May 27th, 2008
This module focuses on the basics of Knowledge Mapping, its importance, principles, and methodologies.
Key Questions
- What is K-map?
- What does the K-map show, and what do we map?
- Why is K-mapping so important?
- What are some of the key principles, methodologies, and questions for K-mapping?
- How do we create K-map?
Background
Each of the past centuries has been dominated by single technology. The eighteenth century was the time of the great mechanical systems accompanying the Industrial Revolution. The nineteenth century was the age of steam engine. After these, the key technology has been information gathering, processing and distribution. Among other developments, the installation of world wide telephone networks, the invention of radio and television, the birth and unprecedented growth of the computer industry and the launching of communication satellites are significant. Now people started to think that only information is not enough, what matters is Knowledge. So there has been seen shift from Information to Knowledge.
A bit of information without context and interpretation is data such as numbers, symbols.
Information is a set of data with context and interpretation. Information is the basis for knowledge.
Knowledge is a set of data and information, to which is added expert opinion and experience, to result in a valuable asset which can be used or applied to aid decision making. Knowledge may be explicit and/or tacit, individual and/or collective.
The term -Knowledge Mapping- seems to be relatively new, but it is not. We have been practising this in our everyday life, just what we are not doing is - we are not documenting it, and we are not doing it in a systematic way. Knowledge Mapping is all about keeping a record of information and knowledge you need such as where you can get it from, who holds it, whose expertise is it, and so on. Say, you need to find something at your home or in your room, you can find it in no time because you have almost all the information/knowledge about -what is where- and -who knows what- at your home. It is a sort of map set in your mind about your home. But, to set such a map about your organisation and organisational knowledge in your mind is almost impossible. This is where K-map becomes handy and shows details of every bit of knowledge that exists within the organisation including location, quality, and accessibility; and knowledge required to run the organisation smoothly - hence making you able to find out your required knowledge easily and efficiently.
Below are some of the definitions:
It’s an ongoing quest within an organization (including its supply and customer chain) to help discover the location, ownership, value and use of knowledge artifacts, to learn the roles and expertise of people, to identify constraints to the flow of knowledge, and to highlight opportunities to leverage existing knowledge.
Knowledge mapping is an important practice consisting of survey, audit, and synthesis. It aims to track the acquisition and loss of information and knowledge. It explores personal and group competencies and proficiencies. It illustrates or “maps” how knowledge flows throughout an organization. Knowledge mapping helps an organization to appreciate how the loss of staff influences intellectual capital, to assist with the selection of teams, and to match technology to knowledge needs and processes.
- Denham Grey
Knowledge mapping is about making knowledge that is available within an organisation transparent, and is about providing the insights into its quality.
- Willem-Olaf Huijsen, Samuel J. Driessen, Jan W. M. Jacobs
Knowledge mapping is a process by which organisations can identify and categorise knowledge assets within their organisation - people, processes, content, and technology. It allows an organisation to fully leverage the existing expertise resident in the organisation, as well as identify barriers and constraints to fulfilling strategic goals and objectives. It is constructing a roadmap to locate the information needed to make the best use of resourses, independent of source or form.
-W. Vestal, APQC, 2002
(American Productivity & Quality Center)
Knowledge Map describes what knowledge is used in a process, and how it flows around the process. It is the basis for determining knowledge commonality, or areas where similar knowledge is used across multiple process. Fundamentally, a process knowledge map cntains information about the organisation?s knowledge. It describes who has what knowledge (tacit), where the knowledge resides (infrastructure), and how the knowledge is transferred or disseminated (social).
-IBM Global Services
How are the Knowledge Maps created?
Knowledge maps are created by transferring tacit and explicit knowledge into graphical formats that are easy to understand and interpret by the end users, who may be managers, experts, system developers, or anybody.
Basic steps in creating K-maps:
Basic steps - creating K-maps for specific task
- The outcomes of the entire process, and their contributions to the key organisational activities
- Logical sequences of all the activities needed to achieve the goal
- Knowledge required for each activity {gives the knowledge gap}
- Human resource required to undertake each activity {shows if recruitment is needed}
What do we map?
