Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

KM. It may be useful to review The Business Case for KM in drinking water utilities that can be
accessed through the White Papers section of the toolkit under Resources. Another resource
is the discussion of Becoming a Change Agent that is included in the Preparing phase of the
toolkit process.
Q14-1: Selecting level 1 indicates that leadership will likely resist any changes in the Utility and
therefore, until this resistance is dissolved, it may be best to wait until leadership can be brought
on board to support the KM strategy. One option would be to implement a KM initiative that can
validate the value of change and KM. It may be useful to review The Business Case for KM in
drinking water utilities that can be accessed through the White Papers section of the toolkit
under Resources. Another resource is the discussion of Becoming a Change Agent that is
included in the Preparing phase of the toolkit process.
Q15: Leadership’s understanding of KM and its usefulness is ...
Q15-3: Selecting level 3 indicates that the leadership team has not been brought fully on board
as to the nature and value of knowledge management to the Utility. Because the leadership
teams’ role in the desired strategy is very important, it is suggested that this issue be corrected
before commencing the KM strategy. See the Introduction to the toolkit. Numerous resources
are also available under Resources in the toolkit. These include case examples, project
studies, white papers, case studies, APQC benchmarking and best practice studies as well as
MQI research papers.
Q15-2: Selecting level 2 indicates that the leadership team knows very little about knowledge
management, and hence immediate steps are suggested to bring them up to speed in order to
empower them to understand and participate in the KM strategy. If this cannot be done, it may
be best to delay implementation of the KM strategy. See the Introduction to the toolkit.
Numerous resources are also available under Resources in the toolkit. These include case
examples, project studies, white papers, case studies, APQC benchmarking and best practice
studies as well as MQI research papers.
Q15-1: Selecting level 1 indicates the leadership team has little or no understanding of
knowledge management. Under these conditions it is best to delay initiating a KM strategy until
sufficient time can be taken to ensure the leadership team is aware of, understands, and will
support implementation of the KM strategy. See the Introduction to the toolkit. Numerous
resources are also available under Resources in the toolkit. These include case examples,
project studies, white papers, case studies, APQC benchmarking and best practice studies as
well as MQI research papers.
MANAGEMENT
Q16: The level of communication among Utility departments is ...
Q16-3: Selecting level 3 indicates that the level of communication among Utility departments is
average, and therefore improvement would be helpful to the success of a KM strategy. While a
KM strategy may be implemented under these conditions, it would be worthwhile to observe the
level of communication and take actions to improve and facilitate additional communication
channels among departments. This may well follow directly from the KM strategy since many
strategies include improving the knowledge sharing among both individuals and departments.
The toolkit is full of resources that support knowledge sharing and communication. For
example, see the section on Growing a Knowledge Network in the Preparing phase of the
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