Saturday, 1 October 2011
Week 11: Knowledge Sharing
This week's case (p.179 of course notes) is the last one for the weekly blog and mini-analysis assignment. The case outlines how HP Analytics, an internal consulting division of HP, built a knowledge sharing culture over a four year period. Think of another organisation in which knowledge sharing would be beneficial. If you were the CEO of this organisation, what would your first steps be in developing knowledge sharing? What would be your key challenge(s) and what would you do the same/differently from the HP case?
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Shred motorsport is a car performance tuning center. The New Zealand company modify existing car computers (ECUs) to gain more performance and efficiency from them.
ReplyDeleteDue to the different years and models of cars all the wiring for changing computers and for programming them vary. It is a very experimental process as modification is not supported by the manufacturer.
Knowledge Management could help Shred Motorsport by employees sharing there methods for installing and tuning the new ECUs. A online blog broken up into manufacturers and models could be created so that each employee could record there process and method as they go. This would then allow other employees to look up the blog and see if a certain vehicle has been modified before.
A key challenge could be getting each employee to record there there process onto the blog, but i think it would be over come as each employee would want to share what they know to gain some knowledge in return from another employee.
Setting up a fun blog competitions like what HP did could also help gain more participation. A point system with prizes could be used, eg the more posts you do the points you get.
Currently, I work at a gymnastics club in wellington as a coach. One thing I've noticed is that between our gyms 35 or so coaches, we have no means of communicating online other than chatting on Facebook. Setting up some sort of a knowledge base for us all to use in terms of sorting out classes, cover for shifts, and coaching methods would help provide us with support and improve the quality of coaching that we can give.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to Facebook as an example, setting up a closed group in which all coaches at our gym are members of could allow this communication. Making this group secret also means that any information about training techniques (guides to our gymnasts success) could not be looked at by competing gyms coaches who may otherwise see the group. This is very easy to set up however one challenge that we may face is that some of the coaches, or board members, may not have Facebook accounts or do but do not often check them, meaning that they may feel left out of the look.
Allowing decisions and polls on the group (blog) might help us come up new ways to work more cohesively as a team rather than individual coaches and those who bring up lots of helpful information onto the blog could be rewarded, like in the HP case.
An organisation where information sharing is crucial and beneficial is Wellington Hospital. Overview:
ReplyDelete-Number of wards with different specialities and levels of severity
-Continuous in-flow and out-flow of patients with different diagnosis, checking’s etc.
-Large workforce including doctors, nurses, administrators that frequently may move in between hospitals.
Similar to the HP case, The first steps in developing information sharing would be communicate the objective and heighten the awareness for the need to share knowledge. By making knowledge sharing transparent and publishing knowledge sharing behaviours, people will realise the benefits of a system for the organizational good. By showing how shared knowledge system could make jobs easier across the organization would foster and encourage the support needed. For example when nurses and on-call doctors can see that a shared system decreases patient waiting times which in turn mean that they can attend to more patients before they become critical.
The next step would be choosing a system (or technology) that can adequately record and retain knowledge that is relevant, timely and accurate. Wellington hospital might need 2 types of knowledge systems. One that is in regard to “patient&patient- care” and the other around medical procedures.
A knowledge system around “patient&patient care” for example would be beneficial in events such as nurses strikes. Often doctors and new nurses are not aware of daily routines of patients (eg Patient X is prone to making changes on their own chart), this way a system would record the precise needs and responses of patients so that those with similar skills or new to the organization can perform their job adequately.
A knowledge system for medical procedures would be beneficial to interns and attending who are researching, teaching and learning. For example specialist neurosurgeons who come from overseas country to perform complicated surgeries.
Challenges with knowledge sharing would be:
-Privacy and confidentiality of patients
-Resistance to share knowledge due to the competitive elements of the job and personal agendas.
-Different specialties and different level of specialty mean retaining the knowledge perhaps will not help unless you have people of the same skill level. Eg. Nurses cannot perform general surgeons jobs.
