KM Chicago: January meeting follow-up
The most recent KM Chicago (http://kmchicago.blogspot.com) meeting was a roundtable discussion format, focusing on helping KMers in transition. I thought that it was a really rich discussion with a lot of good tips and suggestions, some of which include:
- Approach career opportunities with the idea of “fit” in mind. How can you answer the questions:
- What are they trying to achieve with this position?
- How can I make the critical difference in this role?
- How can I best communicate this?
- When discussing previous experience that wasn’t 100% focused on KM, show how the skills/responsibilities relate to or are KM (e.g., knowledge sharing, capture, etc.)
- On the other hand, where organizations are looking for a KM role that isn’t actually branded as KM (more on this below), describe your experience and skills in their terms
- Focus your resume on impact statements
- Organizations are often looking for people who have “been there, done that” and not those who are new to the particular skillset they’re looking for - particularly in the realm of technology. For those KMers who are looking to expand their skills, volunteering at organizations who need the particular skillset you’re trying to develop is a great opportunity to gain experience and prove that you have actually been there, and done that
Job search strategies were also discussed and tended to hammer home the key points below:
- Create a database of personal contacts, let them know what you’re looking for
- Network, network, network (at event such as KM Chicago —- PLUG!)
- “If you’re not on LinkedIn, you might as well not even be trying”
- Set up saved searches on vertical job search engine sites, such as www.indeed.com and www.simplyhired.com
To the last point above, and what I mentioned earlier, not all KM roles are identified as such. Many use similar terms to describe the same ends, or may only be KM-ish in nature, but may still be an excellent fit for you. With that in mind, I captured a list of these similar terms that were thrown around during the meeting. So if you’re stuck on what to search for, or other ways to describe what you’ve done, try using some of these keywords:
Informatics, process control, content management, knowledge management, knowledge manager, information management, web 2.0, web analytics, market intelligence, competitive intelligence, online community moderation, community management, communities of practice, social media, organizational change, adoption, taxonomy, collaboration, learning management, organizational learning, learning organizations, competency development, training, distance learning, distance education, informal learning, expert mapping, knowledge transfer, innovation, optimization, optimize processes, business improvement, knowledge integration, systems integration, records management, communications
And, if there are any keywords that we might have missed, feel free to let me know in the comments.
Framework of CSFs for KM: Foundation
The following presentation was put together when I was just beginning to form a foundation to build my framework of CSFs for KM. The framework I’m working on has changed since this presentation, but I’ve had a couple requests recently to share.
In the next few months I hope to be able to share a full summary of my dissertation. In the meantime, if you have any questions about this presentation or my findings, please feel free to ask!
Workshop on Knowledge Retention
On October 7th I’ll be taking part in a lunch panel discussing the subject of organizational knowledge retention. The information is just below, but more details and registration info can be found here . It should be a great discussion - please join us if you can.
Knowledge Retention: How to Keep Knowledge from Walking out the Door
Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008
Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd, Chicago?
“In years gone by the physical plant and equipment were the assets to be guarded. Now, increasingly, our most valuable assets walk out the door at five o’clock every day. Though the workers leave the machines and computers behind when they go home, they take the experience and skill-sets with them. If they don’t come back, we’re in deep trouble.” (Source)?
How do organizations identify and deal with capturing and retaining knowledge from employees who are retiring or leaving? Join SLA Illinois and KM Chicago members for an exploration of this important issue and how information professionals can play a relevant role within their organizations.
Lunch Panel
Three KM practitioners will discuss their experiences, followed by a question and discussion session. Bring your questions and comments on this topic!
- Curtis Conley is a knowledge management professional and doctoral candidate at Northern Illinois University. Curtis’ KM experience in professional service firms has included the implementation of tools and processes targeting knowledge retention, capture, sharing and reuse. His dissertation and research focuses on the factors critical for the success of KM initiatives in organizations.
- Laura Claggett is the manager of Knowledge & Library Services at UOP LLC - a petrochemical technology company headquartered in Des Plaines, IL. Her team of knowledge management professionals works on knowledge retention of technical experts, mentoring, technology mapping, social network analysis and document management. Laura has an MLS from the University of Illinois, an MBA from Dominican University, and is an adjunct faculty at Dominican University’s GSLIS.
