Retaining and leveraging the critical and relevant knowledge of the government workforce - Presented on the 16-Jun-09 SIKM Leaders Community monthly call by Bill Kaplan, Chief Knowledge Officer, Acquisition Solutions

1. Managing the Risk of Knowledge Loss
Due to Workforce Att iti
D t W kf Attrition
Retaining and Leveraging the Critical and Relevant
Knowledge of the Government Workforce
SIKM
16 June 2009
Bill Kaplan
Chief Knowledge Officer
Acquisition Solutions

2. Creating a Common Understanding About
Knowledge
Data Information Knowledge
“United flight 0010 “That flight is always
leaves LaGuardia at 1345
l L G di t delayed and often
d l d d ft
“1345UA0010 32A” from gate 32A cancelled”
Relationships and trust are required for knowledge transfer and re-use

3. One View of Knowledge in an Organization
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4. Value Of Transferring “Knowledge” And
Effective Practices
Quickly access and build on experience &
New
ideas to fuel innovation
Missions &
Services
Learn, decide & adapt faster than
L d id d t f t th
Speed & Agility the “speed of change”
Accelerate the transfer and use
Step-Change in Performance of existing know-how

5. Knowledge Enabled, High Performing
Organization
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6. Two Basic Principles for KM Success
• Technology and information management alone cannot be relied
upon for success
– Knowledge sharing is more about people and what they know than
technology
– Technology and tools cannot in and of themselves provide effective
“context of use” and add this value
• Knowledge capture and knowledge reuse must work within:
– the context of workflow—“part of the way people do business”
– the context of organizational culture
culture.
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7. Definitions
• Attrition: Change in the numbers, skills, ands
competencies in the workforce due to retirement,
promotion, transfer,
promotion transfer career change of leadership and
workforce
• Critical Knowledge: Knowledge that is fundamental to
the business or operational processes of the
organization that supports mission delivery and mission
success
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8. Why Is Knowledge Loss A Key Workforce
Challenge We Are Facing?
Ch ll W A F i ?
• Loss of knowledge -- and people with the knowledge -- between
agencies and those leaving government is increasing
• L
Leveraging accumulated organizational k
i l t d i ti l knowledge d i
l d drives i tit ti
institutional
l
memory (experience, judgment, and “know-how”)
• Impacts government's ability to deliver value to the people (mission)
– Productivity, reduced cycle time, and errors that could be avoided with effective
capture and retention policies and practices
• Knowledge loss impacts organizational continuity and agility.
– C ti it --operate effectively in the face of employee turnover, other work
Continuity t ff ti l i th f f l t th k
disruptions, and emergencies
– Agility -- organization’s ability to address the future and to adapt effectively to
change.
change
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9. Why Is Knowledge Loss A Key Workforce
Challenge We Are Facing?
• Approaches to retaining critical knowledge
and the timing of these retention activities
across the government have been addressed
g
in many ways, some more-or-less effective
than others.
• No integrated process or framework to capture and reuse the workforce’s
relevant information, experience, and insight on a consistent and
disciplined basis
• Complicating factors:
(1) increasing size and complexity of acquisition workload
(2) decline in number of professionals in acquisition workforce
• Challenge at the leadership level and at the workforce level – it’s multi-
generational and still not priority for most organizations
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10. People Have Always Retired Or
Left With Their Knowledge
What’s different about this now and why should we care?
• We have a “workforce gap” – knowledge of the workforce is
inversely proportional to the age of the workforce
• There is a real issue when there is not a ready and continuous
stream of knowledgeable replacements with the critical skills to
fill the gaps
• Can't just hire more people and then send them to training
• Example Acquisition Workforce:
– The average age of the acquisition profession according to a recent
NCMA survey is 45 years old
– There is competition for the remaining scarce resources among all
p g g
agencies and the private sector
– We need a deliberate means for learning, capture and transfer of
the “experience” of acquisition – the “know how” and “know why” of
acquisition
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11. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1=Poor to 10=Excellent),
how would you rate your organization’s performance to
reduce the loss of critical knowledge?
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12. What are your organizations doing to address
these workforce challenges?
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13. Some Basics to Set the Stage
for Success In Addressing This Challenge
• Understand there is long term value in capturing and
reusing k
i knowledge and h
l d d how and where it can b applied
d h be li d
– it’s about performance!
• Must be a desire to make this part of the way you operate -- need a
place to start where it will have a significant impact on performance
• Focus must be on the people and the processes necessary to move
knowledge across the workforce -- it’s about changing behavior not the
technology!!
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14. Some Basics to Set the Stage
for Success In Addressing This Challenge
• Recognize that it is a long term commitment to
maintain and sustain a knowledge enabled organization
• Understand the multi-generational nature of the federal workforce
• Must create awareness by articulating and communicating the
knowledge loss problem as a “burning platform”
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15. Setting Up for Success In
Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Know you can’t capture everything that everyone
can t
knows, nor would you want to do this
• Decide what knowledge is critical to the
organization or is necessary to improve all aspects
of your organization’s performance
organization s
• Start small and engineer for success so p p can see it’s
g people
doable
• T h l
Technology cannot do thi alone because it can’t get what’s i
t d this l b ’t t h t’ in
your head into someone else’s
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16. Setting Up for Success
In Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Understand that beginning is the easy part
– maintaining and sustaining the effort over time
g g
and continuously demonstrating value is the really
hard part
• Support and encourage a culture that values
knowledge sharing through collaboration
• Reflect on the alternative of not doing anything
• Get some professional help when you need it to help tackle this
challenge
g
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17. • What are some of the tools and
techniques your organizations are using
for capturing and reusing knowledge?
• How well are they working?
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18. What You Can Do Right Now To Be Successful In
Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Recognize that it’s never too late to start addressing
this challenge and its associated risks
(risks might be acceptance, not having a sharing culture,
view that it’s extra work)
• Recognize that the concept of knowledge capture
begins at the beginning of one’s entry into the workforce, not when
they are leaving the workforce!!
• Evaluate how you currently capture what you know and how you
reuse it and leverage what good things you already are doing
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19. What You Can Do Right Now To Be Successful In
Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Pick a place to start – at the leadership level or at the
workforce level – and look for the “early adapters” in
y p
your organization to begin to move your efforts forward
• Then pick a pilot project to demonstrate the value of
Then,
these efforts and the investment in time and resources
• Think about how you will (1) measure or value the outcome of
your efforts to demonstrate success and (2) convince anyone
that not doing this is a risky alternative
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20. What You Can Do Right Now To Be Successful In
Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Find ways to maintain a dialogue with those who
“know” who have left the workforce
know
• Create a common approach for knowledge capture
and reuse focused on collaborative behavior—it does
behavior it
at its core require cultural change – it is not easy
• Create intern and mentorship programs for the next generation
workforce and leadership to ensure relevant knowledge gets
transferred
• Recognize that this a long term effort that is not just an initiative
for this Fiscal Year –it is a fundamental change in how you work
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21. Some Proven KM Tools And Techniques You Can Use
Without An Established Knowledge Framework
• Mentoring and internships
• “Communities of Practice” can create an
ability for the workforce to share what they
know across boundaries enabled by
existing technology
• Learning Before, Learning During, Learning After
• Knowledge Repositories (Knowledge Assets) to store the “know how and
know why” of processes or methods
k h ” f th d
• Leadership transition workshops
Long Term Success depends on creating a common approach for knowledge capture and reuse
focused on collaborative behavior —it does at its core require cultural change – and it is not easy
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22. Government Agency Example
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23. What questions should we be asking?
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