10- KM4D: Three Viewpoints

“KM for Development” or KM4D can be seen from different viewpoints.
Level 1. Community viewpoint
We saw earlier in “Unconscious KM and Conscious KM” that successful anti-poverty projects are those that leveraged well the intangible assets owned by or accessible to the community, and that the broader concept of “intangible assets” and the even broader construct of [...]

9- Estimating the Benefit from Organizational Learning

One of the poll questions I often ask participants in my KM workshops is “Estimate what percent of your total knowledge (now) came from your formal schooling.” Almost all answers are below 50%. The average hovers around 20%, depending on the ages of the participants. Then I ask “Where did the 80% come from?” Their [...]

8- Valuation of Intangible Assets

The private sector has a handy way of assigning market value to tangible and/or intangible assets: the capacity of the asset to generate earnings. Using the M&E framework proposed earlier, this is the same as saying that the value of 1 is the sum of all future 3 (after discounting):

7- Interactivity and Context

We saw earlier that knowledge is capacity for effective action.
Let us study the following observations about ineffective actions:
1- An X-ray film enables a radiologist to make better diagnosis, but it is meaningless to a plant engineer. Specifications of a turbine enable a plant engineer to make design decisions, but it is meaningless to a radiologist. [...]

To assess or better not to assess?

It should be a conscious choice whether impact of a knowledge management intervention needs to be assessed. Why or why not? Not measuring does not mean there is no impact. On the contrary, a formal process of measurement can undermine the very goal you are working towards. Take the example of a level of trust needed [...]

6- “High-Octane KM” is Demand-Driven KM

Here is a story how CCLFI.Philippines applied the M&E framework I described in my previous post.
In September 2005, the Executive Director of STREAMS (an international network of NGOs in water and sanitation, which was one of CCLFI.Philippines’ partners) asked for our help. STREAMS Board members flew to Manila and are meeting together with an Observer [...]

5- A Proposed M&E Framework

Much confusion in the field of KM stems from the use of the very common word “knowledge.” Let us discern how KM gurus use this word, starting with the guru of all management gurus, Peter Drucker:
“Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody — either by becoming grounds for action, or by making an individual [...]

4- Unconscious KM and Conscious KM

We have seen from two previous posts that (a) intangible assets generally contribute more than tangible assets in producing the results that organizations value, and (b) knowledge assets are only a subset of intangible assets.

Are we tired of measuring?

Despite the enormous experience and attention in the development sector for monitoring and evaluation of projects and programs, there is little development in the practice of measuring the impact of knowledge management interventions. Several organizations in our interviews admit that this is something they have not done systematically (enough). The fact that there is little [...]

Complexity Theory, Development and IKMemergent.

I was at an IDS seminar last Friday – “Knowledges, Capacities and Learning for Development: Insights from Complexity approaches”.  If the title is alarming then this ODI paper is an excellent primer, “Exploring the science of complexity Ideas and implications for development and humanitarian efforts”. An even shorter introduction comes from this post by Duncan [...]