2009

Transferring Knowledge &

managing the time aspect of it

Sequel to the article

‘Two big challenges of Knowledge Management’

To transfer knowledge, it must be first be available and then shared.

But then sharing alone won’t suffice as knowledge has to be used for
an organisation to benefit from it. Lack of time is often the reason
cited by people for lack of knowledge transferring.

Balajhi N
Business Consultant
7/21/2009
N.Balajhi
Business Consultant

Transferring Knowledge & Managing the time aspect of it

Comment: by A nonymo us

Article: Tw o big ch allen ges of Kn owled ge M anagement

These are the three challenges I see:

1) Transferring knowledge ( better teachers, better learners )

2) Time (no one has the time to do it, or learn how)

3) Disliking teaching/mentoring.

I think the last two might be overcome if people saw great results from
their efforts to teach/learn, but I know that in my organization there is
no system in place to help senior people become better teachers , and
junior people become b etter learners. Senior people know what they do
in each situation, but don't know how to articulate why they do what
they do, and how junior people can translate it into any other situation.
Thoughts on any resources for this?

I agree with the challenges mentioned the comment and in fact it was the first p oint
'Trans ferring knowledge' tha t I highlighted in my above mentioned article. To
transfer kn owledge, it must firs t be available then shared a nd share d k nowledge
must be used for an orga nisation to benefi t from it. The differen ce is, said article
deals with the cultu ral and system a ngle of an organisa tion while the a bove
mentioned commen t highlights the capa city and ability of people to share and use
knowledge. To some ex tent the work cul ture of an organisatio n deals with the
learning aspect. In a p rogressive work cultur e people would want to listen a nd learn.
Their dislike to teaching and mentoring would be low to nil. But surely making better
teacher s and learners ou t of peo ple working in an organisation is a tremendous
challenge unless they are natural teache rs a nd learners.

nbalajhi@gmail.com http://enablingbusiness.blogspot.com
N.Balajhi
Business Consultant

About Better Teache rs

We do n ot need teachers in the traditio na l mould (class room teachers) to s hare

knowledge. We need people who are willing to share knowledge (their ways,
methods , wisdom , ideas e tc.). If a n orga nisation su ccee ds o n this fro nt then the next
challenge is to help people arti culate wha t they share. This is more of a glass ceiling
than a co ncre te slab to break thr ough. First, help people to share knowledge. Capture
and channel a ppro priately that shared kno wledge reaches pe ople who may benefi t
from it. Let them pick the brains of the one who shared and learn from it. This way
the person who sha red gets better with h is communica tion , those who need be come
better learners
and the sh ared
knowledge gets
further en riched.
Remember,
learners ca n help
people become
better tea chers.

About Better Learne rs

People learn when they a re driven. Not eve ryone is self -driven and a n organisa tion
needs to play a big role in driving people to learn and achieve more. Create ' work
challenges' that drive people to learn an d raise the bar. Do not tolerate sub -
optimum perfor mances . Keep raising th e bar of optimum perf orman ce with
improvements in over all work perf orman ce. Leadersh ip must se t an examp le in
learning. They cannot repea t their mistak es and close their eyes to knowledge
available with the organisation w hen they want their employees to le arn and u se
knowledge. Provide a learning envi ronment where people are e ncouraged to learn.
You can not expe ct a pers on to lear n fr om work whe n his re quest for a library is
denied or for tha t ma tter execu tive / highe r education is denied. Last bu t the mos t
importan t incen tive for learning is Respe ct, Recognition and Reward for knowledge
shared . Absence of R -R-R will keep peo ple far aw ay fr om learning as no t mu ch is
going to happe n even if they learn an d sh are their knowledge.

nbalajhi@gmail.com http://enablingbusiness.blogspot.com
N.Balajhi
Business Consultant

Related ar ticle link Supporting Ideation in a work env ironment

Integrate KM with bus ines s appli cations

The need for time will be felt when kn owledge is shared in the tr aditional way. We
can have daily / weekly sessions of k nowled ge sharing but the n less will be learnt a t
those sessio ns compared with k nowledge pr ovided as the nee d for it arises. People at
work would wan t to kn ow what to do or ho w to d o at a poin t of time. If they can be
provisioned with the required kn owledge at the click of a button or two there will be
no need to pu sh for k nowledge usage or f or that ma tter lear ning. But the challenge is
in enabling it.

I was implementing my recommenda tions to improve 'Re ceivables' per fo rman ce fo r

one of my clients. We de signed and develop ed a s oftware that would dou ble up as a n
intelligence system besides providing transa ctional and MIS su ppor t. We p rovided a
field(s) for people to sha re their knowledge at various stages of the pro cess f low and
tagged them as 'Kn owledge fields'. People can choose from sta ndard text or ty pe
their own. They ca n share their ideas a nd views on what trans pired and how they
handled it. They could also say what they th ink or feel about a situation or how they
expect things to go, espe cially with collections. These were stored f or people to use
in similar situations. Anyo ne who is perf orming a required activity ca n a ccess
knowledge store d spe cific to the a ctivity being performed. People can also sha re
general tho ughts on how the wo rk is per for med and h ow they can be improved. This
system was received with lot of skep tici sm but eventually turned o ut to be a
beneficial one f or the client. It helpe d p eople to learn how differen t customers
respond and when they do what it means e specially in the light of their subsequent
action s. It's not always possible to do it th e way I described. There co uld be work
activities tha t involve no softwa re yet de mand involve knowledge acquisition and
usage. How do we share knowledge in t h ose cases a nd how do we use knowledge?

Knowledge management systems in tegra ted with business a pplicatio ns help

knowledge usage better th an standalone K M systems. This however does n ot preemp t
knowledge sharing outside business applica tions. Corpora te Blo gs and For ums always
provide good pla tform f or peo ple to sh are and learn espe cially in the absen ce of

nbalajhi@gmail.com http://enablingbusiness.blogspot.com
N.Balajhi
Business Consultant

software to inpu t knowledge acquired. Bu t KM fields in business applications help

capture k nowledge that is vital and cri tical f or per forman ce improveme n t.

If after all of the initiatives there still are people unwilling to learn or dislike learning
then the orga nisation will be better off without them. You ca n work on people
unwilling to sha re b ut no t mu ch can be do ne with people w ho are u nwilling to le arn.

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nbalajhi@gmail.com http://enablingbusiness.blogspot.com