A CEO's view of KM - the organisation as a knowledge factory

It's always insightful to read a CEO's view of KM. Here's one that might surprise you.

One of the more interesting essays on Knowledge Management in the mid 1990s was written by John Browne (now Lord Browne of Madingley),  who at the time was the Chief Executive of BP.

It is interesting because it gives a CEO's view of KM, which is a view we don't often see.

In the quote below, we read not just what this CEO saw as the value of KM and Organisational learning, but also how the importance of Knowledge changed how he saw the organisation itself.

"Learning is at the heart of a company's ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. It is the key to being able both to identify opportunities that others might not see and to exploit those opportunities rapidly and fully. This means that in order to generate extraordinary value for shareholders, a company has to learn better than its competitors and apply that knowledge throughout its businesses faster and more widely than they do. The way we see it, anyone in the organization who is not directly accountable for making a profit should be involved in creating and distributing knowledge that the company can use to make a profit"

Let me stress that last sentence again

"anyone in the organization who is not directly accountable for making a profit should be involved in creating and distributing knowledge that the company can use to make a profit"

That is a remarkable view of an organisation as a profit-focused knowledge factory, creating and distributing knowledge for the benefit of the front-line knowledge workers.

The same "knowledge factory" image came to me recently, working with a public sector educational organisation, who's whole raison d'etre was to create knowledge. Here we took a new process-focused view of the organisation, and started to identify the knowledge and information inputs and outputs for each step in the value chain. It was really illuminating.

If you think of your organisation as a profit-focused knowledge factory, then you can start to think about applying manufacturing thinking to the flow of knowledge - thinking such as debottlenecking the knowledge flow, or lean approaches to knowledge supply. You can start to ask, who is in charge of production? What is the knowledge supply chain? Can you use Japanese style processes such as Kaizen and quality circles to improve the flow?

Take a look at how well your organisation operates as a knowledge factory, and ask - just how well do we process knowledge? Does everyone who is not making a profit or delivering a service, actually realise that their job is knowledge production?

KM vision statements, numbers 16 to 45. Number 37 is so simple, it's elegant!

In December 2011 I wrote a post titled 15 Knowledge Management Visions.  Here are 30 more to add to the list.

Shared Vision, by Bill ferriter, on Flickr

All of these are vision statements for organisational KM programs, forming a core part of the respective Knowledge Management strategies.

Some of these were appended as comments to the original blog post, others are more recent additions. My favourite is number 37 - so simple!

16. NATO communications and information agency
The Vision of NCI Agency’s Knowledge Management is of customer satisfaction through knowledge superiority, the Mission is to deliver customer-focussed and cost-effective solutions through collaboration and knowledge sharing.

17. Unesco
UNESCO’s KM and ICT vision is to enable programme planning, delivery and evaluation in the most efficient and effective way, through the full and innovative use of information and communication technologies and the implementation of Knowledge Management based on a knowledge-sharing culture. This will allow UNESCO to be a modern and learning organization, capable of adapting to the changing world and playing fully its role within the United Nations system.

18. World Health Organization
The vision of WHO KM is of global health equity through better knowledge management and sharing.

19. Worcester Health Libraries
Our vision is to harness the body of knowledge and exploit it at point of need so that the right information will be available to the right people in the right format at the right time. We believe that the effective management of knowledge and information is essential for the provision of the best patient care.

20. UN Economic Commision for Africa
to ensure that ECA becomes and remains Africa’s premier think tank, consistently generating top quality, thoroughly researched products reflecting the latest thinking on issues relating to Africa’s transformative agenda.

21. Hulley & Kirkwood

What does Knowledge Management mean for our employees?

•  Better communication with peers. 
• Access to quality information and knowledge that has been validated by internal experts. 
• Best practice. 

What does Knowledge Management mean for our customer?

•  Potential cost savings by implementing lessons learned on previous projects at earlier stages of the design. 
• Greater exposure to the knowledge and expertise of 130 engineers across 8 regional locations. 
• More efficient delivery of our design. 

What does Knowledge Management mean for our project partners?

•  Exposure to rationale, lessons learned and local knowledge across our organisation. 
• Potential cost savings due to better quality information at all project and design stages.

22. Main Roads, Western Australia
OUR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT VISION: To be recognised as a world class road authority, working innovatively with industry, our partners and the community, to share and build cutting edge knowledge and expertise.

