denotes premium content | Dec 3 2008 Feature
posted 1 Jun 2000 in Volume 3 Issue 9
Book
review
TITLE:
Enabling Knowledge Creation
AUTHOR: George von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo, Ikujiro
Nonaka
PUBLISHER: OUP, 2000
ISBN: 0195126165
We have all (those of us in
the KM community) come to understand the distinction between tacit
and explicit knowledge and to place a high value on those members of our
various communities who can make the tacit explicit. That is, there are people who are
skilled at articulating concepts and capturing nuances from a body of
community knowledge and presenting it so that others can take meaningful action. The
authors have given us a book that goes beyond the assertion that we cannot 'manage
knowledge' to a framework for creating an 'enabling context' in which knowledge can be
valued, exchanged, and created.
The enabling
context - that which 'makes an organisation appropriately flexible,
future-oriented, and a fulfiling place to spend time' - gives precedence to the notion that
knowledge creation - the source of innovation, competitiveness, and survivability of
an organisation - happens in 'microcommunities' and is enabled by caring. The dimensions of care
include mutual trust, active empathy, access to help, lenience in judgment, and
courage. This emphasis on caring for people and for the context in which they
work, learn, and are valued, might seem obvious to practitioners of knowledge
management, but may not be as obvious to those in our organisations we need to
influence.
This brings me back to my first point: The authors have done so well at
articulating much of what we have come to understand implicitly that we now have a book
that we can give to managers who have been resistant to the 'soft side' of knowledge
management. Although we have seen systems that support knowledge workers and
have measured returns on investment in terms of productivity and the like, these
systems haven't transformed organisations. The organisations that have seen
transformation attended to the systemic, holistic context in which people react,
interact, and synthesise, and transform ideas.
The body of the book is
devoted to examination of five knowledge enablers, with case studies
and practical suggestions for managers implementing KM programmes. The first
enabler, Instill a Knowledge Vision, for example, summarises management actions for
creating a vision. The actions are as simple and down to earth as 'identify and
gather participants and organise the process' and 'write-up and use narratives of
the future as platforms for the vision process.' Similarly, guiding principles
for the second enabler, Manage Conversations, include both the obvious
(guidelines for facilitation, conversation etiquette) and the thought-provoking;
'edit conversations appropriately' and 'foster innovative language.'
The authors haven't themselves shied away from creating (or
co-opting) new terms to present the concepts, as is evident in the terms
of the third enabler, Mobilise Knowledge Activists. Here, they provide perspective
on and examples of three roles for knowledge 'activists' - those individuals in
an organisation who are empowered to smooth the way for the human process
of knowledge creation. The types are 'catalysts', 'coordinators', and 'merchants of foresight'.
Merchants of foresight are those who envision and bring to life innovative approaches
to knowledge generation and sharing - workshops, universities, physical and virtual
spaces.
Central to the fourth enabler, Create the Right Context, is the concept of ba, which
is based on a Japanese idea that encompasses the environment, social, physical,
and emotional context of 'place'. There is, of course, in our modern day, both ba
and 'cyber ba', as well as the imaginative places in which we can develop new
knowledge from imagined communities brought into being by knowledge activists.
Organisational roles and responsibilities come into play in the transformation
process, as the vision is put in place that supports the work of knowledge
activists, the generation of conversations at multiple levels across group,
division, and company boundaries, in the fulfilment of the mission.
The fifth
enabler, Globalise Local Knowledge, requires the integration of social and
technical strategies to move knowledge from its source (usually closest to the
customer) through a process of packaging and re-creating that gives the greatest
leverage in global environments. Here, again, the authors provide some very
practical 'how to' advice for managers that connects the abstract concepts to concrete
steps, activities, and organisation structure guidelines.
Did I say I liked this book? My copy
is already marked up, dog-eared, and tabbed with sticky notes. It resonates in a
way few of the books in our evolving literature do, and at a time that KM
practitioners are getting uneasy with the mechanistic approaches of information
and organisational technology change agents. As I prepare for a new challenge in
a new organisation in a new company, I am charged with some new language, fresh
insights, and some new possibilities for opening up conversations and managing
context. It's a good time for us all to have this book.
Patti Anklam is director of
knowledge management at Nortel Networks Global Professional Services (as of
5/1/200. Patti was formally with Compaq Professional Services). She can be
contacted at:anklam@ma.ultranet.com
