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Knowledge Management ContextKnowledge 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.
The figure above demonstrates the importance of using knowledge management tools with respect to the specific milieu in which ADB operates. Pillars of Knowledge ManagementFour 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 IED requires champions and IED's management has risen to the challenge of removing cultural roadblocks, building commitment, and getting results from knowledge management.
Functions and Activities for Knowledge ManagementKnowledge 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.
Audiences for EvaluationAudiences 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 LearningInter- and intra-organizational relationships encompass IED 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 IED and the external environment it faces.
Influencing ChangeIED 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, IED considers what knowledge the target audience needs, what IED itself needs to know in order to advise the latter, and how IED is going to share that knowledge. IED 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 LearningDrawing 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.
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