Tutorial - KM and Learning Tools and Techniques

Knowledge management and learning tools and techniques Prepared by: R. Samii Version no.
3 March 2007
Table of contents Introduction__________________________________________________ 1

Knowledge management in a nutshell ________________________________ 1
Implementing the knowledge management strategy: Tools and techniques___________________________________________________ 3

A. Strategy development ___________________________________________ 4
1. Knowledge audits ____________________________________________________ 4 2. Social network analysis (SNA) __________________________________________ 6 3. Most significant change (MSC) __________________________________________ 8 4. Outcome mapping __________________________________________________ 13 5. Process-based knowledge mapping _____________________________________ 15 6. Reframing matrix ___________________________________________________ 17
B. Collaboration mechanisms______________________________________ 18
7. Communities of practice (CoP) _________________________________________ 18 8. Action learning sets _________________________________________________ 21 9. Six thinking hats ____________________________________________________ 24 10. Social technologies_________________________________________________ 26
C. Knowledge sharing and learning tools ____________________________ 28

11. Stories___________________________________________________________ 28 12. Peer assists ______________________________________________________ 32 13. Challenge sessions_________________________________________________ 35 14. After action reviews and retrospects (AAR) ______________________________ 37
D. Capturing and storing knowledge ________________________________ 41

15. Knowledge harvesting ______________________________________________ 41 16. Integrated approaches to capturing learning _____________________________ 44 17. Exit interviews_____________________________________________________ 48 18. Identifying and sharing best practices___________________________________ 50 19. White pages or experts directories_____________________________________ 53 20. Blogs____________________________________________________________ 56
Sources ____________________________________________________ 58
Introduction
The purpose of this KM toolkit is to provide an overview of 20 tools and techniques which are widely used in knowledge management programmes by international financial institutions, UN agencies, NGOs and other development institutions. It is recommended that the tools and techniques in this document be used: at headquarters to foster knowledge sharing and learning as guidance for developing knowledge management strategies at country level by IFAD projects and programmes
Knowledge management in a nutshell

Knowledge management is about: people and how they create, share and use knowledge facilitating the processes by which knowledge is created, shared and used The transfer of knowledge requires commitment and entails continuous efforts. It needs to be embedded in all processes and not considered as addon and/or a one-time event. Learning and sharing is a dynamic process, in which existing knowledge, which is being shared and reused, creates new knowledge, allowing people to be competitive and to innovate. At the same time, knowledge management programmes should have both a collecting and a connecting dimension. The collecting dimension involves linking people with information. It relates to the capturing and disseminating of explicit knowledge through information and communication technologies aimed at codifying, storing and retrieving content, which in principle is continuously updated through computer networks. Through such collections of content, what is learned is made readily accessible to future users. The connecting dimension involves linking people with people - specifically people who need to know with those who do know, and so enhancing tacit knowledge flow through better human interaction, so that knowledge is widely disseminated and not just held in the heads of a few. Connecting is necessary because knowledge is embodied in people and in relationships. Most knowledge management programmes aim at an integrated approach to managing knowledge, by combining both the collecting and connecting dimensions.
The objective of IFAD strategy for knowledge management is to improve knowledge sharing and learning both within IFAD and with its partners. This will happen only if knowledge sharing and learning occurs collectively and systematically. The strategy will achieve its objective by: Aligning the knowledge management focus with IFADs new strategic framework Developing robust knowledge management processes and enabling tools Fostering partnerships to stimulate broader knowledge-sharing and learning Developing knowledge management competencies IFAD considers access to rural poverty information and knowledge as a central driver for development. Therefore, the main purpose of IFADs knowledge management tools and services are to: connect people with knowledge they need collect what needs to be learnt IFAD believes that effective knowledge management, most importantly knowledge-sharing and learning, is essential for improving its development effectiveness as it leads to: better use of IFADs experience and knowledge internally and externally serves to leverage the knowledge of IFADs partners and stakeholders, including rural poor people triggers and supports innovation promotes the scaling up of development experience through replication and through support for better evidence-based policies.
Knowledge management and learning tools
IFAD March 2007: version 3
Implementing the knowledge management strategy: Tools and techniques

IFAD has adopted a pragmatic and incremental approach to implementing the knowledge management strategy, thus it will not only introduce new tools and techniques but also build on existing tools, techniques and processes. In implementing the knowledge management strategy IFAD will be putting in place a more supportive infrastructure to achieve its knowledge management objectives. The strategy aims at bringing organizational activities back on track by correcting and improving current practices. At the same time, the strategy aims to increase the organizations capacity to think critically and creatively and act innovatively. Para 34 of the knowledge management strategy provided a preview of some knowledge management tools and techniques. The purpose of this toolkit is to provide an overview of 20 tools and techniques which are widely used in knowledge management programmes by international financial institutions, UN agencies, NGOs and other development institutions. IFAD is currently using some of these tools. For example: thematic groups are similar to communities of practice TRC, the pilot QE and OSC processes can be considered as a form of peer assist learning events or mid-term and completion evaluations can be considered as after action reviews. The tools are divided into four categories: Strategy development Collaboration mechanisms Knowledge sharing and learning processes Knowledge capture and storage The toolkit is a living document. It will be amended and expanded based on comments and feedback received. Future versions will include examples of how these tools were utilized. To this end, colleagues are requested to document and record their impressions, experience and learning using one of the 20 tools and techniques described in the toolkit. If you have any queries, please contact Roxanna Samii (r.samii@ifad.org) on extension 2375.
A. Strategy development
The tools listed below provide an overview on how to look at knowledge and learning in a strategic manner. The tools presented provide different frameworks which can be used to plan, monitor and evaluate knowledge and learning initiatives.
1. Knowledge audits
The knowledge audit provides an evidence-based assessment of where to focus its knowledge management efforts. It reveals knowledge management needs, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and risks. This involves getting to know what people and teams need in order to meet their goals and objectives. A knowledge audit is a systematic process to identify knowledge needs, resources and flows, as a basis for understanding where and how better knowledge management can add value. Typically this process is carried out through face-to-face interviews; workshops; focus groups and ediscussions. Below is a check-list of questions that may be explored: Knowledge What are the core tasks and processes carried out by different groups and people? What constitutes useful, applicable knowledge for the execution of these tasks and processes? How is this knowledge generated, identified, shared, stored and applied in core operations? How might improved generation, sharing, storing and application of knowledge be monitored?
Relationships and processes What existing and planned systems and processes can support the knowledge sharing and learning strategy, and how should they be deployed? What existing and planned initiatives might influence and support the generation, sharing, storing and application of knowledge? What is the nature of key relationships within the organization? How formal/informal are these relationships? How do they impact upon issues of knowledge and learning? Organizational contexts How can human resources, information technology, information management and other support functions be better integrated to support the knowledge and learning vision? How might existing structures support the KM strategy? How might leadership and governance support the KM strategy? What are the perceived costs and benefits of improved knowledge and learning? External factors How does the principle of horizontal coordination work in practice and how can it be strengthened? How might the political, economic, and cultural contexts in which the country and/or project/programme operates impact upon the development and implementation of an effective knowledge and learning strategy?
2. Social network analysis (SNA)

Social network analysis is about mapping relationships between people, groups and organizations to understand how these relationships facilitate or impede knowledge flows. It is about whom people seek information and knowledge from, whom they share their information and knowledge with. In contrast to an organization chart which shows formal relationships, an SNA chart shows informal relationships - who knows whom and who shares information and knowledge with whom. It therefore allows visualizing and understanding the relationships that can either facilitate or impede knowledge creation and sharing. SNA shows the real networks that operate underneath the surface a formal structure.
Once social relationships and knowledge flows have been identified, these need to be evaluated and measured. The results of social network analysis can be used to: Identify those (individuals and/or groups) playing central roles (opinion leaders, thought leaders, key knowledge brokers, experts) identify bottlenecks and isolated teams and individuals identify opportunities to improve knowledge flows target opportunities where increased knowledge flow will have the most impact raise awareness of the importance of informal networks How to go about it? Using questionnaires and/or interviews: Identify the network(s) of people (team, group, department) Gather background information - interviewing managers and key staff to understand the specific needs and problems Formulate hypotheses and questions Develop the survey methodology and designing the questionnaire
Survey the individuals in the network to identify the relationships and knowledge flows between them Map out the network visually Review the map and the problems and opportunities highlighted using interviews and/or workshops Design and implement actions to bring about desired changes Map the network again after a suitable period of time
Key points/practical tips It is important that SNA involves knowing what information to gather in the first place. As a result, it is vital to put a great deal of thought into the design of the survey and questionnaire. Effective questions typically focus on a variety of factors, such as: Who knows whom and how well? How well do people know each others knowledge and skills? Who or what gives people information about a specific theme/relationship/process? What resources do people use to find information, get feedback/ideas/advice about a specific theme/relationship/process? What resources do people use to share information about theme/relationship/process?
3. Most significant change (MSC)

