Knowledge Management

Sharing knowledge falls within a broader concept of knowledge management. There are many definitions of knowledge management because the needs of organisations and individuals vary greatly. You may also hear it referred to as knowledge mobilisation or knowledge into action, but it is the concepts that are important and probably familiar. The suggestion is that knowledge needs to be managed like any other asset in order to be usable and useful.

Often it is helpful to think about this in terms of an information need. The Knowledge Network digital library includes a huge range of resources such as books, journals, evidence summaries and databases, which will meet a range of information needs.

However, the best information source to meet a particular need is often a person or a network of people. People are key to all stages of the knowledge management process. 

It's not just about acquiring new knowledge, it's about getting that knowledge into practice.

It's about protecting against knowledge loss, retaining knowledge when someone leaves an organisation.

And it's about keeping knowledge up to date, removing old material and updating existing knowledge. It's a cycle.


Capturing knowledge

You may have many different types of knowledge as an individual:

  • Knowledge you know you have and should be sharing. You may already have processes in place to exchange this
  • Knowledge that is unique and important to you but you are unsure how valuable it is to others
  • Knowledge you are vaguely aware of at the level of intuition or instinct which you would struggle to express
  • Knowledge you are completely unaware that you have

Only through conversation and knowledge exchange with others can we become aware of the value of all the knowledge we are holding.

There is therefore great value to organisations and teams to surfacing this knowledge and making it available to others. There is also great risk if someone leaves an organisation and takes all their knowledge and experience with them.

Knowledge Management techniques

There are many techniques and approaches which can help us to engage in effective knowledge management more consciously and deliberately. If we can build these into business as usual we, our teams and our organisations will benefit.

Below are a selection of techniques with links to more information on how to try them yourself. There are many more out there but this can give you a starting point.

Peer assist

Part of a series of processes commonly and effectively used in other industries. This is one of several referred to as ‘learning before doing’. 

A team asks for help from others outside their immediate team - people are invited to share their experience, insights and knowledge with the team. Tends to be a spirit of reciprocity which promotes learning between teams and stronger networks.

How to use

There are many ways to go about conducting a peer assist review. For example:

  • Agree a clear purpose
  • Check if anyone else has solved a similar problem
  • Ask an external facilitator to help meet the desired outcome
  • Plan a date and agree the length - half day to two days long is common
  • Share information and context
  • Ask questions and give feedback
  • Analyse what you have heard and agree actions

More information on Peer assist from NHS England.

After action review

A short, facilitated meeting of project team members (and possibly other stakeholders) to evaluate and capture lessons learned. Often used towards the end of a project but it may also be used at the transition points between project phases. It should show whether anything could have or should have been done differently.

How to use

  • Held immediately after a piece of work or event
  • Involve everyone who took part in the ‘action’
  • Usually facilitated by a member of the team
  • Discuss: what was supposed to happen? What actually happened (what went well and could have gone better)? Why was there a difference? What can we learn?
  • Capture the lessons learned in a shared repository, such as a speadsheet on a shared drive

More information on After action review from NHS England

Knowledge cafe

An informal method to stimulate collective thinking through conversations. Individuals are paired at random to talk to each other and exchange knowledge. These can help to solve problems, break down silos and drive creative thinking.

How to use

These can be shaped in all sorts of ways, for example:

  • Facilitator outlines the theme and poses a single open-ended question
  • Break into small groups to discuss, these can stay the same for the duration or change regularly to allow more interaction
  • Return to the main group and share insights from each individual group
  • Usually no attempt is made by participants to capture the conversation as the value is in the conversation itself and the learning that each individual takes away
  • Facilitators may wish to capture insights from the final sharing session

More information on Knowledge cafe from NHS England.

Knowledge harvesting

Something many of us will have been involved in - having a discussion with someone who is leaving a team or organisation. However, when we do this in a more deliberate and structured way - and give ourselves as much time as possible to do it - there is less risk of important knowledge being lost.

How to use

There can be many elements to knowledge harvesting:

  • Decide what knowledge and expertise will be captured
  • Agree who needs this knowledge and how it will be shared with them
  • Identify a facilitator who will interview the person
  • Consider different interview formats and techniques. For example, you may wish to make a video of some of the interviews
  • Record and organise the resulting knowledge into a knowledge asset (see below).

More information on Knowledge harvesting from NHS England.

Elicitation interview

This is a one-to-one interview with a colleague to draw out the knowledge that is in your head (tacit knowledge). It can be one of a series of knowledge transfer activities we conduct as part of knowledge harvesting. 

How to use

The process should start as early as possible and include:

  • Identifying key knowledge areas
  • Asking colleagues what they would like to know
  • Agreeing priorities
  • Identifying colleagues to help with knowledge transfer activities
  • Creating the person's ‘legacy’
  • Capturing output and storing this in a central area accessible to the whole team

Make a note of the process, what should happen and where information should be stored. Then you can repeat whenever needed.

More information on Elicitation interview from NHS England.

Knowledge assets/ actionable knowledge products

These are things that make knowledge useable in different contexts. Once we have had a conversation or conducted research, we need to do something with the knowledge we have gathered to make it useful. Clinical decision support tools are a good example for health, but also think of pathways, hand washing posters, health literacy cards. They can be simple or complex; can be human, structural or technological.

We have all been involved in creating knowledge assets or actionable knowledge products but thinking about their characteristics and the point of them makes them into something more useful, something others can benefit from in the future.

How to use

Knowledge assets should:

  • Be easy and convenient to use
  • Be contextual - what works for some won't work for others
  • Save time
  • Support consistency for equity of experience and care

More information on Knowledge assets from NHS England.

Appreciative interviews/ Liberating structures

Liberating structures are a collection of field tested and evidence-based facilitation tools and techniques. There's over 33 of them and they all share a similar logic - the aim is to create space for active listening and creativity while also providing a clear structure for a group to work in. The structures provide reassurance and help to guide thinking but are also deliberately designed to break down hierarchies, promote connection across boundaries and tap into tacit knowledge.

How to use

Appreciative interviews are just one example:

  • Discover and build on the root causes of success
  • Tell a colleague a story about something you are proud of
  • Pay attention to what made the success possible
  • Retell your partners story to another group
  • Look for insights and patterns - how can we build on these?

More information on Appreciative interviews on Liberating Structures website.

Find out more about Liberating structures generally:

 

Health Literacy

Health literacy is about people having enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate the health and social care systems.

As health and social care professionals, when we share knowledge and information with patients, we have a responsibility to support health literacy. 

People need staff and services to operate and communicate in a way that makes it easier for them to understand and empowers them to be active partners in their care.

The below links provide information about how you can support communication and understanding. The tools described are intended to help health and social care practitioners avoid jargon, give clear and understandable directions, and ensure understanding.