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Preserving and Using Institutional Memory Through Knowledge Management Practices (2007)

Chapter: Chapter Nine - Transportation Case Studies

« Previous: Chapter Eight - Summary and Analysis of Questionnaire Results Regarding Effectiveness of Knowledge Management Practices and Training Initiatives: Questions 34-37
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter Nine - Transportation Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2007. Preserving and Using Institutional Memory Through Knowledge Management Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14035.
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Page 38
Suggested Citation:"Chapter Nine - Transportation Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2007. Preserving and Using Institutional Memory Through Knowledge Management Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14035.
×
Page 38
Page 39
Suggested Citation:"Chapter Nine - Transportation Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2007. Preserving and Using Institutional Memory Through Knowledge Management Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14035.
×
Page 39

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VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION The Virginia DOT (VDOT) was selected to be interviewed because it was identified by the literature survey as an agency with an active, although fairly new, KM program. Dr. Mau- reen Hammer, Knowledge Management Officer at VDOT, was interviewed on May 11, 2006. She reported that the for- mal initiation of the KM Office was in 2003. The chief exec- utive officer (CEO) at the time came from private industry, and although he was not very familiar with KM business processes, he believed in its value and created a new division as an incubator. The office was located in Charlottesville, rather than at the corporate headquarters in Richmond, which was a neutral location. Dr. Hammer was hired in November of 2003. The CEO gave the new office one month to set up a COP of the mega-construction project managers, of which there were 17, all leading very-high-cost projects. The office got underway during January 2004. Dr. Hammer attempted to form an online community; however, the group had not previously met, and was not in the habit of sharing. By March, it was clear that it was not working. Dr. Hammer took the blame and in doing so believes she won their trust. They changed to a face-to-face style and also enjoyed the support and mandate of the CEO. Since then they have continued to meet quarterly. Two other communities were formed: Quality Assurance and Right-of- Way. One of the important drivers was that 90% of the man- agers were eligible for retirement. These three communities each now meet quarterly and share resources across district boundaries. They act as an informal apprenticeship to less-experienced members. They use both online and face-to-face approaches. The HR Depart- ment has been pulled into the communities to some extent in the process of working on strategic staffing plans. The com- munities use Microsoft Sharepoint Technology to facilitate sharing discussions, documents, etc. Lessons learned are stored there until they are moved to a more permanent Lessons Learned site for the entire agency. People use tem- plates or their own styles to format documents. Currently, the agency has 20 COPs. Some have external members and extranet modules for their team software, whereas some are strictly external and the KM Office plays a coordinating role. In that case, they are using an open source software. Some of these “external” members for 38 which VDOT plays a coordinating role do include agency people. Most meet face-to-face several times a year. These COPs affect procedures, policies, and contracts. They create new knowledge. The KM officer’s role is to take decisions that the individual COPs make to a higher decision-making body for a hearing and possible acceptance agency-wide. That is the basic process by which the “prod- ucts” of the COPs are embedded into VDOT practices. Dr. Hammer remarked that each COP is different, and each hearing is different as well. All have their own individual outcomes. The KM Office also does knowledge mapping, which is especially important given the number of eligible retirees. They use interviews, audio tapes, videotapes, and other elicit medium to pass on knowledge to the next generation. The managers identify critical knowledge and what must be cap- tured. They are using social network analysis, mapping how knowledge flows across the organization. This approach is based on networks. It is important not to disturb these net- works, which, although they are loose and relatively weak, are extremely important. They use UICNet software to do social analysis, through the University of Virginia, as an online data collection tool. Data are consolidated, there is some graphic display, and people are tagged with identifiers, as well as documents. The intent is that one can go on the intranet and pull together policies, procedures and other doc- uments, as well as people and their expertise. Dr. Hammer discussed the role of the library in the KM process. As a trained librarian herself, she noted the impor- tance of professional librarian skills in creating and applying taxonomies, indexing, organizing vast amounts of resources (“the huge outflow” as she put it), collecting important doc- uments, pulling external knowledge into the organization in an organized manner, retrieving explicit resources, and cre- ating hardcopy and virtual collections. The VDOT Knowledge Office is staffed with individuals trained in library science, organizational development, man- agement, and change management. It has 2.5 professional librarians with Master of Library Science degrees, 2 FTE cler- ical support, and 3 project managers, including an engineer, a former auditor, and a PhD in education with special skill in process mapping. Although there are no IT staff in the office, Dr. Hammer and the IT manager report to the same chief in CHAPTER NINE TRANSPORTATION CASE STUDIES

