Locating the Human Element: In Search of Knowledge Management

It is said that Alexander Graham Bell thought the telephone would become an instrument of entertainment, piping music into people's homes. There's still time for the telephone to fulfill its inventor's prophesy. But most likely that statement will just join the legion of others that point to the vast misunderstanding technical experts have of technology, including the technology they invent and deploy. IBM's Tom Watson famously said, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Bill Gates confidently predicted that 64k of RAM would be all anybody would ever need.

Knowledge is power, it is said. Knowledge may also be 'money in the bank' in the information based economy. INSEAD professors Dutta and De Meyer, in their examination of knowledge management at Arthur Andersen in Denmark, refer to "knowledge capital" and management guru Peter Drucker, speaks of the new category of labour called "knowledge worker."

We are all striving to manage knowledge in such a way as to benefit workers, shareholders, customers and ourselves. The concept of 'knowledge management' and the departments it is spawning speaks to the importance and impact of knowledge. But no one seems quite sure whether we are on to something new, or just have a pumped up name for the IT and MIS departments, or even the old research library or archives. Regardless, a survey of the bibliography at the end of this paper reveals an emphasis on computers and other technology that did not pervade the discussion about the role of libraries or archives.

The Arthur Andersen experience in Denmark is representative. The focus is on technology. AA Denmark has a policy of being the first to put PC, CD ROM and other technology on workers' desks. One of their internal documents indicates they were "applying the science of the knowledge society long before the notions of information and knowledge societies were invented." Respectfully, there was no such time. Cuneiform stone tablets are an artifact from an information society, as are Dead Sea scrolls, Norse poems, Gutenberg's printing press, Shakespeare's folios and Elvis Presley records, which were pressed on used chest x-ray plates in the former Soviet Union. Knowledge gets managed with or without computers.

Tom Wolfe helps put the focus on technology into perspective. He quotes French Jesuit Pierre Teillard de Chardin who has this to say:

A new law of Nature has come into force-that of convergence. ...in the twentieth century, by means of technology [we are] creating 'compressive convergence.' Thanks to technology, our 'hitherto scattered' species ... [is] being united by a single 'nervous system for humanity, [a] living membrane,' a single 'stupendous thinking machine,'a unified consciousness that would cover the earth like 'a thinking skin'. ...And just what technology [is] going to bring about this convergence...? [R]adio, television, the telephone, and ...computers...

Canadian journalist Patrick Watson predicted the use of a knowledge management chair in his 1968 book, Conspirators in Silence. Although he did not use the term knowledge management, he imagined people coming home from busy days to sit in an egg shaped chair to dial up movies, shop, manage household accounts and the like. One assumes a similar chair would be equally productive in the office.

These two examples may points to our continued quest for more productive and meaningful use of information and data. These are praiseworthy goals. But my thesis in this paper is twofold. First this preoccupation with the technology of knowledge management has always been with us, even when the technology was slate and chalk. More importantly, it is the human interaction with data and information that turns it into knowledge.

The concern about the instruments or technology of communication have always been central to concerns about information and knowledge. Cave painters may have had concerns about application and certainly Monks worried about scarce paper and ink blots. For hundreds of years school rooms have featured rules and discussions about such instruments, including chalk dust, teaching machines and film strips. In living memory, schools have required the use of italic script pens, unlined paper and permission to use ball point pens. In industry, there was a question about whether a document signed with newly invented ball point pens would be legal. There was a similar question about the durability and legality of faxes when they first came into widespread use. Knowledge management concerns that focus on technology, have always been with us.

This constant preoccupation with the technology of knowledge management means we must de-couple technology from knowledge management. The isolation of variables is mandatory in scientific examination. If we remove technology from the discussion, we are left with an unfettered view of knowledge management that may result in an insight that applies regardless of the technological regime in place at the time. Writing in the Harvard Business Review researchers Larkin and Larkin have some fun by separating technology from the communications system and even suggesting that removing technology may be more efficient. They point out that rumour is a very effective means of communication. Rumour moves quickly and efficiently through an organization. Most knowledge management systems would be pleased to enjoy the success of the 'rumour mill.' Larkin and Larkin rhetorically ask, "Who schedules the rumor meetings? ...Who prints the rumors into overhead transparencies? And where are the trainers providing supervisors with refresher courses in rumor-communication skills?" I would add, who books the resort hotel, the podium, microphone and stage? Clearly this polemic shows that informal and effective knowledge management is possible, sometimes even preferable without high-technology backup.

WILL THE REAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGERS PLEASE STAND UP?

