LtF Chapter 13 - Embedding it in the organization - preparing to let go

This chapter deals with how KM practices and processes can be established and become the culture. It revolves around an example of this in action.

Five stages of are suggested:

Awareness : Start : Consolidate : Embed : Support

These can be related to other models around change management.

A useful point is how the various KM initiatives underway in this area do not use the term KM. This is in line with discussions in the KM community of practice on NHS CfH ESpace. KM surely has to be within the strategy and business planning of others not a discrete entity in itself.

An example is worked through around Operations and exploiting the common factors in diverse business groups. It refers back to various tools like the river diagram and learning gap analysis that this enables. 25 areas of common practice were identified. A useful tip was around using a requirement to both offer and request help (3 of each in the example) as a way of breaking down peoples reluctance to ask for assistance. A form of peer pressure is applied through this encouraging sharing.

The chapter closes with a reflection point - where are the knowledge gaps for your organization. I think that is something I need to think about offline!

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LtF Chapter 12 - Leveraging what we know

Generously Blogger has attributed the last post to the day I wrote the first line of it. My apologies for the long break in the scheduled posts. This post will now appear late also to add to the confusion.

This longer chapter looks at how we can capture knowledge. More specifically it considers the benefit of distilling experience into Knowledge Assets. This reflects the fact that often the same thing will happen in many places so a core message can be defined.

A good area for a Knowledge Asset for most NHS organisations (and their librarians) at present would be around bid processes. While bids are always important the current organisational environment makes successful bidding key. The potential is there to share learning across the organisation around this topic.

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LtF Chapter 9 - Learning after doing

A weekend at UEA for the annual Pirates versus Old Boys knowledge sharing exercise (ahem). Once again the current students learnt a great deal about how to play American Football through the invaluable method of actually having a go. Best of luck to the Pirates for the season ahead.


Not much to say about this chapter. It is a fairly detailed framework for a larger end of project learning event described as a "retrospect". The key thing I would pull out of it is the importance of linking it in so the information gathered is available to future projects. One place I could see this usefully applied would be in work around Map of Medicine. As pathways are refined and localised there is the potential for speeding up the process by capturing learning after each one is completed.

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LtF Chapter 8 - Learning Whilst Doing

Half term week makes for rapid and quiet bus rides - ideal for zipping through this brief chapter detailing the use of After Action Reviews.

These were developed by the US army during the war in Vietnam as a rapid means to learn in the field. (The image on this page is from the US Military Flickr account and is of an AAR taking place in Iraq). The full details of how these are operated in the army are published online "A Leader's Guide to After Action Reviews".

It boils down to four questions:

• What was supposed to happen?
• What actually happened?
• Why were there differences?
• What can we learn from that?

It is a quick process - around twenty minutes and to be carried out in the immediate aftermath of whatever you are examining. Most of the documenting is of the actions.

I like these a lot and I am certainly going to try and make use of them within my working life.

I wonder to what extent this sort of practice is formalised in processes around care? It should be happening around adverse incidents and near misses but what about in the everyday? Organisationally we are working on the Productive Ward model. Having a quick scan of the documents there are loops for learning but I wonder if it might benefit from the rapid feedback that an AAR would bring?

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LtF Chapter 7 - Learning from your peers

Half distance in the book and another chapter of practical advice around a technique - in this instance "Peer Assists".

Compared to the benchmarking exercises described in the previous chapter I found this technique harder to grasp. Perhaps because the scale of investment in time and people seems that much greater.

The Peer Assist is a means to share experience and knowledge around a topic. It is convened by those undertaking the work and is very much a request for help. It should happen early in a project to allow for maximum gain in terms of applying any lessons learnt. It is suggested that they may well take between one and two days to complete. There is a balancing act in terms of the people in attendance to get diverse enough views that fruitful learning can take place and assumptions be challenged, without things being so diverse that it is hard to know where to start. You also need people at the right level.

12 steps are laid down for planning a Peer Assist and these are explained in some detail. They seem a reasonable framework. Ideally it is suggested that you attend a Peer Assist as a participant before you organise one. So a case of asking around for someone who has participated or of getting in someone externally to run a trial?

Rolling peer assists are described as a means of dealing with larger groups or shorter time frames. Here people rotate in small groups with sharing of background / the issue repeated for each group. I was actually involved in something like this as part of the evidence gathering work for the CILIP Public Health Policy Statement. We used a rotation around four boards to gather views around a number of questions related to how librarians and libraries can / could contribute to Public Health. A scribe in each corner noted peoples comments providing something for people to build on. Unfortunately this was on a very short time frame as we were in a fringe meeting slot at Umbrella so the groups rotated roughly every ten minutes (indicated by me shouting "Bong" at the top of my lungs hence the image on this post!). From experience I can definitely say that a more structured version of this with a little more time available could be excellent.

I wonder if these quick hit type peer assists might be more manageable as a starter within our library networks. The peers could be from outside our network area but it might well be interesting to bring in those from other sectors (public libraries etc) or indeed people from outside the profession. Locally I suspect that the service redesign team will already have skills in these techniques (all be it perhaps under another name).

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LtF Chapter 5 - Getting started - just do it!

Back from leave and taking the plunge straight into Chapter 5 which looks nice and short.


First suggestion - start where the business is. I have this very much in mind as I am speaking at the launch of the Alignment Toolkit tomorrow afternoon. This is an initiative aimed at demonstrating how knowledge services align with, and impact on, NHS priorities. I am looking forward to hearing about examples of being 'where the business is' and am sure there will be some great ideas to follow up.

First reflection point - What do you need to learn? I am struggling to know where to start with this. I can think of many things I could do with learning. Off the top of my head - why do some people use our services a lot and others in similar roles not at all? I have to run a workshop for my Directorate on organisational learning early next year and this would certainly make a good question for debate.

Slightly frustrating to find the book again looking ahead a few chapters discussing a tool we are yet to learn much about (After Action Reviews).

Next reflection point - what is the best environment in your organisation for Knowledge Sharing? I am fairly sure that technology is not going to be the solution on this one. We have a number of technological means of knowledge sharing already in place and these definitely don't reach all parts. The idea of a physical, visual presence is appealing. It would definitely have to be addressed through teams. A case by case approach would be required. The book suggests Knowledge Managers need to be communicators and I would heartily agree with that.

This ends the first section of the book and we move into tools and techniques with Chapter 6.

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