Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

34 | Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water Utilities
Since a sustainable utility is co-evolving with its environment, the quantity and quality of
both planned and spontaneous exchanges among people within the utility’s stakeholder community
affects both the quality of the utility’s work products and the stakeholder’s perceived quality
of the utility’s work products. Questions for staff members to ask are: How can the utility increase
the quantity and quality of knowledge moments for its employees? How can the utility increase the
quantity and quality of knowledge moments with the larger stakeholder community?
Knowledge moments can be facilitated by spaces, processes and events. For example,
development of Ba spaces in the utility can facilitate knowledge moments. Ba spaces are areas
where people can informally congregate, similar to the historical water cooler example. They build
the level of trust among employees, the level of knowledge sharing, and the level of employee
learning. Shell HP developed an Ask, Learn, Share Model to facilitate knowledge moments. Ask
before any business activity: What do we already know? Learn during any business activity.
Share after any business activity. Events would include informal knowledge sharing that takes the
form of lunches or fireside chats or formal events such as a round table, symposium, town hall or
knowledge fair. Another example of nurturing knowledge moments would be development of a
coaching or mentoring program that paired senior leaders and managers with newer employees.
Networking
Networking is becoming the life blood of many organizations. The informal networks, the
practical decision and actions, and the common sense in doing a job end up driving the day-to-day
operation in most utilities. Staff managers can develop their own networks to confer with colleagues
and keep better informed about their utility or with regard to their specialty of expertise.
They can also encourage and assist employees to recognize the value of, and create their own personal
networks to improve their knowledge and performance.
Although there is room for growth, knowledge sharing does occur among drinking water
utility managers. Recall that in the Project 4003 survey response, on a Likert scale from 1 (very
poor) to 5 (very well), the mean of 207 responders was 3.68 when asked to assess the amount of
knowledge sharing among managers. Similarly, the mean for the level of trust among employees
was 3.69. However, for the level of communication between departments the mean was 3.46, indicating
a wider knowledge sharing gap between departments than between managers, or between
employees.
Another role of staff managers is the assignment of individuals to teams. For teams to work
effectively they require a higher-level champion and, most importantly, the freedom to selforganize
and decide how to do their work. Staff managers are facilitators for successful teams.
They sign the clear, one-page, written charter that provides resources, authority, timeliness, and
objectives that are critical to team success and support the scheduling of team interactions. They
are the first line-of-report for team findings.
Teams also need space and technology to make them efficient. All of these cost time and
money. Thus team success depends as much on staff management support and structural systems
as it does on its members.
Communities of practice (discussed above) and interest are built on the tradition of professionals
joining together to share skills and resources and are vibrant learning centers and rich
marketplaces for knowledge sharing. While communities may be either formal or informal, management
approval and technology infrastructure support are required. Staff managers can also
serve as champions for communities of practice in their areas of expertise.
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