KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND THE COVID-19 CRISIS
Few of us in our lifetimes have experienced the level of disruption and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis is still unfolding, and its path is still uncertain, but it has created a profound discontinuity in the lives of individuals, communities, whole societies, and of course, organisations. This is a crisis of unprecedented disruption to the way that people and organisations work. It calls immediately for knowledge management responses addressing the following ten questions that are core to knowledge management's role:
In this Panel session, three of Singapore's most experienced knowledge managers, joined by Dr Nick Milton from the UK, will describe how they have dealt with similar issues in the past, and discuss with the audience possible approaches to take.
- How does the organisation manage critical information flows and coordination of key activities, when most or all of its employees are working from home?
- How does collaboration and tacit knowledge sharing adapt to an environment where there are fewer serendipitous encounters, and few opportunities for juniors to pick up the knowledge or experienced seniors by seeing on a day to day basis how they think and operate?
- What is the impact on information security when (a) workers are more and more using personal devices on home networks and (b) IT infrastructure has to be accessed from outside more often?
- How do staff and the organisation itself adjust rapidly to completely new ways of working, and new technologies and tools to help them do so?
- How is leadership decision-making influenced by a reduction in informal, serendipitous conversations, giving leaders a rich contextual sense of their organisation's inner life?
- How can the organisation quickly adopt very new processes and procedures accommodating the scatter of its workforce, without compromising quality and accuracy?
- How does the organisation ensure that change is agile and iterative, based on rapid cycle learning, so that it can respond nimbly to large changes in the environment?
- What kinds of knowledge and information resources does the organisation need to provide to its customers and partners to help them align with the new "COVID-safe" way of working, and moderate expectations?
- How will the organisation cope with the loss of critical knowledge with large numbers of key staff being furloughed or laid off?
- How will the organisation ensure that in the midst of all the confusion and day to day coping, key lessons on how to deal with major shocks documented and made available for future generations of employees and managers?
In this Panel session, three of Singapore's most experienced knowledge managers, joined by Dr Nick Milton from the UK, will describe how they have dealt with similar issues in the past, and discuss with the audience possible approaches to take.
Eileen Tan
Eileen Tan is senior manager for Knowledge Management in the Enterprise Knowledge Department of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). She is a professional Knowledge Management and Communications specialist with over 20 years’ experience in multinational corporations, public-listed companies, government agencies and global non profits. She has strong domain knowledge in internal communications, employee engagement and knowledge management strategies and implementation as well as project and event management. In her Knowledge Management roles, Eileen spearheaded the development, management and implementation of regional knowledge management strategies and plans to optimally create, store, use and reuse critical organisational knowledge assets. She devised systems and processes to make connecting people, sharing ideas, collaborating and co-creating between geographically dispersed teams easy and effective, and facilitated quicker decision-making and improved productivity. Most recently, she has been leading the development of a COVID-19 KM resource for the MAS, to ensure (a) that the organisation can still function effectively with a workforce largely working from home, (b) to ensure that MAS' interactions with its partners and stakeholders are properly aligned, coordinated and communicated, and (c) to ensure that lessons learned from this crisis can be carried forward into the organisational memory. Shaharudin Mohd Ishak Was until recently Deputy Director for Knowledge Management at Enterprise Singapore, formerly International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, and is an Exco member of ISKO Singapore. He was responsible for the digital transformation effort at Enterprise Singapore, and for ensuring that digital transformation and knowledge management remained aligned. He led various key Knowledge Management initiatives, including the organisation-wide knowledge audit, knowledge transfers and retention program, knowledge sharing and awareness program and the award-winning IEX intranet (IBF). He has a Bachelor of Science in Computing with Management, a Master's in Knowledge Management, and a passion for social media and content marketing. Shaharudin's experience includes 11 years in the area of Intranets and Knowledge Management. His experience at IE Singapore is especially pertinent to the COVID-19 crisis.
