Strategic Knowledge Management for M&E Teams Workshop Leah D. Gordon Knowledge Management Specialist MEASURE Evaluation

Objectives  To gain a fundamental understanding of knowledge management principles and discover ways to integrate knowledge management into routine operations.  Develop a clear structure for disseminating and promoting the use of information generated from research and evaluation studies.  Appreciate difference between knowledge and information.  Common tools and approaches to knowledge management of M&E systems.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

What is knowledge management?

“Getting the right information, to the right people at the right time.” “Linking what we do with what we need to know.”

Why manage knowledge?

To meet the challenge of connecting people, working smarter and getting results.

TRANSLATING DATA INTO KNOWLEDGE

DATA INFORMATION KNOWLEDGE

PEOPLE PROCESS TECHNOLGY

Explicit & Tacit Knowledge Explicit  Articulated and codified knowledge stored in media. Tacit  Knowledge that is difficult to transfer by means of writing or codifying.

MANAGING KNOWLEDGE

NACA Mission To provide an enabling policy environment and stable ongoing facilitation of proactive multi sectoral planning, coordinated implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all HIV/AIDS prevention and impact mitigation activities in Nigeria.

Turning Research into Action Types of learning – 1.Cognitive involves comprehension, critical skills, procedural patterns and concepts. 2.Affective involves the way people react emotionally, values, empathy, motivation and attitude. 3.Psychomotor involves change or development in behavior or skills.

Cognitive learning 1. KNOWLEDGE 2. COMPREHENSION 3. APPLICATION 4. ANALYSIS 5. SYNTHESIS 6. EVALUATION

Cognitive learning 1. KNOWLEDGE 2. COMPREHENSION 3. APPLICATION 4. ANALYSIS 5. SYNTHESIS 6. EVALUATION

Sourcing Knowledge Where is the knowledge? Who has it?

Citing References 1.Use proper titles, names 2.Citing helps readers and users reference source 3.Helps establish your credibility as an information source

THE KNOWLEDGE AUDIT

Knowledge Audit In order to solve the targeted problem, what knowledge do I have, what knowledge is missing, who needs this knowledge an d how will they use the knowledge?

Knowledge Audit Step 1: Identify what knowledge currently exists.

Knowledge Audit Step 1: Identify what knowledge currently exists. Step 2: Identify and locate explicit and tacit knowledge in the targeted area.

Knowledge Audit Step 1: Identify what knowledge currently exists. Step 2: Identify and locate explicit and tacit knowledge in the targeted area. Step 3: Provide recommendations from the knowledge audit to management – address status quo and possible improvements to the KM activities in the targeted area.

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

What is a Community of Practice?  A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Etienne Wenger

What is a community of practice?  A central principle of Knowledge Management is that organizations can best foster the capture and exchange of knowledge through CoPs – networks of people that identify issues, share approaches and make the results available to others.

What CoPs Do  Problem solving  Requests for information  Seeking experience  Reusing assets  Coordination and synergy  Discussing developments  Documentation projects  Visits  Mapping knowledge and identifying gaps Wenger, Home page

The CoP Life Cycle

Ways that COPs Create Value  Immediate value: Activities and interactions  Potential value: Knowledge capital  Applied value: Changes in practice  Realized value: Performance improvement  Reframing value: Redefining success Wenger, Trayner and de Latt,

Measuring Value of COPs  Immediate value: What happened?  Potential value: What was produced?  Applied value: What difference did it make?  Realized value: Did it change our ability to achieve what matters?  Reframing value: Has it changed the understanding of what matters?

Functional CoP Roles  Executive sponsor: Nurture and provide top-level recognition for the community while insuring its exposure, support, and strategic importance in the organizations.  Leader/facilitator/moderator: Provide the overall guidance and management needed to build and maintain the community, its relevance and strategic importance in the organization, and its level of visibility among stakeholders.  Content manager: Search, retrieve and respond to direct requests for the community’s knowledge and content.

Functional CoP Roles  Events coordinator: coordinate, organize and plan community events or activities.  Communications: Developing the communications and outreach plan and lead in providing the ongoing unidirectional communication with the CoP.  Reporter: identifying, capturing, and editing relevant knowledge, best practices, new approaches and lessons learned into documents  Education and skill development: The lead on coordinating the education and skill development activities, workshops, and content.

Types of Leadership in COPs  inspirational  day-to-day  classificatory  interpersonal  institutional  cutting-edge Wenger, COPS: Learning as a Social System

Community Communication Strategy How the community communicates with its stakeholders.

Review: How have we communicated in the past? How effective has that been? How do audiences perceive the network?

Objective: What do we want to achieve?

Audience: Who is our audience? Do we have a primary and secondary audience? What information do they need to act upon our work?

Message: What is our message? Do we have one message for multiple audiences or multiple messages for multiple audiences?

Tools: What kinds of communication “tool” will best capture and deliver the message?

Channels: What channels will be used to promote and disseminate products and information?

Resources: What kind of budget do we have? Will this change in the future? What communication skills do we have?

Timing: What is our timeline? Would a staged strategy be most appropriate? What special events or opportunities might arise?

Brand: Are the communication products “on brand”? Are we broadcasting the right messages?

Feedback: How will we know our communication strategy is successful? What will have changed? How can we assess whether we had any influence?

HOW TO IDENTIFY BEST PRACTICES

Characteristics of a Best Practice 1.Innovative and/or an improvement and/or set a precedent. 2.Makes a difference and there is evidence of positive impact. 3.Has a sustainable effect on the intended audience. 4.Has potential for replication.

How to find best practices Ask the following to identify best practices 1.What did we set out to do? 2.What did we actually achieve? 3.What went well? 4.What could have gone better?

COMMUNICATION TOOLS THAT SUPPORT KM

Sources: Print Media  Periodicals  Journal articles  Books  Case studies  Fact sheets  Briefs

Sources: Electronic Media  Television news reports  Radio  Documentaries/Film

Sources: Social Media  Blogs  Twitter  LinkedIn  YouTube

Knowledge Management Strategy  Identify your audience  Rationale  Strategy – People, Process, Technology  Lines of Action  Monitoring and evaluation

USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO PRACTICE KM

Questions? Hands on social media experience

WRAP UP

MEASURE Evaluation is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partnership with Futures Group International, ICF International, John Snow, Inc., Management Sciences for Health, and Tulane University. Views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. government. MEASURE Evaluation is the USAID Global Health Bureau's primary vehicle for supporting improvements in monitoring and evaluation in population, health and nutrition worldwide.