The followings are the objects we map:
- Explicit knowledge
- subject
- purpose
- location
- format
- ownership
- users
- access right
- Tacit knowledge
- expertise
- skill
- experience
- location
- accessibility
- contact address
- relationships/networks
- Tacit organisational process knowledge
- the people with the internal processing knowledge
- Explicit organisational process knowledge
- codified organisational process knowledge
What do the knowledge maps show?
Knowledge map shows the sources, flows, constraints, and sinks of knowledge within an organisation. It is a navigational aid to both explicit information and tacit knowledge, showing the importance and the relationships between knowledge stores and the dynamics. The following list will be more illustrative in this regard:
- Available knowledge resources
- Knowledge clusters and communities
- Who uses what knowledge resources
- The paths of knowledge exchange
- The knowledge lifecycle
- What we know we don?t know (knowledge gap)
Activity: 1
>> Can you create your personal knowledge map which shows the types and location of knowledge resources you use, the channels you use to access knowledge?
Where does knowledge reside?
Knowledge can be found in
- Correspondents, internal documents
- Library
- Archives (past project documents, proposals)
- Meetings
- Best practices
- Experience
- Corporate memory
Activity: 2
>> What are the other places where you can find knowledge?
What are the other things to be mapped?
Benefits of K-mapping
In many organisations there is a lack of transparency of organisation wide knowledge. Valuable knowledge is often not used because people do not know it exists, even if they know the knowledge exists, they may not know where. These issues lead to the knowledge mapping. Followings are some of the key reasons for doing the knowledge mapping:
- to find key sources of knowledge creation
- to encourage reuse and prevent reinvention
- to find critical information quickly
- to highlight islands of expertise
- to provide an inventory and evaluation of intellectual and intangible assets
- to improve decision making and problem solving by providing applicable information
- to provide insights into corporate knowledge
The map also serves as the continuously evolving organisational memory, capturing and integrating the key knowledge of an organisation. It enables employees learning through intuitive navigation and interrogation of the information in the map, and through the creation of new knowledge through the discovery of new relationships. Simply speaking, K-map gives employees not only -know what-, but also -know how-.
Key principles of Knowledge Mapping
- Because of their power, scope, and impact, the creation of organisational-level knowledge map requires senior management support as well as careful planning
- Share your knowledge about identifying, finding, and tracking knowledge in all forms
- Recognise and locate knowledge in a wide variety of forms: tacit, explicit, formal, informal, codified, personalised, internal, external, and permanent
- Knowledge is found in processes, relationships, policies, people, documents, conversations, links and context, and even with partners
- It should be up-to-date and accurate
K-mapping - key questions
Knowledge map provides an assessment of existing and required knowledge and information in the following categories:
- What knowledge is needed for work?
- Who needs what?
- Who has it?
- Where does it reside?
- Is the knowledge tacit or explicit?
- What issues does it address?
- How to make sure that the K-mapping will be used in an organisation?
Note:
- K-maps should be easily accessible to all in the organisation
- It should be easy to understand, update and evolve
- It should be updated regularly
- It should be an ongoing process since knowledge landscapes are continuously shifting and evolving
Offline Readings:
- K-mapping tools
- K-mapping tool selection
- Creating knowledge maps by exploiting dependent relationships
- Creating knowledge structure map?
- White pages
- KM jargon and glossary
Online Resource:
K-mapping Tools:
(Learn more about KM tool selection at http://www.voght.com/cgi-bin/pywiki?KmToolSelection or here off-line)
________________________________________
Categorised K-mapping
Social Network Mapping:
This shows networks of knowledge and patterns of interaction among members, groups, organisations, and other social entities who knows who, who goes to whom for help and advice, where the information enters and leaves the groups or organisation, which forums and communities of practice are operational and generating new knowledge.
Competency Mapping:
With this kind of mapping, one can create a competency profile with skill, positions, and even career path of an individual. And, this can also be converted into the ?organisational yellow pages? which enables employees to find needed expertise in people within the organisation.
Process-based Knowledge Mapping:
This shows knowledge and sources of knowledge for internal as well as external organisational processes and procedures. This includes tacit knowledge (knowledge in people such as know-how, and experience) and explicit knowledge (codified knowledge such as that in document).
