity and esprit de corp.

14. Understanding Tacit Knowledge • Manifest in soldier understanding of implicit norms and operating procedures. • Only acquired through experiential learning. • Observation must be accompanied by “learning by doing” and “learning while doing” for it to stick. • Individuals “remember” tacitly through experimentation and accumulation of experiences. • Organizations “remember” through recognition, aggregation, and accumulation of individual experiences.

15. Bottom Line Impact People & Teams Goals Using Knowledge Results Tacit Exploitation Framework“We Have Always Used Our Heads”

16. Learn during Bottom Line Impact People & Teams Goals Learn after Learn before Using Knowledge Results Tacit Exploitation Framework“It’s All About People and Learning”

17. AARs Peer Assists Retrospects Learn during People & Teams Bottom Line Impact Goals Learn after Learn before Using Knowledge Results Leveraging Tacit Opportunity3 Simple Learning Processes

18. Learning Communities of Practice Access & Apply Renew Learn during Bottom Line Impact Goals People & Teams Learn after Learn before Using Knowledge Results Quickly Disseminating Critical Info… People Talking to Other People Continuous

19. Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Community of Practice Dual citizenship Community of Practice:Dual Citizenship

20. Capturing Tacit Knowledge:Storytelling…War Stories • Storytelling is the best way we have to convey tacit knowledge • Storytelling provides a framework for sharing information and meaning • Stories capture things that cannot be captured any other way • Stories provide context which in turn conveys emotions, triggers memories, and • Stories provides insight and organizational intuition

21. Leverage of Organizations Total Knowledge Potential Agile, knowledge enabled, learning organization Must leverage explicit with tacit to maximize organizational potential Tacit understanding of an organizations implicit norms and underlying operating procedures is only acquired through experiential learning Explicit data bases, knowledge search engines, and information management technologies

22. Plan Input Input Plan Learn Execute Learn Execute Leveraging Knowledge in SchiehallionReduced Oil Field Development Costs by $80m!

23. Business Context & PerformanceHistories Knowledge Assets Learning Access & Apply Communities of Practice Renew Learn during People & Teams Goals Learn after Learn before Using Knowledge Results A Strategic KM Architecture ...Treating Knowledge As an Asset Continuous Bottom line Impact

24. How Do You Use Leverage Knowledge? “Learning while doing” Creates Force Multiplier Knowledge Yellow Pages “Three phone call” location…every time Communities of Practice/Story Telling Rapid transfer between similar communities Knowledge technology Enhances knowledge creation and sharing

25. KM Problems We All Face • Creating a base understanding of what KM is… and is not! • Instituting a reward system that rewards sharing and discourages knowledge hoarding. • “Willingness to invest in technology” easy… “willingness to invest in people” hard for corporate leadership. • Balancing the “risk tolerance” of leadership with the need for the organization to share in order to obtain real results. • Creating a KM story that connects the issues, directions, and outcomes, and derisks the change journey for the organization. • Enabling partners understanding that KM is a holistic process and cultural change… not a technology or product. • Focusing the power of KM to solve real world problems. • Unwillingness of client to go the “full Monty” and employ all aspects of KM strategy or “there are no shortcuts to success.”

26. An update for the Second Army Knowledge Symposium 1 April 2002 9-11 Implications of Grand Terrorismon Knowledge Management Peter J. Engstrom Chief Knowledge Officer SAIC Strategies Group Vice President for Corporate Knowledge Development

27. Post 9-11 Observations • There are profound knowledge changes ahead as a result of learnings from 911 • There was significant and unanticipated loss in organizational agility in companies that lost senior leadership talent in the WTC • The explicit knowledge archived by corporations more often than not proved to be insufficient to backstop decisions required by remaining senior leadership decision makers • Business continuity planning was not focused on human capital protection • Loss and displacement of people resulted in loss of knowledge and intelligence necessary to conduct every day business operations… in every organization, regardless of size

28. Law of Unintended Consequence Corporate Resource Decision Explicit Archive Tacit Exploitation OK Before...Not OK After Corporate Leadership Team Redundant Storage Personal Experiences Legacy Histories Grand Change Disaggregating Corporate HQ Geographic Separation Reverse Mentoring Teams Redundant Competencies

29. The Slippery Slope of Knowledge Loss in Crisis Accelerated Rate of Loss due to Tacit deficit Unexpected Change Increases Rate of Loss and Cost Impact on Organization Break Point Normal Rate of Tacit Loss Normal Rate of Learning Time

30. Reducing the Impact of Sudden Change…Creating a New Strategy KM Reduces Risk and Cost of Loss Increased Rate of Change/Tacit Loss Greater Loss and Cost Without KM Impact on Organization Enhanced Rate of Learning Break Point Rate of Change/ Tacit Loss Time

31. Most (but not all) companies: Backed up their data Documented their procedures Established contingency plans for physical facilities, IT, telecommunications, and emergency operations Few were prepared for the loss of human capital Talent Expertise Experience Creativity Business judgment Corporate knowledge Human Capital Protection …Recognition of a Critical Shortfall September 11, 2001 Redefined Business Knowledge Strategy

32. Strategy for Human Capital Loss Protection Focus must be on: • Pre-crisis identification and capture of critical knowledge • Post-crisis resilience andrecovery • Approach should provide a balance between collection and connection of critical tacit assets Strategy must protect and capture: • Judgment • Perspective • Contacts • Mentoring • Understanding • Creative resources Of key individuals and offices

33. Strategy must protect and capture: Critical categories of acquired knowledge within the business Personal operating principles of key performers  Historical memory and illustrative anecdotes Nuts and bolts of the corporate culture Explicit and implicit “knowledge DNA” Focus must be on: Long-term plans, unseen agendas, and tacit aspirations as they affect current decisions Specific examples of unintended consequences The true communications hierarchy (who gets listened to first? Last? Why? What do they contribute?) Implicit sieves and sorters of incoming information Post 9-11 Organizational Knowledge at Risk

34. Strategy must protect and capture: Decision trees and decision trains ( which decisions must be made first?) Resource networks, including "high priests," personal mentors, knowledge sources, and expediters (potentially, anyone from the CEO to a secretary.) Focus must be on: Issue-specific connections (whom do you consult/what are your information sources in these situations?) Trade secrets and proprietary processes (who knows what?) Real world procedures Priorities, assumptions, and plans for dealing with crisis Post 9-11 Personal Knowledge at Risk

35. Integrated Knowledge Architectures Pre 9-11 Normal Corporate Focus Codification Strategy Personalization Strategy Explicit Knowledge Tacit Knowledge Information Portal Knowledge asset Intel Search Engines Virtual Collaboration Knowledge mapping Expertise Locator Best Practice Capture Communities of Practice Integrated Knowledge Architecture Post 9-11 New Corporate Focus

36. Projected GovernmentKnowledge Loss After 9-11 Most agencies with key responsibilities under the Federal Response Plan face potential losses of nearly half their current staff in the next five years

37. Exodus Project:Creating A Serious Mentoring Initiative Personnel “Bathtub” Capture and Reuse at Every Level Exodus Mentoring Number of Personnel Juniors Mid Level Seniors Retired Knowledge Harvesting Knowledge Harvesting Knowledge Harvesting

38. 0055V