How Knowledge Enabling Avoids the Pitfalls

It is understandable that members of organisation to be obsessed with the information tools and technologies and the boundaries that staff workin. As many of these systems are expensive and based on the cost a business case is derived, and basic outcomes can be predicted. Executives who take this route usually are not fools, careless or uninformed, but they may be short sighted. Focusing on the part that is easily defined and described is a natural process, but the sustained production of knowledge requires more.

Knowldge enabling is founded on basic human skills, that is being effective, caring experts and activits the following three premises indicate why this is so:

1. Knowledge is justified true belief, individual and social ,tacit and explicit. Knowledge is closely attached to human emotions, aspirations, hopes and intentions.
   
2. Knowledge depends on your perspective. Despite efforts to come up with general measurement tools that apply across many situationtions, knowledge is scalable (von Krogh and Roos, 1995a). It depends on an individual's perspective and a given context.


3. Knowledge creation is a craft, not a science. Knowledge activists and COPs (Community of Practices) share in the craft of knowledge creation it is not the responsibility of one staff member.

Premise 1

Knowledge is not simply information stored in the latest professed Knowledge Managment system. These systems are simply information managment and do not have much to do with the creation of Knowledge. Knowledge which is tacit and shared with other COP members is more difficult to capture and it is the processes of enabling which will assist with this task. When companies put information and knowledge into the same category, they neglect the very particular nature of knowledge and its creation; at worst, their elaborate information systems and measurement tools may leave out the creative aspect of knowledge. The real challenge is for managers to enable the creation of knowledge; capturing its by-product, information is the easy part.

Premise 2

Everything known is attached to a particular scale of observation; change the scale and knowledge of a situation changes. For example you can describe your current environment, but if you were in a helicopter your view would be of the building and its environment. This view offers a better understanding of the overall context. Going the other way a researcher using a microsocpe reduces the scale of observation, going inward and investigating the microbs.

Within an organisation a new employee starts with a general overview and as they become more aware they then delve further into a topic and detail of the subject at hand. So in Business acknowledging a range of perspectives is essential, even if general tools can help define what kind of knowledge are most relevant to the company.

Premise 3

Managers may want clearly defined responibilities and tasks, but the ebb and flow of knowledge in any company requires a more expansive approach. Individual and organisatioinal barriers are inherent to knowledge creation:

• lack of understanding
  
• lack of agreement


• lack of common language
  
• company myths


• failure stories, and


• rigid procedures.
  

Yet even if an overly scientific attitude contributes to these barriesrs, we do not mean that knowledge creation happends by default; it has to be carefully enabled throught an aware and sensitive managemnt practice. It is hard to achieve from scratch but this is not impossible especially if boundary-braking managers are in place.

(These insites are from my reading of 'Enablling Knowledge Creation' by Georg Von Krogh - Kazuo Ichijo - Ikujiro Nonaka - 2000)

Organisational Barriers to Knowledge Creation

In any organisation it has been identified that there are four main barriers to the creations of Knowledge. They are:

1. The need for a Legitimate Language
2. Organistional Stories
3. Procedures, and
4. Company Paradigms

Legitimate Language
First, language is key to the learning and reflection of individuals. The problem arises when sharing ones knowledge, taking the individuals tacit knowledge and making it explicit for others to consume. The problem arises that some knowledge can only be expressed with the individuals vocabulary. So to recognise any new business opportunity might require an innovative and new vocabulary.

Organisational Stories
Secondly all organisations have stories of various kinds as well as anecdotal history of management. These constitutes corporate memory or commonsense in understanding about the individual environment within an organsiation and allows individuals to regulate their behaviour accordingly. Many stories are also coloured by personal experience and anecdotal evidence. Where this become a barrier is when you get stories which relate to an activity that someone has done before and they are not there anymore. Giving some indication that if you what to follow that path, it has been done before and failed so don't try unless you want to fail.

Procedures
The third knowledge barrier involved procedures, the double-edged sword of knowledge management. On one hand the process provide improved productivity gains but on the other hand it stifles innovation. An example is with products which are created across different work groups. ie with the development of the Sharp's pocket organiser, it required engineering staffs from a least three distinct technical milieus and groups. The problem arises that most processes are not designed to work across these areas and budgetary control usually does not allow for the utilisation of resources for other work group purposes.

Company Paradigms
Finally the last barrier to knowledge creation is the most fundamental: company paradigms. In general, paradigms socialise new organisational members, getting them to line up behind the current thinking of the company. Paradigms have the power to make or break knowledge creation, they determine the legitimacy of personal knowledge within an organisation. Personal knowledge that conforms with the paradigm will be quickly embraced by colleagues; nonconformist attempts to justify personal beliefs are often met with skepticism.

Summary
When any or all four barriers are present, individual insights may never make it through the whole process of knowledge creation. Ideas, arguments, concepts are killed and don't make it into successful products or services.

If new, innovative language cannot be accepted then tacit knowledge will be lost; alternatively, stories of past failures may paralyse members of the company. When individuals beat their heads against the proverbial brick wall they get to a stage point where they often decide to stop contributing new ideas. Like many organisations they become part of the passive participants, or reach a point and leave - only to compete with the company from outside.

These point highlight the fact that knowledge management is a whole lot more than the information and technology being used. Knowledge management is managing the most expensive resource in a company, their people it about the investment and management of the resource which returns the interest in payment of increased organisational knowledge.

Enabling Knowledge Creation - How to Unlock Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power

From the authors of "The Knowledge-Creating Company" and "Enabling Knowledge Creation" I have started to get a better understanding of the barriers and enablers of Knowledge Creation.
We are still seeing Knowledge Management being cast into the realms of mistic and theory and no results. Yet countless examples are given around the world where it is fact and working. So what is wrong where does it stop and how do companies turn it around to work? These are some and part of the questions that are raised each time I have this converstation with managers. So over the next few weeks I am researching the answer to these questions. Part of this investigation is in the many books, websites and other peoples experiences.
In the latest book that I am reading which is "Enabling Knowledge Creation" by Georg Von Krough, Kazuo Ichijo and Ikujiro Nonaka published 2000. They had identified two types of barriers, they are individual and organisation. The two are both different and yet interrelated and companies need to address both of them to dismantle and enable the creation of knowledge.

"For your people to be innovative and motiveated, you need

to consider human needs. If you feel good and appreciated, you are much more open to many things than if you always need to defend yourself."

-Andreas Rihs, CEO, Phonak

As I work throught the book I will update and make further postings on the subject.