Doreen Tan Doreen Tan is one of the most widely experienced knowledge managers in Singapore. She is currently Lead for Knowledge Management at RGE, and was formerly Head Knowledge Management at the Singapore Workforce Development Agency, Head Knowledge Management at the Singapore Youth Olympic Games (SYOG) Organising Committee, and Senior Manager for Knowledge Management at the Singapore Sports Council. Her experience with the Singapore Youth Olympic Games has some relevance to the role of KM in the COVID-19 crisis, specifically in using KM to keep an organisation agile, and to ensure it can benefit from rapid learning cycles. Singapore won the bid to host the SYOG in February 2008, with just over two years to organise the Games, with an entirely new organisation, where normally a host country would have 7-8 years to prepare. Her work focused on calibrating her KM efforts around (a) simple technology combined with strong discipline and governance, and (b) rapid learning cycles. This is what kept the organisation nimble, adaptive, and agile as the pace of preparations accelerated. The KM efforts contributed substantially the the Games' success, and Doreen's work won a Knowledge Management Excellence Award, and her case study has been published in The Knowledge Manager's Handbook. Nick Milton Dr. Nick Milton is director and co-founder of Knoco Ltd (www.knoco.com) with 25 years of experience in Knowledge Management. Working with Knoco Ltd, Nick has been helped develop and deliver KM strategies, implementation plans and services in a wide range of different organizations around the globe. He has a particular interest in Lessons Learned programs, and has managed major lessons capture programs, particularly in the area of mergers and acquisitions, and high technology engineering. Prior to founding Knoco, Nick spent two years at the centre of the team that made BP the leading KM company in the world at the time; acting as the team Knowledge Manager, developing and implementing BP's knowledge of "how to manage knowledge", and coordinating the BP KM Community of Practice. Nick is the co-author with Patrick Lambe of "The Knowledge Manager's Handbook", with Stephanie Barnes of "Designing a Successful KM Strategy", and author of "The Lessons Learned handbook," "Knowledge Management for Teams and Projects", "Knowledge Management for Sales and Marketing" and "Performance through Learning - knowledge management in practice". Nick blogs most days (www.nickmilton.com) and can be found on Twitter (@nickknoco). |
Date/Time
Venue Type of Event Who should attend Fee |
Friday 21 August, 2020, 3.30-5.00pm.
This was a virtual session using Zoom conferencing. As we follow strict security protocols, only participants who are registered in advance, using the form below, will be admitted to the session. Case Discussion | Networking | Panel | Site Visit | Talk & Discussion | Workshop * Knowledge and information managers, IT professionals, search managers, corporate librarians, senior executives and general managers. This was a free event. |
event materials
Here are the slides for Shaharudin Mohd Ishak on Managing Knowledge for a Distributed Workforce at IE Singapore - download here
Here are the slides for Doreen Tan on Learning on the Go at the Singapore Youth Olympics - download here
Here are the slides for Eileen Tan on Building a COVID Hub at the Monetary Authority of Singapore - download here
Here are the slides for Nick Milton on KM and the COVID Crisis: the big picture - download here
Video recordings are at the bottom of the page.
Here is the result of the poll on KM areas of interest as a result of COVID-19.
Here are the slides for Doreen Tan on Learning on the Go at the Singapore Youth Olympics - download here
Here are the slides for Eileen Tan on Building a COVID Hub at the Monetary Authority of Singapore - download here
Here are the slides for Nick Milton on KM and the COVID Crisis: the big picture - download here
Video recordings are at the bottom of the page.
Here is the result of the poll on KM areas of interest as a result of COVID-19.
event videos
Here are the four videos of the speakers:
1. Shaharudin Mohd Ishak's case study on KM for remote and distributed workforces at International Enterprise Singapore
2. Doreen Tan's case study on rapid learning on the go at the Singapore Youth Olympic Games
3. Eileen Tan's case study on building a COVID-19 knowledge base at Monetary Authority of Singapore
4. Nick Milton's reflections on the big picture for KM in the COVID-19 crisis.
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By continuing to use the ISKO Singapore website you are agreeing that ISKO Singapore may collect, use and disclose your personal data obtained by ISKO Singapore as a result of your use of the ISKO Singapore website. Please consult our data protection policy, including how you may access and correct your personal data or withdraw consent to the collection, use or disclosure of your personal data.