39 the same directorate, and are on the same level, which gives her a good partnership. The VDOT KM program has in its staff a variety of professional skills, all of which are utilized to pull the program together. She believes that she is at a suf- ficient organizational level to gain entry to decision makers and implement her programs. Although the CEO who initiated the KM Office has left, the program has been sustained under a new administration. After 2.5 years of operation (as of May 2006), it enjoys the support of senior leadership. As yet, KM practices are not part of the formal VDOT employee performance evaluation; however, she reported that there is not a problem with hoard- ing or a lack of cooperation. They do have recognition awards, and outstanding performance does win praise from the commissioners. In the near-term, she hopes to focus more on the promis- ing practice of social network analysis. It offers a snapshot in time and she hopes to get it firmly established. She wants to know: Who is isolated? Who needs help getting integrated? She wants more COPs to spin off and function well on their own, with help from her office. She herself is very aware of what is going on in the organization—she remarked that the office functions as “KM Hub Central.” At present, they are revamping the new-hire orientation process to incorporate KM processes. She remarked that Virginia is the third largest DOT, in terms of miles of roads, surpassed only by Texas and California. If Virginia can use KM effectively, she believes that smaller states can as well. She reported that the existing networks among employees broke down in the 1990s, owing to budget cuts reducing travel, and communication technolo- gies were implemented. Therefore, employees did not know their counterparts. Now the value of face-to-face contact is recognized, and more travel money is available as the COPs become more effective. They had to demonstrate real value. The challenges include not enough staff to support all the needs and the need to get the COPs to be self-sufficient. They are training participants in the various techniques and technologies and spinning them off as they become strong enough to function on their own. MARYLAND STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION Jeffrey N. Withee, Soils Aggregate Technology Chief, Office of Materials and Technology, was interviewed on May 16, 2006. The Maryland State Highway Administration was selected because its KM program is in the start-up phase. Mr. Withee reported that he is a participant in a two-year class sponsored by the Maryland State Highway Adminis- tration in advanced leadership planning and development. The class of seven was required to do a project together that would benefit the entire agency. They decided to investigate KM as a potential business process for the agency. With retirements looming the need was perceived by the adminis- tration, which approved the project. The class surveyed other organizations, including FHWA, VDOT, the World Bank, APQC, and others. They also studied their own organization and found pockets of KM activity; therefore, it was not new, but the class perceived the need for KM to be more formal- ized and focused. The class developed a strategic plan and a phased imple- mentation guide, both of which have also been approved. • Phase 1 includes a KM pilot project lead by the class to support and enhance KM efforts already underway, measure the results, and apply best practices and lessons learned to the roadmap. • Phase 2 sees the agency starting to build a KM infra- structure, incorporating KM into its business plan, and initiating additional pilots. • Phase 3 includes conducting audits, incorporating KM needs into the IT strategic plan, continuing to build the KM structure, and deciding whether to commit to a comprehensive KM implementation and knowledge sharing culture. The strategic planning document discussed the signifi- cance of KM on work force planning. KM efforts will need to complement performance excellence initiatives, summa- rized as having a culture of knowledge sharing to achieve performance excellence. One of the goals is to retain knowl- edge when people leave and provide a continuity that facili- tates transfer of knowledge to replacement employees. Currently, the class is working on a pilot project with a particular group that has been meeting for a while to convert it into a formal COP. The goal is to maximize the transfer and retention of information. The class is also working with IT to develop a common support platform for KM efforts. Fund- ing is not assured at this time. The issue is scalability; the class would like a framework that will work as KM efforts are expanded. The class is also involved with discussions of staffing and where the KM effort should be housed, department-wise, on a permanent basis. What skills are needed? Are these skills currently available within the agency? Mr. Withee reported that some senior managers want to jump-start the process, because of the high number of retirements within their departments. There is pressure for rapid implementation; receptiveness is high. The class will start with the quick wins and easy successes to achieve buy in. Mr. Withee speculated that there might be a challenge for front-line supervisors to mid-level managers, because people may be taken out of pro- duction to focus on KM tasks. Because these departments are now losing staff, they are at a “pinch-point,” and already have to outsource. It is difficult to endure short-term pain for long-term gain. The class is currently assembling the overall framework. It is considering job descriptions and assignments. The class