Similar to the ideas in the HP case, Wellington Hospital would require a highly centralised database and would carefully have to select a technology that would give them real-time accurate information in a medium that was accessible and adjustable to their job. Eg. Coordinating central database to blackberry or pagers. To start this KMS Wellington Hopsital would have to focus on getting administrators, lead surgeons and head nurses to secure buy-in for all employees. They would have to start small perhaps with one ward/level to trial the system.
These factors make knowledge about procedures and people critical in a job that deals with life and mortality. When people leave their roles and jobs they take a large core of information and knowledge about the system with them.
There are many organisations that can use knowledge sharing. This may not be an organization but I think schools and universities can use knowledge sharing. Both students and teachers should be able to use this. For teachers, teachers will be able to communicate with each other and share different problems students may be facing and don’t really know how to solve. In primary and intermediate schools, teachers have to teach all subjects and chances are, they won’t fully understand how to teach each different subject. With the help of KM, teachers will be able to share teaching techniques on different subjects and may ask for help on improving their teaching skills. Students can also use this such as asking for help on certain subjects/questions and also discuss about their assignment. I know at Vic we have blackboard but a lot of people don’t really use the discussion forums for their course so they have to place an incentive to use the forums.
ReplyDeleteThe key challenges for this would be the ability to use KM. Most teachers are usually in their late 40s and won’t fully understand how to use a computer/certain programs so training will be needed in this area for all teachers to participate. Another challenge would be the students such as primary school students; they will be quite young and won’t understand how to use a computer so their parents will have to get involved with their kids learning. Another problem could be the size of a school, it may be a small school and implementing KM may be a waste, instead of having only one school with KM, it should be an area. For example, the Lower Hutt Region could have a KM for the teachers.
Encouraging people to use KM and asking for feedback will be the first step in developing KM. In the HP case, the idea such as blog idol was very smart and gave people an incentive to start blogging to win prizes and such. Applying this idea with teachers would get them to participate and let the teachers learn how to use blogs. Feedback should be recorded and be able to solve any problems that has occurred. With the feedback, KM should be tailored to what the users want and to encourage them to use it more.
I have worked as a pool life guard for a part time job for a number of years. While there is a training course which teaches people the basics of the job there is also some tacit knowledge that people need to learn. The knowledge that is tacit is about the plant room and how things work in it. This is because most of the plant rooms are different from facility to facility. Another issue that occurred was in 2009 when a senior member of the team who had worked there for a number of years left on bad terms. This was an issue because he was the only one who knew everything about the plant room and now he left with all of the knowledge.
ReplyDeleteIf I were the CEO I would put in place a culture where knowledge sharing could occur, I would pair employees up with one another so they could show each other how things work and ensure the knowledge is shared. The Key challenge surrounding this would be the fact that it would be very time consuming to the organisation and would mean they would have to pay people to come in outside of their work hours to learn the plant room. However this would mean that the same incident that happened in 2009 would not occur again as the knowledge would be held by everyone and not just one person, it would also mean that if someone was to discover something wrong they could react to it and would not have to go and try find someone to help them. The system is different than the HP case because this is dealing with tacit knowledge that cannot be easily written down. People have to be shown how to do things instead of using technology like HP did.
One organisation where knowledge sharing has been beneficial is at Kiwibank with the rollout of their Ask Me knowledge management system (KMS) which is a repository of general queries that may be required by banking staff. Because of the range of customer touch points at PostShops, the Call Centre, or Online, there was the need for a consistent knowledge source available to staff with wide geographical separation and different computer skills.
ReplyDeleteJust like in the HP case, Kiwibank’s KMS started small with a pilot program at their main call centre in order to learn about the best approach to integrating Ask Me into staff processes. Eventually the program was expanded and is now available for use by all Kiwibank staff.
In order to facilitate participation in Ask Me, Kiwibank instituted three initiatives: using subject matter experts; integrating Ask Me into training processes; and instituting a feedback loop. Kiwibank instituted subject matter experts who had control over certain areas of knowledge within the KMS. Akin to HPs SPOCs, these subject matter experts were respected within Kiwibank and became the champions of Ask Me, advocating its use throughout Kiwibank.
