knowledge management
Insight - knowledge enablement for the network
did you know?
APFT is often held up as a blueprint for how teams can work if they are given the right
environment, structure and interdependency. As the year draws to a close, a team headed
by APFT's Patrick Guyver and external consultant Steve Parker of Renaissance worldwide
are finalizing what will be a pilot knowledge enabling system to help us get our
knowledge close to the customer. Known as Insight, this new system is going into
production in the new year. We asked Guyver and Parker what it is and how it works.
Catching trains
Capturing knowledge
Utopian solutions
In your head
Business process
12. WhatsNewS Issue 12* December 1998
Steve Parker
As we have asked everyone
contributing to this
special the deceptively simple
question: What is knowledge,
Parker also feil victim to our
consuming desire for a
uniform answer. As advisor
on the embedding of
knowledge enabling systems
in corporates, we
believed he might
have a practical
response. He thought
for a moment and
then gave the
following definition:
'Knowledge is the
stuff that enables an
individual or
organization to apply
and use information
or data. The example
I often give relates to
the difference between
knowledge and information:
data is the useless stuff stored
in computers which in itself
doesn't mean anything
because there is no context, it
is a ramble of numbers, text.
But if you couple that to
knowing how to use that
data, if you can turn expe-
rience into wisdom, then
you're talking knowledge.
And if you can subsequently
learn to share that wisdom
through connectivity and
collaboration, then you are
what we call knowledge
enabled.'
Insight is slated for roti out in
January - look out for our next
issue which will have enough
detail to satisfy everyone...
An often used example of the
difference between
information and knowledge is
a railway timetable - if you
cover up the places, then what
remains is no more than lists
of numbers, such as 11.40
12.28 13.07. Guyver picks up
the story: 'In themselves, these
numbers have no meaning. But
once you add the place names
where the train stops, then it
becomes information you can
use to your advantage.' The
only problem is that everyone
has access to the same
information. Gaining
advantage from it means you
have to do something with it.
Says Parker: 'If you are
knowledgeable, you will be
able to convert this
information to wisdom, for
example, by adding other
information you've acquired
through experience. It could be
that you know the train that
seems most suitable to get
you wherever on time for an
important meeting is always
late because it is held up by
the express. So you would
combine the data you have
with your experience and
you'11 go by car. What we're
saying here is that application
of knowledge is interpreting
the data and other information
and acting on it.
According to both Parker and
Guyver, combining data and
experience to create
wisdom is a skill that
can be learned. 'If you
take a group of people
doing the same job,
let's say they are a
sales force, then you
will see that some
perform better than
others,' Parker
explains. 'One of our
tasks is to try and
isolate what it is that
makes their
performance better
and then transfer that skill to
other people - it could be
closing technique - how does
that particular salesperson do
that, and how can we impart
that knowledge to others? This
is what we mean by
"knowledge enabling", it is
capturing what those people
do that others don't, capturing
how they interpret, how they
apply knowledge.'
One obstacle to capturing
knowledge and transferring it
to others is that old adage:
Knowledge is power. Our
business culture - everywhere
in the world - is based on
competition. So you cannot
simply say: Okay, we're all
going to share knowledge,
because unless people are
convinced it will be beneficial
or advantageous to them, they
will not be keen to collaborate.
'When you knowledge-enable
an organization,' Parker
explains, 'you are not just
looking to the rather Utopian
solution of taking everyone's
brain and melding them all
together so that we can all
perform at the same level.
What you've got to do is
change the mind set. You have
to convince people about why
sharing is much more
important than acting
individualistically, and
sometimes you have to change
hard incentives, like pay and
recognition, to do so.'
Another problem is changing
working practices that have
been embedded in
organizations, often for
generations. 'I think there are
two parts to this,' Parker
continues. 'One is to change
mindset and to stimulate the
want/need to share based on
the recognition that it will
benefit all of us. The second is
that even though the need is
there, you cannot actually
share because the tacit
knowledge, what is in people's
heads, cannot easily be made
available to others. The task
then is to find techniques and
structures to take that out of
people's head and formalize
and structure it as knowledge.
Because until you can do that,
until you can represent that in
a form that people can access
and understand - paper,
sereens - then you cannot
transfer the knowledge.'
This brings us to the Insight
project - which has been
specifically designed to do just
that, but also much more. The
Insight project is sponsored by
Hans Megens and Niek
Streefkerk, both who have
believed all along that effective
knowledge management
programs are of equal strategie
importance as millennium and
