What can we learn about KM from riding a bike?
I was sitting in my office, and my husband popped in and asked “Is it still knowledge after it’s captured?”. My immediate response was, “it depends….what do you mean by captured”? He was reading the KM World Conference brochure. So I said that most likely it means, after it’s codifed or documented in some way, and therefore my answer is, no. Why? he asked… and my response was , “after it’s captured (codified)from someone, it’s no longer knowledge, but information. It can be really good information that helps you with your experience and the development of your knowledge but it is no longer what we call knowledge. ”
Let me illustrate with riding a bike (a salute to the Tour de France). I can read all about riding a bike; I can document lessons learned from anyone on riding a bike; I can interview people about riding a bike; I can video people riding bikes, I can even compile best practices for all aspects of riding a bike. But, in all cases, I do not have direct knowledge of riding a bike, until I experience riding a bike. After the “knowledge” is captured for someone to see or read, from the perspective of the reader or viewer, it is only information. To take this one step further, as a new bike rider, I can look at all of these pieces of information and have a greater opportunity of successful bike riding experience.
So, what we learn about KM from the bike-riding metaphor is that codifying and documenting is not the end goal of knowledge management, but a necessary part of it. The end goal of KM is very simply to improve performance whether it’s in your personal life or business life. By providing current information about real experiences, the next person can take that information and incorporate it into their experience so that they can be quicker, more effective, improve quality and generally improve performance.
P.S. Some people get hung up on the age old knowledge vs information argument when talking about knowledge management. What I remind people is that words are just symbols used to approximate an experience, it is not the totality of that experience. That’s why I have returned over an over to using the term “knowledge management” to include both information and knowledge management.
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Comments
Great way to explain the concepts. I think I now understand the difference between the two much better. However, I do have a question in mind. From the article, It seems to me that information is a physical content that can be written on paper or logged on computer; while knowledge is an abstract concept that people perceive from information they obtain. If what I understand is correct, what is the difference between information management and knowledge management? Or maybe they are inseparable.
This example below might sounds quite elementary, but I’m really curious about KM. When I worked as an Technical Support Supervisor, I thought having a support manual would be helpful for new agents to learn so that they can catch up to speed in shorter time. It was also good for those difficult problems that agents rarely encountered. A lot of resolutions were obtained by try-and-error, which consumed calling time. I thought it would be good to keep these information or knowledge within the company so the next agent does not need to use the same time as we did. Then, in this example, do you define managing the manual as information or knowledge management?
Thanks,
Deborah
Great question Deborah. I had to think about this one for a little… From my perspective, what you call it is really irrelevant. That’s why I just use the term knowledge management to mean both information and knowledge… When it comes right down to it, quick, continuous and fluid feedback loops are best. What I mean is, it’s critical to constantly learn from each agents personal experiences with a client. Creating a manual and documenting those experiences is great, even better would be to make it a wiki allowing each agent and the client to continually update with their experiences. Eliminating the formal publication process reduces the knowledge to information time. Also, and I known in most cases, this is counter to conventional call center wisdom… I would create time for all agents to come together and connect with each other informally (virtually if necessary). They could bring to the table their most difficult (or best) call of the week, kind of an after action review process, but maybe focused on only a few calls. As a leader, it also gives you an opportunity to see who really is building their kowledge – especially your newer agents. And remember, knowledge sharing is all about relationships, the more you enable your agents to connect and build trust, the more likely they are to go above and beyond to help someone out – by sharing their knowledge.
Hope that helps.
This article should be sent out to all agents for why their job is so important. Capturing the knowledge, and documenting it into information are core components of the KCS methodology.
Great analogy. Knowledge is in the head of the beholder.