Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Project Study # 23
Louisville Water Company 2007 System Certification Process: Knowledge
Management
Project Description: In 2006, the Organizational Effectiveness Business System developed a
process for identifying, storing and indexing critical operational knowledge. In 2007, each
business system was responsible for collecting the information described below in the bullet
items. In 2008, each business system is responsible for developing and implementing a
documented Knowledge Management action plan based upon the data collected in 2007. This
plan will be reviewed as part of a process that we call System Certification Reviews. In order to
assist our managers with this process, OE developed a questionnaire that could be used by the
employees to collect the information needed for the action plan. Business Systems also had the
flexibility of designing their own questionnaire. The objectives of this process are:
• Identify LWC employees who possess critical operational knowledge that needs to be
retained.
• Identify the critical operational knowledge.
• Determine if the critical operational knowledge can be obtained from other resources.
• Determine the potential business consequences that might occur if the critical
operational knowledge is not captured.
• Determine the best format to capture, store, index and make available the critical
operational knowledge to other employees.
• Develop a documented action plan and implement same to accomplish the above.
Challenge: The initial challenge was the willingness of employees to complete the
questionnaire. However, what we discovered was that employees were more than willing to do
this because of the importance of the work that they are performing. They quickly realized the
importance of sharing this information with others and enjoyed being seen as the “expert” in
their particular fields.
Size of Utility: 450 employees
Critical Success Factors: The success of this project is based on the completion of the
Knowledge Management action plans and implementation of those plans. All LWC business
systems are documenting their plans, collecting critical operational knowledge, and sharing this
data on the LWC intranet with the exception of operations requiring confidentiality and /or
security issues. We have seen an increase in the documentation and storing of Work
Instructions, Process Flowcharts, and digital photos capturing work processes, etc. We have
also seen an increase in participants in cross-training, cross-functional teams, and participants
in LWC’s Mentoring program.
Cost: No cost noted.
Benefits: Better planning in the areas of succession management, knowledge sharing and
retention, and cross-training.
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