Losing Your Minds: Capturing,

Retaining and Leveraging

Organizational Knowledge
bILL Kaplan

Published by In association with

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Organizational Knowledge
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 Losing Your Minds: Capturing,
Retaining and Leveraging
Organizational Knowledge
bill Kaplan

Published by In association with

Contents

Executive summary.............................................................................................................VII

About the author................................................................................................................IX

Foreword............................................................................................................................XI

Part One: Are you losing your minds? The challenge of knowledge loss

Chapter 1: The challenge.................................................................................................... 3

The ongoing challenge of workforce turnover and knowledge loss............................................. 4
Creating a resilient, agile organization.................................................................................... 4
The potential impact on mission success is immense................................................................. 6
People have always left organizations, so what’s different now?................................................. 6
Examples of knowledge loss…................................................................................................ 7
Compliance versus performance............................................................................................. 9

Chapter 2: Foundations of a high performing, knowledge

enabled organization........................................................................................................ 11
What is knowledge?............................................................................................................. 11
Knowledge convergence....................................................................................................... 11
Characteristics of a high performing, knowledge enabled organization.................................... 12
Someone is accountable for the leveraging the organization’s knowledge................................ 16
The concept of value creation from knowledge...................................................................... 16
Moving from concept to strategy to implementing practice...................................................... 17

Chapter 3: From concept to strategy to implementing practice.......................................... 19

Chapter 4: Phase one – Knowledge concepts.................................................................... 23

KM outcomes...................................................................................................................... 23
KM projects or opportunities................................................................................................. 26
The KM business case – Link between concept and strategy.................................................... 29

Chapter 5: Phase two – Knowledge strategy...................................................................... 31

Align with the organization’s strategic planning...................................................................... 31
KM strategic plan................................................................................................................. 31
Measures of success............................................................................................................ 32

III
Contents

Chapter 6: Phase three – Implementing practices.............................................................. 35

Critical and relevant knowledge............................................................................................ 35
Process management........................................................................................................... 36
KM framework..................................................................................................................... 38
Building a framework for knowledge convergence.................................................................. 39
Change management (behavior change)............................................................................... 43

Part Two: Driving value from knowledge: The practical knowledge management guide

Introduction...................................................................................................................... 49

Section 1: Engagement process......................................................................................... 51

1.1 Sample agenda and objectives.................................................................................. 51
1.2 Evaluating and selecting opportunities........................................................................ 52
1.3 Performance agreement............................................................................................. 55

Section 2: Overview of fast learning processes.................................................................. 57

2.1 A process perspective................................................................................................ 57
2.2 Participants............................................................................................................... 58
2.3 Who, what, when, where, and why............................................................................. 59
2.4 Resource requirements.............................................................................................. 59
2.5 Supplies and equipment needs................................................................................... 60

Section 3: Peer assist – Learning before doing................................................................... 63

3.1 What is a peer assist?............................................................................................... 63
3.2 When is a peer assist appropriate?............................................................................. 63
3.3 Who are the participants in a peer assist?................................................................... 63
3.4 How much time is required to conduct an effective peer assist?.................................... 63
3.5 Preparing for a peer assist......................................................................................... 64
3.6 Sample peer assist agenda and objectives.................................................................. 64
3.7 Event documentation................................................................................................. 68

Section 4: Action review – Learning while doing................................................................ 71

4.1 What is an action review?.......................................................................................... 71
4.2 When is an action review appropriate?....................................................................... 71
4.3 Who are the participants in an action review?............................................................. 72
4.4 How much time is required to conduct an effective action review?................................ 72
4.5 Preparing for an action review................................................................................... 72
4.6 Action review agenda . ............................................................................................. 73
4.7 Event documentation................................................................................................. 73
4.8 What do you do with the output of an action review?.................................................. 75

Section 5: Retrospect – Learning after doing...................................................................... 77

5.1 What is a retrospect?................................................................................................ 77

IV
 Losing Your Minds: Capturing, Retaining and Leveraging Organizational Knowledge

