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www.salga.org.za
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
CHAMPIONS TRAINING WORKSHOP
Presentation to the West Rand District and Local
Municipalities, 20 November 2013
www.salga.org.za
PRESENTATION
OVERVIEW
1.
2.
3.
4.
About SALGA
What is Knowledge?
What is Knowledge Management?
Why Knowledge Management for the Local
Government Sector?
5. Knowledge Management Champions
6. KM Toolkit / Publication
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www.salga.org.za
BACKGROUND

The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) is the sole
representative voice of Local Government, constitutionally recognised and
referred to as Organised Local Government. There isn’t another institution like
SALGA in the country and there are not many with such Constitutional backing or
mandate on the continent nor the world.

SALGA is recognized and entrenched in the Constitution and legislation (i.e.
Organised Local Government Act, Municipal Systems Act, White Paper for Local
Government and the IGR Framework).

SALGA is Local Government leadership because SALGA leadership (NEC) is
democratically elected into power by the leadership of 278 municipalities, with
the mandate to represent, advocate and speak on their behalf in the highest
offices of the country. Organised Local Government ensures municipal
participation in the system of IGR by articulating municipal interests and
coordinating their policies and programmes with those of the other spheres.
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SALGA MANDATE
SALGA
Mandate
Transform local
government to
enable it to fulfil
its
developmental
mandate.
Lobby,
Advocate &
Represent
Lobby, advocate,
protect and
represent the
interest of local
government at
relevant
structures and
platforms.
Employer
Body
Act as an
employer body
representing all
municipal
members and, by
agreement,
associate
members.
Support &
Advice
Capacity
Building
Build the capacity
of the municipality
as an institution as
well as leadership
and technical
capacity of both
Councillors and
Officials.
Support and
advise our
members on a
range of issues
to assist
effective
execution of
their mandate.
The Voice of Local Government
Strategic
Profiling
Build the profile
and image of
local government
within South
Africa as well as
outside the
country.
The Voice of Local Government
Knowledge
& Information
Sharing
Serve as the
custodian of local
government
intelligence and
the knowledge hub
and centre of local
government
intelligence for the
sector.
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STRATEGIC GOALS
2012-17
1. Local Government delivers equitable and sustainable services
2. Safe and healthy environment and communities
3. Coherent Planning and Socio-economic development at the local level
4. Effective and responsive Local Government that is accountable to
communities
5. Human Capital development in local government
6. Financial and organisationally capacitated municipalities
7. An effective and efficient administration
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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
www.salga.org.za
WE ALL HAVE KNOWLEDGE…..
How to drive a car
My sister’s
phone
number
Good place to
take my car for
servicing
Procedure for
reserving meeting
rooms
Procedure for
reserving meeting
rooms
How to develop a
Project Charter
How to develop a
strategy, business plan,
risk assessment etc.
Things to see in
Joburg
My first car, job, house,
wife, husband etc.
List of projects I am working on,
project charters, project updates,
contracts etc.
How to develop a
Project Charter
Who can assist me
with……………
Qualities that make a
good Leader
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KNOWLEDGE IS ………
• Knowledge is what we know:
– Facts & figures; Experience
– Ideas; Concepts, Theories
– Principles & practices - How things work around here
– How to’s
– Who know’s
– Where to go’s
– What happens if . . .
• Some of what we know is problematic
– untruths, misconceptions, prejudices
– lies, damn lies & statistics
– obsolete knowledge
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EXERCISE 1:
WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
• Make a list of some of your knowledge - include some
work related knowledge; add a column for knowledge
contained in your organization
• (05 Minutes)
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SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE
(NEW OR OLD)
• Mistakes - - practice
• Professional Sources / Experts
– Stuff that’s written down / recorded - books, magazines, journals,
manuals, web-sites, videos, audio recordings, etc.
– Presentations, lectures
– Direct conversation
• People you know
– Opinions
– Experience
– Their trial & error
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EXERCISE 2:
SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE
• What are the main sources of knowledge in your
organization?
• (05 Minutes)
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TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE
• Explicit Knowledge -
– written down / recorded
– Easily transferable, reusable
– Requires effort to keep up-to-date
• Tacit Knowledge
– In people’s heads
– Imbedded in large amounts of personal context
– Hard to make succinct / concise
– Rich, interconnected
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WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE USED FOR?
Knowledge Management is about USING what we know to:
– Perform a task
– Solve a problem
– Make a decision
– Create something new - innovate / invent / design
– Plan a course of action
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EXERCISE 3:
TACIT & EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE
• Go back to your list of knowledge from exercise 1, and
identify which knowledge is explicit and which is tacit.
• Which of the tacit knowledge would be particularly beneficial
to your organization or colleagues?
• (10 Minutes)
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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
WHEN SHARED
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WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?
Prior to defining Knowledge Management,
between Data, Information and Knowledge.
Data are raw facts and figures
that on their own have no
meaning.
These can be any
alphanumeric characters i.e. text,
numbers and symbols.
12
60 Years
5 Years
3
30 Years
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it is important to distinguish
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WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?
Information is processed data that is given
context in order to have meaning. Data needs
to be turned into meaningful information and
presented in its most useful format.
12
60 Years
5 Years
3
30 Years
In my Municipality there are 12 officials over
the age of 60 years that are due to retire within
the next 5 years; 3 of the 12 are experts in