The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation. It is participatory because many project stakeholders are involved both in deciding the sorts of change to be recorded and in analyzing the data. It involves project stakeholders in deciding what kind of change need to be recorded. It is a form of monitoring as it occurs throughout the programme cycle and provides information to help people manage it. MSC contributes to evaluation because it provides data on impact and outcomes which can be used to help assess the performance of the programme as a whole. MSC does not make use of predefined indicators, especially ones which have to be counted and measured. It resorts to a story approach. That is the answers to the central question about change are often in the form of stories of who did what, when and why, and the reasons the event was important. The process involves the systematic selection and collection of significant change (SC) stories at field level. The designated staff and stakeholders need to search for project impact. Once changes have been captured, various people sit down together, read the stories and have regular and often in-depth discussions about the value of the reported changes. When this technique is successfully implemented, the team begins to focus on the programme impact. Many organizations have found MSC monitoring a useful knowledge management tool for the following reasons: It is a good means of identifying unexpected changes It is a good way to clearly identify the values that prevail in an organization and to have a practical discussion about which of those values are the most important. This happens when people think through and discuss which of the significant changes (SCs) is the most significant. This can happen at all levels of the organization It is a participatory form of monitoring that requires no special professional skills. Compared to other monitoring approaches, it is easy to communicate across cultures. There is no need to explain what an indicator is. Everyone can tell stories about events they think were important It encourages analysis as well as data collection because people have to explain why they believe one change is more important than another It can build staff capacity in analyzing data and conceptualizing impact
Knowledge management and learning tools IFAD March 2007: version 3
It can deliver a rich picture of what is happening, rather than an overly simplified picture where organizational, social and economic developments are reduced to a single number It can be used to monitor and evaluate bottom-up initiatives that do not have predefined outcomes against which to evaluate
Detailed description of the process 1. Raise interest by introducing concept of MSC to range of stakeholders 2. Define the domains of change. This involves selected stakeholders identifying broad domains which are not necessarily defined as performance indicators but are to be defined by the actual user. For example changes in peoples lives 3. Define the reporting period. Decide how frequently to monitor changes taking place in the identified domains 4. Collect significant change (SC) stories from those most directly involved, such as field staff or project/programme participants. Stories are collected by asking simple questions such as: during the last month, in your opinion, what was the most significant change that took place for participants in the programme? Allow respondents to allocate a domain category to their stories and encourage respondents to report why they consider a particular change to be the most significant. Information to be documented should include: Information about who collected the story and when the events occurred Description of the story itself what happened Significance (to the storyteller) of events described in the story. Documenting who collected the story and when helps the reader put the story in context and enables any follow-up inquiries to be made about the story, if needed. The SC story itself should be documented as it is told. The description of the change identified as the most significant should include factual information that makes it clear who was involved, what happened, where and when. Where possible, a story should be written as a simple narrative describing the sequence of events that took place. 5. Select the most significant of the stories. The MSC approach uses a hierarchy of selection processes. People discuss SCs within their area of expertise and submit the most significant of these to the level above. This level selects the most significant of all the SCs and passes this on to the next level. The iterative process of selecting and then pooling SC stories helps reduce a large volume of locally important stories down to a small number of more widely valued stories. The use of multiple
levels of selection enables this to happen without burdening any individual or group with too much work. The process has been called summary by selection. (See figure 1) Figure 1 Flow of stories and feedback in MSC
6. Feed back the results of the selection process. Feedback is important in all monitoring, evaluation and learning-oriented systems. Every time stories are selected, the criteria used to select them are recorded and fed back to all those who provided the SC stories. The feedback should explain which SC was selected and why. It should also provide information on how the selection process was organized. Knowing that a particular type of change is valued can lead to further searches for similar changes in specific areas. Feedback about why a selection was made can expand or challenge participants views of what is significant. The information about which SC stories were selected helps participants searches for SCs in the next reporting period.
7. Verify the stories. Verification is useful in order to ensure that the
reported changes correctly reflect what has happened. A reported change may be more important than is initially evident from the way in which the change was documented. Important details and wider implications may lie hidden until further investigation of the reported event. When participants know that there are procedures for verifying SC stories, they are more likely to be careful about the way they document their SCs and this can help improve the overall quality of the SCs. The existence of a verification process may also give external parties more confidence in the significance of the findings of the MSC approach. On the other hand, undertaking some verification of SC stories may have negative consequences if not managed properly. Participants may feel they are not trusted, and may be discouraged from reporting anything other than what they think is expected. The selected stories can be verified by visiting the sites where the described events took place. The purpose of this is twofold: to check that stories have been reported accurately and to provide an
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opportunity to gather more detailed information about events seen as especially significant. If conducted some time after the event, a visit also offers a chance to see what has happened since the event was first documented. Verification may be unnecessary in some instances. When stories are selected, they are vetted to some degree for accuracy by those who selected them. Where most of the people selecting the stories have background knowledge of the events described in the stories, it may be sufficient to accept their vetting as verification. It is in the interests of whoever selects a SC story as the most significant to make sure they feel confident with the accuracy of both the SC story and the interpretations made of it. Their judgments will normally be included in the documentation of the SC story and made visible to other participants in the process and to users of the results. Both the description and interpretation aspects of MSC stories can benefit from verification. With the descriptive part of a story, it is useful to consider whether any information is missing and to ask how accurate the facts are. Is there enough information to enable an independent third party to find out what happened, when and where, and who was involved? It is likely that most stories will contain some errors of fact. The question is the extent to which these errors affect the significance given to the events by the people involved or the observer reporting the event. It may be useful to describe follow-up inquiries as exploration or another less-threatening term. Using the newspaper metaphor to explain the MSC approach; follow-up inquiries can be explained in terms of doing a feature article on the most significant news story of the week (month, quarter). 8. Quantify. MSC places a strong emphasis on qualitative reporting of change, using stories rather than numbers to communicate what is happening. Within MSC, there are three ways in which quantitative information can be collected and analyzed: As with any news story indicate how many people were involved, how many activities took place and to quantify effects of different kinds. Ask participants for information about all other instances of similar changes that they are aware of. This one-off inquiry does not need to be repeated during subsequent reporting periods. Examine the full set of collected SC stories, including those not selected at higher levels and counting the number of times a specific type of change is noted.
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9. Secondary analysis and meta-monitoring. Secondary analysis consists of: Thematic coding Analyzing stories for positive and negative SCs Analyzing the changes mentioned in MSC stories against a logic model Analyzing the genre Analyzing differences between selected stories and those not selected Analyzing the activities or groups mentioned in stories Analyzing the length of time participants were engaged in the project Analyzing the selection criteria Meta-monitoring is relatively simple. It does not require expert knowledge. There are four main types of measures that can be monitored: The total number of SC stories written in each reporting period and how this changes over time Who is writing stories and who is not, and how the membership of these groups changes over time Whose stories are being selected and whose are not What has happened to those SC stories 10. Revise the system. Almost all organizations that use MSC change the implementation in some way, both during and after the introductory phase. This suggests that some organizational learning is taking place. Not having any revisions is worrying as it suggests that MSC is being used in a ritualistic and unreflective way. Many of the changes made arise from day-to-day reflection about the practice. The most common changes are: in the names of the domains of change being used: for example, adding domains that capture negative changes, or lessons learned in the frequency of reporting: for example, from fortnightly to monthly or from monthly to three monthly in CCDB in the types of participants: for example, allowing middle management to submit their own SC stories in the structure of meetings called to select the most significant stories
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4. Outcome mapping
Development is essentially about people relating to each other and their environment. The focus of Outcome Mapping is on people. The originality of the methodology is its shift away from assessing the development impact of a programme (defined as changes in state: for example, policy relevance, poverty alleviation, or reduced conflict) and toward changes in the behaviours, relationships, actions or activities of the people, groups and organizations with which a development programme works directly. This shift significantly alters the way a programme understands its goals and assesses its performance and results. Outcome mapping establishes a vision of the human, social and environmental improvement to which the programme hopes to contribute and then focuses monitoring and evaluation on factors and actors within that programmes direct sphere of influence. The programmes contributions to development are planned and assessed based on its influence on the partners with whom it is working to effect change. The central concept of outcome mapping is that development is accomplished by, and for, people. Outcome mapping does not belittle the importance of changes in state (such as cleaner water or a stronger economy) but instead argues that for each change in state there are correlating changes in behaviour. Outcome Mapping focuses on: Behavioural change: Outcomes are defined as changes in the behaviour, relationships, activities, or actions of the people, groups and organizations with which a programme works directly. These outcomes can be logically linked to a programmes activities, although they are not necessarily directly caused by them. Boundary partners: Those individuals, groups and organizations with which the programme interacts directly and with which the programme anticipates opportunities for influence. Most activities will involve multiple outcomes because they have multiple boundary partners. Contributions: By using outcome mapping, a programme is not claiming the achievement of development impacts; rather, the focus is on its contributions to outcomes. These outcomes, in turn, enhance the possibility of development impacts but the relationship is not necessarily a direct one of cause and effect. Detailed description of the process Intentional Design helps a programme establish consensus on the macrolevel changes it will help to bring about and plan the strategies it will use. It helps answer four questions: Why? (What is the vision to which the programme wants to contribute?); Who? (Who are the programmes boundary partners?); What? (What are the changes that are being sought?); and How? (How will the programme contribute to the change process?).
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Outcome and Performance Monitoring provides a framework for the ongoing monitoring of the programmes actions and the boundary partners progress toward the achievement of outcomes. It is based largely on systematized self-assessment. It provides the following data collection tools for elements identified in the Intentional Design stage: an Outcome Journal (progress markers); a Strategy Journal (strategy maps); and a Performance Journal (organisational practices). Evaluation Planning helps the programme identify evaluation priorities and develop an evaluation plan. Figure 2 Three stages of Outcome Mapping
Outcome mapping is based on principles of participation and should include those implementing the programme in the design and data collection so as to encourage ownership and use of findings. It is intended to be used as a consciousness-raising, consensus-building and empowerment tool for those working directly in the programme. Outcome mapping introduces monitoring and evaluation considerations at the planning stage of a programme. It actively engages groups and teams in the design of a learning-oriented plan, with self-reflection as a core principle.
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5. Process-based knowledge mapping

