27-September-2021
- Tell me about one of your recent memorable Knowledge Management (KM) experiences.
The experience I want to share is certainly not the most recent, but one of the most appreciated ones I have had.
It is the management and dissemination of knowledge from the 2019 Annual Report on the status of adoption (implementation) of IDEV recommendations tracked by the African Development Bank's (AfDB or "the Bank") Management Action Record System (MARS).
MARS is an automated computerized system launched seven years ago to strengthen a culture of compliance and accountability by monitoring and reporting on actions taken by the Bank’s management in response to the recommendations from IDEV's independent evaluations. In 2019, IDEV completed this report for the first time and I was honored to lead the KM process for this important product.
I particularly appreciated consulting with the report’s stakeholders and involving them in this exercise.
The dissemination plan developed for this evaluation, as well as its implementation, met the expectations of the various stakeholders, ensuring the usefulness of the resulting products.
- What do you do before developing a knowledge product?
From my point of view, while there is no single method to develop a knowledge product, I would propose the following 5-step approach, based on my experience:
- Identify stakeholders and understand their needs
- Identify useful knowledge: this involves selecting what is most relevant from the mass of available knowledge.
- Formalize the relevant knowledge
- Share the knowledge
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the knowledge sharing
In a nutshell, the development of appropriate and, above all, useful knowledge products involves taking into account the needs of stakeholders both upstream and downstream of the process. A client-oriented process is therefore the key to success.
- What is the most important lesson you have learned from a recent knowledge product you have developed?
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the AfDB launched a number of measures to address the pandemic and its economic consequences for Africa. It was essential to learn from past experience to respond effectively to such an emergency. Thus, I had the opportunity to contribute to the development of lesson notes to inform the Bank's response to COVID-19.
These included a lesson note on the Bank's response to the 2014-2016 Ebola Virus Disease crisis and a note consolidating findings and lessons from AfDB's crisis response budget support operations. The development of these knowledge products involved capitalizing on knowledge from the organization's previous experiences.
This was not a difficult exercise as the knowledge we needed was structured, available and accessible. This experience demonstrates how formalizing knowledge can be useful to inform, anticipate and manage a crisis effectively.
- What should an Evaluation Knowledge Assistant avoid doing?
As I mentioned in question 2, KM work requires creativity and client orientation.
As a result, each project is unique and responds to specific objectives with varied targets, so one should not fall into a routine and systematically replicate the same processes, without contextual planning based on an informed analysis.
One should also avoid a "Do as I say, not as I do" posture. To be clearer, the knowledge manager should not advocate the use of the organization's knowledge while he/she does not capitalize on his or her own experiences and acquired knowledge. Of course, the precepts of KM must be applied to KM work.
- How can we strengthen KM practice?
One way to strengthen KM practice is to encourage the sharing of knowledge among peers through communities of practice that bring together knowledge managers from various backgrounds.
Thus, in a spontaneous way, knowledge managers involved in a community of practice could exchange stories, anecdotes, and tell their experiences, which would not only allow them to find concrete solutions to problems inherent to the practice of KM, but also, more generally, contribute to collective learning and knowledge transfer.
This would allow us to capitalize on experiences to draw good practices and thus strengthen the effectiveness of KM.
- How do you think KM will evolve?
The concept of KM is evolving. We have moved from the era of physical capital to the era of intellectual capital, data, etc. There is no doubt that KM is becoming an essential practice for any organization that aspires to controlled growth. We are witnessing an evolution from the economic and managerial KM trend (mainly based on people) to a trend called artificial intelligence and knowledge engineering (predominantly digital with the rise of information and communication technologies (ICT)). The economic and managerial trend that has contributed to the emergence of the concept of knowledge capitalization is based on (i) a change in the corporate strategy paradigm characterized by notions of repertoires of knowledge, which have led to organizational changes that take into consideration the issue of capitalizing on the organization's knowledge. In concrete terms, the organization should learn to establish connections between its members, i.e., to put in contact people that will cooperate to generate new and useful knowledge for themselves and for the organization.
We are evolving towards a trend of artificial intelligence and knowledge engineering that promotes the exploitation of the potential of ICTs. The aim is to develop the exchange of know-how, to use ICTs to create communities of practice (intranet, groupware, etc.) and to invent new forms of companionship through electronic networks. The rapid technological advances due to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the subsequent digitization process will certainly impact the way information and knowledge are created, used, and shared.
We can conclude that KM, which for a long time was focused on collecting and classifying data, is now interested in sharing through the concept of participative intelligence, seeking to both decompartmentalize management and connect people.
- What do you like the most in your job?
On a daily basis, I am satisfied with the fact that all the activities I undertake or support revolve around people (client orientation) and are supported at the highest managerial level. Because buy-in and ownership by the Management and staff underpin the success and sustainability of the effects of KM work. Furthermore, I particularly appreciate that my work contributes to ensuring that the feedback loops between the organization and its stakeholders are seen in two strategic ways: a) KM activities/products contribute to the benefit of the Bank's stakeholders; and b) the knowledge and learning accumulated by these stakeholders are also beneficial to the organization.