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Linking to Results |
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The Operations Evaluation Department conducts evaluations to find out what results are being achieved, what
improvements should be considered, and what is being learned. It does so with
systematic and impartial assessment of policies, strategies, programs, and projects,
including their design, implementation, and results. Producing credible, timely,
and objective data, information, and knowledge that describe ADB’s organizational
performance promotes development impact if what is learned informs decision
making. Sharing lessons also demonstrates good governance and advances understanding
of what ADB aims to accomplish, thereby generating support for it.
Core Knowledge Activities
Knowledge management activities can be described in relation to many different disciplines and approaches but almost all focus on five core activities:
(i) identify, (ii) create, (iii) store, (iv) share, and (v) use. The routine associated with these can be interpreted thus:
Knowledge Management Tools
Knowledge
management tools fit in five areas of competence as illustrated in the figure below. Some knowledge management
tools require expert facilitation. |
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Knowledge Management Context
Knowledge management
tools are more effective where the specific knowledge, relationships, and context of development agencies such as ADB and the external environment they face are dealt with in an integrated and coherent manner.
Key questions relate to
- how knowledge is understood and applied within an organization;
- how knowledge interfaces with the existing structure of the organization;
- how knowledge management activities link to existing core functions of the organization;
- how knowledge management activities link with the existing support functions of the organization;
- how connective physical and electronic infrastructures support knowledge management strategies;
- how organizational vision, leadership, and management impact the effectiveness of knowledge management strategies;
- what ways there are of measuring the costs and benefits of learning or of not learning; and
- how knowledge management activities address external aspects of knowledge work.
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The figure above demonstrates the importance of using knowledge management tools with respect to the specific milieu in which ADB operates.
Pillars of Knowledge Management
Four pillars are critical to knowledge management. Balanced interconnectivity must be sought. Leadership is particularly important because it drives values for knowledge creation. Successful implementation of knowledge management in OED requires champions and OED's management has risen to the challenge of removing cultural roadblocks, building commitment, and getting results from knowledge management.
Functions and Activities for Knowledge Management
Knowledge management must be embedded into all of an organization's business processes. It is not an activity delivered by a distinct department or a particular process. An architecture must be built to initiate and implement organization-wide knowledge management initiatives. The pillars of knowledge management are critical to success. All must be addressed. The following table outlines the core functions and typical activities of the architecture for lesson learning, and identifies illustrative implementation elements.
| Leadership |
Drive values for knowledge management. |
- Identify knowledge critical to
learning lessons in ADB.
- Conduct work-centered analysis.
- Plan high-level strategic
approach.
- Establish goal and prioritize
objectives.
- Define requirements and develop
measurement program.
- Promote values and norms.
- Implement strategy.
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- Strategic planning
- Vision sharing
- Definition of goal and objectives
- Executive commitment
- Knowledge management programs tied to metrics
- Formal knowledge management roles in existence
- Tangible rewards for use of knowledge management
- Encouragement, recognition, and reward for knowledge sharing
- Communications
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| Organization |
Organize to support values for knowledge management. |
- Identify critical knowledge gaps,
opportunities, and risks.
- Develop business process model.
- Engage key audiences with
incentives.
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- Organizational structure
- Organizational culture
- Business process workflows
- Business process reengineering
- Management by objectives
- Total quality management
- Operating procedures for knowledge sharing
- Knowledge performance metrics
- Communications
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| Technology |
Collect and connect knowledge. |
- Enhance system integration and access.
- Deploy intelligent agents for people.
- Exploit semantic technologies.
- Reuse existing capabilities in new ways.
- Monitor, measure, and report
knowledge performance metrics.
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- Email
- Data warehousing
- Data management software
- Multimedia repositories
- Groupware
- Decision support systems
- Intranet
- Search engines
- Business modeling systems
- Intelligent agents
- Neural networks
- Lessons learned systems
- Video conferencing
- Communications
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| Learning |
Cultivate and utilize virtual teams and exchange forum for knowledge management. |
- Enliven collaboration.
- Facilitate communities of
practice.
- Encourage storytelling.
- Recognize and reward knowledge sharing.
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- Tacit and explicit knowledge
- Capturing, organizing, and disseminating
knowledge
- Team learning
- Management support for continuous learning
- Virtual teams
- Exchange forums
- Communities of practice
- Encouragement, recognition, and reward
for innovation
- Communications
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Audiences for Evaluation
Audiences for evaluation products and services are both inside and outside ADB. They include the Board of Directors; Management; senior staff; staff in headquarters, resident missions, and representative offices; institutional responsibility centers in developing member countries; local stakeholders; nongovernment organizations; other development agencies; and umbrella organizations such as the Development Cooperation Directorate in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Evaluation Network that it coordinates, the United Nations Evaluation Group, and the Evaluation Cooperation Group.
Interfaces for Lesson Learning
Inter- and intra-organizational relationships encompass OED itself, other
departments, developing member countries, and the international evaluation community. The figure below shows these interfaces with the specific context, knowledge, and the relationships of OED and the external environment it faces.
Influencing Change
OED makes continuous efforts to influence change in development strategies, policies, practices, and procedures. Having influence begins with determining what, exactly, one wants to influence. Specifically, what decisions does one wish to influence, what changes does one seek to effect? After that, it is easier to establish who one needs to influence, namely, who is in a position to make or influence those decisions or effect those changes. Subsequently, OED considers what knowledge the target audience needs, what OED itself needs to know in order to advise the latter, and how OED is going to share that knowledge. OED endeavors to explicitly anchor broader evaluation studies in decisions and changes desired and emphasizes the importance of focusing on relationships at the onset of each evaluation study.
Operating Framework for Lesson Learning
Drawing the elements of knowledge, relationships, context, external environment,
interfaces, and architecture in a conceptual structure generates the operating
framework within which decisions on knowledge management initiatives can be
taken and implemented. The following figure depicts the operating framework within which
knowledge management tools can be leveraged for lesson learning in ADB.
Next: OED's Learning Cycle
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