Integrating Ask Me into staff training processes also helped facilitate knowledge sharing because new staff were trained to use Ask Me as their main source of knowledge. Were information was not available, Ask Me also had a forum system where staff could help answer queries.
Just like with IKnow, one of the challenges that Ask Me faced was a tight budget, and Kiwibank solved this problem through using tools (such as SharePoint) which the company had already licensing. Another challenge faced by Ask Me was performance monitoring and just like at HP, information dashboards were used to show participation in using Ask Me.
Just like at HP, another way that Kiwibank supported the online platform was with an internal marketing campaign which included subject matter advocates but also posters, emails, stickers, and other communication. This was done firstly to communicate the ideas behind this new platform for knowledge sharing, and secondly to brand Kiwibank’s KMS to make it less intimidating.
An organisation which I believe that would highly benefit from knowledge sharing is Sony. I think that applying knowledge sharing methods at Sony would aid the organisation in creating new and innovative products as well as improve on existing products and services.
ReplyDeleteBy sharing expertise in the organisation this would help Sony to bring new products into the market faster.
The first steps of developing knowledge management would involve helping employees build relationships with each other. Small meetings consisting of 4-5 people are a way that employees can get to know each other where they are able to work on issues or ask for feedback on projects. Having a meeting every 2 weeks or so can help build relationships.
Secondly I would implement an online forum where employees are able to discuss issues and comment on ideas and other matters; this would help create an online community. This online forum can be a tool for enhancing knowledge flows not just within one department but also with other departments at Sony.
Thirdly I would create incentives for employees to share knowledge such as showing public recognition, or rewarding employees who have excelled in knowledge sharing with vouchers such as tickets to sporting events.
A key challenge which Sony would have to face may include overcoming cultural barriers to knowledge sharing – organisational culture must be altered to fit the knowledge sharing initiatives.
Another challenge would involve the task of measuring the value which knowledge sharing could bring to the organisation.
Similarly to HP Analytics, I would implement collaborative tools to initiate knowledge sharing however these collaborative tools would be altered in order to meet the objectives of Sony’s knowledge sharing strategy.
Knowledge sharing would be hugely beneficial in the hotel industry as a way of gaining sustainable competitive advantage in the highly competitive accommodation industry. Competitiveness cannot rely just on differentiation of processes anymore, as other companies can adopt these practices very quickly due to the wealth of information available and also the number of technological innovations being produced. Hence knowledge sharing as a part of knowledge management is the way to go as it can enable higher levels of efficiency, creativity and adaptability.
ReplyDeleteAs a CEO of a chain of hotels, my first step in developing knowledge sharing would be to justify the need for sharing knowledge. For example: conduct research on current business operations and extrapolate how implementing knowledge sharing would help improve operations and hence profit and conducting feasibility studies. The second stage would be to bring in appropriate human resources to build a team responsible for knowledge sharing. This would involve choosing perhaps outside experts and also delegating roles of spreading this culture of sharing knowledge to “ambassadors”. This would carry on to the next stage of getting buy in for this project from multiple stakeholders- middle managers, different functions of a hotel- from reception, to bar to room service etc. This would be done by justifying the need for knowledge sharing through the use of respected figures in the different units or champions and ambassadors. This could be integrated in employees’ compensation programs as a way for motivating them.
The challenges here would be how to effectively share knowledge amongst very diverse units of a hotel, bringing down the barriers and also the effect of hierarchy of employees which can restrict free communication amongst them. Cross functional teams might have to be formed so that insights can be formed through employees’ pre-existing knowledge from diverse backgrounds. This can be done through Unconferences (in the case) which encourage people to for interest groups and not necessarily business related ones so that they can get to know each other. Then a domain excellence platform can be formed where people from various functions of the hotel can get together and form a group on the basis of a business interest.