Episode 169 – Knowledge Management – A Key Discipline of Top-performing Teams

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Knowledge Management is a key practice for top-performing teams. We can improve our projects by tapping into, and managing, project knowledge. Join us to learn more about managing project knowledge, knowledge sharing, and nurturing knowledge within an organization. Table of Contents 01:56 … A Definition of Knowledge02:59 … Difference between Knowledge and Wisdom04:53 … Tacit Knowledge - “Knowhow” and “Know What”05:43 … The Purpose of Managing Knowledge06:20 … Managing Project Knowledge08:10 … Overcoming Resistance to Knowledge Bias09:52 … Projects Run on Knowledge11:03 … Measuring Business Value12:27 … Drink Tea14:59 … Face-to-Face Communication17:09 … Nurturing Knowledge in an Organization19:27 … Kevin and Kyle21:08 … Rewarding Knowledge Sharing22:55 … Building Organizational Trust25:04 … Developing Knowledge-Oriented Team Culture27:11 … Recognizing the Value of Knowledge29:06 … Building Successful Knowledge Projects32:42 … Effectively Harnessing Experience36:22 … Contact Larry36:57 … Closing LARRY PRUSAK: There’s a lot of ways to instill trust.  Trust your children.  Trust your community and things like that.  It really pays off.  I mean, it’s not so much being altruistic.  It pays off.  Things work better when you trust each other.  Speaking as a social scientist, it lowers the transaction costs.  You don’t have to always be looking over your shoulder or sniffing out things.  It lowers the cost.  Oh, yeah, I trust him.  He’ll do what he said, or she’ll do what she said. WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I’m Wendy Grounds, and here in the studio with me is Bill Yates. So we want to take a moment to say thank you to our listeners who reach out to us and leave comments on our website or on social media.  We love hearing from you, and we always appreciate your positive ratings and reviews on whichever podcast listening app you use. Today we’re talking about a topic we’ve not addressed before, and we’re very excited to dig into it.  Our guest is Laurence Prusak, and Larry has been studying knowledge and learning for the past 30 years.  He has been a consultant in these areas for Mercer and a co-founder for Ernst & Young Center for Business Value.  He’s the founder and director of the IBM Institute for Knowledge Management and co-founder of the Babson College Working Knowledge Research Program.  He’s been a senior consultant for NASA, as well as teaching in over 40 universities.  He has also recently taught at Columbia University’s program on information and knowledge, and he has co-authored 11 books. BILL YATES:  Wendy, we got this recommendation from Stephen Townsend to reach out to Larry and talk with him.  One of the books that Larry recently worked on is called “The Smart Mission:  NASA’s Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People, and Projects.”  So as we get into this topic, I think project managers will appreciate the depth of Larry’s knowledge on knowledge management. WENDY GROUNDS:  Hi, Larry.  Welcome to Manage This.  Thank you so much for being our guest today. LARRY PRUSAK:  You’re welcome. A Definition of Knowledge  WENDY GROUNDS:  So we’re going to be talking knowledge management, which is a new topic for us on our podcast.  And we’re very excited that we have you with us.  Before we begin, could you give us your definition of knowledge? LARRY PRUSAK:  It’s what a knowledgeable person knows.  Think about, if you go to a dentist, a dentist knows how to fix your teeth.  If he wasn’t knowledgeable, you wouldn’t be going to him.  We’re talking about working knowledge, the knowledge that allows people to do things.  There’s other sorts of knowledge.  There’s religious knowledge, aesthetic knowledge, all sorts of things.  But we’re talking about the knowledge that allows you to do something, and do it well.  Information is not knowledge.  Knowledge isn’t data.