Intro to Knowledge management

1. Intro to Knowledge management Spiral of knowledge

2. Information processing view of organization • Hierarchy • Authority • Information • Division of labor

3. Spiral of knowledge • A critique to the “information processing view” of organization • Beyond efficiency • Interconnectedness/networked • “The centerpiece of the Japanese approach is that recognition that creating new knowledge is not simply a matter of “processing objective information”. Rather, it depends on tapping the tacit and often highly subjective insights, intuitions, and hunches of individual employees and making those insights available for testing and use by the company as a whole. ” • The knowledge-creating company (NonakaIkujiro, 1991) HBR. • 野中郁次郎

4. Redundancy • The conscious overlapping of company information, business activities, and managerial responsibilities. • Create a common cognitive ground • Internal competition • Proliferation of information • Strategic rotation

5. Linking mechanism • Collective knowledge can be more, or less than the sum of the individuals’ knowledge, depending on the mechanisms that translate individual into collective knowledge • E.g. organizational structure, norms, culture, incentive and control

6. Explicit vs. implicit

7. Facet analysis of “knowledge” Type of knowledge Explicit Implicit Social Individual Locus of knowledge

8. Channels of knowledge sharing

9. Knowledge consultant

11. The spiral of knowledge (Takeuchi & Nonaka, 1995) Synthesize parking, sports Com vs. innovation

12. From tacit to tacit: socialization • Where tacit knowledge can be converted into tacit knowledge through interactions between individuals, whether it is through language, observation, imitation, or practice • synchronizing fireflies

13. Socialization (cont.) • Apprenticeship • Learning through observation, imitation and practice (“mirror neuron”) • Shared experience in specific contexts • Emotions and commitment • Not merely transfer of information, but also finding or forming one’s identity in a community

14. Mirror neuron and imitation

15. Knowledge spillover • The exchange of ideas among individuals or organizations • We benefit from innovations or ideas from our neighbors which we do not assume the cost • Mainly due to “non-rivery” nature of information/knowledge

16. Knowledge as a pubic good Individuals cannot be effectively excluded (Non-excludable) from use and where use by one individual does not reduce availability to others (Non-rival).

17. Types of knowledge spillovers • Among companies within the same industry • The proximity of firms within a common industries often affects how well knowledge travel among them. • Among companies from different industries • The Proximity of firms from different industries affect how well knowledge travels among them to facilitate innovation • Compete for innovation within a business cluster

18. Public goods

19. Externalization • A process of articulating tacit knowledge into explicit concepts. • In the shapes of writings, metaphors, analogies, concepts, hypotheses, or models. • Marshmallow challenge

20. From tacit to explicit: articulation • Find a way to express the inexpressible • Conceptualization; theorization • Smile curve; M-shape Society • Story telling • Ichiro Suzuki's bat • Metaphor and model • A way of perceiving or intuitively understanding one thing by imaging another thing symbolically

21. Make implicit explicit • 1. Story-telling (parable), • 2. metaphor • 3. Codification • 4. Identify novel patterns in data (book buying) • …

22. To the left of blue wall

23. Metaphor • from the Greek for "transference," is the use of language that designates one thing to designate another in order to characterize the latter in terms of the former. • a statement that characterizes one thing in terms of another thing, juxtaposing concepts from separate domains of experience. Metaphor can be used to describe abstract or unfamiliar topics, and to express ideas difficult to convey with literal language. • James Geary on Metaphor

24. “Meme”, a metaphor Meme (“Memory” + “gene”) the mind “virus” (Richard Dawkins) Any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, gestures, practices, fashions, habits, songs, and dances

25. Metaphor in the creative process • Theory of Automobile Evolution, p. 5 • What image does “evolution” conjure up? • The image of sphere • “Man-maximum, machine-minimum” • Tall boy product concept • Umbrella concept • “Optoelectronics” • The merging of microelectronics with optical technologies • Cannon’s mini-copier • Disposable beer can

26. Vision and corporate culture • At AVIS, We try harder • RR makes the finest car in the world • "Our [Amazon's] vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.“ • We devote this university to the spirit of the universe

27. From explicit to tacit: internalization • Reading, studying • Communication (perfect copy) vs. • Innovation (somewhat not so perfect) • Creativity in the interpretation of existing materials • Learning by doing • Driving, swimming, cooking

28. Knowledge across boundaries • Knowledge transfer • Knowledge translation • Knowledge transformation

29. From implicit to explicit • “Articulation (converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge) and internalization (using that explicit knowledge to extend one’s own tacit knowledge base) are the critical steps in this spiral of knowledge. The reason is that both require the active involvement of the self – that is, personal commitment. ” • Teaching and learning not merely transfer of information

30. Combination • Systematic knowledge • Discrete pieces of explicit knowledge can be combined into a new whole • Combination knowledge of different originals often a way of innovation • Scientists develop a patch which can inject medicines  through the skin without causing any pain.< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/health/7002482.stm • http://www.teslamotors.com/

31. Synthesizing leader • “The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann once said to me that he thought the most valued personal trait in the twenty-first century would be a facility for synthesizing information. Increasingly, I am convinced he was correct. The ability to decide what information to heed, what to ignore, and how to organize and communicate that which we judge to be important is becoming a core competence for those living in the developed world. The skill of synthesis is particularly crucial for leaders.” (H. Gardner, 2006)

33. Innovative combinations • “I don’t have to invent anything…It’s out there somewhere if I can just find it and integrate it…Inventing is frustrating, it’s dangerous, it’s expensive, and inventors should avoid it whenever possible. Be a systems integrator. ” Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway

34. Innovation of printing press

36. Art and computer “I wonder if the Bilbao Guggenheim is a work of architecture at all? Perhaps it belongs to the category of exhibition and fairground displays, of giant inflatables and bouncy castles.” – J G Ballard. the

37. “I started making shapes that were hard to draw. That led us to the computer and to Catia software which made me realize the possibilities and the level and degree of accuracy you could create in your documents and your relationships because of the software.”Frank Gehry

38. "one of the most remarkable creative statements of the last half-century, in any artistic form. It is also profoundly flawed, a gigantic torso of burstingly noisy music that absolutely refuses to resolve itself under any recognized guise.“ The Penguin Guide to Jazz

39. From explicit to explicit: combination • Synergy : the whole is greater than the sum of its parts • 1+1>2 • Synthesizes information from many different sources • Synthesizing knowledge of persons • Synthesizing codified knowledge (information) • Synthesized data (data mining: make explicit the implicit) • searching for patterns, rules and interesting insights from collected (business) data

41. Dialogue Or collective reflection Building a filed of interaction Systematic Knowledge Learning by doing Networking newly created And existing knowledge

42. Structure capital • Physicality and technology • Ba: organic ground for knowledge creation • Beckman institute(school of Art and Humanities, NTU) • Rule and practice • Brown bag lunch • Norms and culture

43. Four characteristics of Ba

44. A place for knowledge exchange • 'Ba' - a physical or virtual collaborative space, where participants feel safe and exchange insights.

45. “Talk room” “Water cooler”

46. Sellers’ concerns • Economic cost and benefit (time, effort…) • Private benefits vs. social benefits • Social cost • “Asking” a sign of incompetence? • Political cost • Unpopular information/opinions

47. Knowledge transfer, translate, transform

48. Knowledge transfer, translate, transform

49. Types of knowledge transfer http://www.lib.ntu.edu.tw/