1. Step 3: Create and Iterate
The goal of Step 3 in the Knowledge Management Road Map is to develop new or tailor existing KM tools and techniques to facilitate information sharing and use to help you achieve the objectives you set forth in your KM strategy.
We find that people spend a great deal of time on this step, largely because of the iterative nature of creating the KM tools and techniques and obtaining feedback from key stakeholders and end users. As with the entire Knowledge Management Road Map, this step is not done in isolation from others, but rather overlaps with other steps. For example, you may design your initial strategy in Step 2 and begin to create KM tools and techniques to realize that strategy in Step 3. But once you receive feedback about those tools and techniques, you may decide you need to adjust your strategy to account for new factors. Similarly, you may launch a beta version of your KM tool, monitor its usage as described in Step 4: Mobilize and Monitor, and use the monitoring data to inform the next iteration of your tool.

2. Key Tasks and Outputs Tasks: Identify your KM team
Draft the KM tools and techniques
Test or gather feedback, revise, and retest
Finalize the KM tools and techniques
Ouput:
KM tools and techniques ready for dissemination or implementation
There is no single blueprint for creating KM tools and techniques, because each tool and technique has its own specific workflows and needs, and may require different teams to be involved. For example, the author of a print publication likely has to go through many rounds of revisions and edits before working with a graphic designer to lay it out into final format. The organizer of a knowledge café, on the other hand, has to interact with many different stakeholders as she selects a location and venue, develops the agenda, reaches out to potential presenters, and invites participants. We have found it helpful, however, to think through the following key tasks regardless what type of KM tool or technique you are developing (refer to bullets on the slide).

3. Step 3.1. Identify Your KM team
Identifying the people with the skill sets you need for your KM team is a critical step in the process of developing your KM tools and techniques. Let’s take a look at what your KM team might look like.

4. Many Types of People Can Be on Your KM Team
Subject matter experts
Writers and editors
Research assistants
Communications team
ICT staff
Graphic designers
Meeting facilitators
Project managers
Most often, an interdisciplinary set of skills is needed to give a team the range of expertise they need to do the job well, but exactly what those skills are depends on what types of KM tools and techniques you are developing. Common skill sets for KM activities include:
Subject matter experts who can ensure the accuracy of the content developed for your KM tools and techniques
Writers and editors who are primarily responsible for developing the content of your KM tools and techniques
Research assistants who provide support to writers and subject-matter experts by gathering information and data and assisting with producing initial drafts of selected content
Communications team who help with promoting and disseminating the KM tools and techniques to the intended audience
ICT (information and communication technology) staff with the necessary technical skills to develop digital products, such as websites and mobile apps
Graphic designers who create visuals and layouts for both print and digital products
Librarians who assist with conducting literature reviews and organizing and structuring information
Meeting facilitators who have skills in planning agendas, arranging logistics, and engaging participants in active discussion for various KM techniques, such as conferences, knowledge cafés, meetings, and webinars
Project managers who can provide leadership to the team, communicate with all team members, coordinate and delegate various tasks, ensure adherence to timelines, and resolve any conflicts that might arise
Keep in mind that some projects or organization won’t necessarily have the internal capacity for all these skills. Sometimes it can be more efficient and effective to outsource defined tasks, such as graphic design or web development, rather than try to develop those skills in-house.
In the Step 4 training session, we’ll participate in an activity that will allow participants to reflect on these skills and competencies and allow you to identify areas where you would like to grow.
(At this point, the presenter may also want to display the sample skills matrix that is included in the Step 3 module.)

5. Step 3.2. Draft the KM tools and techniques
Now is the fun part where you start to develop the KM tools and techniques that will help people to share and use the knowledge they need to do their jobs effectively and efficiently! Keep in mind that developing KM tools and techniques that appeal to everyone is nearly impossible. Instead, refer back to the key audiences you identified in Step 2: Design Strategy, and focus on meeting the major needs of these most important groups.
Let’s take a closer look at the possible KM tools and techniques that you could develop.

6. KM Tools and Techniques Matrix
This matrix illustrates that KM tools and techniques fall on both a Collect–Connect continuum and a Push–Pull continuum. Some KM tools and techniques focus on collecting information—perhaps the most obvious examples are databases and libraries—while others emphasize connecting people to that information, such as workshops and webinars. Similarly, you can think of some KM tools and techniques as pushing information to people, such as news releases and publications, while others provide people with tools so they can pull the information themselves, for example, website search tools. These two continuums create a matrix in which KM tools and techniques can be thought of in terms of the broad approaches they use in the KM cycle to generate, capture, and share knowledge:
Asking approaches, which can be helpful for eliciting tacit knowledge
Telling approaches are useful for conveying knowledge to defined groups of people
Publishing approaches are efficient tools for sharing explicit knowledge with large groups of people
Searching approaches allow people to pull the information they need, when they need it
Be sure to keep in mind the needs of your program while determining what type of KM tool or technique will be best. We’ll delve into some more specific examples in the next slides.