- Rich Doody is currently a manager within the Knowledge Management group at PepsiCo in Chicago. He was formerly the Knowledge Management Program Leader at Kraft Foods and has extensive experience in proprietary knowledge retention approaches with scientific and technical knowledge. He holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Afternoon Workshop
Facilitator: Kathy Hagen
In order to meet the challenges of today’s competitive environment, organizations must be able to access and use the accumulated experience of their employees. Experienced employees are retiring and changing positions at unprecedented rates. What is your organization doing to make sure that this wealth of knowledge is not walking out the door? This interactive half-day session will focus on identifying critical knowledge, defining knowledge risks and developing a knowledge transfer plan.
Before starting her own business, Kathy held positions that combined knowledge management, process improvement, change management, and information technology in the life sciences, manufacturing, and retail industries. Kathy worked with Deloitte as a Senior Manager heading the Intellectual Capital Practice and served as the Assistant Director of Exploratory Development Informatics and Knowledge Management at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Groton, Connecticut. Prior to Pfizer, Kathy Hagen was the principal leading the Global Knowledge Management Practice for Health Care at Computer Science Corporation. Kathy serves on the Leadership Team for the Twin Cities Knowledge Management Forum. She teaches Knowledge Transfer at the Minnesota State College and University System and is a guest lecturer at St. Thomas University Graduate School of Business. For more information, see http://www.klhagen.com/ .
Return to Blogging
Things have been somewhat quiet here as of late due to a pretty hectic schedule.? Although I’ve started to catch back up on email I haven’t (by a long shot) been able to keep to my one-post-per-week blogging goal.? The indefinite blogging hiatus is over however, so expect to see more regular activity on this site again.
Catching up on some of my RSS feeds, here are a few that have really caught my attention recently that I thought I would share here:
- RSS Bankruptcy is discussed over at LawyerKM .? This appeals VERY much to me at the moment!
- Steve Dale discusses Identifying Community of Practice Needs
- Andrew Gent on The Four Paradoxes of KM
Am I being too critical?
A quick dissertation study update.? I’m in the midst of refining the last two chapters, reviewing everything and in general, just seeing if anything new jumps out to me about the results.? The one thing I still can’t get over is how absurdly long the list of CSFs for KM has grown.
My literature review was fairly extensive and the list of CSFs for KM that I proposed had 46 different factors which were, in other studies on CSFs for KM, determined to be critical for the success of KM.? My gut told me, “46?? Really?? They’re all critical?”? So, my thought was that by including them all in my study, the ones that truly were critical would float to the top and there would be a clear mark of demarcation between the critical factors and the nice to have factors.? While this did happen to some extent, it wasn’t quite as clear as I had hoped.
On top of this all, I also asked participants to identify any critical factors that were not identified in the study.? In addition to the 46 already identified from the literature, participants suggested an additional 83 factors which they also felt were critical, for a total of 129 CSFs for KM.? Obviously, I think we need to work on clearly defining not just the factors themselves, but what we mean when we say something is critical.? If all 129 factors are critical, then really none of them are.
This may just be an issue with survey research since so much of the context around each of the factors gets lost.? And as has been discussed on the ActKM forum recently, I’m sure that more than a few folks out there may have wanted to respond “it depends” to a lot of the factors presented.? The good news is that this study clearly paves a path for a follow up qualitative study on CSFs for KM - which brings me to some of the original questions I had about the interrelatedness of CSFs for KM.? Also good news (I suppose) is that I’ll have plenty to write about in the limitations section of my study. Hooray!
Staying up to date with current KM News and Articles
In addition to setting up individual news alerts for KM, reading the many KM blogs and publications out there, how else do you stay informed and find articles about/related to KM?? I just want to point out two sites/people that I think do an excellent job of posting a lot of great articles and information that consistently keeps my reading list populated, especially of late.
