Cynefin Knowledge Management Programme

Click here to access the Cynefin KM programme.

Click here or on image below to access the KM Quickstart brochure.

Starting a new knowledge management initiative or seeking to revitalise an existing one?

Have issues with getting management commitment and support?

Need to increase the pragmatic aspects of your KM programme?

Need to assess the next steps for your KM programme after or during a period of turbulence and disruption?

In this Quickstart, you will be guided in conducting a successful Knowledge Mapping & Strategy process that will bring renewed vitality and resilience for knowledge in your organisation. This Quickstart is based on one of the most successful Masterclasses at the annual KM World event in Washington. We will take you through a step-by-step approach to gain new understanding of the use of knowledge and to rethink the role of knowledge management in your context. Our programme is designed to re-energise existing knowledge management programmes, respecting what has already been done, as well as being suitable for green field sites.

A large part of the failure of KM programmes has come from over-promising on idealistic futures, albeit with the best of possible intentions. This approach is less about the visions of the future, and follows a pragmatic and organic process to understand where we are and where we can realistically go next. The Quickstart blends theory, methods, real-world examples and rich stories from the field.

Conduct knowledge mapping to gain new insights into what they know, knowledge- related vulnerabilities, and next steps.

The process starts with identifying and mapping the day-to-day issues of key workers and also the neglected group of middle management. As Nonaka famously said in his early work on knowledge, change is middle-bottom-up.

Creating a sustainable programme isn’t just about senior management commitment, its about making a concrete short-term difference to business and pre-occupied middle management. This programme does that and more. By understanding the problems and issues, strategic and operational that keep them awake at night, we can better at create programmes that provide practical assistance in the short term using existing tools and technology before we attempt to engage them in a wider programme.

With this approach, it is also an opportunity to gain insights into the usefulness and appropriateness of initiatives within the context of the organisation, and the natural confluences in knowledge ecologies in teams, communities and informal networks.

Knowledge Mapping includes:

the elicitation and identification of distinct knowledge objects and assemblies,
creating a decision/ information flow map to understand the natural flows of knowledge;
defining micro- projects that directly link to the critical priorities of senior executives;
mapping the current flow paths for knowledge within the organization, and
finding natural ways to manage the knowledge of a mobile workforce, and the aging workforce,
re- thinking of approaches for apprenticeships and knowledge continuity.

With this process, organizations identify knowledge clusters and build a portfolio of knowledge initiatives that span across and integrate projects for both knowledge stocks and knowledge flows, explicit and tacit knowledge.

The process works for: strategic planning, as well as knowledge assessments linked to mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, outsourcing and innovation.

Assess the resilience and vulnerabilities of the distinct knowledge capabilities and knowledge flows in your organization, especially during and after turbulent times and interruptions.
Plan and revitalise initiatives for knowledge retention, transfer and harvesting, in the context of challenges such as the impact on turbulence on business and operations, refiguring of work and the wave of resignations, quiet quittng and workforce mobility we experience.

You will learn how to:

discover the critical knowledge objects or assemblies in your organisation, and how to incorporate narrative methods for lessons learning, as well as knowledge harvesting and transfer.
Conduct a Knowledge & Innovation Culture Assessment, with action planning.
How to utilise Knowledge Mapping for what the EU Field Guide calls ‘radical repurposing’ or exaptation. Under conditions of stress it is better to fiind novel uses for existing capability than to attempt to create it from scratch.