A process-based knowledge map is a map or diagram that visually displays knowledge within the context of a business process. The map shows how knowledge should be used within the process and sources of this knowledge. The overview of the business process is prepared before the knowledge and the sources are mapped to this process. Knowledge mapping can be used to effectively plan the implementation of a knowledge management strategy. The mapping technique has several advantages. The mapping methodology forces participants to identify key knowledge areas that are most strategic and/or critical to their business. The analysis of the knowledge map generates ideas for sharing and leveraging knowledge that are most suited to the organization and the programme context. Figure 3 Process-based knowledge map
Any type of knowledge that drives the process or results from execution of the process can be mapped. This could include tacit knowledge (knowledge in people such as know-how, experience, and intuition) and explicit knowledge (codified knowledge such as that in documents); beneficiary knowledge; knowledge in processes; etc. Five-ten people collaborate in preparing the map carrying out the following activities in three phases: Mapping phase. Create the knowledge map by mapping knowledge and sources of knowledge to the business process. Analysis phase. Analyze the map in response to probing questions, such as: o What knowledge is most critical to the business?
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o What knowledge is missing? o What knowledge adds value to the business? Application phase. Apply the map to: o Planning programs, projects or sets of activities o Developing KM processes or improving knowledge flows o Providing a framework for efforts such as a knowledge audit, technology design, after-action review, competency development program, etc.
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6. Reframing matrix
Reframing matrix is a simple technique that helps look at organizational problems from a number of different viewpoints. It expands the range of creative solutions that can be generated. The approach relies on the fact that different people with different experience approach problems in different ways. This technique helps you to do is to put yourself into the minds of different people and imagine the solutions they would come up with. Detailed description of the process Put the question to be asked in the middle of a grid. Use boxes around the grid for the different perspectives. This is simply an easy way of laying out the problem. Two different approaches to the reframing matrix are demonstrated here, but it is important to note that many different techniques can be utilized. The first approach, which is called the Four Ps, relies on looking at a problem by following the different perspectives that may exist within an organization. The 4 Ps approach looks at problems from the following viewpoints: Programme perspective: Are there any issues with the programme or service we are delivering? Planning perspective: Are our business plans or communication plans appropriate? Potential perspective: Is it scalable and replicable? People perspective: What do the different people involved think? Another approach to using a reframing matrix is to look at the problem from the viewpoints of different specialists. For example, the way an irrigation engineer looks at a problem would be different from a fundraisers perspective. Figure 4 Reframing matrix example: a new programme not fundraising effectively
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B. Collaboration mechanisms
When working together with others often there is not enough attention paid to facilitating effective collaborative practices. The tools in this section aim to help strengthen relationships and develop shared thinking.
7. Communities of practice (CoP)

A community of practice (CoP) is a network of people who share a common interest in a specific area of knowledge or competence and are willing to work and learn together over a period of time to develop and share that knowledge. Communities of practice differ from the usual notion of a team or work groups in a number of fundamental ways: Voluntary membership. Whereas teams and work groups are formed by management, membership of a community of practice is voluntary Specific focus. Teams and work groups are formed to focus on a specific objective or activity, while communities of practice are not necessarily; they may have some stated goals, but they are more general and fluid No expectation of tangible results. Teams and work groups are required to deliver tangible results, whereas communities of practice are not necessarily Existence defined by group members. Teams and work groups are disbanded or reorganized once they have achieved their goals, while communities of practice last as long as their members want them to last.
Salient features of communities of practice: provide a valuable vehicle for developing, sharing and managing specialist knowledge avoid reinventing the wheel cut across departmental boundaries and formal reporting lines can be more flexible than traditional reporting units generate new knowledge in response to problems and opportunities provide early warning of potential opportunities and threats can be vehicle for cultural change (creating a knowledge sharing culture) are largely self-organizing
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Detailed description of the process Phase 1: Birth Communities of practice emerge in an organic fashion and cannot be managed into existence. They can, however, be fostered, by identifying areas where knowledge might be better shared and used. Once this has been identified, a number of questions should be addressed: What is the knowledge focus of the community? Is it based on a professional discipline, or does it focus on some specific issue or opportunity? Who can contribute to the community? Who are the experts, the facilitators, the movers and shakers? Should invitation be open or by invitation? What are the common needs and interests of the group? What is the group interested in? What benefits do they expect through joining the community? What is the purpose of the community? What needs or problems need to be addressed? What does community want to achieve? How will the community benefit the organization? What are its values and ways of working? How will it be structured and organized? How will it obtain resources? Can terms of reference be developed? Communities are often best launched with a meeting or workshop to enable face-to-face contact and the initiation of relationships within the context of the new community. This also provides an opportunity to work through the detail associated with the questions above and to clarify objectives and the terms of reference. Phase 2: Development and growth There is a need to ensure that, after the initial excitement, the CoP maintains interest and commitment. The community coordinator should be seeking to maintain the life of the community by ensuring face-to-face meetings, arranging social events, rewarding contributions, introducing new and challenging perspectives, and getting external perspectives. Member turnover will always be an issue, and ongoing recruitment will be required to maintain the energy. Roles and responsibilities should be rotated between members over time. There is also a need to ensure that there is support for participation in the network from the wider organisation, which should be achieved by aligning goals of the CoP with the wider organizational goals. Support should be in terms of both freeing up time and recognizng the contributions of the community. At the development and growth stage, the CoP should be taking a greater role in managing knowledge that is at the heart of the community. This includes creating knowledge maps, identifying knowledge gaps, and so on. The key at this stage is not to stifle social relationships at the heart of the network by the imposition of too strong a managerial imperative. This brings about the real challenge to develop the community and the practice
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simultaneously. Community development requires strengthening the coordinator (who is the spokesperson and organizes, coordinates), facilitator (who facilitates interactions within the community) and knowledge manager (who is entrusted with explicit knowledge resources management). Training and support for this may be required. Phase 3: Closure Communities and networks can come to an end naturally as its members come to an end-point of the purpose. In other cases, the community may fragment into multiple smaller communities based around particular specialist subjects. When a community fades, it is important to celebrate its life and achievements, and to ensure that the relevant body of knowledge is captured and transferred. Key points/practical tips Below is a summary of good practices: Starting-up a network: o Have you double-checked your reasons for starting a community/network? o When should this network become active? o What type of network will yours be? o What kind of facilitation will your network need? o What kinds of behaviours and activities are appropriate to a facilitator? o What tools and channels of communication can you use for facilitating a network? How to involve external participants in networks: o Be clear what the network is for before involving external participants. o Who exactly are the external participants going to be? o Who hosts the network? Sustaining a network: o What resource has the network got? o What makes your network valuable to its members? o How could you revive a faltering network? o Handing over the role of facilitator. What will happen when your network has done its job?
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8. Action learning sets

