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E. Government-wide Initiatives
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The new world of e-Gov brings with it the excitement of creating a government that operates at Internet speed, and a government that collaborates across organizational and functional boundaries. This collaboration is alive and well in the Federal CIO Council Knowledge Management Working Group (KMWG) as it moves through its embryonic beginnings and emerges as an important cross-government catalyst for implementation of knowledge management.
The Federal KMWG was established to identify best practices in KM within and beyond Federal agencies; and encourage the dissemination of information related to the KM discipline. The KMWG has contributed to the development of KM resources via a number of government-wide initiatives undertaken to provide agencies with tools, resources, and best practices to improve mission performance and better connect to the citizen constituency.
An early KM Working Group resource, developed through brainstorming sessions with government and industry, discusses the role of a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) in public sector organizations. This work, facilitated through the National Defense University, also addresses the competencies that make a successful CKO and the important personal attributes that a CKO must bring to the job.
In December 2000, the KMWG invited industry and academic partners who have active KM certification programs to join government representatives in identifying criteria for a government-approved KM certification program. This eclectic group identified KM Learning Objectives important to KM certification, including necessary areas of competence, ways to facilitate the flow of information, and tools for implementation. The list also serves to define KM for the U.S. Government.
An important objective under the Federal CIO Council Strategic Plan (see Related Resources below) is to sponsor the creation of Communities of Practice within the Federal government. Communities add value by coordinating knowledge efforts across boundaries, solving problems more quickly, transferring best practices, developing professional skills, and creating new strategic opportunities. By bringing the right people together, regardless of where they are located, private and public sector organizations are seeing measurable results from these efforts. In response to the CIO Council strategic objective three Government-wide Communities of Practice Pilots were established.
A Federal guide to Knowledge Management — Managing Knowledge @ Work: An Overview of Knowledge Management (see Related Resources below), was developed through a Special Interest Group for KM Strategies and First Practices. The guide provides a succinct, conceptual foundation for KM and describes the ways organizations manage knowledge and issues they face implementing KM, and is supported by a Metrics Guide for KM Initiatives (see Related Resources below) developed by the Department of Navy (DON).
In addition to the government-wide initiatives mentioned above, individual agencies have made great strides in using knowledge management as a discipline for achieving organizational objectives and improving performance. For instance, the Department of the Navy (DON) is emerging as a leader in KM implementation. For the DON, KM is essential to achieving Knowledge Superiority — the shared understanding that provides a decisive edge in warfighting. DON has distributed over 20,000 copies of their Knowledge-Centric Organization (KCO) toolkit (a virtual resource on CD) across the U.S. Government. The toolkit provides a holistic resource for creating a KCO, an organization that connects people to the right information at the right time for decision and action; and learns, collaborates and innovates continuously. Working through a KM Community of Practice, the DON deploys KCO assist teams to help organizations in their journey toward becoming knowledge-centric. Request toolkit.
The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) successful KM projects in knowledge sharing, serve as models for other government organizations. FHWA KM projects include development of an Expertise Locator and Communities of Practice for environmental projection, strategy and performance planning, safety exchange and rumble strips. The FHWA turned to knowledge management best practices to foster improved government-to-government communications and used the Web to facilitate those exchanges. FHWA built a Web-based knowledge management portal, or a Community of Practice, around the rumble strips initiative. Run-off road rumble strips are the continuous series of bumps or grooves along the side of a road. The rumble strips are used by the states as a cost-effective countermeasure to single vehicle run-off road highway fatalities. FHWA received a Government Technology Leadership Award from Government Executive Magazine for their knowledge sharing work in rumble strips [see side bar article Tops in Technology].
At the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration the attraction of KM stems largely from KM's value for innovation. The safety and security of about 150,000 airport operations logged daily by FAA towers is supported by approximately 50,000 FAA employees, who are at the same time creating the next generation of national airspace services. Given the challenges of modernizing for the 21st century, leveraging the know-how and collaborative capabilities of FAA employees becomes increasingly imperative.
These are only a few of the successes being shared and emulated across the Federal sector, and the KMWG is facilitating cross-organizational successes. It is clear that Knowledge Management and the U.S. Government are getting to know one another very well. As government organizations continue this journey toward e-Government, knowledge management offers the opportunity to continue in the virtual world our rich tradition of government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Related Resources (see Attachments section below to download these documents) (Download Adobe Reader here)
- Federal CIO Council Strategic Plan (PDF)
- Managing Knowledge @ Work: An Overview of Knowledge Management (PDF)
- Metrics Guide for KM Initiatives (PDF)
- Knowledge Superiority as a Navy Way of Life by Alex Bennet (PDF)
- Winners of the 2001 Grace Hopper Government Technology Leadership Awards: Tops in Technology
- eGov Journal article: KM at FHWA: The Benefits of Sharing Information — by Mike Burke (PDF)
- FHWA Brief: Knowledge Sharing at FHWA (PDF)
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