7. Explicit vs. Tacit Knowledge
Explicit: knowledge that is in a form that can be stored and shared with others in things like databases or publications
Example: Training guide can describe the basic steps in inserting an intrauterine device (IUD)
Tacit: people’s experiences and know-how—hard to extract and share
Example: To gain competency in IUD insertion, trainee must have hands-on practice
Before we go into more specific details about each quadrant of the KM tools and techniques matrix, it will be helpful to explain the 2 main types of knowledge: tacit and explicit.
Explicit knowledge is in a format that can be stored and shared with others, such as in databases or publications.
Tacit knowledge is information that is in people’s heads, for example, their experiences and know-how.
For example, a written training guide can describe the basic steps for inserting an IUD (explicit knowledge), and can even help readers visualize those steps with illustrations. But for a trainee to gain competency in IUD insertion, the trainee must practice under direct supervision to learn hands-on the actual techniques for IUD insertion, for example, how to assess—through touch and feel— whether an IUD is inserted high enough into the fundus of the uterus (tacit knowledge).
Some KM tools, particularly those that facilitate connections between people, such as knowledge cafés, peer assists, trainings, and even meetings, are better at capturing, organizing, and/or sharing tacit knowledge, whereas others work well with explicit knowledge, such as codifying guidelines in print publications.

8. Asking
Now, we can go back to the matrix and delve into some more specific details. Let’s first look at the top half of the matrix: Asking and Telling.
KM tools and techniques that use Asking and Telling approaches focus more on establishing connections between people and engaging them in conversations to help facilitate knowledge exchange, which is particularly helpful in eliciting tacit knowledge—the “know how” that is in people’s heads. As such, many, but not necessarily all, of these KM tools and techniques entail hosting participatory events or meetings to promote learning.

9. Asking
Examples of ASKING approaches include knowledge cafés, peer assists, and other types of events and meetings. They also include online or face-to-face communities of practice. They give people a chance to interact directly with each other, probe for specific information, and exchange information using both verbal and nonverbal cues.

10. Asking
Systems, processes, or behaviors that support people to seek knowledge from other people
One of the most effective ways to transfer knowledge
Quick and allows for back and forth
For example, many doctors will say they “ask a colleague” if they are looking for information vs. looking up the information in a text book.

11. Examples of Asking Approaches
After-action reviews
Coaching
Communities of practice
Focus group discussions
Interviews
Peer assists
Study tours
Etc.
You might not necessarily think of some of these approaches as “KM” approaches. For example, interviews and focus group discussions are also research methods, and coaching is often thought of as a training method. Because KM draws on other disciplines, it also makes use of these methods for the purpose of eliciting and/or sharing knowledge. For example, interviewing is a KM method when used to identify from one knowledgeable expert how she does a certain aspect of her job so that that know-how can then be shared with other staff members or codified into a procedural guide.
You may not be as familiar with some of these other tools and techniques. For example:
After-action reviews are structured debriefs, usually in the form of a meeting, for project teams to reflect on an event or task they have just accomplished and analyze what happened, why, what worked well, and what can be done better in the future.
Peer assists are facilitated events in which peers with relevant experience share their knowledge and experience with a person or team that has requested help on a specific problem or activity.
Communities of practice can be either online or face-to-face, and often they use a combination of both approaches. They are an excellent way to maintain sustained conversation around mutual topics of interest among like-minded individuals and groups.
(If any of these particular KM methods are of interest to the presenter and/or relevant to the participants, the presenter may want to delve into more details about how to implement those methods. As of December 2017, the KM Training Package for Global Health Programs included a module specifically on Communities of Practice, which can be added to your training workshop. More modules on additional types of KM tools and techniques will be added to the KM Training Package over time.)

