Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century Organization

329 Pages·2017·1.23 MB·English

Guy St. Clair
Knowledge Services
Current Topics in Library
and Information Practice
Guy St. Clair
Knowledge
Services
A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century
Organization
An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libra-
ries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to
make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative can be
found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org
Also by Guy St. Clair
SLA at 100: From “Putting Knowledge to Work” to Building the Knowledge Culture: A Centennial
History of SLA (Special Libraries Association) 1909–2009
Beyond Degrees: Professional Learning for Knowledge Services
Change Management in Action: The InfoManage Interviews
The Best of OPL II: Five Years of The One-Person Library: A Newsletter for Librarians and
Management, 1989–1994 (with Andrew Berner)
Entrepreneurial Librarianship: The Key to Effective Information Services Management
Power and Influence: Enhancing Information Services within the Organization
Customer Service in the Information Environment
Managing the New One-Person Library (with Joan Williamson)
A Venerable and Cherished Institution: The University Club of New York 1865–1990
The Best of OPL: Five Years of The One-Person Library: A Newsletter for Librarians and
Management, 1983–1988 (with Andrew Berner)
Managing the One-Person Library (with Joan Williamson)
ISBN 978-3-11-021808-4
An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libra-
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-021809-1
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e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-021806-2
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found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org
e-ISSN 0179-3256
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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License,
as of February 23, 2017. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliogra-
fie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über
http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar.
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Druck und Bindung: Duck & Co., Ortsname
♾ Gedruckt auf säurefreiem Papier
Printed in Germany
www.degruyter.com
For Andrew Berner

Foreword
As Charlie Munger of Berkshire-Hathaway famously said, “If you know how to
learn, you know enough.”
One of the things I so admire about Guy St. Clair’s Knowledge Services is its
ability to teach anyone how to learn from knowledge and to share knowledge,
building on St. Clair’s own pioneering experience and tools.
Winning companies today are all about continually gaining new knowl-
edge, and then applying that knowledge. Thus, great organizations continually
learn, unlearn, and relearn. At the same time, they have formed cultures wherein
people embrace collective knowledge and growth by working alongside one
another, and – even more often these days – with collaborators from outside their
organizations.
Knowledge Services explains to readers just what it takes for an organization
to learn strategically. Or, as its author puts it, “. . . to enable those who develop
knowledge to share it, for the benefit of everybody in the workplace and in the
knowledge services framework associated with the organization.”
In this book, Guy St. Clair brings together, in an accessible and useful way,
not only enlightening ideas, but also practical procedures for framing, complet-
ing, owning, and sharing knowledge and defining success. across organizations.
He brings this to life with telling stories, ranging from a UN project in Kenya to an
initiative at Citicorp.
Thomas Edison said he “readily absorbed ideas from every source.” Peter F.
Drucker said that the greatest innovations are those that challenge assumptions,
and apply ideas from one application to another. Organizations that are built with
knowledge services consistently share knowledge strategically and apply that
knowledge to innovation and growth.
I have recommended Knowledge Services to all my students because I believe
it will help each of them contribute something more critical to organizations they
join or launch. It will teach them how to bring more knowledge to their customers,
to their organizations, and to the world. And I heartily recommend it to anyone
who is interested in learning how to better absorb, share, and apply new ideas. In
today’s world especially, I can’t think of anything more important.
Elizabeth Haas Edersheim
New York Consulting Partnership
Author, The Definitive Drucker and
McKinsey’s Marvin Bower
Lecturer, Consulting Strategies
Program, New York University

Contents
Foreword   VII
Preface: Enabling the Knowledge-Sharing Culture   1
Acknowledgements   9
1 Building the Knowledge Culture   11
1.1 The KM/Knowledge Services Continuum   11
1.2 Management and Knowledge Services   26
1.3 Leadership and Knowledge Leadership   51
1.4 The Knowledge Strategist   80
1.5 The Organization as a Knowledge Culture   101
2 Applied Knowledge Services   119
2.1 Collaboration in the Workplace   119
2.2 Critical Success Factors: The Knowledge Services Audit   148
2.3 Measures and Metrics for Knowledge Services   169
2.4 The Knowledge Services Strategic Framework: A Recommended
Strategy (“A Strategy for a Strategy”)   192
2.5 Knowledge Services in Context: Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) and Knowledge Asset Management (with Barrie
M. Schessler)   217
3 The Way Forward   250
3.1 Change Management and Change Implementation: The
Fundamental Knowledge Services Competency (with Dale
R. Stanley)   250
3.2 Knowledge Strategist to Knowledge Thought Leader   276
Epilogue: Knowledge Services. The Critical Management Discipline for the
Twenty-First Century Organization   295
Works Cited   303
Index   309
About Guy St. Clair   317