23. The UN-REDD Programme
The UN-REDD Programme partner countries develop REDD+ readiness and implementation capacities aligned with UNFCCC requirements, through the systematic identification, capture and sharing of REDD+ related knowledge.

24  FAO
FAO will facilitate the access to and exchange of knowledge, as well as its generation, in the domain of agriculture and food security. It will assist its Members in generating, accessing and utilizing knowledge in food and agriculture, as well as any other knowledge that relates to it, required to address Members‟ individual and collective development and food security goals.

25. McKnight Foundation
We manage and share knowledge to maximize McKnight’s credible influence in support of mission and programs.

26. Samsung SDS
Samsung SDS' mission is to provide the best possible IT service to our customers. This best service can only be created via our know-how, which is produced by freely sharing our best practice, knowledge and experience from every area within the company

27. GMI
KM: Promotes and strengthens our capacity to learn, question, investigate, share and innovate based on our organization´s culture in order to generate long term value for clients, stakeholders and workers.

28. Aspen Tech. 
All employees will have access to the information, knowledge, and processes they need to achieve their individual objectives and help AspenTech meet its strategic goals.

29. NHS library and knowledge services in England
NHS bodies, their staff, learners, patients and the public use the right knowledge and ,evidence, at the right time, in the right place, enabling high quality decision-making .learning, research and innovation to achieve excellent healthcare and health improvement

30. Ernst and Young 2002
Our knowledge management mission is to enable and steward the acquisition, sharing and reuse of knowledge by our people worldwide. By doing this, our people will be better able to generate new revenues and strengthen client relationships.

31. Department of the Navy 2014 version
The DON vision for KM is to create, capture, share, and reuse knowledge to enable effective and agile decision-making, increase the efficiency of task accomplishment, and improve mission effectiveness. To achieve this vision, the DON KM community will continue to share and leverage the significant KM experience and resources existing within the Department. Currently, DON KM is a centralized vision executed through decentralized implementation

32. ACCCRN
ACCCRN partners will collaborate to build a recognisably credible knowledge base of practical and actionable know-how to meet key climate change urban resilience challenges that will ultimately improve the lives of poor and vulnerable people.

33. The Parliament of Finland 
 The Parliament is an open and competent knowledge organisation with a co-operation oriented work culture and the capacity and will to learn.

34. The U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) Knowledge Management Office
Providing secure connection to information on demand - any type of information, across multiple applications & business processes
 Consolidation & integration of information to provide a single view of data & higher value information for insights, greater efficiency & improve our competitive advantage
 Integration of partner-enabled solutions & diverse sources of information to provide acceleration of the deployment of end-to-end business processes to improve operational efficiency

35. Lloyds register Marine 
Our vision is to have a knowledge sharing culture that is recognised and respected globally by industry, our clients and our people. We will have behaviours, technology and processes that will connect our global expertise and the right information will always be in the right hands at the right time. Through our people, knowledge and expertise, Lloyd's Register’s performance will continuously improve.

36. Office of Nuclear Energy
The vision of the Office of NE KM Program is to benefit the NE programs by providing scientists across the community with the information required to assess and analyze the accuracy of advanced nuclear energy systems and associated capabilities.

37. US Army TRADOC
 A knowledge-enabled force – one learns, everyone knows.

38. Canadian International Development Agency
The vision of CIDA is to be "a knowledge-driven organization".

39. Comcare
Comcare will create, capture, share and reuse knowledge to support effective and agile evidence based decision-making. We will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our people and deliver high level service to our community.

40. GPET
GPET will be a learning organisation where the outcomes of previous projects and research inform future work.
Staff will have easy access to information to allow them to do their work. This will include embedding procedures and guidelines into workflows and the ability to find the latest authoritative information across the organisation.
Stakeholders will be able to capitalise on learnings across GPET programs to inform or establish best practice in GPET and their own organisations.

41. ASARECA
Agricultural knowledge contributing effectively to improved livelihoods in Eastern and
Central Africa.

42. NASA JPL
JPL will “make good use of what JPL knows.”

43. Department of the Navy, 2005 version
The DON vision of KM is to create, capture, share, and reuse knowledge to enable effective and agile decision-making, increase the efficiency of task accomplishment, and improve mission effectiveness.