12. Examples of Global/Regional Asking Approaches
Global Health Knowledge Collaborative
East Africa Share Fair: Knowledge Exchange to Accelerate Progress Toward FP2020’s Goal
After-action review by the East, Central and Southern Africa- Health Community (ECSA-HC) for the 62nd Health Ministers Conference
(Presenter should feel free to replace these global/regional eamples on this slide and the upcoming slides with their own local, relevant examples.)
The Global Health Knowledge Collaborative, or GHKC, is an online and face-to-face community of practice of KM professionals. Communities of practice are an excellent way to maintain sustained conversation around mutual topics of interest.
The East Africa Share Fair brought together 50 representatives from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the United States, and Zambia to share ideas for future collaboration in family planning; the share fair featured panel presentations, breakout sessions, knowledge cafés, and discussions
ECSA-HC conducted an after-action review after their 62nd conference to explore ways the annual conference could be better organized and could bring more value to stakeholders.
(When the presenter is in slide show mode, the links on the slides will be activated: click on the link to find more information about each of these examples.)

13. Telling
Telling Approaches are useful for conveying knowledge to defined groups of people. As with ASKING Approaches, Telling Approaches bring people together, but Asking Approaches focus more on eliciting knowledge from the participants. But there is still room for people to ask questions of the “experts” within Telling Approaches. The line between Asking and Telling approaches is not always so distinct. Some specific tools/techniques could fall under both of these quadrants: for example, Share Fairs are listed under the Asking quadrant in the figure, but it could also be considered an approach to “Tell” people about specific types of knowledge, lessons learned, etc.

14. Telling
Common examples of TELLING approaches include conferences, webinars, and workshops.

15. Telling
Systems, processes, behaviors that support people to share their knowledge directly with other people
A person or group pushes out information they think would be helpful to the members of their
“community”

16. Examples of Telling Approaches
Brownbags
Conferences (face-to-face or videoconferencing)
Meetings
Podcasts
Storytelling
Teaching/lecturing
Webinars
Workshops
Your meetings probably already are a useful KM technique to help share information across your staff and partners. You can make them even more useful by asking the right questions. For example, instead of having simple report-outs or progress updates, whereby most people usually focus on the positive aspects of the activity in question, ask your staff/colleagues: What’s working well? What’s not working well? What can we do to improve?
Video conferences are similar to face-to-face meetings in that they allow real-time communication, but they do require a reliable Internet connection and some degree of comfort with technology.
Storytelling can be a powerful KM tool to change people’s perceptions or to persuade people to take action, not just to entertain people. A compelling story can persuade people by weaving in data with a human-interest story to arouse people’s emotions. Stories can be conveyed orally (face-to-face or through videos) or through written text.
Conferences are a prime example of TELLING approaches. However, there can be additional KM elements within the conference. For example, the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception (EC) held a side event prior to start of conference, where participants shared experiences about expanding access to EC in several Asian countries; updates on community-based distribution of EC; new research, tools, and updates about EC; and how to use a new toolkit to build demand for EC.

17. Examples of Global/Regional Telling Approaches
MEASURE Evaluation webinar recordings
Moving the Needle annual learning event (conference)
FP Voices, a storytelling platform that shares stories from people who are passionate about family planing
MEASURE Evaluation regularly hosts webinars on topics related to monitoring and evaluation, health information systems, and data use. Hosting webinars and archiving the recordings is a good way to convene participants and facilitate a conversation around a specific topic.
The Moving the Needle annual conference, or learning event, hosted by the USAID LEARN project, convenes USAID staff and implementing partners around practical examples of collaborating, learning, and adapting in USAID programs and operations.
FP Voices aims to document and share stories from individuals around the world who are passionate about family planning. Produced by K4Health, FP2020, and other partners.

18. Publishing
Now let’s take a look at the bottom half of the matrix: PUBLISHING and SEARCHING. KM tools and techniques that use Publishing and Searching approaches work well for collecting and packaging explicit knowledge to share with others. Publishing approaches in particular are efficient tools for collecting and packaging explicit knowledge to share with large groups of people.

19. Publishing
Systems, processes, behaviors that support people to contribute their knowledge in formats that others can access
We are always discovering new ways of understanding a problem and different approaches for addressing it, leading to the creation of new content and tools to contribute to the field.
Publishing Approaches are usually thought of in print format, but they can also be in electronic format as well.
Throughout the process of capturing and synthesizing existing knowledge, we discover new ways of understanding a problem and different approaches for addressing it, leading to the creation of new content and tools to contribute to the field.

20. Examples of Publishing Products
Blogging
eLearning courses
Intranets
Websites
Policy briefs
Fact sheets
Guides
Handbooks
Journal articles
Etc.
There are a host of publishing examples, and we’ve listed only a few here. Newer types of media include data visualizations, infographics, animation videos, etc.

