Towards Capturing Implicit Knowledge:
A Practical Application of Intranet Development.
Dr C J Mimnagh
Clinical Knowledge Manager
St Helens & Knowsley Health Informatics Service
St Helens
Setting the Scene
Introduction Organisational background The developmental approach The product development The products themselves The commercial comparisons The implementation to date Strengths and weaknesses The lessons learned
Introduction
Intranets basic tools in the commercial world 1 Within NHS in its infancy, potential for misuse under scrutiny 2
Commercial experience suggests intranets are sine qua non for the capture of implicit knowledge 3
Culture,not technical infrastructure influences the dissemination of knowledge,4
Implicit knowledge capture built on the existing culture not an imposed organisational directive
Intranets are often designed with explicit knowledge in mind, NELHs section on knowledge management, is titled “managing
explicit knowledge” 5
Our Aim
Our focus -on implicit knowledge management
The aim-to build on existing cultural structures to capture organisational implicit knowledge
Existing NHS wide KM -to be integrated rather than reinvented
The Organisational Background
St Helens & Knowsley health community 320,000 Patients/ Citizens Two primary care trusts (PCTs) One acute trust
The Health Informatics service February 2001 Merging staff from
Primary care Community trust Secondary care
The Intranet Development
Clinical Knowledge Manger Part Time Post “to bring about the learning organisation”
Webheads 5 Person Team.
The intranet is a community wide initiative, Evolved from the trust network
Developmental Approach
Scenario mapping, Considering the communication flows Multiple system levels Primary care was considered at
The practice level, The primary care group/trust (PCG/T) level Functionally adjacent structures, e.g. Other PCGs
Developmental Approach
Secondary care was considered at the level of: Ward Department Directorate Functionally adjacent organisations, e.g. Other hospitals
Results and Development
The output form this phase of the development was a categorisation of the knowledge artefacts/sources
The means by which knowledge is gained by one component of the health community from another
Three kinds of artefacts/sources; “Person” sources
Individuals whose experience could be accessed directly to gain information
Results and Development
Departmental sources Documents which were circulated within the unit
containing explicit knowledge Communal sources
Which occurred in intra-departmental meetings, disease specific groups, or process specific meetings
Product Development
These artefacts consistent with the principles of knowledge management outlined by Davenport and Prusak
They suggest three essential components in any attempt at managing implicit knowledge;
Directory services Communities of practice Lessons learned
The Challenge:
Create a health community wide intranet That builds on existing activity Synergistic effect of a KM focus
New Home
Directory Services
A directory service is not a phone book knowledge /skills /learning repository Minimum data set of demographic details Includes soft issues
Current projects Clinical and non clinical skills Hobbies and interests
The user controls the content, through a secure password Provides a single log on for all the intranet functions
newslog
Return
people2
Lessons Learned Database a.k.a. PADI
Collates documents and forms No web publishing needed Rating by users Searching free text (for now)
Accessible from all parts of the community, Context
individual submissions departmental submissions
Submissions are linked to directory services Enables “grounding” within the submitters’ experience
Padi
Web Communities
Communities of practice / Communities of Interest cover a range of topics from managerial to disease
specific
The framework enables those groups to Share their work, Engage members and non members in discussion Contribute to the organisational knowledge base Provides approval process for documents
Implementation to Date
The current version of the intranet was launched in February 02 The roll out has been on a departmental basis, Currently 10% of the health community with access to the intranet has
registered in the directory service Across all community, not just hospital or primary care.
Over 800 Documents have been uploaded Over 1000 Websites Submitted 40 Web communities created Bedstate on Line Library development ongoing CHI impressed with ease of use
Future Implementation
Peoplepages V2 Integration with HR record Induction process online “So long and thanks for all the fish” Whistleblowing
E-Round enters second phase Monitoring usage live webcast?
Knowledge Map function Mobile Intranet/Extranet
PDA Remote access
Future Implementation 2
Internet facility Patient stories Expert Patient Input non NHS access
Lessons Learned and Conclusion
Departments that are geographically dispersed have showed the greatest interest in the web communities,
Access to the network is still a problem Elbowing Ward Clerks
Other interested parties include groups that do not represent a distinct organisational entity
To date the nature of the artefacts submitted tends not to be personal work, but departmental or organisational in nature
This possibly suggests that the confidence to share our “own work” will take time to be established
It could be argued that explicit knowledge management must be in place for implicit KM to work, and that personal knowledge will be the hardest commodity to share
References
1. Davenport TP, l. Working knowledge. June 2000 ed: Harvard business school press, 2000
2. Neame R, Kluge E-H. Computerisation and health care: some worries behind the promises. Bmj 1999;319(7220):1295-
3. Senge P. The fifth discipline- art & practice of a learning organisation. 1999 ed: random house, 1990
4. O‘Dell RMAC. Overcoming cultural barriers to sharing knowledge. Journal of knowledge management 2001;volume 5(number 1):76-85
5. NELH knowledge management 2002 http://www.Nelh.Nhs.Uk/knowledge_management.Asp nelh 22.02.02 2002