Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Every decision an individual makes is a result of life experiences and conversations and the
learning that results from those experiences and conversations. Thus the networks we belong to
help define who we are, contributing to our self-confidence, purpose and identity. They also
provide a source for getting one or more opinions in a trusted environment, whether this is
achieved through consulting a boss or employee, or a trusted and knowledgeable member of a
team or community. The active relationship networks that crisscross organizations increase
awareness, provide redundancies, and affect organizational responsiveness in terms of agility
and flexibility. An organization can react faster when information around key areas of concern is
flowing freely. An active relationship network also provides a monitoring and scanning system
for problems and opportunities. It is easy to see how important everyday conversations can
become to both individuals and their organizations. The good news is that each individual
manages their own relationship network of people. If an individual’s networking is effective—
based on interdependency, trust, a common framework, openness, the flow of information and
knowledge, and equitability—that individual’s decisions will be more effective. See the MQI
research paper on Relationship Network Management. See also, relationship building.
Becoming a Change Agent
Everyone working in their Utility to improve the way it achieves its mission can be considered
a change agent. Since knowledge—and by extension KM—is at the core of every individual’s
contribution to the mission of the Utility, implementation of a KM strategy or initiative is no
exception. Further, an organization cannot change in a vacuum. This means that as changes
occur within a Utility, other parts of the Utility and its stakeholders need to be changing as well.
This also means that as the environment changes, the state-of-the-art changes, or another
Utility discovers a better way of doing things, your Utility must be willing to consider, evaluate
and, as appropriate, embrace these changes.
While the easiest approach might be to order change to occur, this does not work in a
complex organization such as a Utility. In order for organizations to change, people must
change. When people change they move through the following cognitive processes:
• Awareness (aware of the needed action)
• Understanding (understand its meaning and the expected result)
• Believing (believe that the action is real and will work)
• Feeling good (feel good about taking the action)
• Ownership (feel a personal responsibility for taking action)
• Empowerment (feel they have the right, knowledge and freedom to take action)
• Impact (know that taking this action will make a difference)
While this sounds difficult (and often it is), it can also occur within an instant. For example, if you
are a trouble-shooter in a drinking water utility and a water main breaks in front of you, there is
no doubt you move through this process and take some action within seconds, even if that
action is to hit an emergency button call for assistance. Thus the intent of a KM strategy or
initiative is to embed that same response in terms of knowledge creation, knowledge sharing
and knowledge retention. See the MQI paper A New Change Model on individual change, and
the MQI research paper The Change Agent’s Strategy on organizational change. The largescale
change approach used by the Department of the Navy included event intermediation and
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