{"id":727,"date":"2013-07-31T12:51:14","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T11:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=727"},"modified":"2016-10-26T11:41:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T10:41:37","slug":"why-the-uk-government-is-seeking-to-capture-and-retain-critical-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=727","title":{"rendered":"why the UK Government is seeking to capture and retain critical knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I write this an updated <em>Government knowledge &amp; information Strategy <\/em>is being crafted.<\/p>\n<p>Following the recognition of knowledge &amp; information management (KIM) as one of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.civilservice.gov.uk\/networks\/knowledge-information\" target=\"_blank\">professions of government<\/a> and building on <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalarchives.gov.uk\/documents\/information-management\/information-matters-strategy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Information Matters<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>published in 2008 it represents another important milestone in the journey towards a more flexible workforce able to recognise, capture and retain that knowledge &amp; information critical for its current and future business.<\/p>\n<p>More on that in due course once the Strategy has been released.<\/p>\n<h2>turning the km &amp; i vison into reality<\/h2>\n<p>Recently HMRC (through Civil Service Learning) commissioned <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknow.net\" target=\"_blank\">Sparknow<\/a> and I to run a set of pilot programmes on capturing and exploiting corporate knowledge. HMRC like all areas of governement face the threefold challenge of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>equipping new joiners with sufficient knowledge and information that they are able to hit the ground running (while making the most of the knowledge they are bringing to the organisation)<\/li>\n<li>ensuring that when staff are reassigned they have sufficient time and access to the knowledge they need to transition into the new role<\/li>\n<li>capturing the huge experience and knowledge (often tacit) from staff who are coming up for retirement, whose job may be dissapearing or who are leaving to pursue a career elsewhere.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In welcoming the participants our sponsor said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This proposed programme&#8230;aims to make knowledge retention part of the engrained behavior and the way \u2018we\u2019 work. It should be a continuous process fuelled by the belief that everyone has something to contribute and much to learn from sharing knowledge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Our challenge then: to develop an informative, participative and enjoyable set of interlinked modules that gives exposure to a dozen or so tools and techniques that will help to identify, capture and reuse what are often termed \u2018critical knowledge assets. And find a measurement (we used Dr Donald Kirkpatrick&#8217;s Learning Evaluation Model) to assess the success of this capacity building initiative.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_731\" style=\"width: 237px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/View-from-first-training-room.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-731\" class=\"size-full wp-image-731\" src=\"http:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/View-from-first-training-room.jpg\" alt=\"View from first training room\" width=\"227\" height=\"152\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-731\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The view from the venue for modules one and two.<br \/>Picture by Victoria Ward<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Over the next month I am going to be taking a more in depth look at the modules we ran and the areas that stimulated most interest among the dozen or so senior HMRC staff from different areas of the business around the UK.\u00a0 So as &#8216;they&#8217; say: &#8216;watch this space&#8217;!<\/p>\n<h2>when knowledge &amp; information\u00a0 flow<\/h2>\n<p>As part of the discussions leading up to the programme we developed a vision (a future story) of what an knowledge &amp; information friendly environment might look like:<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I\u2019ve just returned from \u2018an audience with&#8230;&#8217; session with\u00a0 <i>John<\/i> who is about to retire. It was different from the usual breakfast briefing \u2013 we got to learn about topics and events we\u2019d identified as being of interest. Hearing those described by someone who\u2019d been through it all was really insightful for a relative newcomer.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I relocated this year: thanks to <i>Agnieska<\/i> who\u2019d built a bridge between my predecessor and me there were few surprises and I still see <i>Jane <\/i>for a regular catch up. I am much more aware of things that are going on, who I can go to and ask a question. Most importantly I now have a set of useful questions and the confidence to ask them in any situation.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I am keeping my Decision Journal: who\u2019d have thought it but it\u2019s\u00a0 been immensely valuable as a prompt when having conversations.\u00a0 And I am now a timeline convert and shocked my Director when I\u00a0 used postcards on a timeline to share my regular update.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I do feel that should I leave it would be easier to pass on what I\u2019ve learned in a more illuminating way. If only I\u2019d begun it earlier \u2013 using objects as prompts has made sharing experiences intuitive.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The business has benefited: an idea brought in by a new staff member resulted in process improvements that improved collection rates; when <i>Roger<\/i> transferred to East Kilbride the transition time was much shorter as he was able to tap into the networks of his predecessor and the insights that emerged from the sessions with <i>Priyanga<\/i> prior to her departure helped shape the new set up in Southend. Whereas before we may have lost touch, now she still feels a sense of attachment and was at one of the recent breakfast events that are now open to alumni.<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I write this an updated Government knowledge &amp; information Strategy is being crafted. Following the recognition of knowledge &amp; information management (KIM) as one of the professions of government and building on Information Matters\u00a0published in 2008 it represents another &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=727\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[593,597,599],"tags":[277,273,272,279,278,274,275,66,105,122],"class_list":["post-727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-culture-process-issues-operational","category-knowledge-capture","category-knowledge-techniques-technologies","tag-civil-service-learning","tag-government-knowledge-information-strategy","tag-hmrc","tag-karen-mcfarlane","tag-kirkpatrick","tag-knowledge-capture","tag-knowledge-council","tag-knowledge-retention","tag-sparknow","tag-victoria-ward"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=727"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2092,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions\/2092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}