RIMPA 2014 Professional Development Series

RIKM3

Leveraging the relationship between RM, IM and KM

2 April 2014David Williams

Convenor actKM

David Williams

He was previously the information architect for DEEWR also managing the records management team and the department’s library. David has managed and implemented several major projects in government departments for both services and solutions and is now delivering his extensive skills back into government departments on a consulting basis in decision support systems and procurement management. David has a Cert IV in training and assessment, a Diploma in engineering, a Grad Dip in Public Sector Management and a Master’s degree in Project Management.  He has been a Certified Practicing Project Director and is an accredited workplace trainer and Assessor. He is the President of the ACT KM forum, chair of the Information Awareness Committee, Convenor of the ACT Information Governance Community of Practice and is on the Board of the Institute of Information Management. David has lectures at the University of Canberra on Knowledge Management Systems. 3

David's background is in project and contract management in the construction industry on large projects such as Loy Yang power station in Victoria, the Submarine construction facility in SA, Bruce Stadium & New Parliament House in the ACT. He joined the Department of Defence in 1989 on the New Submarine Project before working across Defence in the management fields of human resources, information, knowledge, quality, risk and enterprise architecture.

• An international not-for-profit learning community dedicated to building and sharing knowledge about public sector knowledge management

• Seek to contribute to improved organisational performance through effective management of knowledge and information resources.

• Provides an environment where members can create and share knowledge about both public and private sector knowledge management issues.

• Free!• www.actkm.org

Scope

• What is the problem (or opportunity)• Desired future state• Options• The difference between data, information,

records, knowledge and wisdom • And the synergies• An Intellectual Capital approach

Problem / Opportunity

Problem / Opportunity

Organisations typically:• undertake records management because

they are required to,• Implement information management

because they need to, and• Introduce knowledge management

because the CEO thinks it’s a good idea.

Problem / Opportunity

• RM and IM are typically seen as overhead costs

• KM is seen as a whim of the CEO• Data, information, knowledge and wisdom are

incorrectly seen in a hierarchy of value• RM, IM and KM are rarely integrated• Records, Information and knowledge are not

identified or valued as organisational assets

Strategic drivers

Strategic driversOrganisations are typically seeking to:• Retain staffing and funding levels• Maintain core capability / delivery of services• Reduce risk• Seek to reduce overhead costs (RM, IM and KM)• comments?

‘The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization's ability to learn faster than the competition.’

Peter Senge 1990

Desired future state

Desired future state• Records, Information and knowledge are

valued as organisational assets.• RM, IM and KM no longer exist as stove-

piped functions but complimentary practices to enable an organisation to better achieve its objectives.

Constraints and challenges

Constraints and challenges

• Organisational change• Downsizing• Rotation/change of executives and staff• Budget cuts• Competing priorities• Risk adverse executives

‘The single biggest missed opportunity for leaders of organisations is the failure to capitalise on the collective genius of the people in their organisations and communities’

Dr. Robin Wood The Future of Strategy,

the Role of the New Sciences

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Options

Options

• Engineer an organisational (near) disaster• Introduce strategies by stealth• Infiltrate government executive• Develop case studies and lobby

management

Analysis

Making Sense Of Data, Information and Knowledge

• Designed by: Milan Zeleny • Developed: 1987• Contains four levels

• Wisdom and knowledge are high up within the pyramid structure.

• 73 versions of DIKW pyramid found on Google images• Designed to describe the differences and relationships

between the concepts of Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom.

DIKW pyramid

χ data is an abstraction, information refers to the act of communicating meaning, and knowledge is the event. Therefore a logical hierarchy is a fairytale - Raphael Capurro

χ knowledge is too vague - John Dewey and Arthur Bentley

χ dated and unsatisfactory philosophical position of operationalism and inductivism - Martin Frické

χ It is absurd to start with pure observations without anything in the nature of a theory. Popper

eg: Librans are more likely to fracture a pelvisχ Data, information and knowledge are different classes

Criticism

Classification Analogy

Dogs

Horses

Black sheep

White sheep

How should it relate?

