Knowledge sharing supports the military's mission

After having used Metastorm (now OpenText), a BPM solution, and ProVision, a modeling tool acquired by Meta-storm, to implement the project management system, Chaney began looking for other opportunities to automate business processes. "Modeling is a good first step for business process improvement because you can understand the processes better and communicate about them." Given the increased emphasis on governance and accountability, Chaney saw a lot of potential for the use of BPM in the Air Force. "BPM lets an organization audit, collect metrics and compile performance data," he says. "In addition, BPM provides a means to do simulations to compare different workflows."

The services and DoD are aware of knowledge management but in some cases need to be convinced of its enduring value. As the understanding of the discipline increases and the enabling technology improves, opportunities for its application are likely to increase as well.

Obstacles to KM, and learning to solve them

Many organizations both in the public and private sectors are quick to acknowledge that they are "knowledge organizations" and that their workers are "knowledge workers." However, few appear to be comfortable with saying they practice knowledge management. Perhaps that is because the term has so many possible meanings; for some, it means a collaborative environment, for others, a document repository or an automated workflow.

In a 2010 study on management barriers to KM in the military (see http://aisel.aisnet.org/sais2011/23), researchers found that individuals leading KM efforts encountered two primary obstacles. One was a perception that knowledge management was either a fad or an IT project, and the other was a lack of terminology to describe KM concepts to those who were not familiar with KM. Since only a small percent of individuals in any work force have had training in KM, the lack of a common understanding is not surprising, but it does present significant difficulties in achieving buy-in for such projects.

Learning some basic KM principles can help those in the role of knowledge manager convey the scope of the discipline and its value. "People do not have a sense of what KM is about," says Douglas Weidner, chairman of the KM Institute, which offers training in KM and has done extensive training in the U.S. military. Students learn about various strategic initiatives, such as the "lessons learned management process" (LLMP), also dubbed "learn before, during and after."

"If your organization carries out complex projects or exercises that have enough similarities to provide comparisons," says Weidner, "then the LLMP probably provides substantial benefits. The U.S. military invented after-action reviews, the precursor to the LLMP."

The military almost universally applies variations of the LLMP technique for training exercises, according to Weidner, but much less often for operations that have repeatable, complex projects. In the ‘learn after' stage, practitioners compare the intended outcome of a project with what actually occurred, and discover the gaps. In going through that retrospective process, they identify ‘knowledge nuggets' that can make a difference in the next project.

Another KM process, the best practice management process (BPMP), compares practices across similar activities to see why one location excels and another is marginal. "Research shows that there are invariably major disparities between one operation or location and another," Weidner explains. "In fact, the best operation can be often twice as good as the worst. At the Ford Motor Company, for example, researchers found a fivefold difference, at the granular level, between the best performance and the worst in different production plants."

In the military context, he notes that great disparities are found in the performance of the 54 National Guard units. "Commanders know there are typically great differences between their best and worst units," Weidner says. "The BPMP provides a proven process not only to bring the worst up to the best, but in doing so, to make the best even better. LLMP and BPMP are just two of the many types of strategic KM initiatives."

Students learn to identify some short-term tactical KM projects that they can implement for quick wins and a persuasive demonstration of ROI, along with strategic changes that may take years to fully implement. Weidner cites the need for basic IT infrastructure as an enabler for some projects, but encourages his students not to get preoccupied with technology. "Most of the challenge lies in change management," he says.