Knowledge Management: Changing Cultures, Changing Attitudes

by Robin Neidorf

Cultural change is neither easy nor swift. Bringing knowledge management principles into a company represents a cultural transition for which most organizations are not fully ready. Consider the psychological difference between knowledge management and other kinds of change: Introducing a new computer operating platform requires people to relearn a set of largely unconscious skills while retaining a baseline level of effectiveness. Knowledge management requires the same, plus people must completely re-assess their place of greatest strength within the company as a whole. In addition to the disruption of change, new knowledge management initiatives hit people where they really live -- in the safety, security, and sense of identity department.

Knowledge is power. At least, that is how it has been treated at most companies since the beginning of modern economics. Hoarding information and knowledge has long been one of the key ways individuals and departments maintain their position and status within the corporate hierarchy. Unfortunately, this model no longer serves the best interests of businesses and other organizations. Knowledge management, in which information and knowledge are appropriately, clearly, and effectively kneaded throughout all the layers of the organization, is one of the critical keys to survival and success.

How do you begin to bring about this enormous cultural change? As an information professional, you can be the champion of the cause, educating your colleagues, coworkers, and clients about the processes through which information is identified and moved from place to place, person to person.

Tips for Introducing Knowledge Management:

Ÿ     Build Your Allies: Buy-in on every level is critical to success with knowledge management. Get people excited about your vision. If you can't get them excited, at least get them interested. Emphasize the benefits they will reap, and to the extent possible plan your strategy to work on low-risk projects before moving onto other people's “turf.”

Ÿ     Take Baby Steps: Start with something rather than nothing. Cultural change is a long process. You will not be able to implement your grand vision immediately, but start small and make something positive happen.

Ÿ     Plan Your Steps Strategically: Good choices for first initiatives are low-risk, low-cost, demonstrate immediate benefit and can be implemented relatively quickly. Moving too quickly or taking on too much can be threatening and may alienate potential allies.

Ÿ     Embody Information Generosity: Practice what you preach. If nothing else, turn your own department into a hub of shared knowledge. Take the lead in demonstrating how information can circulate for everyone's benefit.

Ÿ     Manage Expectations: If you are starting with baby steps, you will get baby results. Communicate the whole vision, but be sure you are realistic in expressing what your initial steps can and will accomplish.

Ÿ     Demonstrate Benefit: Track results. Follow-up with participants at regular intervals and get their feedback for improving the knowledge management process. Document and communicate results and celebrate successful shifts in culture.

Ÿ     Strike While the Iron is Hot: Request resources and push for additional initiatives immediately after demonstrating benefits.

This case study offers a glimpse into the first stages of a knowledge management initiative for an organization for which hoarding information has been an established way of doing business.

Hazelden Products and Educational Services

Hidden off a state highway along the rolling prairies of Center City, Minnesota, the Hazelden Foundation is best known for its in-patient addiction treatment center. Another division of the organization, Hazelden Products and Educational Services, is the world's largest non-government publisher of drug and alcohol treatment and prevention materials. Hazelden has over 1,500 publications and products available and publishes new products each year, including books, pamphlets, curricula, videos, workbooks, CD-ROMs, and other materials.

Hazelden Products and Educational Services has a small department of two staffers devoted to research, which supports editorial, marketing, sales, and strategic planning. An on-site library maintains a collection of materials relating primarily to treatment. Independent researchers also assist the organization with ongoing industry intelligence as well as discrete projects.

Due to the size of the organization, its several related missions, and its internal culture, the research department has struggled with the task of organizing many kinds of information and disseminating it in a form and on a calendar to maximize its usefulness, particularly in editorial and strategic planning.

I began my work with the department simply to provide some on-site training in Web-based research techniques. As I consulted with department members and reviewed their overall needs, however, it became clear that a bigger process overhaul was called for.

IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDERS

My relationship was initially with the research department. Other stakeholders in the process included:

Editorial: Responsible for identifying and developing the projects selected for publication as a Hazelden publication. The editorial department also receives independent queries from experts in the field about products they would like to have and/or develop for publication by Hazelden.

Marketing: Responsible for growing and working with the market for Hazelden products and related services. Identifies overall marketing strategy, which is communicated largely through face-to-face meetings.

Sales: Works directly with end-users of Hazelden products and those of competing publishers.

Strategic Planning: A high-level vision and planning group responsible for establishing guidelines and policies, reviewing editorial decisions, coordinating efforts with the clinical arm of the organization, and planning for the future.

To plan, produce, and sell products and to define business objectives, each of these groups has its own process, criteria, information sources, and preferred methods of working. The two staffers in the research department field a wide range of information requests from members of all of the groups, ranging from identifying the author of a competitor's book, to looking up references in a published presentation, to quantifying market opportunity in a particular geographic or demographic area. The research department also receives electronic newsletters from many external sources on subjects relating to the organization's education and treatment missions, as well as updates from the corporate librarian on in-house library holdings. Finally, the researchers have also developed their own lists of helpful resources through online and offline research projects.