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines knowledge as "awareness or familiarity gained by experience...a person's range of information...certain understanding as opposed to opinion." Information is defined as "something told; knowledge." Data are defined as "known facts or things used as a basis for inference or reckoning." Fact is "a thing that is known to have occurred, to exist or to be true." The word 'management' signifies "...the professional administration of business concerns, public undertakings, etc." There is no inference that technology is involved with either term.

However, high-technology experts and researchers should not be bound by the circuitous and prosaic nature of dictionary definitions. Moreover, specialized business or academic fields may be ahead of dictionaries in the breaking of new ground or specific applications of terms which, by necessity are defined generally in dictionaries. Researchers Petrides and Nodine have looked at knowledge management from an educational perspective and found it to signify "a framework or an approach that enables people within an organization to develop a set of practices to collect information and share what they know, leading to action that improves services and outcomes." The idea of "action" as both a by-product of, and pre-requisite for knowledge is worth exploring. Lissack seems to agree with locating action and knowledge in the same spheres. He and his colleague Roos contend that "knowledge is whatever it takes to create a willingness to act. Knowledge management is then the task of creating an appropriate environment-an environment, which allows such willingness to occur." But, what action would one take after gaining knowledge of a sonnet or a colour field abstract painting? The definition may be specific to business organizations and the achievement of business and group goals. A compete definition would encompass both individual and non-business goals.

It is up to researchers and practitioners to add their specific nuances to dictionary meanings. For me, data appear to be the lowest order of material one can collect and manipulate. The world is full of much data that is completely useless for all intents and purposes. Oxford suggests data is a raw material needing human interaction to become useful. For example, the distance (in inches) at any given time between my thumb and my nose is data, as is the weight (in pounds) of the clothing I am wearing. This data is easily storable and retrievable with computers, but only becomes informative, possibly valuable and thus, possibly knowledge, if a person applies this data to a higher purpose in the area of weights and measures, tailoring, ballet, diet or the like. Information, then, seems to be higher order data that bolsters a debate, is informative and adds value--on face value. Petrides and Nodine suggest that data "become information when humans place them in context through interpretation that might seek to highlight, for instance, patterns, causes or relationships." Knowledge may involve the collation of information, its ordering, storage and retrieval at opportune times for a purpose. Porter says "Information is data endowed with relevance and purpose. Converting data into information thus requires knowledge." So, for Porter, knowledge is both an enabler in the transformation and also an outcome. This is duel role for knowledge, used as a verb and a noun. Knowledge allows for the creation of higher level knowledge, just as physical fitness allows for more physical activity and thus more fitness. Moreover, Porter's notions of "relevance and purpose" seem to cover individual and non-business goals, not just organizational and business learning. It also encompasses the knowledge of poems and paintings referenced above.

Into this debate, one must inject the aspect of time and timeliness. One must assume utility and relevance for data, information and knowledge, in order to gauge their worth. Utility and relevance are often related to time. Medical data on a patient who is dead, is of no use to that patient. It is only of use to the physician if it informs her diagnosis and treatment of other patients. Time helps dictate relevance, create purpose and make action appropriate and possible. Japanese researcher Tomita Tetsuro designed a graph in the 1970s to show how timely different media are. His vertical axis contained time periods from one hour to three months and the horizontal axis contained the number of people receiving the output of a medium from one to one hundred and seven. The telephone (without speakers or conference calling) reaches one person within one hour. Telegrams and conversations are not far behind, but the conversation can involve up to ten people. Letters reach a small number of people, but take a week. Television reaches many hundreds of thousands, but takes hours to produce. A movie reaches fewer and takes months to produce. Each has trade offs, as do computers, Blackberrys, voice mail, email and text displays on hand held phones. It is this natural focus on time, which may lead many technologists to value the speed with which technology can brings us information, to the detriment of the depth or meaning of that information. Today's news is tomorrow's fish and chips, not tomorrow's history book. So much information is disposable that we must have better criteria than time with which to judge the merits of information.

Thus, the terminology we use to discuss knowledge management reveals the role we think it plays in our lives and the lives or our organizations. In the business context, the words we use strongly suggest activity rather than passivity. There is mobilization to action, timeliness, comprehensive and appropriate compilation of data and information. Action in business could include he development of new techniques, procedures, policies and so on. Action in our personal lives may include new insights, more enjoyment of our activities and greater contentment with our situations.

REAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT WORK!
Knowledge management is an important element in international affairs in the 21st Century as well. This point was driven home in the second Gulf War, when the military command and control management technique that industry adopted in the early part of the 20th Century came under scrutiny. The US and British military knew they could not make tanks, missiles, ships or trucks move much faster, but they could make information move faster. That is what happened in Iraq, and that is one reason why fewer armed forces were needed for a shorter period of time than traditional military procedure would have dictated. In the book, Yellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America´s Military, Robert H. Scales suggests that the brigade not the division is now the most important military formation. The smaller unit can travel quicker and lighter using maximum information flow and precision weapons. But success is not just dependent on technology-you need empowered, trained and motivated troops operating that technology.

