Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Chapter 6: The Effects of Alignment and Misalignment Between KM and Core Planning Processes | 45
business mission, there is a lower perception (54%) of its effectiveness in handling business problems.
From this response, it is clear that while the value of information technology is recognized
as mission critical (88.6%), there is still some work to do in order for information technology to
strongly support the business mission. When these indicators are considered with the patterns created
from responses to the data presented in Table 6.2, there are two potential findings. Either
(1) information technology—and more specifically, ITD—has not been sufficiently developed or
effectively embedded in support of the business needs of drinking water utilities, or (2) leaders and
managers who responded to this survey instrument (representing 207 drinking water utilities
nation-wide) are not aware of or do not understand the role that information technology is playing
in their utilities. In either case, it is clear that Knowledge Management can contribute to helping
drinking water utilities engage the full potential of current and future information technology
investments in terms of their contribution to business problems and the business mission.
While the option of writing in additional planning processes considered as core was provided
in the survey, no additional processes were called out by responders.
ALIGNING A KM INITIATIVE WITH A UTILITY’S CORE PLANNING PROCESSES
We first consider the situation where the utilities core planning process is well designed and
implemented and a KM initiative should be aligned with the core planning process.
If a utility’s core planning process is working well, the question becomes: How can a KM
initiative best support the core planning process? Planning processes by their very nature, layout
and anticipated sequence of actions must consider the relationships necessary for effective implementation
to ensure the utility’s effective performance. These actions, activities and relationships
impact a large number of stakeholders within the utility and perhaps even customers. While implementation
of the core planning processes is intended to support utility objectives, the efficiency
and effectiveness of the utility from a Knowledge Management perspective may not have been
considered. When this occurs, a KM initiative—if properly designed to support core planning and
implementation processes—may significantly improve utility performance. The following steps
briefly outline a sequence of activities to consider when designing a KM initiative in support of the
development and implementation of a core planning process.
Step 1
Ensure that the planning process and its anticipated implementation is of high quality
through best practice analysis, benchmarking or past assessments of the process outcome. Look
carefully for those aspects of the process that are most sensitive to the availability and quality of
information and knowledge and the potential for knowledge loss through retirements etc. In addition,
look at the first and second order effects of the process activities on the surrounding stakeholders
to see if relationships are effective and accurate and timely information and knowledge is
shared with these stakeholders.
Step 2
Identify aspects of the core planning process that require additional knowledge, information
and experience for successful implementation. This may include areas where the process
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