Action learning is a structured mechanism for working in small groups to address complicated issues. Action Learning Sets are made up of between six and eight people who meet together regularly over a reasonable time period and present and collectively work on problems faced in ongoing practice. The group will then help the presenter work on that problem through supportive but challenging questioning: encouraging a deeper understanding of the issues involved, a reflective reassessment of the problem, and an exploration of ways forward. The most common applications fall into two categories: A work-based project in which action learning set members are involved and are able to influence the outcomes by their actions An issue that concerns how specific action learning set members operate in the work context (e.g. creating partnerships), and one which they wish to improve and which could benefit from the support and challenging of the other set members. Figure 5 Action learning set process
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Mark learning, draw conclusions, define learning from experience. Integrate new knowledge into your practice.
Start -Present your challenge, problem, issue or your question.
Bring results back to setwhat worked/what didnt? Why?
Set members question you constructively to challenge views and understanding, perceptions, assumptions. Others share knowledgeinvited by presenter of issue.
Test out taking action in the workplace.
Insight? New understanding, ideas on taking action?
The figure above shows how action learning process is a cyclical one. Starting at the top of the diagram and moving round systematically, it gives each member the opportunity to present a problem and comment on others.
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Key points/practical tips Action learning sets are most effective when the commitment is voluntary Action learning sets should focus on real-life practice-related problems, ones which are more open ended in nature and which do not have a right or wrong answer The ground rules for action learning sets should include: o Being honest with oneself and others o Respecting others and their viewpoint o Taking responsibility for our own actions
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9. Six thinking hats

This tool enables groups to look at decisions from a number of important perspectives. This forces groups and individuals to move outside their habitual thinking style, and helps to get a more holistic view of a situation. You can use this methodology in meetings or on your own. In meetings it has the benefit of blocking the confrontations that happen when people with different thinking styles discuss the same problem. Each 'Thinking Hat' is a different style of thinking. These are explained below: White hat: With this thinking hat you focus on the data available. Look at the information you have, and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your knowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of them. This is where you analyze past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical data. Red hat: 'Wearing' the red hat, you look at problems using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. Also try to think how other people will react emotionally. Try to understand the responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning. Black hat: Using black hat thinking, look at all the bad points of the decision. Look at it cautiously and defensively. Try to see why it might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan. It allows you to eliminate them, alter them, or prepare contingency plans to counter them. Black hat thinking helps to make your plans 'tougher' and more resilient. It can also help you to spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course of action. Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as many successful people get so used to thinking positively that often they cannot see problems in advance. This leaves them under-prepared for difficulties. Yellow hat: The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that
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helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult. Green hat: The green hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here. Blue hat: Thinking about thinking. The blue thinkers role is to keep an overview of what thinking is necessary to scout the subject. The blue thinker is responsible for giving summaries, surveys and conclusions. The blue thinker keeps the discipline and brings the discussions back on to the right track. The blue hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings. When running into difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into green hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for black hat thinking, etc. Key points/practical tips Six Thinking Hats is a good technique for looking at the effects of a decision from a number of different points of view. It allows necessary emotion and skepticism to be brought into what would otherwise be purely rational decisions. It opens up the opportunity for creativity within decision making. The technique also helps, for example, persistently pessimistic people to be positive and creative. Plans developed using the '6 Thinking Hats' technique will be sounder and more resilient than would otherwise be the case. It may also help you to avoid public relations mistakes, and spot good reasons not to follow a course of action before you have committed to it.
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10. Social technologies

There are an ever increasing number of tools that are described by the term social technologie s. All of these have one thing in common: the use of technology to try and build collaboration and sharing of tacit knowledge. The term is often used to describe new tools based on the internet; however, we should not forget other equally important tools which do not require a web-platform: mobile telephone communications, radio services and other face-to-face socializing methods. Detailed description of the processes E-dialoguing and e-conferencing enables the easy sharing of ideas, information and news. These communications can be synchronized by date and time, or can take place over days and even months. These communications are facilitated by email and web technologies. Email discussions, or lists, can use email to discuss issues. These are either of a hub-and-spoke model whereby daily messages to a moderator are compacted into a single daily message, or they are a free-for-all, whereby all messages are seen by all members of the list. Some email discussions take the form of e-conferences, which are planned around component discussions and pre-prepared short papers on themes and topics. Discussions may be run using both the web and email. Conferences can have a home page which participants visit and post their contributions, and subsequently receive an email detailing either all or a summary of the messages posted. Internet messaging services provide users with a virtual chat-room where people can talk in groups or on a one-to-one basis. Chats could be seen as voluntary unmoderated discussions; although they can be moderated, this is only done rarely. IM services provide privacy options that allow users to share information more freely than in chat rooms or econferencing. Internet messaging services have now evolved into a more complete application, providing video and voice communication to its users thus significantly reducing communication cost.
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Virtual workspaces use a wide variety of tools such as email and the webbased tools such as weblogs and wikis to create a virtual common area for distributed project teams to work together. This enables the team to communicate, collaborate, and share information, regardless of their geographic location. Wiki is a website where any user has the right to create, edit and delete content. System abuses are avoided by a revision control system that tracks changes, enabling reverting to previous versions. The potential of Wikis as open knowledge exchange systems is illustrated by the rise of Wikipaedia. The usefulness of the Wiki relies on its ability to aggregate knowledge from the users themselves. Wikis can be used to develop and update information that is useful for many users who, individually, only hold parts of it. A weblog is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles, usually in reverse chronological order. Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in a chronological fashion made the publishing process accessible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today. See weblog tools for more details. Social network services are online spaces that allow different groups of people to come together under shared interests or causes. Most social network services include some of the other social technologies to enhance connectivity and promote peer-to-peer communications. Their usefulness to research and policy influence relate to their ability to develop and sustain social and professional networks, share knowledge between members and provide access or entry points to key individuals and spaces. These spaces provide a range of social networking tools that allow users to expand their social networks to those of their colleagues; as well as to search through the networks space for individuals with similar interests. The network provides access to personal blogs of the members, specialized libraries and a clearing house for relevant links and external services. E-learning is a web-based (as opposed to computer-based) application for long distance and on-demand learning and includes the use of other communication technologies such as email, internet forums, collaborative software, and classroom management software. E-learning for international development allows individuals to gain access to technical and professional education. It reduces the traditional costs (printed materials) and outreach limitations of distance learning. In most cases, e-learning sessions are designed to fit professionals and are therefore accessible on an on-demand basis allowing users to engage in their own time.
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C. Knowledge sharing and learning tools

Effective knowledge and learning is about simple and effective two-way communication building on past experiences in order to improve activities in the future. The tools in the section can be applied to achieve this objective.
11. Stories
Storytelling is simply using stories in organizations as a communication tool to share knowledge. Storytelling has existed for thousands of years as a means of exchanging information and generating understanding. Similarly, it has always existed in organizations otherwise known as the grapevine. However, as a deliberate tool for sharing knowledge it is quite recent but growing very rapidly, to the extent that it is becoming a favoured technique. Storytelling offers a number of advantages: Stories communicate ideas holistically, conveying a rich yet clear message, and so they are an excellent way of communicating complicated ideas and concepts in an easy-to-understand form. Stories therefore allow people to convey tacit knowledge that might otherwise be difficult to articulate; in addition, because stories are told with feeling, they can allow people to communicate more than they realize they know Storytelling provides the context in which knowledge arises as well as the knowledge itself, and hence can increase the likelihood of accurate and meaningful knowledge transfer Stories are an excellent vehicle for learning, as true learning requires interest, which abstract principles and impersonal procedures rarely provide Stories are memorable - their messages tend to stick and they get passed on Stories can provide a living, breathing example of how to do something and why it works rather than telling people what to do, hence people are more open to their lessons Stories therefore often lead to direct action - they can help to close the knowing-doing gap (the difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it)
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Storytelling can help to make communication more human not only do they use natural day-to-day language, but they also elicit an emotional response as well as thoughts and actions Stories can nurture a sense of community and help to build relationships People enjoy sharing stories stories enliven and entertain.
Stories can be used for all manner of purposes. Different purposes will tend to require different kinds of stories. Below are 8 possible purposes for using storytelling: Storytelling to ignite organizational change. Experience has shown that storytelling can be highly effective as a change agent, even in change-resistant organisations. Telling an appropriate story can stimulate people to think actively about the implications of change and to projecting themselves into visions of the future, enabling them to better understand what it will be like to be doing things in a different way, rather than being given vague, abstract concepts about it Storytelling for communications. Storytelling is based on an interactive view of communication. Because the listener imaginatively recreates the story in his or her own mind, the story is not perceived as coming from outside, but rather as something that is part of the listeners own identity. The idea becomes the listeners own Storytelling to capture tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge can be a multi-layered and multi-dimensional thing and as such it is often difficult to articulate. Stories can provide a way of allowing people to express and share tacit knowledge in rich and meaningful ways, rather then being forced to articulate it in more structured ways that can detract from its value Storytelling to embody and transfer knowledge. Similarly, a simple story can communicate a complex multi-dimensioned idea, not simply by transmitting information as a message, but by actively involving the listeners in co-creating that idea. Furthermore, as a story is told and retold, it changes, and so the knowledge embodied in it is constantly being developed and built upon Use of stories for innovation. The use of storytelling in innovation and knowledge creation can encourage people to move away from linear thinking towards a more multi-dimensional view, to see new connections between things, and also to marry scientific logic with a more creative or intuitive approach Storytelling to build community. There is something about stories that brings people together and fosters a sense of community. Storytelling is non-hierarchical, it unlocks feelings and emotions as well as thought processes, and hence it helps to build relationships and trust Storytelling to enhance technology. People often find it difficult to communicate about technology. Users can have trouble articulating
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their needs and expectations, while experts can have difficulty talking in plain English. Wherever there is a gap in language and understanding, storytelling can provide a bridge, by communicating the real essence of what each party is trying to get across Storytelling for individual growth. Storytelling is a skill, and one that draws on a number of other key skills, mostly relating to interpersonal communication. The development of these skills is an important component of most knowledge management programmes
Potential applications of narratives are: Team or community-building exercises Breaking down barriers between multidisciplinary or multi-cultural teams Workshop warm-ups Trip debriefs Personal project reviews Monitoring systems (see Most Significant Change)
Detailed description of the process The story template format below has been used in a range of settings globally. Title of story Name of original teller Name of listener/understander Landscape: set the scene in time and space Dwelling place: precise location where action occurred Characters: cast list, descriptive attributes and roles in story Challenge: problem or task that triggered the action Action: sequence of events before, during and after your turning point Turning point: the moment when the change happens Resolution: ending, including moral, lesson learned or message Key visual hooks: memory aids to assist partner retelling the story
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Key points/practical tips The story: Needs to be simple and powerful Should be in response to demand, and timed with specific opportunities Should provide a solution to both immediate and broader problems Should be targeted at people with the power to make decisions and change things Should play to what is already in peoples minds
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12. Peer assists

