The Sense and Nonsense of Knowledge Management

1. The Sense and Nonsense of Knowledge Management Dr Grace Cheng HKLA Seminar 20 October 2004

2. Highlights • Why do we need to manage knowledge? • The meaning of knowledge to individual and organization • KM strategies • Role of information professionals

3. Why do we need to manage knowledge?

4. Shorter knowledge cycle “Half of what you are taught as medical students will in 10 years have been shown to be wrong. And the trouble is none of your teachers know which half.” …Dean of Harvard Med School

5. “To keep up-to-date, you must read 6,000 articles a day, 365 days a year! …”

6. Research-Practice Gap

7. Globalization Customers Competitors Distribution channels

8. Need for Learning “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn” … Alvin Toffler

9. Specialization & team building

10. Knowledge Management Concepts & Practices

11. Web of Science – titles with ‘knowledge management’ No. of Items * * To Sept 2004. Sources: 96-02, Wilson TD (2002); 03-04: Cheng G (2004)

12. Knowledge Management – An oxymoron??

13. New paradigms of management /Drucker Old: “There is-or there must be-one right organization.” New: “There is the organization that fits the task.” Old: “There is one right way to manage people.” New: “One does not “manage” people. The task is to lead people. And the goal is to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of each individual.”

14. Knowledge • It is “a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information”. • In organisations, “Knowledge often becomes embedded not only in documents and repositories but also in organisational routines, processes, practices and norms.” Davenport & Prusak. Working Knowledge 1998, p. 5

15. DATA Contextualized Categorized Calculated Corrected Condensed INFORMATION Comparison Consequences Connections Conversation (situation) (decision) (other knowledge) (opinion/exchange) KNOWLEDGE Adapted from Davenport, T.H. & Prusak, L. Working knowledge, Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, 1998. Chap. 1.

16. The Attributes of knowledge • “Knowledge is to be acquired by a corresponding experience” (Henry David Thoreau, 1949) • Knowledge is dynamicbecause it is constantly changing through experience and learning

17. Subconscious Perceived Unaware Difficult to articulate or unspoken Experience based Transferred through conversation Embedded in stories and narratives Escapes observation Held within self Personal Insights and understandings Judgments Assumptions Adapted from Polyanyi (1962, 1983) & Baumard (2001) Formally articulated Elucidated Aware Fixed Codified Documented (written, taped, recorded, digitized, etc.) Stored in repositories (databases, files, etc.) Can be viewed or heard Shared with others Organizational Pushed or pulled Reports, lessons learned Characteristics of tacit & explicit knowledge

18. “How can something dynamic and tacit be managed?

19. Tacit knowledge Potentially expressible - competent level of expertise; heuristics (rule of thumb). Not expressible.

20. From Industrial to Knowledge Economy Information Processing Art Unstructured Nursing Health Care Blood transfusion Industrial production Structured Sense Making Non-routine Routine

21. KM Strategies People approach IT approach • Approach/ • Level Teams, Networks, COP Organization Level Codification, K harvesting Individual Level Develop/exploit Individual expertise AI Expert systems (match object to People)

22. People Approach - Team building; Exploit individual expertise

23. The IT Approach to KM – Turn Data into Information

24. Search Modes % users Search Engines Used Google 87% Online Journals Search Engines Databases Others 11% Yahoo 2% Source : Institute of Clinical Research (announced in listserv, Oct 04)

25. Comment from a user to Evidence-based Libraries Listserv, Oct 2004 Prefer Google to Medline “Surely it's about getting the right information, at the right time, in the right format? I can't help feeling that some librarians fear facing up to the fact that google often meets this criteria and does an excellent job.  Additionally, I think there may be some database snobbery going on: the more complex and ring-fenced by librarians the better!  If google can lead me to easily access accurate information quickly what's wrong with that? “

26. Low Back Pain Treatments Google - 3 million hits, With relevance ranking Medline: 47 hits of high specificity

27. Evidence for treatment of low back pain - a clinical answer Source: EVIDENCE (Hospital Authority), Issue 12, 2001

28. The IT Approach to KM Turn Information to Knowledge

29. An example: Amazon.com Online recommendations to customers based on: • Purchase activities • Items customers own • Interests (expressed and inferred) Mindful of • Knowledge is dynamic • Knowledge is tacit (expressed in purchase patterns of customers)

30. National Cancer Institute (US) Disease, Drug, Gene & Protein Modeling Drug Has target Treats Disease Protein Associated gene Encoded by Gene Source: Coronado et al 2004

31. Role of Information Professionals

32. I know… I do… Therefore I am.

33. Information SpecialistKM research centre • Recognised qualification in information science or librarianship • Computer literate with practical experience in computerised information systems, online searching, internet navigating and the use of CD-ROM systems • Able to work as a team player with strong communication skills in both English and Chinese • Systematic, self-motivated and outgoing

34. Add • Subject knowledge • Critical and analytical skills • Competence in filtering and presenting information • Adaptability to change and a change agent/”influencer” • Continuous learner with an open mind

35. My observations • Knowledge is power – to individual & organization • K <-> social/cultural environment • K generated may be accidental; KM is not • KM ≠ IT* • IT = I2 + T • KM is management with a knowledge focus * Very important component.

36. Alice in Wonderland, Chap 3: A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale The party was wet after swimming in Alice’s own pool of tears. • Dodo: Let’s have a Caucus-race to get dry. • Alice: What is a Caucus-race? • Dodo: I can’t explain it, but the best way to learn about something was to do it.

37. The best way to learn about KM is to try it Mind-set Skill-set Tool-set Source: Covey S. The 8th habit : from effectiveness to greatness (to be released Nov 2004)

38. Thank you ! 20 October 2004

39. Must Read Davenport, T.H. & Prusak, L. Working knowledge, Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, 1998