The Art of Managing Knowledge: a Practitioner's Guide

By Judi Sandrock

The sharing of knowledge has been a fundamental part of human development since before history was first recorded. However, in the twenty-first century we find it difficult to retain knowledge in our organisations and tend to lose our memory when people retire, leave or simply go on vacation.
This book will help you to develop a knowledge management strategy for your type of organisation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Judi Sandrock
• Release date: Jan 5, 2010
• ISBN: 9781476290386

Judi Sandrock

Judi Sandrock has twenty one years of experience in medium to large corporate environments, as well as being successful as an entrepreneur. She has extensive experience in the Mining Industry, as well as in Industrial Process Industries, and product and market development.Judi Sandrock has been involved in the Knowledge Management field since 1998, after being coached in Memphis by Bob Buckman and Melissie Rumizen, experts and authors in the field.Judi lectures in Knowledge Management for a number of Post Graduate – including MBA - courses at Wits, Pretoria and Johannesburg Universities. In addition, she has presented at over fifty South African Leadership and Knowledge Management-related events, and several international conferences, including key-note addresses.She is the national facilitator and founder of the South African Knowledge Management Practitioner's Group, which has grown to over four hundred members in four regions. Judi has developed a reputation for being the South African expert in the field of managing in the knowledge economy, as well as attracting attention on the international front. Her qualifications are in Chemical Engineering, Industrial and Applied Chemistry (Wits), Project Management, Marketing Management and holds an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science.In addition she has written a book on the practical implementation of knowledge management in organisations, and is currently studying towards a PhD in Knowledge Management.

Book preview

The Art of Managing Knowledge

A Practitioner’s Guide

Judi N Sandrock

Published by Judi Sandrock at Smashwords

© Judi N Sandrock 2010

Designed and typeset by Sue Sandrock

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is dedicated to the memory of Melissie Clemmons Rumizen, my mentor, coach, guide and friend.

Acknowledgements

I could not have written this book without the unwavering support of my husband, Bjarke Gotfredsen. Also, I would like to thank my colleagues at Anglo American and my fellow practitioners in the Knowledge Management Practitioners Group for often saying I can’t wait to see this book! They all helped to galvanise my resolve to complete it. Gratitude also goes to Mike and Jo Sandrock who brought me up to love writing and reading, and for their critical review and editing of the manuscript. In addition I would like to recognise Stan Oliver, who taught me very early in my career that true value only comes from leveraging knowledge, and to Syd Druion who later in my career has always appreciated the knowledge I share. Both Stan and Syd have been formative mentors in my career.

I would also like to recognise Con Fauconnier and Richard Wadley for their faith in me and allowing me a free reign at Kumba Resources. My time in their organisation was the most rewarding of my career as a knowledge manager.

Special thanks to Verna Allee, Dave Bentley, Debbie Blackburn, Theo Botma, Bob Buckman, Lourina de Beer, Stephen Denning, Van Der Spuy Brink, Nancy Dixon, Bertie du Plessis, David Gurteen, Marina Hiscock, Riaan Joubert, Seth Kahan, Refiloe Mabaso, Richard McDermott, Nydia Mentoor, Victor Newman, Steve Sandrock, Tana Saunders, Karl Schoemaker, David Snowden, Retha Snyman, Karl-Erik Sveiby, Peter Tobin, Hein van Eck, Pieter van Heerden, Etienne Wenger and Gloria Young who as steadfast members of the knowledge management fratrnity have supported, advised, and accompanied me over the years.

Karl Schoemaker and Riaan Joubert took valuable time to read the manuscript and give me excellent feedback. Their input has been crucial for completion of this book

Foreword

With this book I hope to achieve what I spend most of my time trying to convince others to do – share knowledge in a way that it can be applied. The reason why it is called The Art of Managing Knowledge is that it is an art. To succeed, one has to have the passion mixed with a little talent, followed up with lots of hard work and practice. I have tried to make this book as user-friendly as possible, starting with a strategy development section, followed by the description of each of the strategy building blocks. This is followed by a section on communities of practice - I believe they deserve a book on their own - and the book concludes with the components of supporting knowledge management to ensure sustainability.

This book is meant to be a guide to practitioners, and I welcome all feedback on [e-mail].

Part 1 Starting to Manage Knowledge

In the beginning, we need to look at definitions of knowledge, the knowledge worker, and knowledge management. It is important to be able to create one’s own definitions so that when asked for a definition, the answer is clear, quick and unwavering. With anything new, people fear change and they need to have confidence in the team implementing the change. Therefore, the background understanding is crucial.

Introduction to Knowledge Management

Organisations have come to realise that knowledge is one of their most valuable resources currently not being used to its full potential. We need knowledge to flow freely across the organisation so that people can enjoy the benefits of one another’s know-how and experience. After all, the more people know about what their colleagues know, the better they can all perform – as individuals, as business units, and as organisations.

Think about this scenario. A team of colleagues has been trying to come up with a solution to a problem for weeks, and all the ideas that they have put to the test so far have drawn a blank. Pressure from management continues to mount, production slows, money is lost, and team members are stressed out and demoralised. Meanwhile, a group of experts from another business unit within the same organisation dealt with a similar problem just a few years or months ago. If only the frustrated group could be put in touch with those who have already come up with the answers to their problem. The fact is that by effectively sharing and managing knowledge, this can be done.

Defining Knowledge

In September 2007 I attended a conference in Barcelona, Spain and was involved in a discussion facilitated by David Gurteen¹ looking at how we think about knowledge. Some knowledge managers fall into the trap of treating knowledge like an object and forget that it needs to flow, grow, be shared and has intangible properties. Here are some examples of how people have defined knowledge with the metaphors they use:

Knowledge is water

The properties that emerge when using this metaphor are that knowledge flows, it can be stored for future use, it must be treated well to be safe for human consumption, and is essential to the survival and growth of human beings.

Knowledge is energy

The energy analogy allows us to see that knowledge can be generated from various sources, can be stored and can be transformed to suit the requirements. Importantly, we can only see the effects of energy and not energy itself. Knowledge and energy display second-order properties² often only detectable by the beholder. Current theory also holds that energy cannot be destroyed, it can only be transformed. It can be used for good and evil purposes, and the values and integrity of the user determine to what ends it is used.

Knowledge is relationship

Relationships require trust and reciprocity. There needs to be sharing, a growth of trust over time, and there is only value when there is more than one person. When we are young we need to learn and seek out mentors, and as we age we wish to leave a legacy and yearn for young people to

Reviews for The Art of Managing Knowledge

[Anne-Louise Treasurer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The content is good, but the formatting of this e-book is abysmal. There is no spacing between the words , which makes it incredibly hard to read.

None of the referenced links work either, the website that is promoted for templates and reference material doesn't exist. It's a real shame as I would have liked to have rated this higher, but cant for those reasons listed above.