5.2 When is a retrospect appropriate?............................................................................. 77

5.3 How do retrospects and action reviews differ?............................................................. 77
5.4 Who are the participants in a retrospect?.................................................................... 77
5.5 How much time is required to conduct an effective retrospect?..................................... 78
5.6 Preparing for a retrospect.......................................................................................... 78
5.7 Sample agenda and facilitation guide........................................................................ 78
5.8 Event documentation................................................................................................. 84

Section 6: Embedding and sustaining the learnings........................................................... 87

6.1 Documenting lessons learned for reuse....................................................................... 88
6.2 Embedding the key advice......................................................................................... 88
6.3 Tracking and reporting progress................................................................................. 89
6.4 KM enablers............................................................................................................. 89
6.5 Knowledge assets...................................................................................................... 90
6.6 Delivering knowledge to the end user......................................................................... 91
6.7 Reinforce the utilization of lessons learned.................................................................. 91

Section 7: Creating Communities of Practice to leverage the transfer

and reuse of knowledge.................................................................................................... 93
7.1 What is a Community of Practice?.............................................................................. 93
7.2 Establishing an effective CoP..................................................................................... 93
7.3 Maintaining the CoP once it is established . ............................................................... 99

Part Three: Case studies

Case study 1: Implementing a knowledge-sharing and collaboration program

at MTR Corporation......................................................................................................... 103
The business imperative for KM........................................................................................... 103
Establishing the vision........................................................................................................ 104
Building early organizational buy-in..................................................................................... 105
Encouraging participation................................................................................................... 107
Fostering collaboration....................................................................................................... 108
Embedding change and building sustainability..................................................................... 109

Case study 2: Knowledge and expertise transfer at Airbus............................................... 113

Knowledge management and transfer at Airbus.................................................................... 113
Project objectives............................................................................................................... 115
Methodology used............................................................................................................. 116
Applying ExTra in the Manufacturing Engineering Extended Enterprise department................... 117
Action plan and implementation......................................................................................... 118
Evaluation......................................................................................................................... 119
Final conclusions and future investigations........................................................................... 120

Index.............................................................................................................................. 123

V
Executive summary
You are losing your minds... really… and
you need to do something about it right now!
Rapidly-shifting operational and
performance goals driven by change in an
organization’s operating environment are
part of the evolution of any present day
public or private sector organization. This
change presents you and your organization
with multi-dimensional risks to your ability
to adapt and to successfully operate ‘faster
than the speed of that change.’
One of the risks organizations in both
the public and private sectors face is the
constant threat of knowledge loss due to the
turnover in their workforce. The ability of
your organization to successfully anticipate
and to manage the risk of knowledge
loss due to workforce turnover often will
determine how successfully your organization
can address the other multi-dimensional risks
facing you.
To mitigate these challenges and
risks, organizations need a consistent,
disciplined, and sustainable framework
for capturing, adapting, transferring, and
reusing their relevant and critical knowledge.
It is a fundamental part of a successful
succession planning and continuity of
operations strategy. It’s about creating a
high performing and knowledge enabled
organization that can effectively deal
with and operate faster than the speed of
change, drive superior and measurable
performance, and deliver value to its
customers, to its workforce, and to the
organization itself.
This report shares and illustrates
concepts, strategies, and practices that can
create the attention necessary to shape
and support knowledge and collaborative
learning efforts in your organization,
whether it be a public or private sector
organization. In those cases where there are
unique differences between the two sectors
and how they perceive, understand, and
address this challenge, the differences will be
highlighted to provide a broader perspective.
This book will share strategies that bridge
knowledge gaps that can impede innovation
and performance improvement while (1)
enhancing the necessary behavior change in
the short term and (2) building an effective
foundation for sustainable implementation
of effective practices for capturing, retaining,
and reusing the critical and relevant
knowledge of your organization.
This book is divided into three parts. Part
One focuses on the challenge of workforce
turnover and knowledge loss, introduces
some basic concepts to better understand
this knowledge management challenge,
and then discusses how to approach this
challenge using a successful performing
and learning framework for introducing
and then implementing context relevant
knowledge management solutions within the
organization. Part Two provides a practical
guide to implementing this framework,
outlining three key methodologies and
explaining in detail how to plan and
carry out the relevant activities. Part Three
comprises two in-depth case studies of
VII
Executive summary

