Knowledge Management principles from the US Navy

Another set of interesting KM principles to go in our limited collection.

These KM principles were presented by Michael Hill at KM Australia, and Michael (CKM and mentor for Tactical Training group, Pacific) was keen to point out that he was sharing his personal views, not those of the US Navy.

Whether they are Michael’s person principles or are applied also within the Navy, these are a useful addition to our Principles collection, which at the moment includes:

• KM principles from TRADOC;
• KM principles from the US Army;
• KM principles from the UK government;
• KM implementation principles from my recent book wth Stephanie Barnes;
• KM principles in product development;
• Stephen Denning’s 10 KM principles.

Michael describes his principles (many of them from Nissen’s book “Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics“) as follows:

• Knowledge is what enables action
• Knowledge is not the same as data, or information
• KM is about People, process, organisation and tools (the same as the four enablers we recognise at Knoco, except we refer to Governance rather than Organisation)
• Tacit knowledge provides sustainable competitive advantage (explicit knowledge can be copied or stolen)
• The dynamics of tacit knowledge are different from the dynamics of explicit knowledge, and rely on people talking to each other
• Knowledge-enabled action determines performance, which provices competitive advantage (or mission success). Learning from action, performance and competitive advantage can create feedback loops
• Taking action on feedback creates tighter human networks, which are more powerful than the written reports.