44. U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence
Connected 24/7 to information, knowledge, and training.

45. MTR organisation
An organisation that

• Provides continuous opportunities for people to learn 􀂋
• Provides skill development and renewal opportunities 􀂋
• Provides better career opportunities 􀂋
• Provides platform to capture and retain crucial knowledge 

Where people are

• Aware of business and work expectations 􀂋
• Share knowledge and expertise openly 
• Seek new and creative ways of working

Beneficial to All Stakeholders

• 􀂋Customers 􀂋
• Shareholders 􀂋
• Staff

Creating "Learning Urgency"

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When I give my Knowledge Management Training courses, I start proceedings by presenting three stories from organisations who are doing knowledge management, showcasing some of the benefits KM can bring.

I then ask the class to discuss the stories, and to identify the success factors that lie behind each one. Often these are a mix of successful interventions, and successful cultural elements.

Last week, in the South of France, one of the success factors they identified was a "sense of urgency". In each case, the protagonists in the story treated learning as Urgent - one of the first things to be done - and as a result, delivered great results.

This was a really good insight.

All too often, learning (and Knowledge Management in general) is seen as important, but not treated as urgent. In these stories, the urgency was there, and learning followed.

So how had the organisations in the stories created that sense of urgency?

• In the first story, the organisation gave a high-profile task to an individual who had never done that sort of thing before, with clear instructions not to "screw up". A risky move, were it not for the Knowledge Management system which gave the individual all the knowledge they needed to succeed.
• In the second story, the organisation challenged a team to improve on the past benchmark performance by nearly 20%. An impossible challenge, were it not for the access the team was given to all the lessons and knowledge from past performance.
• In the third story, the organisation gave the same audacious goal to twelve different teams simultaneously. A crazy thing to do, were it not for the way they set up knowledge-sharing between the teams, so they reached the goal far faster collectively, then they did individually. 

There is a saying, by the Greek philosopher Epictetus, that "you cannot teach someone something they think they already know". This means that if you give people problems they know how to solve, they will not look for additional knowledge, and they will not think outside the box. 

Learning, for them, will not be urgent. They will use the knowledge they have, do what they have always done, and deliver the performance they have always delivered. Safe, but no improvement.

An organisation can really drive Knowledge Management by giving people challenges they don't know how to meet, or putting them in positions where they don't know what to do. This is not as risky as it sounds, once KM is in place. 

Once KM is in place and is trusted, KM and management work together in delivering breakthough performance. Management gives people challenges they don't know how to meet, KM provides the knowledge they need to meet them. 

Learning becomes both Urgent, and Easy. Everybody wins.

Jack Welch on KM

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Jack Welch, the famous CEO of General Electric, did an excellent job of summarising the business vision for Knowledge Management, when he made this statement in the GE 1996 annual report.

“Our behaviour is driven by a fundamental core belief; the desire and the ability of an organisation to continuously learn from any source, and to rapidly convert this learning into action, is it’s ultimate competitive advantage”

That's a really clear description of Knowledge Management (continuously learning from any source, and rapidly converting this learning into action), and a great link with the business driver  (ultimate competitive advantage).

Is "Ultimate competitive advantage" a bit strong? Are there other advantages, such as market strength, or brand leadership?

Probably not - even organisations that have been in uniquely competitive positions still need to focus on knowledge management. Knowledge management is big at Microsoft, despite their near monopoly in the business software and operating environment market. De Beers have had a near monopoly of the world diamond market, but have also invested in knowledge management. You need to manage knowledge to be competitive, and to remain competitive, and to keep your monopoly in a rapidly changing world.

So if you are asked about the value Knowledge Management brings, then remember Jack Welch. KM is not about better taxonomies, or  new portal, or about "getting people to be more social". It's about building a company that continuously learns, from any source, and turns that knowledge rapidly into action.

Learning - actionable learning - is the only continuously renewable business resource, and therein lies the ultimate competitive advantage that Jack Welch was talking about.

KM in the movies - the ultimate KM vision

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Not sure if I have posted this one before

The ultimate vision for KM - from The Matrix

 


"Can you fly that thing?"
"Not yet"

15 Example Knowledge Management visions

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What is the Knowledge Management Vision statement for your organisation?

