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Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques
Figure 27.8
Target Interventions for Business Results
As the executive team discussed these results further, they realized that the patterns
in this density matrix correlated with their sales performance. The Small Accounts unit
was not selling solutions from Product Line B. The expected cross-selling synergy
between Product Lines A and C was not occurring. The SNA data reflected what was
actually happening in the business.* The next step was to use the matrix to target
interventions that coincided with the lower density numbers.
The executive team selected six junctures—points of connection—and requested
managers to take action and report back on what they were doing to improve
communications. The team also requested that each manager have the SNA results
presented to each of his or her groups. During these presentations, additional requests
for SNA work came up.
Interventions
The last step in an SNA project is to recommend and implement interventions. The
goal is to change the patterns in the knowledge and information flow: to increase the
connections, to alter the behavior of bottlenecks, and sometimes to cut down on
redundant paths. There are typically three operational domains for designing and
implementing interventions:
• Structural/organizational
• KM/process and practice
• Individual/leadership
Comparative view of density of interactions
SmA PL A PL B PL C LgA
10 8 8 9 10
Small Accounts 72% 11% 0% 2% 5%
Product Line A 8% 77% 0% 1% 4%
Product Line B 0% 2% 73% 0% 17%
Product Line C 2% 1% 3% 54% 17%
Large Accounts 2% 5% 16% 12% 73%
Some examples of each of these follow. Notice that only one of these really taps
into the KM practitioner’s toolkit. For the others, it is almost always necessary to
work with an organizational development consultant or human resource person.
Structural/organizational—An analysis may indicate the need to modify the organization
or to introduce people into new, specific roles to assist the knowledge transfer.
For example, the vice president of the Large Accounts group (Figure 27.7) hired a senior
manager to be accountable for business development in Product Line A. Brenda, the
* It is important when looking at this data to recall that the analysis has been tuned to reveal
only high-frequency patterns of information sharing. Zero percent does not mean that there is no
knowledge transfer, but only that it is not frequent. The analysis is more meaningful when viewed
in the context of the percentages among related groups (the patterns) and in the context of the
business impact itself. Moreover, note that there is no absolute goal and that a density of 100%
in a very large group is very inefficient, not to say chaotic!