Conceptual Knowledge Mapping:
Also sometimes called -taxonomy-, it is a method of hierarchically organising and classifying content. This involves in labelling pieces of knowledge and relationships between them. A concept can be defined as any unit of thought, any idea that forms in our mind [Gertner, 1978]. Often, nouns are used to refer to concepts [Roche, 2002]. Relations form a special class of concepts [Sowa, 1984]: they describe connections between other concepts. One of the most important relations between concepts is the hierarchical relation (subsumption), in which one concept (superconcept) is more general than another concept (subconcept) like Natural Resource Management and Watershed Management. This mapping should be able to relate similar kind of projects and workshops conducting/conducted by two different departments, making them more integrated.
Knowledge is power, broadly accessible, understandable, and shared knowledge is even more powerful!
Deependra b. Tandukar: http://dt.coremag.net
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May 18th, 2008
With the evolution and development of appraisal systems, a number of tools and techniques of performance appraisal have been developed. Firstly, there are graphic-rating scales which compare individual performance to an absolute standard. In this method, judgments about performance are recorded on a scale. This is the oldest and most widely used technique. This method is also known as linear rating scale. The appraisers are supplied with printed forms, one for each employee. These forms contain a number of objectives and behavior- and trait-based qualities to be rated (like quality, volume of work, job knowledge, dependability, initiative and attitude). Rating scales are of two types: continuous rating scales and discontinuous rating scales.
In continuous order like 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, the appraiser assigns the points to each degree. Performance regarding each character is known by the points given by the rater. These points are added up to find out the overall performance. Employees are ranked on the basis of total points assigned to each one of them. One reason for the popularity of the rating scale is its simplicity, which permits many employees to be quickly evaluated. Such scales have relatively low design cost and high incase of administration. They can easily pinpoint significant dimensions of the job. The major drawback of these scales is their subjectivity and low reliability. Another limitation is that the descriptive words often used in such scales may have different meanings to different raters.
Another popular and effective method of performance appraisal is employee ranking. Under this method the employees are ranked from best to worst on some characteristics. The rater first finds the employee with the highest performance and the employee with the lowest performance in that particular job category and rates the former as the best and the latter as poorest. Then the rater selects the next highest and next lowest and so on until he rates all the employees in that group.
Performance Appraisals provides detailed information on How to Write a Performance Appraisal, Job Performance Appraisals, Performance Appraisal Software, Performance Appraisal Systems and more. Performance Appraisals is affiliated with Manufacturing Performance Management.
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May 16th, 2008
“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.”
- Aldous Huxley
Ever have one of those supervisors that just didn’t quite get it?
Perhaps you even wondered from time to time how in the world this person ever became a manager in the first place?
The truth is that most of us, at some point in our career, will experience this firsthand. No doubt, it’s a tough situation to be in when you work for someone whose leadership skills are less than desired.
So what can you do?
First of all, remember that a majority of leaders in any organization do not hold the #1 position in the company. Don’t let one unreasonable manager ruin your opinion of the entire organization.
Understand that within any reporting structure/hierarchy, there will typically be challenges in even the best reporting relationships. Clearly realize that your particular situation may not be that unique. Chances are, the grass will be no greener elsewhere.
Keep in mind that your supervisor may be well aware of his weaknesses and has hired you to help him compensate.
One trait common among great leaders is their ability to surround themselves with team members that compliment their strengths and/or compensate for their weaknesses. So there’s still hope!
Keeping the above in mind, let’s take a look at some way you can effectively “Manage UP”!
- Accept your supervisor as he/she is, and commit yourself to helping him be successful. In the long run, everyone wins with this strategy.
- Realize that you are in control of your actions and you can work to improve your business environment.
- Focus on ways you can help your manager provide the resources you need to do your job well.
For example: If you feel you need more feedback from your manager, yet he does not provide regular one-on-one coaching sessions - simply take the initiative to schedule “briefings” with your manager. Ask specific questions that will generate the feedback that you seek.
Taking initiative in a safe and non-threatening way, for the dual purpose of getting what you need and identifying how you can make your supervisor’s workload lighter - will certainly serve you well.
