Operationalizing Knowledge Management: The Rough Plan
According to the Navy's model, the journey to becoming a knowledge-centric organization is divided into seven stages. They include:
1. Stage One: Building awareness of the concept. At this stage, the organization is made aware of the concepts and terminology of KM. It also involves articulating in relevant ways the value of KM in attaining the strategic goals of the organization. This stage is particularly important for KM as the theoretical frameworks, which are very rudimentary in this new field, are developed.
2. Stage Two: Exploring issues affecting knowledge sharing. This is the stage at which knowledge audits and gap analysis are undertaken to assess the status quo of the organization's culture, leadership commitment, processes, resources, and practices. The goal of Stage Two is to determine the starting point, formulate a vision of the ideal KM situation, and identify milestones, targets, issues, and objectives.
3. Stage Three: Identifying KM strategic goals and processes including measurement. At this stage, KM is taken to the operational level through a number of programs and initiatives with defined objectives. Monitoring and measuring performance by reference to the objectives developed under Stage Two are essential to guide management as to evaluating the progress of the program and determining the required adjustments.
4. Stage Four: Developing knowledge-sharing processes. Once management obtains results from Stage Three, they will be in a better position to determine what works for the organization and to develop the best practices into defined KM processes. At this stage, management has a clear idea of how the KM program will be designed.
5. Stage Five: Refining knowledge-brokering concepts. In addition to the processes and practices implemented at Stage Four, the organization creates at this stage positions for owning and overseeing the various processes of KM.
6. Stage Six: Building CoPs. At this stage, the structure of the organization is augmented with informal communities that work on creating and sharing new knowledge in areas of strategic importance to the organization.
7. Stage Seven: Reviewing the journey. At this stage, ways to review and continuously monitor the KM initiatives are implemented, with the focus on promoting learning.
The rough plan offered a general guideline for organizations in the Navy on how to implement KM in their work routines and daily operation. In addition, the Navy as a whole has undergone a number of changes to operationalize KM. These changes are presented following the framework presented in Chapter 5, starting with changes to the structure, culture, and IT architecture of the whole enterprise.
Structural Changes—CoPs
An important feature of the Navy's KM is stressing that the development of CoPs is an integral step in operationalizing KM as illustrated in Exhibit 6.1. The Navy's CIO provided very detailed guidelines to individuals and organizations on how to develop CoPs. The Navy adopted the CoPs' informal structure as a shade structure along with its rigid hierarchical one. A number of CoPs have emerged to date. The first formal CoP in the Navy is the Knowledge Management Community of Practice (KMCP), which was formed after the 1998 and 1999 knowledge fairs. Another community of interest (Col) with the same domain of focus evolved with 600 members. The two communities are focused on one area of knowledge: KM. The Navy is also part of a government-wide CoP, the KM Working Group mentioned previously. The KMCP has played a major role in operationalizing KM by providing learning materials, training, and guidance. In addition, the KMCP facilitated exchange of best practices through the Navy via knowledge fairs, where more than 75 best practices of KM were displayed and explained.
A number of CoPs, reaching around 23 CoPs of variable types and sizes, also emerged. With the CoPs' leaders being mainly of senior ranks, the CoPs are given leadership's sponsorship as well as the administrative and financial support they need. CoPs are spread throughout the Navy, hosted by various organizations, each with a defined domain, value proposition, and defined method to transfer its knowledge both to the members and to the organization as a whole. The 23 CoPs comprise best practices, innovation, and helping and know ledge-stewarding communities, with the last type being the most common.
It seems that the CoP structure is not foreign to the Navy. The Navy Seals have always operated as mission-based groups with a flat structure similar to a CoP. The knowledge of each group is maintained and passed through the commanders and Lessons Learned to the rest of the organization. Like the CoPs, the Navy Seals have a focused domain of knowledge, enabling quick and responsive decision making. Indeed, the ability to deploy and redeploy armed forces in small operational groups has been recognized as the competency that the U.S. military needs to develop to respond to the opportunities and threats of a knowledge-intensive world.
The CoP guidelines provided by the CIO were the major starting point to operationalize KM and enable knowledge sharing. However, it is change of the Navy's culture that made knowledge sharing a reality.
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