BEGINNING TO SHARE KNOWLEDGE

What we have here is a snarl of incoming and outgoing information, most of which is inadequately cataloged or communicated. Any individual in any stakeholder group could have information and insight directly relevant to another individual's need. But the structure as a whole does not provide a way for those knowledge resources to be shared.

As the common point of contact for all groups, the research department is the logical starting point for initiating a more effective knowledge management effort. Our overarching vision is to combine several information and communication tools with a redefined work process that routes strategic and editorial planning through the research department. The goal is to create an integrated system in which each stakeholder group fully understands and uses the internal resources available for decision-making.

At least, that's the vision. In reality, this initiative is far more complex than getting smart about workflow and creating cataloging systems. The human and cultural components are the true challenges of the project. Long-term goals aside, our immediate challenge is to create willingness to share information and knowledge, not to mention change established work systems.

Housekeeping

Before we could make headway with any other department, our first priority was to upgrade skills and processes in the research department itself. The department had been manually tracking research resources and information deemed important and storing hard copies in paper files. We researched electronic data management systems and chose the free-form database askSam to supplement and/or replace the paper files. askSam allows us the flexibility to catalog an unlimited array of types of information, including electronic newsletters, Web pages, in-house library, discussion list archives, research requests (e-mail or paper notes), journal articles, and more. In an electronic, searchable format, askSam makes the information easier to extract for specific requests, without the researchers worrying that they are forgetting something.

Next, we conducted several in-house training sessions for the research team on effective research techniques and research interviews. We tapped the resources of the in-house librarian to gain further insight into how she assists individuals and departments within the organization.

Finally, we created a brief memo articulating the knowledge management goals of the department and circulated it to the other stakeholder groups. We emphasized the benefits to each stakeholder of developing effective knowledge management and described our vision for the successful use of knowledge to support business decisions.

Our memo was very well received by all stakeholders. But we knew that verbal agreement is not the same as actually making a change.

The Itty-Bitty Initiative

With the verbal support of all stakeholders, we took our first, baby step towards knowledge management: We created a communications tool that would help us share the knowledge within the research department itself.

The Research Communiqué, as it is now called, provides a quick overview of studies, news, and information that have passed through the department throughout a month's time. All incoming information is added to the askSam database. The third week of the month, one of the researchers reviews the new information, pulls the information of greatest importance to the stakeholders, and creates a brief summary of these items. All of the summaries follow the same format: title, source, three bullet points about content, and a sentence highlighting the relevance of the information. The Communiqué then invites readers to:

Ÿ     Review the source (frequently available through a Web site)

Ÿ     Request a copy of the entire item from the department's database

Ÿ     Ask the research department for a quick or in-depth search on a related topic

Ÿ     Add their individual insights to the data file

Ÿ     Stakeholders receive a print copy of the communiqué, three-hole punched for storage in a special binder they keep at their desks.

COMMUNICATING VIA COMMUNIQUE

The Research Communiqué accomplishes several objectives.

Ÿ     Stakeholders have timely information on the latest resources that may affect their day-to-day work and long-range planning.

Ÿ     The research department demonstrates easy, effective knowledge sharing, combining “push” and “pull” techniques to encourage, but not mandate, participation.

Ÿ     Information is circulating, not remaining static. This circulation even of one subset of information begins to create the cultural context in which more extensive knowledge management can be effective.

Compared with our grand vision, the Research Communiqué is pretty small potatoes. Even as a communications tool, the communiqué could use some tweaking. Future plans include e-mail and intranet versions, and broader internal training in the use of askSam will allow individuals to extract items rather than relying on the research staff to do it for them.

Still, the Research Communiqué is a start -- a first step in encouraging members of an organization to think differently about information and to interact differently with the information that crosses their desks.

Looking Forward

As knowledge management initiatives go, the research department's work to date has been relatively risk-free for the other stakeholder groups. The next phase, in which the research department will apply lessons learned to the process of editorial research and planning, will be more difficult. In this first phase, only the research department itself needed to change how it operates; the next phase will ask other departments to change their processes as well.

Our strategy in developing and implementing a plan must take the human and cultural factors into account. For the next several months, we will continue to focus on getting stakeholders to participate fully in the opportunity the Communiqué represents. Our objective is to get everyone to recognize that this is not simply an internal newsletter but a conduit for information to circulate within the collective “mind” of the organization. If we can accomplish this shift in attitude, we will be on our way to true knowledge management.

Robin Neidorf

Electric Muse: Information. Inspiration. Communication.

612-377-0244

Having the data doesn't equal communicating it... Having the communication tool doesn't equal having anything to say.

robin@electric-muse.com  

www.electric-muse.com

The above article first appeared in the Sept/Oct issue of Online magazine.