Brokering Knowledge Isn’t Enough (Video)

Video produced by Steve Nathans-Kelly

At KMWorld 2019, Adriaan Jooste, Deloitte chief knowledge officer, explained why and how the role of knowledge managers has expanded beyond the traditional function of knowledge brokerage.

Today, knowledge brokers have got to have more capabilities, said Jooste. "One is you've got to deliver the knowledge to people before they even know they need it. We have sensing algorithms. We have tools that watch when people open a new project code and we ship them stuff. We say you need that. We have all kinds of stuff that tells us you should know that your client has just attended a Deloitte webinar. You'd better reach out to them, connect in, see if they need any help. You should know that your client is connected with these people in Deloitte and so you should possibly connect with them and find out what they're all doing. So, we're pushing stuff to people. That's part of one of the knowledge broker exercise."

The second one is that they still need websites and shared spaces. "You know, especially in our organization where we're adding twenty, thirty, forty thousand people. You need to replace people who can go to find stuff. So websites don't go away. The librarian curator role does not go away. You do need that. But, what you really need it for is to feed the other two systems. And then the third system, we call it D-Flow--Deloitte workflow--the idea is to put the knowledge where people do the work. Right now, in most knowledge management, you go over here and you check out a website and then you go over here and you do your work. Whether that's a SharePoint site or One-Drive or Slack or whatever it is they're separate. We put the two together. You get provision with the D-Flow site when you're doing a pursuit and it comes preloaded with all the stuff you need to in the work."

In additon, there are two kinds of knowledge in this, he said. "One is knowledge about process, so basically how do you do this kind of project? I'm being asked to do a cyber-threat analysis. Generally, how do I do it? So, that's a Chevron model and shows the faces. And then, there's knowledge in process. So, I have done the initial assessment using the cyber-strategy framework."

What's next? asked Jooste. "Well, you print out the results and here's how you discuss each result with the client. And here's the ones you discuss with the CSO and here are the ones you discuss with members of his or her team. So, we provide both of those kinds of knowledge. Knowledge about process, the knowledge in process. You have to do that because otherwise you can't get solid metrics on the value you're adding."

Videos of KMWorld 2019 awards presentations, keynotes, and many sessions can be found here.

Many speakers at KMWorld 2019 have also made their presentations available at www.kmworld.com/Conference/2019/Presentations.aspx.

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