reduce cost of ignorance

DNV | KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge Exchange & Transfer

OPERATIONS FUNCTIONS PROCESSES & REGIONS

ACROSS

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reduce cost of ignoranceCOST OF IGNORANCE /// Costly mistakes are repeated, as earlier ones were not recorded or analysed

Drivers for knowledge management Smart

organisations are always looking for ways to improve

their performance, reliability and to increase overall

business excellence. Common sense says that rigorous:

■ learning from successes and failures,

■ sharing knowledge amongst employees and

■ reuse of lessons learned across operations can strongly

contribute to this strive for continuous improvement

and adaptation to external and internal conditions.

However for many reasons these processes might not

function properly in organisations anymore resulting in

symptoms such as:

■ Costly mistakes are repeated, as earlier ones

were not recorded or analysed;

■ Good ideas and best practices are not shared,

raising costs and missing opportunities;

■ Loss of critical knowledge due to retirement

and mobility of workforce;

■ 1 or 2 key employees hold crucial knowledge,

putting continuity at risk;

■ Knowledge is not readily available at the point

of action;

■ Employees spend too much time to search

for information and knowledgeable people;

■ Employees use outdated and non-validated

information in action;

Everyday reality demonstrates that these symptoms

lead to avoidable costs and risks. We call these

symptoms the ‘costs of ignorance’.

Smart organisations do not accept this reality and

invest in strategies, processes and systems that will

avoid these costs of ignorance, now and in the future.

Knowledge Management /// reducing the costs of ignorance

reduce cost of ignorance reducereduce cost of ignorance

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What is Knowledge Management? COST OF IGNORANCE /// 1 or 2 key employees hold crucial knowledge, putting continuity at risk

Professional Knowledge Management enables organisations to:

■ Identify, safeguard and retain critical knowledge and skills;

■ Build and update critical knowledge and skills ‘just-in-time’ and at the point of action;

■ Exchange and transfer knowledge, lessons learned and proven practices across operations,

regions and businesses;

■ Support employees by web-based tools that allow them to access all required information

and expertise and to collaborate with all relevant parties in their environment.

Knowledge Management creates barriers for loss and degradation of capabilities, experiences and skills.

At the same time it creates enablers for development and maximum use of new and innovative capabilities

in operations.

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Learning after Learning before

Post Mortem analysis

Debriefing reports

Lessons identified

Urg

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conformities, emerging

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Solutions, advice

Colleagues, 2nd line support

Problem solving

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Peer assist

Sharing day

Training

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People to people

Corporate functionsCentres of expertise

Consolidation of knowledge

Standards & procedures

Guidelines

Experts & knowledge communities Sharing & review of experience & learning

24x7 real time collaboration

People to content

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preventive learning

Standards

Validated knowledge

Shared knowledge

Corporate memory

Face-to-face & virtual knowledge market

Learning during

Value creationProject delivery

Use & creation

of knowledge

Retention of critical knowledge

Good practices

Key learnings

Check lists

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A systematic framework for knowledge capture, transfer and reuse COST OF IGNORANCE /// Good ideas and best practices are not shared, raising costs and missing opportunities

DNV has developed a framework (see page 6-7 for an overview) for assessing and improving knowledge

exchange and transfer processes, enabling technology, required infrastructure and organisational culture.

The framework identifies two learning processes:

1 /// Reactive problem solving Employees at the front line will encounter unforeseen situations - such

as non-conformities and emerging events - that require action at short notice. For an effective response

people must have quick access to experts and documents with highly ‘actionable’ and verified knowledge.

2 /// Proactive and preventive learning Collective learning takes place through structured evaluation

and debriefing of activities. The lessons learned out of this evaluation process should be transformed

into reusable knowledge and fed back again into operations. This can be achieved either directly or via

documented knowledge:

a. People to People Learning by exchange of experiences via dialogue and collaboration.

This could be formal in training and peer assists or informal via social media or face-to-face.

By nature this type of transfer is goal driven and interactive. It is especially effective for the transfer

of experiences and creating shared insights.

b. People to content Sharing of knowledge through documents. Documents are easy to distribute

and can preserve knowledge over time. Keeping documents up to date requires effort.

Two types of content can be distinguished:

■ Reusable content: typically actionable knowledge like checklists, templates, models, good practices,

and documents providing overviews. These documents will help employees to do their job better and faster.

■ Standards: Standards, including guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are built typically

on company or industry best practices. Standards are often generic, mandatory and time consuming to

develop and implement. They support the spread of best practices and a common way of working.

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COST OF IGNORANCE /// Employees spend too much time to search for information and knowledgeable peopleActors & enablers

These learning processes are connected and should be managed in an integrated way. Lessons identified

can only become lessons learned when the learning processes are closed loops. Effective learning requires

a right balance between the different learning processes, depending on business challenges, the culture of

the organisation and the nature of the knowledge involved.

Teams and employees in daily operations

The learning process starts and ends with individual people and teams. In daily work experiences are

encountered, problems are solved and learning takes place while handling internal and external events.

The widely used principle of ‘learn before, during and after’ should be used to promote learning behavior

of staff. First and foremost this is a behavioral issue that should be stimulated by leadership and enacted

by influential role models and supported by the right tools and practices.

Corporate functions and competence centers

Corporate functions and competence centres combine internal and external best practices and lessons

learned into common guidelines, standards and rules. Typically these are mandatory, resulting in a common

way of working. Corporate functions and competence centre are responsible for the dissemination of these

standards and guidelines across the organisation.

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COST OF IGNORANCE /// Knowledge is not readily available at the point of actionActors & enablers

Knowledge communities and virtual knowledge marketplace

Knowledge communities and virtual knowledge marketplaces have become more and more important in

modern global organisations. Communities supported by collaborative environments play a vital role in

providing advice and guidance to employees in daily operations. These communities are gateways to the

collective experiences and lessons learned and might even extend beyond the organisation itself and play

an important role in the review and validation of new knowledge, which is identified in operations.

Knowledge portals

Organisations should provide a ‘single point of entry to knowledge’. These so-called knowledge portals

should ensure that employees can access all of the recommended and mandatory practices, key lessons

identified, checklists and methods in an effective and efficient way. The knowledge portal should also

facilitate the finding of relevant experts. Content must be validated, actionable and up to date.

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COST OF IGNORANCE /// Loss of critical knowledge due to retirement and mobility of workforceKnowledge Exchange & Transfer

DNV has considerable experience in implementing robust and effective frameworks for knowledge

management and organisational learning.

We support organisations to:

■ Assess, develop and improve Knowledge Management programmes;

■ Perform risk assessments on critical knowledge and develop knowledge strategies accordingly;

■ Design and implement knowledge infrastructures for sharing, building and capturing critical knowledge;

■ Integrate Knowledge Management into existing management systems.

Our delivery modes are consultancy, programme management, coaching and training.

DNV has delivered Masterclasses and short courses on knowledge management to hundreds

of participants in the Netherlands, the UK, Italy, Germany and Taiwan.

WHAT ARE YOUR COSTS OF IGNORANCE?

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For more information please contact Rob van der Spek, Director of Knowledge Management Advisory Services

/// t +31 (0)6 54781900 /// e rob.van.der.spek@dnv.com, kmservices@dnv.com /// w www.dnv.com/knowledgemanagement