Popper’s 3 Worlds concept

World 1

Objects and Events

World 2 Cognition

World 3

Records, Information and Data

designs laws

statements

data

documents

beliefs

intent mood memory

concepts

perception

crittersbooks

gravity

atoms

Components of the 3 Worlds

Photos

Images

Audio

VideoRecords

Events

Plants

relationships

Software code

Stories

Popper’s 3 Worlds

World 2 Cognition

World 3

Records, Information and Data

World 1

Objects and Events

reco

rdAct

Internalise (read)

Externalise (create)

Observe/experience

Out

put/P

redi

ctio

n

• Can be structured or semi-structured

Records Information & Data

DATA

INFORMATION

RECORDS

A Data item has three components:1. subject2. attribute 3. value

"The temperature in degrees Celsius of the room is 21“

• Data is structured information • Data is no less valuable than unstructured information• Data is not a fact or necessarily true

Data

• A fact is something that has really occurred or is actually the case.

• The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability, that is whether it can be proven to correspond to experience.

• Scientific facts are verified by repeatable measurements, tests or experiments.

• That “the colour of a unicorn is blue” is data, but not a fact.

• Records are facts

Facts

• A judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true.

• Truth involves the quality of faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty, sincerity, veracity.

• Truth is more subjective than fact. • Truth conforms with fact or reality.

That ‘the colour of unicorns is blue’ is not a fact (as it cannot be measured and validated), but it might be true!

Truth

• Information that supports the facts or truth• Direct proof of the truth of an assertion. • Admissible in a legal proceeding to fulfil the

legal burden of proof. • Includes:

– Testimony– Documents and records– Video, audio and images– Physical evidence– Observations and experimental results

Evidence

Evidence Act 1995 – Sect 147‘If:

the document is, or was at the time it was produced, part of the records of, or kept for the purposes of, a business and the device or process is or was at that time used for the purposes of the business then,

it is presumed (unless evidence sufficient to raise doubt about the presumption is adduced) that, in producing the document on the occasion in question, the device or process produced that outcome.’

Knowledge

“A body of understanding and skills that is constructed by people and increased through interaction with other people and with information.”

AS 5037 - 2005

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“A demonstrated, superior ability to understand the nature and behaviour of things, people, or events; resulting in an increased ability to predict behaviour or events which then may be used to benefit self or others.“ B. Legesse

or

The ability to see patterns in complex situations and take action (before others)

Wisdom

How should this fit together?

An Intellectual Capital approach

Objective

Organisational Capital (or Assets)

Financial Physical Intellectual

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World 3

Records, Information and Data

World 2

Cognition/Knowledge

Wisdom

Intellectual Capital/Assets

Social Capital

Organisational Capital

IP ™ ©

46

Human Capital

Social Capital

Organisational Capital

IP ™ ©

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Human Capital

Managing Intellectual Capital (RIKM3)

Knowledge Management

Records and Information Management

Why does it need to fit together?

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NBN & asbestos pits• Thousands of telco-pits across Australia were

being prepared for the NBN• Discovery of asbestos in many pits• Ignorance of the hazard • Poor management• Outsourced and sub-contracted operations

What knowledge, records, information and data was required to manage this situation?

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RIKM3 Success Stories• Accenture• Boeing• Chrysler-Daimler• Lockheed Martin• 3M• General Electric• Buckman Labs• Shell• City of New York 51

Buckman Labs

• Founded in 1945 • in 3 years sets industry standards for

microorganisms control• $270 million company • 1,200 people in 80 countries• makes more than 1,000 different specialty

chemicals• 8 factories around the world

New Leadership

In 1978 Bob Buckman becomes CEO of Buckman Laboratories

He decides to change the way the company operates:

- from a Multinational organization to a Global organization

and its the management style:- from Product driven to Costumer driven

New Practices• Initially the company used SMEs, moving around the

globe to share practices.• Questions and & Answers were paper-based resulting in a

long time to get answers and an overly complicated system

• Problem: those who really needed info were those dealing with the customers.

• From 1986 a more systematic approach to best practices was implemented with the use of IBM systems

• Within one year the first knowledge sharing system was created.

