What, how, who … and stewardship

In knowledge management we often speak of know how, know what (or know that) and know who as different kinds of knowledge we should consider. Some would draw different distinctions and some propose further categories (know why, meaning science, for instance), but these three are the most common distinctions: how, what and who. But could there be another one besides?

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, these three map in an illuminating way onto the kinds of knowledge and skills frameworks often used in learning and development (L&D) and in performance assessment (in an HR sense). In particular know how and know what map the most readily. And it’s from looking at knowledge and skills, and performance frameworks that I get a sense for a fourth dimension.

L&D seeks, on the one hand, to develop the knowledge base of the individual – their know what (probably subsuming the know why within that – which is why I think, in practice, it’s hard to sustain the what/why distinction). I sometimes refer to this as ‘education’. The term ‘training’ is still widely, and loosely applied to all kinds of learning and development interventions and opportunities, but I’d say many of them either are or somewhat are education (in the sense of know what) rather than training. But L&D is also very concerned with training, in the sense of giving someone a skill, an ability to do something, the know how as well. [L&D covers both sides of the knowing-doing gap].

Performance assessment is concerned with measuring what the individual does against these scales.

In both of these area, L&D and performance assessment, there’s commonly a scale of maturity, or increasing levels of knowledge and performance, against which learning, performance, and also often career paths and increasing seniority in the job and the organisation, can be mapped. It’s a great area for these three functions and perspectives, KM, L&D and HR, to collaborate.

One dimension that’s often weaker in knowledge and skills frameworks is the know who dimension, and I think this is an area in which KM can contribute awareness and can enrich the frameworks. But that’s not the subject of this #KMTFTD.

In a spirit of give and take and of collaboration, KM offers enlightenment with respect to know who. KM also takes some enlightenment from the frameworks too, and it is the following.

A common feature of these frameworks of escalating knowledge, performance and seniority is a parallel escalation of responsibility. In the early / lower stages, the responsibility is to understand, learn and follow learnt paths. Later the responsibility develops towards practising and learning from practice; supervising and leading others; and, ultimately to contributing to and stewarding the body of knowledge, the practice, the community of practitioners, and the whole system of that practice – even up to a global level.

It’s a different kind of thing from know how, what and who, but, there again, they’re different from one another as well. Knowledge stewardship is the fourth dimension of knowledge and practice.