Specifically ask your supervisor what she needs to make her job easier, and the team more successful. OR, if you have your own ideas - offer those ideas for consideration.
In short, do your best to be supportive and helpful, yet be prepared to be patient in the event that your strategy is not accepted as quickly as you would like. You can’t control what anyone else does, but you can always control what you do.
In the event that your supervisor is just one of those “evil-beings” - have faith that what goes around, comes around. It’s just a matter of time until circumstances will change for the better.
Be successful in spite of an unreasonable manager.
Above all else, stay on the “high road” - as it will always serve you well.
“Success is never final and failure never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”
- George F. Tiltonood
Richard Gorham is the founder and President of Leadership-Tools, Inc. His web site, http://www.leadership-tools.com is dedicated to providing free tools and resources for today’s aspiring leaders. Offering high-quality tools in the areas of Business Planning, Leadership Development, Customer Service, Sales Management and Team Building.
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May 10th, 2008
Time - it is the one thing that we are all running out of. It cannot be replaced. When it is spent, it is spent.
What, then, are you doing to ensure that you are maximizing the use of time?”
Understand that time will pass regardless of whether you spend it wisely or simply waste it.
You can make time your friend or it can be your worst enemy. Most people leave important tasks till the last possible moment then they are forced by self-imposed circumstance to rush everything. This is a lack of planning and responsibility , often borne from that other scourge called procrastination - the inability to begin.
Leaving things until the “eleventh hour” is where that horrible word “URGENT” comes from. Whenever you hear that word you can almost certainly be sure that somebody in the chain is trying to deflect the blame onto somebody else for their own slackness. You don’t do that do you?
How many times have you heard people complain that they “haven’t had time!”? What they really mean, and what they should be saying, is “I left it too late and ran out of time.” Ever hear anybody say that? Uh-uh - that sounds too self-deprecating doesn’t it? So they blame time itself.
Time does not care how you spend it. You can use it to create marvelous things in your life or you can waste it. All of us have only 168 hours per week. About a third of that is spent re-charging, that is, sleeping. That leaves 112 hours to use - more than enough to achieve anything you want.
I have a saying about sleep. “You can sleep all you want when you are dead.” In the meantime, if you have something really important to do then get up an hour earlier in the morning. Conversely, if you are a “night person” you can stay awake for several hours in the evening to get things done.
The wise use of time is the mark of a successful person.
Plan your actions. Use time wisely - you are never going to get it back. The clock is always ticking. Tick. Tick. Tick…
About the author: Gary Simpson is the author of eight books covering a diverse range of subjects such as self esteem, affirmations, self defense, finance and much more. His articles appear all over the web. Gary’s email address is budo@iinet.net.au. Click here to go to his Motivation & Self Esteem for Success website where you can receive his “Zenspirational Thoughts” plus an immediate FREE copy of his highly acclaimed, life-changing e-book “The Power of Choice.”
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April 26th, 2008
The title of this article sounds simplistic but it is amazing how often people (including me) sit staring at a problem like mounting paperwork and become so depressed by the thought of all the work to be done that they do nothing and continue in a paralytic state for days and even months!
The article aims to cheer such people up by the fact that they are not the only ones to be paralyzed by their mounting tasks. It also offers one or two solutions to the problem.
We all have things we have failed to do. Frank Garon, internet guru and philosopher, writes:
“Last summer, I went to the gym 3-4 times a week and worked out like a fiend. I was in the best shape of my life, and I knew it. But then I got busy, and have only been one time in the past 7 months. Now, I could obsess about that, or I can just chill the freak out and go to the gym tomorrow and do something about it.
I have things I’ve needed to do for months still sitting on my desk. I can stop looking at this pile and DO something about it. I can pop in my Guy Finley and John Di Lemme CDs and give myself an instant boost. In short, I can either cry about something or I can fix it.”
Frank’s solutions are not to stress out about what he has not done; to play some music that he loves and to do something about whatever still needs doing. He wisely decides not to cry over spilt milk but to take action to put things right.
The Jewish Rabbis taught their students to deal with the problem of studying a huge syllabus (the Talmud) by telling the story of the heap of dust. Two men were asked to move a huge heap of dust. One man soon gave up saying: “We’ll never move this! It’s far too big.”