• The users were given $100 if their answer was considered helpful.

The launch• The shift from knowledge hoarding to knowledge

sharing began.• In the beginning there were no rules for what can

and cannot be posted online• It was important to the company to make K'Netix

accessible from any location.• They introduced K'Netix in 15 languages with the

help of 3 translators

Buckman Labs Key Principles• Create systematic business processes that are simple, easy

to learn and easy to do. • Keeping everything inline with on overall business strategy

and maintaining a clear link to ROI• Shifting a business model that relies on products to one

that relies on customer intimacy• Constantly striving to maintain innovation and growth

through creativity and learning at the organizational and individual level

• Knowing that areas of value and benefit do not always come from obvious sources and when one is recognized, it must be nurtured

• Understanding that all levels of management are key and must be valued appropriately

The Early Results

By 1994 K'netix had already achieved some remarkable results. However, they found it difficult to document how such intangible theories equated to success. The statistics below are their best way of tangibly displaying the benefits of their business model.

• 65% of Buckman’s associates were out selling, compared to 16% in 1979.

• 33% of sales were from products less than five years old, compared to 22% prior.

• 72% of associates were college graduates, compared to 39% in 1979.

"Mother of All Accountability Tools" – First Announced in State of the City gives New Yorkers Access to Constantly-Updated Performance Data from City Agencies

RIKM3 Strategies• Value our intellectual capital• Centralise RIKM3 under the CFO• Cross-pollenate our RIKM3 skills• Capture and share more stories• Seek opportunities to add value to the core

business – BI (Defence)• Continue to seek out emerging technology

as enablers• Employ more librarians (boundary

spanners) & integrate them into business

Valuing our Intellectual Capital

Intellectual capital is the only asset that increases in value the more you use it!

T. Davenport & L. Prusak

1. Don’t underestimate the value of good data2. Don’t confuse data with facts or truth3. Run away from legal matters and court rooms4. A common understanding of terms is really useful5. Records show where we have been and are the baseline

for where we are going – use them!6. Knowledge is created/gained from experience & context

rather than from information7. Life is too busy to worry about managing wisdom8. Keep pushing the barrow, you will be vindicated

Take aways

‘Knowledge technologists are likely to become the dominant social, and perhaps also, political force over the next decades.’

Peter Drucker"The next society" Economist.com (November 2001)

In summary…..

Questions?

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• Ackoff, R.L. (1989) From Data to Wisdom, Journal of Applied Systems Analysis, Volume 16, 1989 p 3-9.• Cleveland H. (1982) Information as Resource, The Futurist, December 1982 p 34-39. • Cleveland H. (1985) The Knowledge Executive: Leadership in an Information Society (New York: Truman Talley

Books, 1985) 21-23; • Drucker, P.J. (2001) The next society in the Economist.com• Eliot, T.S. (1934) The Rock, Faber & Faber.• Frické, M 2009, ‘The knowledge pyramid: a critique of the DIKW hierarchy’, Journal of Information Science, pp.

96-131, viewed 16 June 2012, EBSCO database. http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/bitstream/10150/105670/1/The_Knowledge_Pyramid_DList.pdf

• Gene Bellinger, Durval Castro, Anthony Mills: Data, Information, Knowledge, & Wisdom, http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

• Klein, G. (1999) Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions Cambridge, MA: MIT Press• Lucky, Robert W. (1989), Silicon Dreams: Information, Man and Machine (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989)

19-20.• Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline – the art and praxtice or the learning organisation. Rndom House, Sydney• Snowden http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/entry/3840/what-is-sense-making/• The Differences Between Data, Information and Knowledge http://www.infogineering.net/data-information-

knowledge.htm [Accessed 22nd June 2013]• What is the difference between data, information and knowledge? https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=mUgEgkV16Bw&feature=player_embedded• Yucong Duan, Christophe Cruz (2011), Formalizing Semantic of Natural Language through Conceptualization

from Existence. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology(2011) 2 (1), pp. 37-42.• Zeleny, M. "Management Support Systems: Towards Integrated Knowledge Management," Human Systems

Management, 7(1987)1, pp. 59-70.

Bibliography