 Here are a few vision statements from companies; some are official statements, some are CEO statements that encapsulate the vision, some are statements crafted by the KM team. Where I can find online references, I have added them.

 If you have a moment, please share your KM vision statement with other readers using the Comments field! The more examples we have, the better.

Accenture  

“To create a world class knowledge-sharing culture and environment that contributes to Accenture's success”

Federal Transit Administration
FTA knows what it knows; it is continuously filling the gaps of what it does not know 

HealthCanada 

Health Canada analyses, creates, shares and uses health knowledge to maintain and improve the health of the people of Canada :
·         through its knowledge management processes and strategies which are tailored to advance the business lines of the department;
·         as a model knowledge organization; and
·         as a leader, facilitator and partner, in the development of a Canadian health infostructure, responding to national and international trends and opportunities.

BP 

We know what we know, learn what we need to learn, and use knowledge for sustained competitive advantage (Internal KM vision) 

“Anyone in the organisation who is not directly accountable for making a profit should be involved in creating and distributing knowledge that the company can use to make a profit”   (CEO statement)

USAID 

To connect people, work smarter and get results. This includes accessing and leveraging worldwide development knowledge; generating new intellectual capital; and continuously learning from their activities.  

US Federal Government, working definition 

The Federal government continues its transformation journey to become the pre-eminent provider of knowledge among and across the nation with national security in mind.  We must shape our environment and leverage our knowledge as steward of the taxpayer’s dollars.  To that end we must achieve our mission to safeguard the United States and our Allies from threats while securing knowledge that could be of benefit to our enemies.  To maintain an advantage over our adversaries and provide mission readiness, we must further our capabilities, programs, and supporting knowledge bases.  This transformation will require changes to be made in the manner in which we leverage our knowledge across the federal government; changes that will move us from a stove-piped, decentralized environment to a learning environment, constantly striving to leverage personnel assets, and improve and enable processes.  Key to this transformation is the need to create a trusted environment where the culture is focused on sharing knowledge, using integrated technologies and incentivizing and rewarding knowledge contributions across the government and it’s stakeholders and partners, both nationally and internationally. 

Ernst and Young 

The focus of our knowledge deliveries is to harness the global knowledge of Ernst & Young tempered with appropriate external sources and to leverage this on behalf of our client-facing users to ensure that the focused value of our knowledge is brought to bear on the firm’s service delivery

NSW health  

NSW Health's Knowledge Management Program will enable the capture, distribution, use and development of innovations that enhance the delivery of patient care; promote the sharing of experiences and lessons learnt from their development and implementation; and connect people in communities of practice to foster further innovation. 

 British Airways
The vision of the end-state is that "The culture and tools are in place to make the appropriate sharing of knowledge the norm in British Airways"

Anglo American 

We will instil a more regular approach of sharing knowledge and ideas as central to the way the new Anglo American  does business. We have practices that are clearly world class. We will work to achieve greater consistency across the company in applying these practices everywhere. (CEO statement) 

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP

The knowledge management vision within the firm is to enable professionals to acquire knowledge and synthesize data faster and easier"

Israel Aircraft Industry 

New Knowledge will be created, shared, and reused, as part of IAI personnel’s common practice, for the achievement of IAI’s vision and the fulfillment of its goal

Lutheran Education Authority 

KM for LEA means developing an innovative and creative work environment where individuals, schools and regions: 

•  Learn from each other, through sharing knowledge and information 
•  Access single sources of data to promote the construction of knowledge and, in turn, wisdom; 
• Access knowledge and information in a timely manner; 
• Effect standard core policies, protocols or processes; 

• Embrace core operating principles that deliver best practice at all levels using common definitions and terminology; and
• Communicate using unified systems.

The associated strategic directions for this vision will be to:

• Develop and market a KM culture using change management principles;
• Establish a policy framework;
• Establish core systems and databases to achieve a single point of access for corporate knowledge with seamless work flows; and
• Establish a dedicated role to drive and implement the strategic Knowledge Management  

Natural Resources Canada  

 Saudi Aramco

 Knowing what we know, and knowing what we need to know

A 16th Bonus vision

Wipro

To be an organization where knowledge capture and sharing is the way we work, offering customers speed-to-deploy as well as innovative products and services focused on their needs, and offering employees an environment of continuous learning and productivity improvements