The analogy for private industry is obvious. The time it takes to design, build, ship or repair a product is constrained. However, the time it takes to advertise, intrigue customers, or inform and motivate workers is shrinking. Patents, trademarks and copyright all have a tendency to level the economic playing field. Labour laws and raw material costs are increasingly similar around the world, especially in countries which join trading blocks such as the NAFTA or the EU. The remaining competitive advantage is knowledge. McElroy says that "the ability to learn faster than your competitors" is one of the few remaining business advantages available.

However, learning faster than your competitors is not synonymous with more, newer and faster technology. In fact Diani Marco warns that there may actually be an inverse relationship. She actually suggests that "...office automation causes an acceleration of learning cycles, to the point at which performance suffers. The phase in the cycles where performance increases gets shorter and shorter, and the time spent mastering purely formal operations, rather than advancing occupational goals, gets proportionally longer." And a New York Times article by Matt Richtel indicates that multi-taskers may actually decrease productivity by up to fifty per cent by trying to do two things at once. Moreover, knowledge workers with cell, Blackberry and PC arranged like musical instruments to be played, each in turn, may actually be suffering from a kind of attention disorder. It is called "O.C.D.-online compulsive disorder."

But again, we are only dealing with the current manifestation of an ancient issue. The popular medium of newspapers were denounced about one hundred years ago. Critics were worried that newspapers would dumb down the public discourse by diverting attention away from books. As a knowledge management tool, newspapers were suspect. Even the literature on knowledge management is, at best, divided on whether we are dealing with a new phenomenon or age old concerns. Peter Drucker references the British "information technology" that helped them run India and much of the world-"the quill pen, and barefoot runners."

So much of technological progress is ersatz, putative progress. Computers are now used to produce the seventh iteration of the annual budget, or the fourth version of the CEOs speech. Speed of iteration does not justify iteration. Perhaps we should have got it right on the second try. James Robertson's KM column notes that "...taking an existing inch-thick policy and procedures manual, and publishing it online with the same structure is ... of little value. (If staff could make sense of the original manuals, there wouldn't be an imperative to have them republished.)".

The web offers great learning power, but not all perspectives on a topic. Holding the full two-volumes of the Oxford Dictionary tells you something about the number of words there are in the English language that the web cannot. There are other experiences available in an art gallery, library or museum that cannot be reproduced on the web.

So much of what purports to be knowledge is also putative. Mona Engvig an adult education expert and on-line professor makes the distinction between "just-in-time" and "just-in-case" learning. The former is exemplified in the student cramming for tomorrow's exam, juicy gossip, cocktail party rejoinders and spot news coverage. In the great sweep of things, this, and much disparate, web based ephemera is disposable. The desperate web search just before the Board presentation might garner attention and support, but it is irrelevant or forgotten shortly after use.

Playwright Tom Stoppard deals with the nature of knowledge in The Invention of Love. The main character, A. E. Housman, is a Latin and Greek scholar. He is also an accomplished critic and poet. He disdains poor translations and bemoans the confusion they create:

There is truth and falsehood in a comma. ... By taking out a comma and putting it back in a different place, sense is made out of nonsense in a poem that has been read continuously since it was first misprinted four hundred years ago. A small victory over ignorance and error. A scrap of knowledge to add to our stock. What does this remind you of? Science, of course. Textual criticism is a science whose subject is literature, as botany is the science of flowers and zoology of animals and geology of rocks.

Robert Frost is said to have been asked if a line in one of his poems had a certain meaning. The poet paused, reflected, and finally said "It probably does, by now." The notion here is that the meaning only has meaning and also can change as the poem (or data) interacts with people. Put another way, the Knowledge Management Column indicates that "[t]he knowledge is not in the content itself...it's in the processes and practices that surround a content management system."

BEING 'IN THE KNOW' IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
IT systems can unearth and reproduce data at dizzying speed. The electronic equivalent of lending libraries and bookmobiles are a few key strokes away. But we should not confuse speed of access or breadth of access for depth, relevance or durability. We should certainly not confuse an increased number of key strokes or even the volume of data moved with knowledge, let along knowledge management.

We can now program my computer to wish you a happy birthday and you can program yours to thank me automatically. But neither of us may have had any emotional or intellectual involvement in that exchange. It takes live, human interaction with data to turn them into lasting, useful knowledge.

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