will evaluate the pilot project and incorporate findings into the implementation guide. It will be the strong champion for KM. FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION During the course of the research, there were informal con- versations and sharing of informal documents with Mike Burk, Chief Knowledge Officer of FHWA. The FHWA KM program focuses on facilitating knowledge exchange both within FHWA and in the highway community. An early proj- ect was the “Rumble Strip Initiative,” started in 1998. A COP was formed. FHWA partnered with other organizations that assisted in establishing a framework for KM within FHWA’s existing culture, and in constructing and hosting a communi- cation tool for peer-to-peer exchange. The exchange capa- bilities included knowledge regarding rumble strips, com- munity resources such as web links, rumble strips providers, etc., and provided a communication tool. This early initiative evolved into a template for subsequent COP tools for han- dling discussions, references, works in progress, a directory of community members, and an e-mail subscription service. Other COPs evolved from that early initiative. Both qualita- tive and quantitative outcomes were measured. One piece of advice is that the communities themselves must “own” their communities; for example, selecting their own leadership, agendas, and goals. According to Mr. Burk, the FHWA KM initiative uses a balanced scorecard approach to assess progress in improving business results through better knowledge exchange. The balanced scorecard uses a qualitative and quantitative mix of measures. Other themes that emerged from our informal communi- cations were: • Focus on critical business areas. • Create web templates to facilitate fast implementation of new COPs. • Use technology as an enabler, not in a lead role. • Promote a culture in which knowledge sharing, as opposed to knowledge hoarding, is encouraged and rewarded. • Get senior level buy-in. • Focus on people. • Tie KM to corporate strategy. • Use tools to facilitate the capture of explicit knowledge for knowledge reuse. • Keep management in a supporting but not controlling role. • Recognize those that demonstrate an exemplary attitude for community and sharing. • Measure results to determine how KM practices affect business outcomes. • Move into a sustaining and evolving mode to match COP members’ ever-changing needs and business goals. 40 • Know the “knowledge transfer cycle: Create, Identify, Harvest, Filter & Organize, Share, Adapt, Use.” • Understand that the KM cycle starts with a people-to- people focus during which knowledge is discovered on the job through experiences, insights, and lessons learned. Next, the knowledge is demonstrated in local use, through methodologies, emerging best practices, and success stories. Finally, there must be the people- to-documents phase, in which the knowledge is estab- lished and is in widespread use, with a high degree of structure and approval. It is made explicit by being embedded in established policies, procedures, processes, data, and training. The whole cycle is unending because of constant change and new learnings. According to Mr. Burk, knowledge enables us to take action to produce positive results. He gave informal exam- ples, such as knowing when to use open-graded pavements to help with drainage problems or knowing which option to use when improving visibility—trim trees? Improve sig- nage? Install traffic devices? Note that the FHWA Knowledge Sharing Initiative has been recognized for its leadership, including receiving the APQC’s Best Practice Partner for Communities of Practice award. TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Based on procedural documents forwarded by the Texas DOT (TxDOT) and comments accompanying the returned survey, there is in TxDOT an example of a robust startup or pilot project that may lead to more extensive KM initiatives. A forensic pavement KM system (KMS) has been developed for the TxDOT. The Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas actually conducted the work. This KMS is the first within TxDOT and is expected to set the stage for applying KM principles throughout the organization. The scope of the project includes identifying sources of valu- able forensic pavement knowledge; developing methodology for capturing that knowledge through interviewing, systematic classification, and codification; transferring that content to the TxDOT Learning Content Management Systems; and mak- ing related forensic pavement data and information sources. It is expected to be a framework for maintaining and sys- tematically updating KMS content, and for marketing this pilot system throughout TxDOT’s pavement community and beyond. The project will be a coordinated effort involv- ing expertise from the fields of forensic pavement analysis, library science, marketing, IT, and training. Although this report has focused for the most part on enterprise-wide KM programs, TxDOT’s program is noteworthy because it is a source of lessons learned about KM implementation. Also, it is trans-disciplinary in that a number of professionals have been purposefully brought together to meld their skills into this project. Although a more holistic approach is probably better, this is a good example of units doing KM work on a smaller scale.

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TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 365: Preserving and Using Institutional Memory through Knowledge Management Practices explores practices regarding the preservation and use of institutional memory through the knowledge management practices of United States and Canadian transportation agencies. The report examines practices for the effective organization, management, and transmission of materials, knowledge, and resources that are in the unique possession of individual offices and employees.

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