Leveraging Organizational Knowledge: Merging Knowledge, Technology, and People

Forward-lookingHR executives and chief learning officers know that their job is not only aboutfacilitating the delivery of operational knowledge to their organization’semployees, consultants, and suppliers. They also realize that they can increasethe overall operational efficiency and performance of their organization byidentifying and leveraging the paid-for knowledge that has been neglected or lostwithin their organization. It’s the age-old question: “How do we get more forless with what we have?”

This simple questionhas deep implications that, if answered, can result in HR’s and CLOs’ having apermanent seat on the board because the answer to the “more for less” question directlyrelates to the advantage and survival of an organization in a globally competitiveworld.

What is “paid-for knowledge”?

Paid-forknowledge includes two basic groups of knowledge. General records knowledgeincludes sales, customer service, inventory, accounting, and other recordsmanagement that is aggregated during an organization’s daily activities. Deepknowledge is that vital, enduring knowledge that requires specialized trainingto define, understand, and use. These two groups of knowledge operate together,but deep knowledge transcends general knowledge in several different ways.

General knowledgetends to be rule-based and more routine, requiring users to know how to usespecialized data and the applications that manage that data. Deep knowledgetends to be more intellectual and results in the development of intellectualproperty, trade secrets, operational know-how, and the lessons-learnedknowledge that produces or enhances products, services, or operational functionsand processes.

Once conceived, deepknowledge is gained through a trade-off process that involves planning,evaluation, refinement, and, ultimately, implementation.

For example, imaginethe development of a policy and procedure manual that is distributed innumerous languages with unique content that is culturally sensitive and periodicallyupdated due to regulatory and operational demands by a country or culture. Thistype of knowledge includes a matrix of deep legal, HR, distribution, andend-user training requirements that collectively increase the cost of managingthe policy and procedure manual well beyond what the finished product would indicate.Two advantages of the manual’s deep value might include improved employee relationsand a reduction in operational risk.

As organizationalpaid-for knowledge is made available and applied within an organization, itscost decreases while the leveraged value of that knowledge increases. This isespecially true when deep lessons-learned knowledge is effectively transferredto others within and across an organization.

The paid-for knowledge problem

Largecorporations may easily use a hundred or more different computer applicationsto develop and manage general records and deep knowledge, while an averageemployee may only know how to efficiently use two or three of these applications.As a result, relevant content developed and stored on disparate systems is veryoften duplicated and/or inaccessible to individuals who could use thatknowledge to enhance their work effort. Over time, when knowledge is notdistributed, it becomes forgotten or lost. This is especially true of knowledgethat is applied on an intermittent or periodic basis.

When valuableorganizational knowledge is inaccessible, under-utilized, or lost, the cost toan organization can be staggering in terms of reduced efficiency, performance,lost opportunity, and overhead. It is hard to see, but the reality of anorganization’s knowledge deficit usually shows up in sales and financialstatements. When this occurs, managers start asking themselves hard questionsabout how to solve abstract problems that most find difficult to grasp.

Another major problemwith organizational paid-for knowledge is the old “infoglut” problem; that is,knowledge that is lost due to the sheer volume of data and information anorganization amasses during the course of business.

At a deeperlevel, the infoglut problem also relates to knowledge resources that arestructured with preambles, filler and connector words, and explanations to thepoint that core knowledge within these resources is difficult to find and comprehend—especiallyin the “heat of battle.” The reason for this is that organizational documentcreators write as much for the benefit of their peers as they do for thebenefit of the reader/end user. Creators consider the reading audience, but inthe process, they make sure that their work is properly structured and wordedaccording to well-established conventions and formats so as to withstand thescrutiny of their peers. Sound structure, of course, is required for articleslike this, but there are other, more effective ways to present knowledge forconsumption.

Meaningless and useless information

Filler words suchas “the,” “and,” “as well as,” and conventional information structures that requirethe reader to wade through preamble paragraphs before getting to key knowledge area waste of time and effort for eLearners. In most cases, people are turned offby the time they reach the end of the preamble that tells a reader why the followinginformation exists and how it should be used. In the heat of battle, peopleneed the key information, insight, or step-by-step process without all theverbiage that the creators feel they need to insert into tutorials. Coveringall the bases should not be the goal for eLearning presentations; answering keyquestions should be.

The fact is thatthe human brain naturally connects all the relevant information withininformation resources with or without all the filler and connector words. Itcan do this because most documents are usually developed around well-researched,well-justified rational threads (applied theory) that organize and bind thematerial facts and content together. The human brain doesn’t need the fillerand connector words to comprehend the context, meaning, and purpose of thematerial because all of that is implicit within the relationships between therational thread and the facts. Speed reading is based on this principle.

If I say thatJane is creative, studies art, paints, attends Columbia University, likeschocolate and hanging plants, runs along the Hudson River, drinks coffee atStarbucks, and so forth, the brain fills in the associated connections toprovide insight into Jane’s personality, character, and interests withoutparagraphs of explanation.

Processes—such asstep 1, step 2, step 3—operate the same way. The human brain automatically fillsin most of the details on its own without the writer having to ramble on. Thisis how most people think: in chunks. In general, eLearning software should workthe same way.

Emerging technologies leverage knowledge

Thankfully, thereare knowledge-centric (rather than data-centric) systems that are showing up inthe software market—such as Knowledge Owl, a handy web program that allows end usersto create knowledge trees, and robust enterprise-class knowledge systems suchas IQxCloud that are designed for eLearning, eMentoring, and organizationalknowledge acquisition and management. These systems work the way people thinkbecause organizational information and data are wrapped around common, rationalthreads of thought that provide associated content its context, meaning, andpurpose.

What this meansis that once vital organizational knowledge “snippets” (the who, what, when,where, and how-much information andhow, why, and what-if knowledge) are decoupledfrom the structural formatting limitations of conventional documents, books,manuals, and applications, these knowledge snippets can be dynamically reassembledin whole, or in part, with any other relevant knowledge content to provide ahighly flexible, intuitive, 360-degree user experience. Now, these moderntechnologies allow eLearners to learn and apply vital organizational knowledge fasterand more easily.

Conclusion

HR professionalsand CLOs have powerful options available to them that could make a majordifference to their organizations, and to their careers. New knowledgetechnologies provide advanced knowledge acquisition, management, and paid-forknowledge leveraging capabilities to solve immediate and unforeseen problemsrelated to the acquisition and distribution of organizational knowledge. Theshort and long-term implications for an organization include:

• General records learning—Organizational knowledge on demand
• Deep learning—Insights and understanding
• Problem solving—Application of lessons-learned knowledgeto situations and circumstances as they occur
• Leadership—Achieving sapient authority through knowledgeacquisition, retention, and application