21. Global Publishing Examples
Global Health eLearning Center, a distance learning platform that provides free, self-paced Internet-based courses on a wide range of global health topics.
Global Health: Science and Practice, an open-access, peer-reviewed online journal aiming to improve health practice in low- and middle-income countries by focusing on “how” global health programs are implemented.
Do You Know Your Family Planning Choices? wall chart, often referred to as the Family Planning Wall Chart or the “Tiahrt” Chart, contains information about specific contraceptive methods and is intended for health care providers to use as a reminder for themselves and as an education tool for their clients

22. Global Publishing Examples (continued)
Family Planning: A Key to Unlocking the Sustainable Development Goals animation video illustrates how and why family planning is vital to our ability to meet global development challenges, from reducing poverty to slowing climate change to preventing civil unrest.
Fast Facts From the Tanzania DHS-MIS data visualization from the Demographic and Health Surveys program visually illustrates key findings from the country’s population-based survey.

23. Searching
Searching approaches also collect information into an accessible format, but rather than pushing the information out to people as with Publishing approaches, Searching approaches allow people to pull the information they need, when they need it.

24. Searching
Systems, processes, behaviors that support people to search for the knowledge they need, when they need it
Often online, but also in physical media collections/libraries
An example includes specialized search engines, but Searching approaches can also encompass physical spaces, like a resource center or library.

25. Examples of Global Searching Products
POPLINE thesaurus of keywords used to index POPLINE documents is a taxonomy with the terms defined.
Photoshare online database, a leading source of public health and development photographs, free for nonprofit and educational use; with Simple and Advanced Search options.
Search filters on the
Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition
and Family Planning (MIYCN-FP) Integration
Toolkit
POPLINE is an online database containing the world’s most comprehensive collection of population, family planning, and related health and development literature.
Photoshare provides a simple search button that persists on each page of the website, as well as an advanced search option for users who want to limit their search by photo orientation, resolution, and year.
Search filters help users find specific types of resources of interest. The MIYCN-FP Integration Toolkit includes search filters for language, year of publication, and publisher.

26. Searching: Taxonomy
A Taxonomy is a structured set of keywords used to index a collection. This screenshot is from POPLINE an online database containing the world’s most comprehensive collection of population, family planning, and related health and development literature.
POPLINE’s thousands of keywords are organized into a logical structure to help categorize more than 380,000 bibliographic records. Users can find documents in POPLINE through the taxonomy, through individual keyword searches, or through complex advanced searches combining multiple terms

27. Searching: Browsing
Some types of collections—particularly visual collections—are easier to search through a browsing function.
Photoshare online database, a leading source of public health and development photographs, free for nonprofit and educational use.
Since many users are graphic designers and photographers—people who tend to communicate visually—Photoshare includes Browse as a feature along with simple and advanced search.

28. Search: Faceted Filtered
These are two examples of faceted search—in which every item in a collection is classified according to various qualities, and then those qualities (or facets) are shown onscreen so users can drill down to the content that interests them.
The first example shows the facets used on the Health Compass, an online collection of health communication tools and materials.
The High Impact Practices in Family Planning website uses search filters to allow users to drill down to a specific category of its collection of briefs.

29. Complementary KM Approaches
Taken together, these different KM Approaches—ASKING, TELLING, PUBLISHING, and SEARCHING—complement each other. Effective KM strategies will often use multiple KM tools and techniques across the two continuums. Furthermore, some specific KM tools and techniques can straddle different sides of each continuum depending on how they are used, and thus don’t fit neatly within one sole quadrant. For example:
A share fair blends Asking and Telling approaches, providing participants with opportunities to share their experiences with each other while they learn new skills and techniques.
Digital health or mHealth products are another obvious example: supervisors can use mobile devices to push information to health workers (in the form of text messages, for example) while the health workers can simultaneously use that same platform to ask their supervisor for advice (via a voice call) or to search for needed information (through a preloaded database).
In the upcoming session, we will focus on the next critical task in Step 3, which is to test the product or gather feedback on your KM tools and techniques early in the development phase, revise the tool/technique, and retest to make sure you have fixed any “problems” before launching the tool or executing the technique.
But first, we’re going to move into an exercise to further explore the KM Tools and Techniques Matrix.
Note to trainer: if you are implementing the sample 5-day agenda included in the Training Package, then after the Exercise, you will want to move into the specific KM Approaches modules (e.g., module on Share Fairs or Communities of Practice, etc.) before going into the Testing and Feedback module in Step 3.