The key success factor of a KM project is changing attitudes. To achieve this, the Knowledge Manager needs to be a good teacher and a good communicator.

Jean-Luc Abelin - Knowledge Manager of the concrete and aggregates division of Lafarge Group

Web 2.0 has given centre stage to key activities: collaboration, information sharing, monitoring, narrowcasting; something that classic Knowledge Management had not been able to achieve in its time. The benefits of these activities are now tangible: time savings, expertise identification, and better dissemination of information … In a knowledge management perspective the benefits are particularly obvious with regard to knowledge transfer. Collaborative platforms and social networks in companies facilitate the transfer of knowledge, which is now crucial in the context of the retirement of baby boomers. The challenge of transferring tacit knowledge is very important too.

Jean-Luc Abelin Lafarge Group manages the Knowledge Management Division Concrete and Aggregates. He devotes his energy and expertise to his deep conviction that: “everything that is not shared is lost”. He has shown great ingenuity in encouraging his colleagues to formalize and share best practices. He gives us his vision of Knowledge Management 2.0.

Jean-Luc Abelin Lafarge Group manages the Knowledge Management Division Concrete and Aggregates. He devotes his energy and expertise to his deep conviction that: “everything that is not shared is lost”. He has shown great ingenuity in encouraging his colleagues to formalize and share best practices. He gives us his vision of Knowledge Management 2.0. Jean-Luc Abelin, according to you what are the barriers and facilitators to the sharing of knowledge?

Jean-Luc Abelin : The first thing that people must realize is that the sharing of knowledge addresses their own problems and that it is not just a whim of management. We frequently hear and read that we must collaborate, share information and help each other. Yes, in theory everyone is convinced, but every day we see more information retention than anything else. This can be explained in several ways, the first being that people do not realize how important their knowledge is. I often hear my colleagues say “I didn’t do anything special, so I don’t need to share it as it won’t be useful to anyone”. This is not true. We’re all experts in our own field, regardless of our position in the company. And above all every day I have to fight against the notion that “copying is not good”. School has indoctrinated us with this idea since we were toddlers so sometimes we have difficulty in understanding that in business, implementing good practice simply means gaining time and simplifying life. It is not laziness, but simple common sense. Contrary to what we were taught in school, copying is good especially if it results in improvements. Knowledge sharing is an attitude to have in everyday life, a desirable trait to create for oneself and others.

What differentiates knowledge and knowledge of information? Qu’est-ce qui différencie une connaissance ou un savoir d’une information ?

Jean-Luc Abelin : There is a dynamic to information sharing. Information follows a cycle: a “trick” becomes good practice, then best practice and finally a standard. So we must begin to formalize the “tricks” so everyone can reap the benefits. What I call “tricks” are all actually arising from implicit knowledge. This is an important factor in our industry. Let’s take the example of tile manufacturing (a former activity of the Lafarge Group), one cannot just say “when a tile turns a particular colour, it must be taken out of the oven.” We must formalize this knowledge so that it becomes concrete, so we can actually transfer it from one person to another, from one generation to another. Information sharing starts locally and with small everyday actions. This avoids having to constantly reinvent the wheel.

Specifically, how do you make your colleagues share their knowledge and / or rely on the experience of others?

Jean-Luc Abelin : To encourage my colleagues to share more and to formalize their best practices I have set up various contests which have had interesting results. Every quarter I organize a competition to find the best practice. To define the best practice I take the good practice document which has been consulted most. That’s how I try to emphasise the importance of having an explicit, specific, eye-catching title, and a well-defined problem. For this document to be credible each good practice must then be verified by the community leaders. This validation is essential because it gives value to the document. The reliability of the content is fundamental to facilitate sharing. If my colleagues don’t trust the contents of the documents, they may not share the information which will not transfer good practice. Credibility and reliability are very sensitive, very important issues.

Achieving confidence in documents produced by others is part of the necessary behavioural changes. 
I also organized “treasure hunts” to accustom my colleagues to search for information in the database and help them develop good habits. The competition was spread over six weeks with the key being a really tempting prize, a real Louis d’or (gold coin). I posed questions, then provided clues where to find the right answer, and from time to time I made the tasks complicated (for example, I asked questions like: what is the strength of concrete used for bridge building in Santa Fe? Or how many tons of cement aggregates were needed to build the bridge of the highway …). This competition allowed me to significantly increase the rate of connection to the platform and to sustain it.

Finally, bonus question! And if you had just one piece of advice to give to a novice Knowledge Manager ?

Jean-Luc Abelin : It would be to focus on implementing behavioural change. It needs real information governance. It is necessary to have people to animate this small world and who are also convinced of the usefulness of sharing.

Jean-Luc Abelin has just deployed Knowledge Plaza in the concrete and aggregates division of the Lafarge Group making good practices easier to find and adding value to the collaborative environment.

Sorry, this post is only available in French.

Sorry, this post is only available in French

Sorry, this post is only available in French.

Knowledge Plaza has just been nominated as a finalist for the KM Promise Awards 2010 organized by KMWorld, one of the most influential magazines in the Knowledge Management field.

Each year, the KM Promise Awards are given to companies that are actually realizing the promise to provide innovative technologies to their customers, to integrate the activities of knowledge management in their business processes, thus helping them to reach better results.

Wish us good luck!