The Jounrney of Knowledge-Enabling

Knowledge management or more so knowledge creation should be the goal of all businesses today. In reading the book Enabling Knowledge Creation it this understanding and application of unlocking the mysteries of Tacit Knowledge and Releasing the Power of Innovation. It is not a matter of capturing and storing information as this is not knowledge. It is in the application of information and the interaction between people and the creation of new innovative ideas that this information becomes real knowledge.

Krogh, Ichijo and Nonaka provide an understanding of the limits of knowledge management and the barriers which retard the level and effectivness of this area of business. In understanding these barriers which are both individual as well as organisational you are better prepared to assist an organisation in liberating this resource and allowing it to be a true asset in the business.

The book identifies four severe barriers. These are

• The need for a legitimate language
• Orgnisational stories
• Procedures, and
• Company paradigms

These as with individual barriers arise because of natural human tendencies, and they can be strenthened because of the wrong attitude of managers attitude towards knowledge and the acceptance of limited company paradigms.

The first being language is key as the conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit can only be done through a common language which is accepted thoughtout the organisation. So time this can not be achieved and it is a matter of defining the new language and communicating it amound the business.

The second is organsation stories, sometimes these stories are from past experience or hear say, or stories brought from other organisations. Not to say these stories are needed to help people to orient themselves in bonding with other and understanding the company. But its the other side when it makes it difficult for new knowledge creation, since they make it difficult for individuals to express contradictory ideas. A lot of the time stories are negative and about failures of the past. They work of the assumption that it failed before so its not going to work now. The old story is there was this person Peter Nurk who tried it and he not hear any more.

The third is procedures which is a double edge sword. These procedures usually have been developed over and time and through experience and provide a more efficent way to carry out complex task. The trouble is when individuals find an innovative alternative the procedure is quoted as the proven and test method and encourged to stay within the defined boundarys. Which is a good idea and maintain standards but can be a limiter to new eyes.

The last barrier to knowledge creation is the most fundamental and all-encompassing: company paradigms. A companies worldview is usually governed by it strategic intent, vision or mission statement all of which contribute to their paradigm. Its these paradigm which define the conversations, language used, key stories and the routines followed. All of these influence the way individuals work within an organisation and interpret the data.

The large part of my understanding from this book is the alignment and context of information. And the translations of this information in to a common language so that others can digest and internalise the lessons learn't.

One of the diagrams which best showed the model knowledge creation was in the Epilogue on Pg261.

This models highlights the three types of initiatives used in knowledge management. They are:

• Risk Minimisers,
• Efficiency seekers, and
• Innovators

It is the Innovators who have travelled fartherst along the path of knowledge enabling path. Still most organsiations go through these steps first. The first step is to minimise the risk to the business. Taking stock of what it is the organisation has and where it is and then capturing and locking down. This can be in data but usually it is found in people and their tacit knowledge of the business. This knowledge is used to solve operational tasks in marketing, finance, manaufacturing and so forth.

The second is the efficiency seekers, making available the information and finding new use for it within the business. These types of organisations tend to look at new knowledge and not knowledge creation. The main role of these types of businesses is to capture and reuse of this knowledge to other parts of the buisness. People need to be motivated to share their knowledge and utilise knowledge which has come from other parts of the business. They tend to concentrate on knowledge transfer rather than specific technological solutions for capturing existing knowledge.

The third step is taken by the companies which are firmly on the knowledge enabling path which is taken by the innovators. Its more about understanding the current limitations of their knowledge and realising that they need to create knowledge for succesful innovations. These organisations focus on new knowledge and the processes involved. The constantly engage and motivate their people, creating enabling context for new knowledge creation. Managers in these companies have a strategic view of knowledge, formulate knowledge visions, tear down knowledge barriers and develop new corporate values.

This highlights what I have found in much of my reading and that is Knowledge Management if the combination of People, Processes and Technologies, it is the balance between these that provides the results of a good knowledge managment vision, strategy and solutions which delivers results to the business.

In the epilogue the provided an examples of some enabling tools for knowledge management which is work considering.

Capturing and Locating

• Data warehousing
• Datamining
• Yellow pages
• IC-Navigator
• Balanced scorecard
• Knowledge audits
• IC-index
• Business information systems
• Rule-based systems

Transferring and Sharing

• Internet
• Intranet
• Groupware
• Networked organsiation
• Knowledge workshops
• Knowledge workbench
• Best Practice Transfer
• Benchmarking
• Knowledge gap-analysis
• Knowledge sharing culture
• Technology transfer units
• Knowledge transfer units
• System thinking

Enabling

• Instill a knowledge vision
• Manage conversations
• Mobilise knowledge activists
• Create the right context
• Globalise local knowledge
• Professional innovation network
• New organisational forms
• New HRM-system
• New corporate values
• Project management systems
• Corporate universities
• Communities
• Storyboards
  

These entry is based on my reading of "Enabling Knowledge Creation" - Georg Von Krogh - Kazuo Ichijo - Ikukiro Nonaka