Paul McDowall posts a ton of great articles at The Interdepartmental Knowledge Management Forum (IKMF).? Join the group and take a look at the archive of fantastic links – there is something in there for everyone.? Here are a few great examples of recent content that Paul has posted that I’ve especially enjoyed:
- 45 minute audio stream discussing the Army’s current efforts in Knowledge Management and how it relates Boots on the Ground
- Really interesting article titled: Knowledge management for agricultural innovation: lessons from networking efforts in the Bolivian Agricultural Technology System
- Article discussing KM at IKEA , and how critical knowledge transfer between employees can be for IKEA
Boris Jaeger also does a fantastic job of posting links to fresh KM news and articles, among many other things, at Knowledge Management News and Resources .? This site also has an added layer of value in that quite a bit of the posts come from German sources which is fantastic because otherwise there would have been quite a few good reads that I’d have missed out on simply because I don’t speak German (unless of course you count Rammstein lyrics).? The English title is also posted and whenever interested in the article it is easy enough to run the content through a German-English translation site.? Examples of some recent favorites posted:
- Something that may interest some of my readers, there is a call for chapters for a book titled: Cultural Implications of Knowledge Sharing, Management and Transfer: Identifying Competitive Advantage - the description on the site goes into more depth and it seems to be a very interesting project
- An interesting and quick read titled: The Leaving Employee: Knowledge Management for Surviving and Thriving
Have I missed any other sites or communities that also post frequent links to articles about/related to knowledge management?
Careers in Knowledge Management
Weather your starting a career in KM or just looking to grow into a new career that is more KM-centric, it’s hard to know exactly where to start looking.? There isn’t exactly a category for KM positions on Monster , is there?? And in a discipline as diverse as KM, the positions out there for KM aren’t really limited to one or two spots in the tree structures of most job boards.? So, as a few folks have asked me, where to start?
Vertical job search engines such as SimplyHired or Indeed are great places to start your search.? Searching for the keywords “knowledge management” and then narrowing it down by your location, all positions where the phrase “knowledge management” appears will be returned.? You can also filter either by relevance or date on both sites and the results on both are, more or less, the same.? However, the results from Indeed are presented more clearly and the ads don’t get in the way quite as much.? In addition to vertical job search engines, sites that specialize in roles directly or indirectly related to KM also have relevant KM job postings from time to time.? Some examples include Dice (more IT heavy) and SLA.org (although you have to be a member to see the job details - which you should be a member anyway!).?
There are also a few KM sites out there where KM jobs are posted.? While some of the listings can be found using the vertical search engines mentioned, some are unique to where they are posted.? Here are a few sites where you can find KM job postings:
- KM Jobs at Knowledge Management Reporter as well as KMPro both display a feed of KM jobs from Indeed
- KM Jobs at ITtoolbox.com – not surprisingly, they’re very IT-centric
- KM4Dev Jobs Center
- KM Job postings on the Boston KM Forum site
- Additionally, many of the other KM Communities often have KM jobs posted on their site that may not be posted elsewhere.? Sign up for their forum or discussion lists - people post positions on those frequently (depending on the community)
- KMtool.net also has a few links to additional (dated) KM job resources, but they also have links to executive search firms that do KM recruitment as well
On a related note, there are also a couple of KM career/salary studies out there if you want to learn more.? I had a couple of links to KM salary studies based out of North America, but it seems as if those links are no longer working.? However, information on KM salaries based out of the UK can be found here.? The ICASIT KM career page also has some example KM job titles/descriptions and salary information.? Indeed also has KM salary information which also allows you to narrow your search results to a specific location, which makes for easy geographical comparison.
Perkins Eastman: Practice Area Communities
Congratulations again to Perkins Eastman and all of my former
colleagues in the Knowledge Resource Team for winning gold in the
Intranet Innovation Awards .? Working with the various Practice Area
Communities (PACs) was one of the things I enjoyed most working there.?
I only wish that I could have shared some of the tidbits I learned
working with the PACs on the video as well, but alas, I ended up opting
out since I had a severe allergic reaction to nuts only a couple days
before (and I’d prefer not to be on video looking like the Stay Puft
Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters), but I digress…
James did a great job editing the video and I think a lot of great
points for working with Communities of Practice are captured.? Since I
was sidelined with an injury at the time (ha), I’ll share a few of my
own thoughts here about why I feel PACs work so well:
- Having gatekeepers who are passionate about sharing knowledge is
critical for that attitude spread to the rest of those working in the
practice area - Also, having those gatekeepers work closely with passionate KM
team members who can propose new concepts or ideas for constant
improvement of the PAC methodology is key - Using the intranet as a vehicle for not just codification, but
collaboration and communication as well gives the PACs more than just
one dimension - Having community members set goals for a PAC, in terms of new
deliverables or just more opportunities to share knowledge in
person/online, can be a huge motivating factor - The practice of pollinating new concepts and ideas by showing one
PAC what another is doing can also be a catalyst for action.? The idea
that, “Hey - we should do something like that too!” can produce great
results
Talking about KM
I recently re-discovered a whitepaper written by some of the folks over at Anecdote titled, “Our take on ‘how to talk about knowledge management .’”? The paper itself is a nice primer on KM and one part in particular really jumps out at me:
“The way we talk about knowledge affects what we do about it. Many KM efforts get bogged down because people have a different understanding of KM.”