The other man kept plugging away day after day moving a little at a time. It seemed like he was achieving nothing but eventually the heap began to look a little smaller. Finally he cleared the whole lot away and received his reward.
To use another metaphor: Be content to chip away like a woodpecker at a problem bit by bit and eventually you will cut through the whole tree and your problem will disappear. Your problem could be debt; so chip away at your debt by plugging the little leaks in your finances which are draining your money away.
Perhaps, like me, you belong to several membership sites with monthly fees which you seldom if ever visit. It only takes a small effort to end your membership.
Perhaps people owe you money which they forget to pay you. Take the time and trouble to make a list of those who owe you money and ask for it. Debtors are usually honest people who really have forgotten to pay up and just need a reminder to refresh their memories.
Another solution to what you have not done, is to pay someone else to do it. Recently, I mowed my lawns myself but the time before that I paid some one else to do it and saved a lot of time and energy to work on other more important and urgent tasks.
You could argue, however, that mowing the lawn is great exercise so that you save money and benefit your health by doing the necessary physical work yourself.
Housework can take up a lot of time and demands some skill; so pay someone else who can do it more quickly and efficiently unless you are worried by having a stranger in the house. You could, of course, pay a relative to do the work!
The principle of leverage (i.e. getting some one else to do your work for you for money) applies in a big way on the internet. The whole affiliate system is based on rewarding others for doing your marketing for you. Network marketing is also based on leverage.
Occasionally, you might want to pay someone else to work for you but also to teach you how to do the skilled work that they know how to do. I pay my web designer to do work on my websites and to teach me how he does what he does.
This way I can gain a certain amount of independence so that I don’t have to keep ringing him up over minor changes and I can also save time by making the most of the skills of an expert web designer.
So stop feeling depressed about what you haven’t done. Either start fixing things bit by bit or pay someone else to do the job for you.
About the author
John Watson is an award winning teacher and martial arts instructor. He has recently written two books about achieving your goals and dreams.
They can both be found on his website www.motivationtoday.com along with a daily motivational message.
The title of the first book is “36 Laws To Ignite Your Inner Power And Realize Your Dreams Now! - Acronyms, Stories, And Pictures…Easy To Remember And Use Everyday To Grab Your Life And Soar With The Eagles”
The book can be found at this URL
www.motivationtoday.com/36_laws.php
The book uses acronyms, stories, pictures and quotes to help readers remember 36 laws that can gradually transform your life if you apply them.
Ezine editors / Site owners. Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include my resource box as listed above.
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April 2nd, 2008
“If you control your time, you control your life” - Alan Lakein (1973)
Time is Money. Time is a precious commodity and everyone gets an equal share, but we use it differently. Even different societies have different attitudes towards times.
One thing about time is that it is elusive; it cannot be changed, and once it is gone, it is gone forever. According to a saying, ‘Time and tide wait for no one’. Our situation and needs influence our time orientation, but our time orientation (and needs) can be changed and that should lead to a more successful life.
Vilfredo Pareto, an early twentieth century Italian Economist, formulated what most of us call the ‘80-20 Rule’, technically known as the ‘law of maldistribution’. This rule states that “80 percent of our effort is spent on unnecessary activity and only 20 percent of our time is spent on something productive.’ The question now is: how can we spend 80 percent of our time on something productive and spend 20 percent on something unproductive?
For more effective use of our time, the following tips are suggested. They are
not sequential, you can decide the order.
The first is that you must set goals. A goal gives your life and the way you
spend your time meaning and direction. You must decide what you want from life
and organise your time around your goals. Look at your life in such areas as: finance, career, spiritual, social, health and community or cultural, and develop smarter objectives for each. Your goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and it must be time bound. You must also evaluate and review your goals regularly to check whether you are heading in the right direction or not.
Secondly, you must plan and organise. Using time to think and plan is time well spent. Nobody plan to fail but many people fail to plan. Organise and plan in a way that makes sense to you, otherwise you will find yourself dealing with problems as they arise instead of creating opportunities for problems to be avoided and for progress to be made.