organizations which have implemented

knowledge retention and reuse initiatives,
the success of which illustrates the need for
careful planning, organizational buy-in and
ongoing effort.
This report will help you to begin the
discussion in your organization around
the challenge of knowledge loss, one that
will always face your organization and not
only impact individual worker performance
and success, but also the performance and
longer term success of your organization.
This report is not the only answer to this
growing challenge. It does, however, provide
a practical approach to thinking about the
challenge and then doing something about
it. This combination of concept, strategy and
implementing practices will provide success
for those willing to seriously address the
challenge over the longer term.

VIII
About the author

Bill Kaplan is the founder of Working KnowledgeCSP, an independent knowledge management

consulting company.
From June 2005 through October 2009, Bill was the chief knowledge officer at Acquisition
Solutions, Inc., a government-only consulting company. He provided the knowledge leadership and
practical expertise to move Acquisition Solutions from knowledge management concept to strategy to
implementing practice through the creation of a corporate ability to connect, collect, and collaborate
at all levels within the company. Through his leadership, Acquisition Solutions earned recognition as
a North American Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) finalist in 2007 (18th), 2008 (16th),
and 2009 (13th).
Prior to joining Acquisition Solutions, Bill served as the deputy knowledge management practice
manager and a senior knowledge management and organization performance consultant at Science
Application International Corporation (SAIC).
Bill is one of the original thought leaders, practitioners, and consultants applying knowledge
management in the government sector, a long time practitioner in the private sector, and is published
on many articles on knowledge management and federal acquisition. He also uniquely works at
the intersection of KM and federal acquisition and program management, helping government
organizations leverage their knowledge to ensure mission success.
He completed a distinguished career in federal acquisition and program management in the
United States Air Force and the Department of Defense, retiring in the rank of Colonel. During his
military career he earned numerous personal, unit awards and service medals including the Defense
Superior Service Medal and the Legion of Merit Medal.

IX
Foreword
Organizations have spent a lot of
time talking about the impact of shifting
demographics and the turnover in their
workforces due to retirement, promotion,
transition, and downsizing. Most of the
conversations end with statements such as,
“The sky is not falling, at least not when
it comes to knowledge loss. People have
always left the workforce and somehow
we’ve managed to survive.”
It’s precisely this line of thinking that
is keeping many leaders in business and
government from seriously addressing
the largest departure of knowledge their
organizations will ever experience.
In many ways, it’s about remaining
relevant in the face of change. But relevance
alone isn’t good enough. Organizations,
both in business and in government, have
to do better than that just to stay relevant.
More than ever, an organization’s products
and services need to be distinctive and
provide value to get and hold the attention
of customers. For government, it’s about
delivering products and services both
expected and required by the people...
And knowledge is key to creating and
maintaining relevance and delivering value.
Every day more and more organizations
fail or thrive based on their knowledge and its
flow across their value chain. Organizations
that ‘get’ this invest heavily in processes and
the right technology to continuously harvest
and leverage the collective know-how and
experience of their employees, partners,
suppliers, and customers.
Smart organizations optimize their
investment in knowledge by finding ways to
retain the learning and experience from the
people they have hired and developed. To
them, letting the critical knowledge go that
they have already paid for makes no sense. It’s
the same as throwing money out the window.
These organizations have figured out
it’s not an impossible task to hold onto the
knowledge important to their current and
future performance. They understand that
not everything everyone knows is critical.
This realization makes knowledge retention a
manageable endeavor.
Organizations don’t have to lose their
minds. The processes and practices in this
book will help you and your organization
retain the know-how and experience that
make your products and services valuable
and relevant. I encourage you put them to
use and do better than survive!
Kent A. Greenes, Founder of Greenes
Consulting, and previously head of
Knowledge Management for British
Petroleum and Science Applications
International Corporation.
XI
 Losing Your Minds: Capturing, Retaining and Leveraging Organizational Knowledge

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