Lecture 3 Tools of knowledge management

After Action Review (AAR)

An after action review (AAR) is a discussion of a project or an activity. It enables the individuals involved to learn for themselves what happens, why it happened, what went well, what needs improvement and what lessons can be learned from the experience. The spirit of an AAR is one of openness and learning – it is not about problem fixing or allocating blame. Lessons learned may be tacitly shared on the spot by the individuals involved or explicitly documented and shared with a wider audience. The size of an AAR may reach from two individuals conducting a five minute AAR at the end of a short meeting to a day-long AAR held by a project team at the end of a large project. Activities suitable for an AAR simply need to have a beginning and an end, an identifiable purpose and some basis on which performance can be assessed. A suitable moment for an AAR is the end of a project and each identifiable event within a project.

Steps in an AAR

Invite the right people - appoint a facilitator - create the right climate.

What was supposed to happen? Revisit the objectives and deliverables of the project.

What actually happened? What went well? Why? What could have gone better? Share learning advice for the future.

Ensure that everyone feels fully heard before leaving the meeting.

Record and share important lessons learnt.

Collegial Coaching

Collegial Coaching is a professional development method aiming at increasing collegiality and improving performance. It is a confidential process through which professionals share their expertise and provide one another with feedback, support, and assistance for the purpose of refining present skills, learning new skills, and / or solving task related problems. Hence, actions that might improve the use of the skills and knowledge are explored. There are five Functions of successful Collegial Coaching:

Companionship: Talk about success and failure with a new approach. Feedback: Give each other objective, non-evaluative feedback. Analysis: Help each other extend the control over a new approach. Adaptation: Work together to fit an approach to the special needs of an assignment. Support: Provide needed support.

Steps in a Collegial Coaching

Define roles: (A) Requesting person and (B) coaches.

A exposes the own situation and formulates the core question for the coaching.

Coaches (B) ask questions of understanding; A provides answers.

Coaches (B) discuss among themselves about A's case and about the way he presented it. They share own experience of similar situations and challenges. A just listens.

A reacts on the discussion of the coaches. If needed, steps 2 to 4 are repeated (new core question).

A declares next steps to do.

Yellow Pages

An organisational “yellow pages” is a tool to help people to find others in their organisation who have the knowledge and expertise they need for a particular task or project. It is like a staff directory including details about knowledge, skills, experience and interests. The “yellow pages” is electronic rather than paper-based, so that users can efficiently search information. “Yellow pages” are particularly beneficial in organisations that are over a certain size or that are spread around in different locations, and so people don’t have the opportunity to get to know each other well. “Yellow pages” are helping organisations to ‘know what they know’. They allow to find people and to get access to their tacit knowledge. A “yellow pages” is not necessarily aimed at those embarking on a major project or piece of work; often the greatest value comes from a multitude of simple ten-minute conversations in which people ask each other for a quick word of advice or a steer in the right direction.

How to go about it?

Be clear about your aims: What purpose will the yellow pages serve?

Create ownership with the people contributing to, and using, the system.

Balance formal with informal information. Personal information and a photograph help in building contacts.

Include name, job title, team, job description, current projects, professional qualifications, CV, areas of knowledge and expertise, areas of interest, key contacts (internal and external), membership of knowledge networks or CoPs, contact information.

Organise entries for ease of loading and retrieval.

Keep it up-to-date.

Encouraging use – make marketing efforts to create peoples curiosity.

SWOT

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in any other situation of an organization requiring a decision in pursuit of an objective. It involves monitoring the environment of the organization with the aim to identify the key internal and external factors that are important to achieving the objectives. It can be used to develop a plan that takes into considerations many different factors and maximizes the potential of the strengths and opportunities while minimizing the impact of the weaknesses and threats.

A SWOT session also is a means of obtaining information from participants. It enables participants to take a breath, make a judgment and share their visions on the four pillars mentioned above in order to enrich the collective perception of the way the objectives are pursued.

How to go about it?

Make sure that the objectives pursued are clear to all participants 

Build the SWOT grid (past/future; positive/negative)

Fill the SWOT grid respecting this order :

a. Strengths

b. Weaknesses

c. Opportunities

d. Threats

Ensure that all experiences are taken seriously

Have the individual actors comment on their contributions and clarify comprehension questions

Record common aspects first and discuss contradictory opinions later

Good Practice

The sharing of good practices is one of the first things carried out in a knowledge management initiative. In most organisations it is already being done to some degree. This often begins with common practices such as instruction manuals or ‘how to’ guidelines. The next step from there is to identify and share good practices.

The essence of identifying and sharing good practices is to learn from others and to re-use knowledge. The biggest benefit consists in well developed processes based on accumulated experience.

Most good practice programmes combine two key elements: explicit knowledge such as a good practices database (connecting people with information), and methods for sharing tacit knowledge such as communities of practice (connecting people with people).

The best way of sharing good practices is ‘on the job’ and so communities and personal contact with others who have used the good practice is a key to success.

How to go about it?

Identify users' requirements.

Identify good practices worth being shared.

Document good practices (title and short abstract, profile of the good practice, context, description of processes and steps, lessons learned, and links to resources and key people).

Validate good practices with convincing results in a new context.

Disseminate and apply good practices.

Develop a supporting infrastructure.

Knowledge Fair

Knowledge fair is an event designed to showcase information about an organization or a topic. It includes methods such as speakers, demonstrations, booths displaying information, exhibition boards, workshops, videos, informal corners, open space, etc. A large amount of information can be made available and attendees can focus specifically on what they are interested in learning. Attendees can interact directly with the presenters, getting immediate answers to their specific questions. They also can establish contacts for further exploration of topics if needed.