floods and storm water management; LED &
Spatial Planning with over 30 years of
experience.
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WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?
Knowledge is reasoning, insight, experience related to products, customers,
processes, markets, competition and so on that enables effective action. Two
types of knowledge are, explicit and tacit knowledge.
Knowledge Management is a cross disciplinary practice which enables
organizations to improve the way they manage (create, adopt, validate, diffuse,
store and use) knowledge in order to attain their goals faster and more effectively
In my Municipality there are 12 officials over the age of 60 years that are due to
retire within the next 5 years; 3 of the 12 are experts in floods and storm water
management; LED & Spatial Planning with over 30 years of experience.
• Introduce a programme to capture the knowledge of retiring staff through:
• Document “how to” documents and guidelines
• Coaching and mentoring programmed
• Job Shadowing etc.
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WHY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT?
Challenges faced by the Local Government sector
(Source: LGTAS & AG Reports)
1. High turnover of technical & professional staff
2. Limited resources – requiring that risk & cost must be managed effectively to
provide the best development impact
3. In some cases – a strong dependence on consultants which often leaves the
municipalities in a position of having to consistently “re-purchase” advice and
intellectual property.
4. Inability in some municipalities to deliver on the core set of critical municipal
services.
5. Poor financial management e.g. negative audit outcomes
6. Corruption & fraud
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WHY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT?
Effective management of Municipal Knowledge and Information
Resources can assist the Municipality to:
1. Improve accountability through effective management of Municipal
information resources
2. Make informed decisions
3. Increase level of collaboration internally and externally
4. Enhance collaboration and strategic partnerships with stakeholders
5. Capture knowledge of retiring employees
6. Retention of the Municipality’s institutional memory;
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WHY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT?
SALGA therefore aims to:
Assist municipalities with Knowledge and Information Management programmes
(advocacy, strategy, processes or tools);
Support implementation of Knowledge and Information Management
programmes in municipalities
Share best practices and innovations of other municipalities (Paperless
administration – Newcastle Local Municipality)
Promote common Knowledge Management platforms for municipalities, in
particular a KM framework for local government and shared resources
(methodologies, toolkits, exemplars, etc.)
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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
CHAMPIONS
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WHAT IS A KNOWELDGE
CHAMPION?
• Knowledge Management Champions play an important advocacy and
change management role for Knowledge Management.
• They provide internal support in their departments, channel important
feedback from their departments to the KM team.
•
In some cases undertake specific KM-related duties ( host learning
events etc.)
• Knowledge Management Champions differ from Knowledge Managers
in that they play a part-time role.
• They are still required to meet their normal, full-time work obligations
and performance requirements.
• It is therefore important that they do not feel misused.
www.salga.org.za
WHAT IS A KNOWELDGE
CHAMPION?
There are three main areas where Knowledge Management Champions can
make important contributions to the implementation of KM in an
organization:
•
•
•
Advocacy – spreading the KM message
Support – acting as local departmental representatives for KM initiatives
Knowledge Brokering – linking their departmental colleagues to knowledge
and information resources outside their immediate context
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ATTRIBUTES OF KNOWLEDGE
CHAMPIONS
•
Have a positive and energetic outlook;
•
Be outcome oriented
•
Be flexible, adaptable and improvement oriented
•
Be knowledgeable about your business unit’s activities
•
Be helpful and approachable to your colleagues
•
Able to communicate effectively with peers, superiors and subordinates
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RESPOSIBILITES OF THE KM
DIRECTORTE / UNIT
•
Provide training to support new duties of Knowledge Management
Champions;
•
Hold sharing and communications sessions with Knowledge Management
Champions;
•
Encourage managers to provide encouragement, support and recognition to
the work of Knowledge Management Champions.
•
Gather and publicize stories of Knowledge Management Champions
contributions and successes;
•
Provide consistent planned messages; and
•
Communicate frequently and well.
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ROLES & RESPOSIBILITES OF
KM CHAMPIONS
•
Communicate KM messages from the KM Directorate / Unit within their
business units;
•
Provide feedback to the KM Directorate / Unit on usefulness/impact of KM
initiatives at department level;
•
Provide ideas and suggestions to the KM Directorate / Unit for new initiatives or
improvements;
•
Identify major knowledge and information needs in own department and share
them with the KM Directorate / Unit
•
Network with other Knowledge Management Champions;
•
Point colleagues in a helpful direction toward relevant resources or colleagues
on matters related to knowledge and information management.
•
Provide support to the KM Directorate / Unit in implementation of Knowledge
Management projects / initiatives.
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REFLECT ON EXPERIENCES OF
THE WRDM KM CHAMPIONs
1.
In reality, what is it that you do?
2.
What are some of your challenges?
3.
So far, what is your key achievements?
4.
What support do you need from your
–
Peers
–
Supervisors / Managers
–
KM Unit
–
The municipality
–
SALGA
www.salga.org.za
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
TOOLKIT
www.salga.org.za
KM TOOLKIT / PUBLICATION
• Capacity Building through Knowledge Management: a
toolkit for South African Municipalities
www.salga.org.za
IN CONCLUSION……
• Leadership and executive support plays a key role in ensuring the
success of KM; Nothing makes greater impact on an organization
than when leaders model the behaviour they are trying to
promote amongst employees;
• Listen - Listen to users, employees, managers; whoever we are
designing a KM initiative for; they will tell us how we can meet
their needs and have a successful KM initiative.
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THANK YOU….
Tell me, I'll forget, Show me, I may remember.
But involve me and I'll understand.
Lao Tzu ~600 BC