A peer assist is simply a process where a team of people who are working on a project or activity call a meeting or workshop to seek knowledge and insights from people in other teams. Peer assist is a tool which supports learning before doing processes. Using the same principles as scientific peer review, it begins with the premise that, for any given activity, someone else has done something that is at least broadly similar. In order to use the peer assists, a team or group first needs to identify the right group of people, and then uses a systematic method to benefit from their insights/experience. If conducted effectively, peer assists can promote learning, and be used to strengthen mutual learning between people and groups. Detailed description of the process There is no single right way of holding peer assist. Below is a check list. The text that follows provides some insights about the process. Clarify your purpose Has the problem already been solve? Get a facilitator Timing is important Select the participants Get cear about the deliverables Allow time for socializing Define the purpose and set the ground rules Start by sharing information and context Encourage the visitors to ask questions and give feedback Analyze what you have heard Present the feedback and agree actions Develop a clear definition of the problem to be addressed. It may be worthwhile doing some background research on whether similar issues have been, or are being, faced elsewhere. The definition should include a set of
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hoped-for outcomes from the peer assist process. Step 1 will help focus the peer assist meeting, and will also provide a long list of potential participants. Enlist participants. Participation can be generated either through open invitation or selection. In general, it is worth getting a good mix of people playing a range of roles across different locations, and from different positions in the organizational hierarchy, with the proviso that peer assist work best when there is some common ground, and scope for open honest interactions. Consider including people from outside, but only if this will not disrupt internal sharing. It may be worth bringing in outside experts after the internal process has been completed. Time the meeting carefully. The peer assist meeting should take place early enough to ensure that: i) the required participants are given enough notice and are available, and ii) the lessons can be applied effectively by the team calling the peer assist. Run the peer assist meeting. Effective peer assist meetings comprise six parts. Part 1 the learning team presents context, history and ideas regarding the task or issue at hand. This should occur in an open and flexible manner to enable redefinition in the session Part 2 should allow the participants to consider the problem, and discuss issues of interest namely, what has been covered, and what hasnt been covered Part 3 should be a session in which participants consider what the learning team might need to know to address the problem and where might they find that knowledge Part 4 of the meeting should be for the participants to reflect on what has been learned from the others and to examine options. Again, the learning team should not be the focus here In Part 5 of the meeting, the participants should present feedback to the learning team and answer specific questions. This should be informal, and deal with what has been learned, what options there are and experiences elsewhere. Begin with the positive and then move on to options to do things differently. When presenting what has worked elsewhere, participants should be encouraged to describe rather than prescribe In Part 6, the team who called the peer assist should acknowledge the contribution of the participants. There should be a commitment to a timeline for delivery of an action list of key lessons learned, and what the learning team are going to do differently as a result. Finally, all the participants should be invited to reflect on what they learned, and how they might apply it going forward Develop a set of lessons and related options to shape the learning teams decision-making process and provide pointers to future actions. This
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document should be shared with the peer assist participants for final comments and suggestions, and posted on the intranet. Key points/practical tips Ensure everyone is clear about the purpose of the peer assist and their roles: o Learning team listens in order to understand and learn o Participants share knowledge and experience to help resolve the challenge without adding to the workload Participants should be given briefing materials in advance so they have time to prepare As well as the participants themselves, an external facilitator and notetaker are essential. In particular, the facilitator should be from outside the teams concerned, in order to make sure the diverse needs of the participants are met Allow time for the teams to socialize. Rapport is essential for open learning Although the peer assist process is designed to provide input for a specific purpose or project, consider who else might benefit from the lessons learned. Always look out for opportunities to share and reuse knowledge and learning
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13. Challenge sessions
It is well established that groups and individuals think by recognizing and reacting to patterns, with most reactions emerging as a result of building on past experiences in a logical and linear fashion. In other words, the underlying assumption is that the future will correlate with the past. Although such thinking is a necessity in certain situations, individuals and groups often get stuck in such modes of thinking, and do not attempt to think beyond them. When a different or new challenge is posed, the manner in which people are conditioned to think means it is difficult to adjust. As with other lateral thinking techniques, use of challenge sessions helps generate new ideas and concepts. The key is effective facilitation of the group through creative thinking process. Detailed description of the process The basis of a challenge session, is to generate a series of challenge statements, defined as deliberately provocative statements about a particular situation. These are usually generated by taking accepted wisdoms things which are taken for granted about a particular situation and treating them as though they were not true. This initially calls for a suspension of judgment, and the uncritical use of specific challenge statements to generate ideas about solving the problem. This logical reversal helps individuals and groups to move away from conventional modes of thinking, and provides a starting point for original, creative thinking. As an example, we could make a statement that modern organizations should not have a physical library. This leads one to think of an organization with distributed collections on bookshelves which means that staff have to walk around the building, potentially talking to others as they go. This could contribute to strengthening informal interactions, which are at the heart of effective knowledge and learning within an organization. With this particular example, there are potential issues, namely, security and stock maintenance, which would also need to be addressed if this challenge statement were to become reality. The process for a challenge session is as follows:
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Identify the problem: This should ideally be a well defined problem or issue faced by a team or organization Brainstorm a series of challenge statements: This may be done by the whole group or subgroups Use the challenge statements to generate new ideas: Address the following checklist: o What are the consequences of the statement? o What are the possible benefits? o What special circumstances would be required to make it a sensible solution? o What are the principles needed to support it and make it work? o How it would work as a step-by-step process? o What would happen if a sequence of events was changed? Prioritize the best ideas. Use pilots to test them out in the live environment Rollout more widely
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14. After action reviews and retrospects (AAR)