When looking at reasons for success or failure of a KM initiative I think that this is one of the factors that is absolutely critical.? If KM is to succeed in an organization everyone needs to be on the same page about what KM is.?
This also becomes relevant when going to conferences and the like.? The more I meet folks involved with KM, or claiming to be involved in one way or another, the more I find myself wondering what they really mean when they talk about it.? It’s easy enough to weed out vendor-speak (can I have a side of KM with my jargon, please?) - but have you ever had a conversation with someone about KM and walked away knowing that you were talking about something totally different?
I talk about this issue briefly in my dissertation but I’m thinking about exploring it a bit more.? Feel free to add to the list, but doing a bit of research on the origins of KM you can quickly find support for it arising out of MIS, EIS, DSS, HRM, TQM, AI, IT, fields like psychology, sociology, organizational management, philosophy, librarianship, etc.? I don’t think any of this is really wrong, as KM has emerged atheoretically as a field of practice, so the conceptual confusion when implemented in organizations is to be expected if it isn’t explicitly managed from the start of a KM initiative.?
Trying to simplify the origins of KM, I think Carrillo* does a good job when talking about the dominant perspectives in KM having either an HR or IT-heavy slant, but I enjoy the description of the integrated perspective of the two; which really boils down to the common People-Processes-Technology model of KM.? Coming from the integrated perspective that Carrillo suggests, and tying this back into the quote I mentioned from the Anecdote whitepaper above, I think that one of my favorite definitions of KM is from Robert Logan**:
“Knowledge management is about using information strategically to achieve one’s business objectives. Knowledge management is the organizational activity of creating the social environment and technical infrastructure so that knowledge can be accessed, shared and created.”
For me personally I like this definition because I first because interested in KM from the strategic management perspective.? I like it also because it touches on the People-Process-Technology model without necessarily framing it that way, which I think is helpful.? There are a few other KM definitions I’ll use for a quick elevator conversation, but if I’m allowed to speak for a few minutes on the subject to those relatively new to the concept, this definitely is great for framing the discussion.?
What elevator definitions do you have for KM?? Is there a definition or line of thought that you use to cut away at some of the conceptual confusion?? When a vendor tried to sell you their ‘knowledge base’ solution do you just start hearing ‘wakka-wakka-wakka’?
*Carrillo, P. (2004). Managing knowledge: Lessons from the oil and gas sector. Construction Management and Economics, 22, 631-642.
**Logan, R. K. (1997). The fifth language: Learning a living in the computer age. Toronto: Stoddart.
Individualist vs. Communitarian Cultures in KM
The other night at KM Chicago Ann Lee presented a summary of the CKO Summit from last October. There were a few interesting things that came out of the presentation, one of which was a slide discussing how globalization is impacting KM. Specifically, as organizations become truly global, how do those in the KM field account for differences between cultures that are more individualistic versus those that are more communitarian.
A graph was presented which identified the UK and US as more individualistic societies while China and India were more communitarian. This is a big question – how do you design KM initiatives so that it works for all cultures encompassed within a truly global organization? This ties in with something that emerged from my dissertation (which I’ll hopefully be posting a summary of the results in the next couple of months – stay tuned).
When asking participants of various geographical backgrounds to rank/rate Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for KM, the majority of participants found the listed CSFs as successful.? However, there were some differences that emerged between participants.? Although not statistically significant, participants that indicated that their primary geographic location of work was Asia ranked the CSFs slightly lower than participants of any other geographic region.
One possible explanation for this is linked to the potential North American bias that exists in the current literature on CSFs for KM, as well as other disciplines which the CSFs in my study were drawn from.? Not surprising considering there are a few publications suggesting that the design of KM initiatives and especially the design of KM systems have a heavy North American bias.
This brings about a new question which I would love to know the answer to: What CSFs for KM exist in Asian companies that don’t exist (or at the least aren’t as prominent) for KM initiatives in companies based in other geographic regions?? If we know what different CSFs for KM exist and can account for the relative weight of importance in each culture, can we then design better KM initiatives and systems?? I’m also curious if there are any organizations out there now that are bridging the gap successfully and how they go about it…