Attendees often network with one another and booth developers often strengthen their teamwork. Knowledge fairs also provide opportunities to draw attention to best practices and recognize employee and team achievements.

Knowledge fair is particularly recommended when there is a lot of information to share with a lot of people and participants need a broader perspective, as well as an opportunity to interact on a one-to-one basis on specific topics. Knowledge fair is an alternative to formal presentations when more interactive experiences are desirable.

Knowledge fair is also pertinent if the organization is to adopt and sustain horizontal modes of operating and co-operating. Such a method can then foster a new organizational dynamic.

How to go about it?

Get top level support and publicize the fair widely.

Put the fair where there is a lot of foot traffic, e.g. in the atrium of the organization. Don't accept a decision to put the fair in an out-of-the way space.

Get common displays for booths so as to convey an image of diversity with integration.

Be realistic about how much time it takes for presenters to prepare and display.

Don't plan in too much detail for the actual booths - presenters can self-organize within a common framework.

Don't be too serious - a fair can be fun!

Exit Interviews

Exit interviews have evolved from feedback interviews with employees leaving the organisation to a knowledge management tool, as a way of capturing knowledge from leavers. Rather than simply capturing human resources information, the interview also aims to capture knowledge about what it takes to do the job.

Done correctly, exit interviews can be a win-win situation for both the organisation and the leaver. The organisation gets to retain a portion of the leaver’s knowledge and make it available to others, while the leavers get to articulate their unique contributions to the organisation and to ‘leave their mark'. Exit interviews are relatively quick and inexpensive. In a knowledge-focused exit interview, a face-to-face interview is needed.

How to go about it?

Start early. Plan the exit handover with replacing staff.

Identify persons that might benefit from the captured knowledge. Check their interest.

Make sure explicit knowledge captured throughout the whole working period is accessible. Check for relevant additional aspects to be captured now.

For tacit knowledge, review the key tasks of the person leaving. Ask about how to go about those tasks and the needed knowledge.

Ask for a 'walk through' to identify success stories and success factors, problems and pitfalls.

Identify knowledge sources (persons, networks).

The best exit interview happens during an overlap between the leaving and the replacing person.

Storytelling

Storytelling is used in organisations as a communication tool to share knowledge with inspiration. The language used is authentic (experience, not fact oriented); it is the narrative form that most people find interesting and attractive.

Storytelling has of course existed for thousands of years as a means of exchanging information and generating understanding. However, as a deliberate tool for sharing knowledge within organisations it is quite recent but growing very rapidly, to the extent that it is becoming a favoured technique among an increasing number of management consultants.

How to go about it (as a storyteller)?

Be clear about the key message you want to convey with a story.

Build your story on an own experience. Note key-words, from the beginning to the dramatic evolution, the turning point and the happy (sad) end. What is the lesson learned?

Tell your story starting from the beginning. Build an atmosphere of curiosity. Tell the surprising moment of your story with a dramatic voice. Observe your listeners.

If indicated, relate your story to the topic discussed.

How to go about it (as a listener / interviewer)?

Contribute to a good climate in the group. Show your interest. Give the storyteller an adequate reason to tell.

Be a great audience. Listen closely, be receptive and fully comprehending.

Don't resist the story. Hear it out and then come back with additional questions.

Observe an implicit contract of trust. Only break when you feel the teller is not telling the truth.

Experience Capitalization

In an experience capitalization, key stakeholders transform individual and institutional experience and knowledge into capital that can be used in future.

Experience capitalization is future oriented and aims at a change in collective institutional practice. Its focus may be on strategic orientation, basic concepts, or operational activities. Small experience capitalizations needs hours or days; more complex ones may last weeks or even months.

Experience capitalization is made up of learning processes that prepare change. Its output is lessons learnt, and good practices; its outcome is induced changes; a redesigned practice fulfils its purpose.

How to go about it?

There is no standard procedure for experience capitalization. Precise aims, clear questions and a deliberate openness to change are prerequisite for useful results that are easy to put into practice.

The usual phases in an experience capitalization are:

Needs assessment: Aims, benefits, readiness for change, etc.

Planning: Aims in detail, fields of observation, process, duration, roles, resources, instruments, etc.

Implementation: Stakeholders (ownership), process management, documents, synthesis, validation of outputs, etc.

Practice change: Decisions, planning and monitoring of the changed practice, impact analysis, etc.

Mentoring

The mentor is an experienced person who is able, willing and available to teach, train or coach a person with less knowledge in a specific area – regardless of age, gender, or expertise in other unrelated areas. The mother with four children may be a mentor to young parents, the young computer champion to a senior staff, and the senior expert to the young professional. Mentoring aims at (1) skills development, (2) fostering the understanding of the organisation and its culture, and (3) career development.

Beside this traditional mentoring (with fixed roles), peer mentoring (with interchanging roles) and team mentoring (with a network structure) are practised, the latter two having common features with other approaches (peer assist / peer review).

How to go about it?

Reflect on own past experiences as a mentor or mentee (beneficiary). What has been a great experience? What made it successful?

Check the mentoring concept (as a part of the knowledge management) of your organisation: What are accepted standards?

Determine the goals of the mentoring process. Define the beneficiary's expectations and preferred learning styles, and reveal the mentor's concept.

Choose the right mentor. Experience, knowledge and skills are one thing – a fine relationship between mentor and beneficiary the other. Your boss might not be the best mentor for you.

Develop a mentoring plan. Include moments for emergencies.

Define objectives for each meeting. Focus on the beneficiary's situation and questions, not on the mentor's experience.

Give up the mentoring when you feel strong enough.