Eric Mack On-Line

KM for Project Development, Management, and Execution (Randy Adkins)

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Randy Adkins, Director of the KM Center of Excellence, United States Air Force, speaking on knowledge services for the Air Force Enterprise.

Why does the U.S. Air Force do KM?
To deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests.

Air Force Knowledge Now program

Organizational Knowledge
- Training
- Official Documents
- Libraries
- Explicit Knowledge

Individual Knowledge
- Expertise (Best Practices)
- Experience (Lessons Learned)
- Judgment Tacit Knowledge

The Air Force Knowledge Now program is a robust KM system and KM consulting team that supports and provides a variety of KM-enabling capabilities.

AFKN supports KM with CoPs

What users want “to know how to use technology?”

What they teach “why do we use this process and what tools support it”

Desired effects of the AFKN
Boundaryless knowledge sharing (partners, etc.)
Continuous Knowledge Base Expansion
Optimized Use of Information technology
Transformed Combat Support/Business Practices
Constant Innovation
Decision Superiority

Talked about the challenges of knowledge sharing in a social Web 2.0 world.

He cannot access YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, or anything else.
(Discussion on the advantage or draw back of this situation.)
As a result, few use these tools for work. Yet, incoming people come in with experience and expectations for these tools.

Showed video, “The Machine is using us” on Web 2.0 from Kansas State University. Powerful.

Five dimensions to the knowledge sharing model
Leadership – change people’s behaviors by asking key questions
Intellectual Capital – When you put IC into a community, behavior changes
Focus – do you have strategic objectives tied to KM? How are you doing that?
Resources – KM isn’t free
Community – We already have our networks; KM is recognizing them

Discussion of how the KM community is used in theater to solve problems; example of knowledge sharing between Air Force, Army & Reserves to solve problems.

Expertise location is big. How can we take advantage of the available expertise? We need to know not only who the experts are but where they are…

Mostly discussion. Sorry. I’ll try to summarize notes later.

Posted at 11:50:24, PST in Knowledge Management

Discussion/Comments (1):

KM for Project Development, Management, and Execution (Randy Adkins)

The U.S. Army released a document in Aug 2008 describing the KM Principles they plan to institutionalize in the Army.

EXCERPT

The goal of knowledge management is to ensure that information flows through an organization to the people who need it.

According to the new directive, the Army’s chief information officer will issue a policy to direct knowledge management efforts, and Army commands and organizations will develop practices to fulfill the policy, a news release states.

The knowledge management principles “support an Army that automatically shares intellectual capital with no structural or technical barriers,” Army officials wrote in announcing the directive. The principles also “support an Army that values good ideas regardless of their source; and an Army that really collaborates and values collaboration as a means to mission success,” according to the Army.

The document, signed by the Army’s secretary and chief of staff Aug. 11, explains the rationale and implications of each principle.

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Army adopts knowledge management principles

{ Link }

I liked the use of short, near future, fictional vignettes in the Army document to illustrate the benefits of horizontal collaboration. I used a similar story-telling technique in a KM strategy white paper in 2005. My four "Ideal State Scenario" stories envisioned time savings by leveraging collaboration and knowledge sharing tools.

Posted at 09/09/2008 21:17:53 by Mike Sivertsen

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