An after action review (AAR) is a discussion of a project or an activity that enables the individuals involved to learn for themselves what happened, why it happened, what went well, what needs improvement and what lessons can be learned from the experience. The spirit of an AAR is one of openness and learning - it is not about problem fixing or allocating blame. Lessons learned are not only tacitly shared on the spot by the individuals involved, but can be explicitly documented and shared with a wider audience. What makes after action reviews so powerful is that they can be applied across a wide spectrum of activities, from two individuals conducting a five minute AAR at the end of a short meeting to a day-long AAR held by a project team at the end of a large project. Activities suitable for AARs simply need to have a beginning and an end, an identifiable purpose and some basis on which performance can be assessed. Detailed description of the process There are many different ways to conduct AARs. The simplicity at the heart of the tool means there is much potential to experiment with the process and find the right ways that will work best with the group and the work item under review. The whole process should be kept as simple and as easy to remember as possible. The essence of the AAR is, however, to bring together the relevant group to think about a project, activity, event or task, and pose the following simple questions. AARs can be grouped into three types: formal, informal and personal. Although the fundamental approach involved in each is essentially the same, there is some variation in how they are conducted. Formal AARs tend to be conducted at the end of a major project or event (learning after doing). They require some preparation and planning, but are not difficult as they take the form of a simple meeting. This meeting may take place over a couple of hours or a couple of days, depending on the scale of the project. Steps and tips for successful formal AARs include: Call the meeting as soon as possible and invite the right people Create the right climate Appoint a facilitator Revisit the objectives and deliverables of the project Ask what went well? Find out why, and share learning advice for the future Ask what could have gone better? Find out what the problems were and share learning advice for the future Ensure that everyone feels fully head before leaving the meeting Record the AAR Share the learning
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Informal AARs tend to be conducted after smaller events such as meetings or presentations (learning after doing) or following a specific event during a wider project or activity (learning while doing). They require less preparation and planning and can often be done on the spur of the moment. In an open and honest meeting, usually no longer than half an hour, each participant in the event answers four simple questions: What was supposed to happen? What actually happened? Why were there differences? What did we learn? Personal AARs are a simple matter of personal reflection. Take a few minutes to reflect on something you did yesterday. Ask yourself the above four AAR questions. Table 1: After action review questions Question Purpose What was supposed to happen? These questions establish a What actually happened? common understanding of the Why were there differences? work item under review. The facilitator should encourage and promote discussion around these questions. In particular, divergences from the plan should be explored. What worked? These questions generate What didnt? reflection about the successes Why? and failures during the course of the project, activity, event or task. The question Why? generates understanding of the root causes of these successes and failures. What would you do differently This question is intended to help next time? identify specific actionable recommendations. The facilitator asks the team members for crisp and clear, achievable and futureoriented recommendations. Key points/practical tips Post the questions up on flipchart sheets prior to the session, with answers then written on the sheet as the session progresses. The completed sheets can then be stuck up around the room to serve as a reminder of the progress Participants are participants, not a passive audience. The facilitator should prepare leading questions and may have to ask it of several
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people. The questions can be asked on an individual or a team basis. The team mechanism is ideal, but if suggestions are slow coming, the facilitator could go around the room asking each individual to express one thing that worked and one thing that did not If there are issues with either openness or time, it may be worthwhile to gather ideas first and then facilitate the discussion in the group environment Ideally, an uninvolved note-taker should be asked to minute the session. This will enable better capture of the learning The actionable recommendations should be as specific as possible. For example, an AAR following a workshop could have the following recommendation: Make more time to understand the audience. A better AAR would be Make contact with the organizing body representative and ask about the range of participants before planning the workshop Participants of an AAR should include all members of the team. A facilitator should be appointed to help create an open environment, promote discussion and draw out lessons learned AARs should be carried out immediately, while the team is still available and memories are fresh. It is recommended that AARs be incorporated at key points during a project, activity, event or task in the early planning stage, although they are often completed at the end AARs can be conducted almost anywhere, and will vary in length. For example, a 15-minute AAR can be conducted after a one-day workshop, or a much longer meeting could be held to reflect on the strategy development process throughout a large organization
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A Retrospect follows the AAR format, but involves asking the following more detailed questions: What did you set out to achieve? What was your plan to achieve this? How did this change as you progressed? What went well and why? What could have gone better? What advice would you give yourself if you were to go back to where you were at the start of the project? What were the two or three key lessons you would share with others? What next for you in terms of this project? Can you think of a story that summarizes your experience of work on this project? What should we have learned from this project a year from now? Are there any lessons for you personally?
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D. Capturing and storing knowledge

To make sure that essential knowledge is retained a range of techniques can be applied. This section provides some tools and techniques on how to capture and store knowledge.
15. Knowledge harvesting

Knowledge harvesting is an approach that allows the tacit knowledge or know-how to be captured and documented. This know-how can then be made available to others in various ways such as through training programmes, manuals, best practices and websites. Knowledge in organizations exists in two forms: explicit knowledge, which is easily captured and shared; and tacit knowledge, which is more experiential and intuitive, and so is less easy to articulate. Knowledge harvesting is about trying to make some of the tacit knowledge more explicit. Its aim is to help make better and wider use of their existing knowledge by extracting it from the heads of a few key people and making it available to a much wider range of people. The ultimate goal of knowledge harvesting is to capture an experts decisionmaking processes with enough clarity that someone else could repeat the same processes and get the same results. Knowledge harvesting can be effectively used in a range of situations such as: When an organization wants to know what it knows When knowledge and information are needed for a specific, clearly defined, purpose. To capture the knowledge of employees who are leaving the organization or department To gather knowledge to support a process of change or improvement To kick-start a knowledge management programme by quickly generating a body of expert knowledge about a subject and making it available across the organization As an ongoing practice, as part of a wider knowledge management strategy The benefits of knowledge harvesting include: The knowledge of a few key individuals is made readily available to others who need it Individuals can access experts knowledge when and where they need it, without being dependent on the availability of that expert Vital knowledge is not lost to the organization when people leave The learning curve of new people joining the organization is shortened The tangible knowledge assets of the organization can be increased Productivity and efficiency can be improved, as people can use existing expertise rather than having to go through their own trial-and-error experiences It can be done relatively quickly and inexpensively
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While there is no set formula for knowledge harvesting, there are some general guidelines that facilitate the process. These can be broken down into a number of steps. Focus: Decide on what specific knowledge and expertise you want to capture, and be clear about what the benefits will be. It is neither possible nor desirable to capture everything that everyone knows Understand your target audience. It is important to understand who will be using the knowledge that you are capturing before you start to capture it. This will help you ensure you capture the right knowledge at the right level, and make it available in the most appropriate ways Find your experts. Identify the experts - the people who have the knowledge and know-how you are seeking to capture. If you have a white pages that includes details peoples skills and knowledge then this is a good place to start Choose your harvesters. An effective harvester (interviewer) is crucial. Much of the success of knowledge harvesting relies on the ability of the interviewer to elicit the right knowledge from experts. Making tacit knowledge explicit can be difficult people often dont know what they know and so helping people to talk about what they know, and then capturing that effectively, is a key skill. It is generally recommended that you use a trained harvester whether you hire an external consultant, or develop and train someone in-house. In the latter case, consider people with strong communication, interpersonal and interviewing skills. Harvest: interview your experts. The best way to capture tacit knowledge is using one-to-one, face-to-face interviews with your experts. The interviews will involve asking them to talk about what they do and to describe specific situations in which they have applied specific know-how. Interviews need to be well prepared in advance, including drafting a topic guide or a list of questions. Examples of questions might include: o Describe a time when? o Whats the first thing you do? o How do you know to do that? o How do you know when to do it? o What do you do next? Why? o What usually happens? o What happens if something else is done? o What would happen if? o Who else is involved? o What are some common mistakes or misconceptions? o What is the most important thing to remember when youre doing this? o Describe how you currently help others learn how to do this? o What are the main obstacles that prevent them from achieving the same results as you?
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o What are examples of support materials, documents, procedures, manuals, research evidence, check-lists that are relevant? o What would make this process easier to understand? o What would make this process easier to achieve? Organize, package and share. Once the knowledge has been gathered it can then be edited, organized and presented (or packaged) into a form that meets the needs of its users Apply, evaluate and adapt. It is important to ensure that the knowledge you have captured is being accessed and applied and that users are getting value from it. You will also need to consider its value over time: knowledge harvesting can result in relatively static documents that will, at some point, become out-of-date and so they will need to be continually refreshed if they are to retain their value.
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16. Integrated approaches to capturing learning
When an organization actively records and shares its success stories and failures, everyone learns and benefits. One way to do this is by using a variety of media to capture, document and archive learning that occurs during the life of a development initiative in ways that are thorough and meaningful. The learning is subsequently fed back into the project cycle and stored in the organizations learning and sharing repository, thus making it available both internally and externally. This approach can mean combining use of text, video and photography, to gather information and document learning as it occurs over time. This also results in live impact monitoring. By employing different media, information can be gathered through individual interviews and testimonials, through observation of meetings, events and processes, as well as by recording the ongoing impressions and experiences of individual participants. Throughout the process, the recorded impressions and experiences of individuals evolve into stories that illustrate change and impact. An advantage of this approach is its versatility. The material gathered can be packaged in a range of formats, including the combination of several into multimedia presentations or disseminated individually through a range of communication channels, such as print publications, websites, video and radio.
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As a knowledge management tool, integrated media approaches can be combined with a systematic approach to capturing learning and can be complemented by knowledge management techniques such knowledge harvesting, storytelling, Most Significant Change (MSC) and others described in this document. The information, experiences and stories gathered and elaborated can be particularly useful when opportunities arise to share information about impact with broader audiences at regional and international meetings and events, and through the media. Detailed description of the process One approach to information gathering already tested in an IFADsupported project is use of themes as a means of capturing the projects pre-existing conditions, its processes, its outcomes and its lessons learned. As an example, the themes used in the IFAD project were: o overall conditions o geographic, economic and cultural context o learning and its impact on livelihoods of rural poor people o responsiveness to community demand and the tension between different project design styles. Are solutions imposed by outsiders, or developed through community participation? Prepare a communication plan for the duration of the project, which can be continuously updated as new opportunities arise to share the emerging learning Conduct a diagnosis of the pre-existing existing situation in the project area in relation to the thematic areas you have identified Identify the people, communities, organizations that you wish to monitor. These may change during the life of the project, as individual cases emerge where useful stories are evolving Use written text, photography and video as primary methods of capturing information Gather information through individual interviews and testimonials, observation of meetings, events and processes, as well as recording the ongoing impression and experiences of individual participants Use knowledge management techniques such as MSC, story-telling and knowledge harvesting to support a systematic approach to capturing learning At the end of each information-gathering mission, and as a way of sharing ongoing learning and progress with others, package multimedia products documenting the progress and impact of the programme by combining the use of a video component (approximately 4 to 6 minutes), and fact sheets with stories and photographs. These materials should be shared with the programme participants, and placed on the organizations web site for the external audience. Within the institution, it is recommended that learning events be organized
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In close collaboration with programme participants, in an effort to build local capacity, repeat this process assess the impact of the programme by interviewing your sample group - on an annual basis for the duration of the programme. At the end of the programme, further distil all the material and summarize the overall experience, highlighting its successes and failures
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Key points/practical tips Prepare a communication plan for the duration of the programme and revisit it on a regular basis Prepare a realistic budget for the activity, based on the advice of communication professionals Ensure you mount integrated missions: the reporter, photographer, video producers Utilize on-the-ground expertise in video production and photography as part of the process. In cases where this expertise cannot be found, some capacity building would be incorporated Always go back to the identified sample group. If you have to drop a previously identified sample group, document the rationale If you pick new sample groups, document the rationale and context Case study This IFAD methodology was utilized to document emerging lessons and impact of the First Mile Project. http://www.ifad.org/rural/firstmile/index.htm
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17. Exit interviews