Thirdly, you must put first things first. In his book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,’ Stephen R. Covey deduced that: “the one denominator that all successful people shared was not hard work, good luck or good human relation but ‘putting first things first’”. By putting first things first you eliminate the urgent and concentrate on the important things. Urgent tasks have short-term consequences while important tasks are those with long-term, goal-related implications. Work towards reducing the urgent things that arise and you will have more time for your important priorities. If things are important, they contribute to your mission and help you in achieving your goals.
Also, to make effective use of your time you must do the right things right. Noted management expert, Peter Drucker, in his book ‘The Effective Executive’ (Harper & Row, 1966) said: “doing the right thing is more important than doing things right. Doing the right thing is effectiveness; doing things right is efficiency. Focus first on effectiveness (identifying what is the right thing to do), then concentrate on efficiency (doing it right).”
Moreover, you must aim for excellence and not perfection. Excellence is attainable; perfection is elusive if not unattainable. I believe that the pursuit of perfection is a waste of time. Yes, some things need to be closer to perfection than others; but perfectionism - paying unnecessary attention to details can be another form of procrastination.
Furthermore, you must conquer procrastination. To be a peak performer and be able to make good use of your time, it is necessary to conquer procrastination. Do not postpone till tomorrow what you can do today. Alan Lakein explained in his book: ‘How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life’ that “Many of us procrastinate when faced with long and difficult or unpleasant tasks, even though they are quite important to us. One technique to try in order to conquer procrastination is the ‘Swiss cheese method’. When you are avoiding something, break it into smaller tasks, and work on the big task for just 15 minutes. By doing a little at a time, eventually you’ll reach a point where you’ll want to finish.”
Be ready to say ‘No’. This is such a small word, yet so hard to say. Focusing on your goals may help. Making time for important, but often not schedule, priorities such as family and friends can also help. But first you must be convinced that you and your priorities are important - that seems to be the hardest part in learning to say ‘no’. Once convinced of their importance, saying ‘no’ to the unimportant things in life gets easier.
In addition, you must consider what time of the day suits you best. For instance, I like reading at night and writing in the morning because by late afternoon I am exhausted. Kathy Prochaska-Cue, an extension family economics specialist averred that: “Knowing when your best time is and planning to use that time of the day for your priorities (if possible) is effective time management.”
Besides, to make effective use of your time you must have a ‘To Do List’. I have a daily ‘To Do list’ which I do either the last thing the previous day or first thing in the morning. I also have a weekly, monthly and yearly ‘To Do List’. You can either use a diary or calendar and you could combine the two. The coming of Personal Digital Assistant and Pocket Personal Computer has made life easier. Try any method that suits you. Having a ‘To Do List’ is essential for wise time management.
Another tip is that you need to be flexible. Allow time for interruptions and distractions. Time management experts often suggest planning for 50 percent or less of one’s time. With only 50 percent of your time planned you will have the flexibility to handle interruptions of unplanned emergencies. Save (or make) larger blocks of time for your priorities.
Finally, reward yourself. Even for smaller successes, celebrate achievement of
goals. Anytime I am able to finish the entire task on my ‘things-to-do-today-list,’ I smile and say ‘thank you Lord’. Promise yourself a reward for completing each task or finishing an entire task. Keep your promise to yourself and indulge in your reward. It may be as simple as special snacks after getting certain things done. Doing so will help you maintain the necessary balance in life between work and play. As Ann McGee-Cooper said in her book: ‘Time Management for Unmanageable People’ (Ann Mc-Cooper & Associates, 1983); “If we learn to balance excellence in work with excellence in play, fun and relaxation, our lives become happier, healthier, and a great deal more creative.”
Dayo Olomu is a UK-based Motivational Speaker, Writer, Business/Life Coach, Trainer, Media Entrepreneur and Competent Toastmaster. His core belief is that we are all endowed with seeds of greatness, and his mission is to help individuals and organisations achieve their full potentials. He is the author of best selling “4 Indispensable Strategies for Success” and the President of Croydon Communicators Toastmasters. Get his FREE monthly Rise to the Top ezine by sending a blank email to subscribe@dayoolomu.com or visit his website at: www.dayoolomu.com
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