Third International Conference on Nuclear Knowledge Management - Challenges and Approaches

Developing Sustainable Organizations for New Nuclear Power Countries through Knowledge Management

9 Nov 2016, 09:15

15m

BoardRoom A (IAEA M-Building)

oral Track 2: Managing knowledge for new build projects and programmes in newcomer and expanding countries Technical Session 8

Speaker

Mr Ron Cain (US DOE/NNSA Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Description

Countries with emerging nuclear power programs face unique challenges with respect to building competent and sustainable organizations. By nature, such organizations are dynamic and evolving, energetic, and feel a sense of mission. They are also typically preoccupied with near and mid-term objectives, may be resource-constrained, can incur high staff turnover rate, and encounter difficulties in obtaining experienced, qualified personnel. Such conditions can make it difficult to think about, much less implement, a knowledge management (KM)-based culture. The result can be missed opportunities if a KM system is not in place to collect institutional knowledge leveraged to advance the organization’s mission. Nevertheless, knowledge is perishable, and the best time to capture it is as it is being created, not at the end of a career. This paper explores some of the resource-efficient methods for knowledge capture applicable to programs/organizations early in their formation and which might be constrained in some way from instituting larger KM initiatives. The emphasis is on tools, techniques, and methods that integrate well with the day-to-day processes of the organization, reduce single points of failure, and transfer/preserve knowledge early in the lifecycle.