Exit Interviews are usually thought of as a rather formal interview between a manager and staff member leaving an organization, focusing on the latters reasons for leaving. However, exit interviews are a learning process emphasizing the importance of capturing and storing know-how. Obviously, it is impossible to capture all of the knowledge of any individual, but exit interviews are designed to minimize the loss of useful knowledge through staff turnover and ease the learning curve of new staff. If conducted appropriately, they can benefit both the organization and the leaving staff. The organization captures the leavers useful knowledge, hopefully in an accessible form. The leaver gets to reflect on their role, and hopefully leave on the positive note. Conducting exit interviews can also be highly therapeutic. Detailed description of the process The ideal focus of the learning-based exit interview is on knowledge that is most useful to the next person, or for others doing similar jobs. Because face-to-face interactions are central to such exit interviews, ideally between the leaver and potential learners, the management of the exit interview process must be initiated as early as possible after it is known that the person is leaving. Identify who in the organization might benefit from the leavers knowledge and what they will need to know from that person Consider who currently accesses the persons knowledge and what they need to know from the replacement staff. Think about documented explicit knowledge (in files, documents and emails) as well as tacit knowledge (know-how), which needs to be explained Develop a plan in a participatory way to ensure knowledge can be captured and documented during the leavers notice period. This requires a review of key tasks, drawing from a ToR in consultation with the leaving staff. A Process-based Knowledge Mapping (See above) could prove useful, providing a framework for conversations about how key tasks are undertaken, what inputs and outputs are involved, obstacles and bottlenecks, etc. Internal and external networks and other sources of knowledge should also be discussed. For explicit knowledge, the leaver should move relevant files hard and electronic into shared folders or a document library. Ideally, they should be
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clean up and organize all files and draw up a related set of notes for their successor Key points/practical tips Get the leaver involved from the outset. Ask them for their inputs on how the organization might best benefit from their knowledge, experience, contacts prior to departure While HR need to be involved in the process, it may be best that knowledge-focused interviews are undertaken by a relevant peer or subject expert, as long as they are appropriately skilled and trained If at all possible, there should be an overlap period between the leaver and their successor so that a live handover can be done; this may need to be in the form of a temporary member of staff who acts as a bridgehead Exit interviews are usually only appropriate for employees who resign voluntarily or retire, rather that those who are fired or made redundant There is a real need to be clear about who will use the knowledge gathered and how it will be used, before you begin to gather it; the purpose of the interview is not to gather knowledge per se but to gather useful knowledge that will actually be used The less knowledge the organization captures on a regular basis, the more it will need to capture at exit. It is possible to capture this on an ongoing basis, through tools such as Social Network Analysis, Processbased Knowledge Mapping and Identifying and Sharing Best Practices
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18. Identifying and sharing best practices

The sharing of practices is often one of the first things to be carried out in a knowledge management initiative. This often begins with common practices such as instruction manuals or how to guidelines. The next step from there is to identify and share best practices. A best or good practice is simply a process or a methodology that represents the most effective way of achieving a specific objective. Best or good practices are practices that have proven to work well and produce good results, and are therefore recommended as a model. Much of best practice knowledge is tacit - held in peoples heads and not always easy to document. Most best practice programmes combine two key elements: explicit knowledge such as a best practices database (connecting people with information), and methods for sharing tacit knowledge such as communities of practice (connecting people with people). These two approaches are complementary. A database can provide enough information for a potential user of the best practice to find it and decide if it is worth pursuing further. However, the best way of sharing best practices is on the job and so communities and personal contact with others who have used the best practice is key. The essence of identifying and sharing best practices is to learn from others and to re-use knowledge. Effective sharing of best practices can help organizations to: identify and replace poor practices raise the performance of poor performers closer to that of the best avoid reinventing the wheel minimize re-work caused by use of poor methods save costs through better productivity and efficiency Detailed description of the process The following 6-step approach is recommended to identify and share best practices. The overall approach is aimed at documenting the essential features of a best practice, giving pointers to relevant experts in that practice, deducing general guidelines, diffusing basic knowledge, and using subject matter experts to apply and adapt the practices in a new context. Identify users requirements: This step may sound obvious, but it is not uncommon for someone given the task of capturing best practices to start by designing a database, when clearly this is a case of putting the cart before the horse. Start by considering where you can really add value. Look at what areas of the organization need attention because of poor performance or difficult challenges. Who can most benefit from better knowledge and understanding of best practices? How will they access and use them?
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Discover good practices: There are various methods of identifying best practices. One approach is to look at who is producing excellent results and is therefore likely to be using good practices. Having discovered these people, you will then need to discern which parts of their overall approach or methods being used are relevant practices such as subject matter experts, internal auditors, consultants and peers. You may use the following knowledge management tools and approaches to identify best practices: o communities of practice o after action reviews o knowledge harvesting o exit interviews Dont necessarily limit your search to only include practices within the organization; much can be learned from the practices of other organizations Document good practices: Best practice descriptions are usually kept in a database in a standard format. A typical template might include the following sections: o Title: short, descriptive title; this can be accompanied by a short abstract. o Profile: several short sections outlining processes, function, author, keywords, etc. o Context: where is this applicable? What problems does it solve? o Resources: what resources and skills are needed to carry out the best practice? o Description: what are the processes and steps involved? o Improvement measures: are there performance measures associated with this practice? o Lessons learned: what proves difficult? What would the originators of the practice do differently if they were to do it again? o Links to resources: experts contact details, workbooks, video clips, articles, transcripts of review meetings, tools and techniques used. The aim at this stage is not to describe the practice in great detail, but to give enough information to allow users of the database to decide whether it matches their needs and where they can find further information. A key consideration is how the information is organized and classified so that users can readily find what they need. Validate best practices: A practice is only good or best if there is a demonstrable link between what is practiced and the end result. In most organizations and especially in areas where practices are constantly evolving, rigorous cause-and-effect analysis is impracticable. Hence a degree of subjective judgment is needed as to what constitutes best. A common approach is to have a panel of reviewers compromising internal and external subject experts and peers, who evaluate a potential best practice against their knowledge of existing
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practice. It is equally important to ensure that you seek input and feedback from customers (i.e. the ultimate beneficiaries, such as patients) of the best practices. Disseminate and apply. While a database of best practices is a useful starting point, most organizations find it essential to complement this with face-to-face knowledge sharing about those best practices. This is where the real value is added. Not only does it help the recipient dig beneath the explicit knowledge and gain more in depth insights, but it can also provide a two-benefit in that dialogue between the conveyor of best practice knowledge and the recipient can enrich the knowledge of both. Common ways of sharing best practice knowledge include: communities of practice; improvement groups or quality circles in which teams within an organization meet regularly to discuss ways of improving a process; visits to other departments or organizations with good performance; organized learning events such as share fairs or knowledge cafs, that bring people together to share specific knowledge and experience; job secondments or exchanges Develop a supporting infrastructure: To successfully implement a best practice programme, you need to ensure you have the required infrastructure in place. This infrastructure is often developed as part of a wider knowledge management strategy. Typically, several generic aspects need attention: o The people to facilitate and drive the process through its initial stages, until it becomes embedded in the organizations ways of working (e.g. a best practices team, or a network of best practices coordinators) o The technical infrastructure sharing o The content management infrastructure to ensure that best practices are documented and classified in a way that makes them easy to find
Key points/practical tips Best practices will only work when people share their experiences in an open fashion, so targeting knowledge that is a clear source of internal status or power could lead to a poor resource. Not all know-how can be captured, and some believe that knowledge collection through tools such as how to guides is far less useful than a well connected internal network. In reality, a balance must be sought between the collection and connection approaches.
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19. White pages or experts directories

White pages is a tool to help people to find others in their organization that have the knowledge and expertise they need for a particular task or project. It is like a staff directory, but rather than simply listing peoples names, job titles, departments and contact details, it includes details about their knowledge, skills, experience and interests. White pages are electronic rather than paper-based, so that users can search it in a variety of ways, just like they might perform a search on the Internet. For this reason, they are often used as the cornerstone point of systematic knowledge and learning initiatives in development organizations. White pages have the potential to facilitate connections that might otherwise happen only randomly, leading to valuable new collaboration opportunities. On a day-today level, effective white pages enable and improve the brief, fluid connections across the organization that are at the heart of the learning organization. White pages are also known as experts directories, expertise directories, skills directories or capabilities catalogues. Detailed description of the process Identify user perspectives: Find out how the different teams and individuals might use the system, for what reasons, and when. A particular need is to consider the multiple uses to which the system may be put, as well as potential differences between intended and actual uses. Determine the appropriate level of participation and control: It is essential to establish from the outset whether inclusion on the system should be compulsory or voluntary, and whether to create and manage entries centrally or allow individuals to create and update their own. Most successful pages are based on the voluntary and decentralized approach, allowing staff to personalize their entries. Some systems aim for a halfway house between centralized and decentralized approaches, by providing a core set of data, which expands on the basic concept of the staff directory, but leaving users free to add details as they see fit Create a template for the information: When creating a template for the system it is important to consider ease of data entry, data amendment and data retrieval Broadening the scope: Staff pages should be easily linked to other components of the KM system, for example, collaborative working tools, back-to-office report systems, project databases or email systems, to allow easy access to electronic information of the organization. They might also be expanded to include details of communities, teams, external partners, and so on
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Develop guidelines and provide training: Data protection policy and guidelines mean that staff pages must comply with relevant requirements. A clear policy on the correct use of the system is crucial. These policies and guidelines should be provided to staff in the form of manuals and training courses, so that current and new staff are able to understand the system and are encouraged add their entry. Leavers should also be reminded to update their entry accordingly, subject to their own preferences for contact after moving on. Launch the tool and gain buy-in: There is a need for internal marketing of any white pages system, to encourage participation and use. Useful initial mechanisms include launches at staff meetings, putting up posters and nominating champions to promote the system in different areas of the organization. Another useful tool is to ensure senior management is involved with the rollout, thus leading the rest of the organization by example. As with all knowledge and learning tools, the benefits must be made apparent at every stage Monitoring ongoing use and promotion of the tool: There is the need and the potential to track the ongoing use of electronic pages, and the reporting requirements for this should be considered as early as possible. Effective measuring can help promote the tool across the organization, and help strengthen internal networks. Gathering and sharing the best success stories of using the system can help build participation on an ongoing basis Maintenance: Owing to the continual changes in staff composition and location, and additions to personal knowledge and skills, updating the system regularly is particularly important. Links to other systems (such as HR sytems and project information systems) should allow data such as job details, contact information and current work to be updated automatically. Where individuals create their own entries, it may be necessary to send regular reminder emails about updating the system, with a reporting mechanism to highlight those who are lagging behind.
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White pages template Name Job title Department or team Contact information A brief job description Current and previous projects Back-to-office reports Areas of current knowledge and expertise (selected from a pre-defined list of subjects / terms; people may also rank their knowledge, e.g. from extensive to basic) Areas of interest Countries of interest Key contacts both internal and external, e.g. key donors, valuable partners, etc. Membership of internal and external communities of practice or other networks Relevant professional qualifications Personal profile: hobbies and interests, holidays, etc.
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20. Blogs
A Weblog (also known as a web log or a blog) is a web application on which dated entries are posted on a webpage on a particular topic. Weblogs enable users to publish short comments and ideas instantly for other people to read. Blogging can be an effective communications tool for small groups of people to keep in touch with each other. Weblogs can vary in form from sites maintained by one individual to multiple contributor weblogs where information is posted by approved contributors after editor approval: many weblogs allow the creation of a community of interest based on the particular topic of the blog. A blogstorm or blog swarm happens when there is an explosion of interest, or posting of opinions and information around a particular subject.
Detailed description of the process Before setting up a weblog, consider what form is appropriate for your needs: according to Wikipedia there are 16 types of weblog, including the following: Personal blog: online diary or journal posts written by friends connected Thoughtful blog: an individuals (or small groups) thoughts on a topic Topical blog: concentrate on a particular specialized topic News blog: a news compendium on a particular subject Collaborative/collective/group blog: involves multiple contributors on a particular topic, although can be a selected group or open to anyone Political blog: includes the watch blog in which an author(s) critiques what he/she/they see as consistent errors or bias in an online newspaper or news site Legal blog: often referred to as blawgs, these sites discuss law and legal affairs
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Directory blog: often collect numerous websites with interesting content on a topic Corporate blog: employees post official or semi-official blogs about their work Advice blog: sites that provide expert technical advice. Format blogs: sites with a specialist form of presentation, such as images or videos, or on a particular theme
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Sources:
Knowledge audit: http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/knowledge_management/km2/audit_toolkit.as p NHS National Library for Health, Specialist Library Knowledge Management: Tools for Knowledge and Learning: ABC of Knowledge Management: http://www.library.nhs.uk/SpecialistLibrarySearch/Download.aspx?resI D=126403 Overseas Development Institute, Research and Policy in Development Programme: Tools for knowledge and learning: http://www.odi.org.uk/RAPID/publications/Documents/KM_toolkit_web. pdf Rick Davies and Jess Dart: The Most Significant Change (MSC) Technique: A Guide to Its Use: http://www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.pdf World Bank Institute: Communities of practice http://info.worldbank.org/etools/WBIKO/TGtoolkit/index.htm CIDA: Sharing knowledge for community development and transformation Steve Denning: Story telling http://www.stevedenning.com IDRC: Outcome mapping: http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/959-3/ Process-based mapping: http://www.destinationkm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=1041 Reframing matrix: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCT_05.htm Action learning: http://www.natpact.nhs.uk/cms/274.php Six thinking hats: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_07.htm Peer assist: http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/knowledge_management/km2/peer_assists_to olkit.asp http://www.km4dev.org/index.php?module=uploads&func=download&f ileId=352 Flash presentation English version: http://www.saea.uottawa.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie w&id=682&Itemid=649 French version: http://www.saea.uottawa.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie w&id=682&Itemid=649&lang=fr_FR After action review: http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/knowledge_management/km2/aar_toolkit.asp
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Knowledge management and learning tools and techniques Prepared by: R. Samii Version no.

Table of contents Introduction__________________________________________________ 1

Implementing the knowledge management strategy: Tools and techniques___________________________________________________ 3

C. Knowledge sharing and learning tools ____________________________ 28

D. Capturing and storing knowledge ________________________________ 41

Knowledge management in a nutshell

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Implementing the knowledge management strategy: Tools and techniques

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

2. Social network analysis (SNA)

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

3. Most significant change (MSC)

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools

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5. Process-based knowledge mapping

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools

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7. Communities of practice (CoP)

Knowledge management and learning tools

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Knowledge management and learning tools

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8. Action learning sets

Knowledge management and learning tools

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Start -Present your challenge, problem, issue or your question.

Bring results back to setwhat worked/what didnt? Why?

Test out taking action in the workplace.

Insight? New understanding, ideas on taking action?

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

9. Six thinking hats

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

10. Social technologies

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

C. Knowledge sharing and learning tools

Knowledge management and learning tools

Knowledge management and learning tools

Knowledge management and learning tools

IFAD March 2007: version 3

Knowledge management and learning tools