Key pointers about the value of adopting a knowledge management
strategy. Is KM a business or an IT tool?
True knowledge management?I keep hearing about KM and I can see there is value locked
away somewhere that has to be harnessed. We are looking at KM from
a standing start and practical advice seems to be very vague. I
don't just want to throw money at a project that will give us an
extra layer of information. Is KM an IT issue or a cultural issue?
Can you give me three clear pointers about how to approach KM
adoption?
The Solution
Verbal garbage causes confusion
David Taylor
Certus
Knowledge management (KM) is a meaningless term dreamed up as a
fad, designed to make consultants a shed-load of money. Its
greatest advantage in this respect is that no-one has a clue what
it means, and so it can mean anything the consultant tells you it
is. The big question you have to ask yourself is, "Can you put KM
in a wheelbarrow?" In other words, is it tangible, measurable, is
it a real thing? No, of course it's not, and many people are now
realising this. Here are three ways to approach KM:
- Never use the term again - instead look at what you are really
going to achieve - the clear outcome
- If you are defining KM as your people's knowledge and skills,
then put in place a programme of cultural change that will ignite
and release insight and ideas
- If you are defining KM as the information inside your IT
systems, and piles of paper printouts around, then invest in an
intranet or new executive information system (again, be clear what
you are looking at, and what will be the outcome).
KM is the type of verbal garbage that causes confusion. If you
don't believe me, try asking five people what it means - you'll get
five different answers.
It crosses boundaries but must be business-driven
Dr Karin Breu
Research fellow in IS, Cranfield School of Management
KM crosses organisational and functional boundaries. It is both
an IT and a cultural issue. Initiatives at adopting KM should
always be business-driven and include:
- Starting with your organisation's business objectives and
strategy, determine how KM will contribute to their delivery.
Design an organisation-wide KM strategy. When seeking to exploit
your organisation's knowledge resource strategically, take KM onto
the board agenda and appoint a chief knowledge officer or KM
director to how your organisation values KM
- Implement an organisation-wide KM framework to evaluate and
plan projects. Design reward systems that incentivise people to
begin to share knowledge. Use rich technologies that combine
multiple channels such as text, video and voice in order to
effectively support the exchange of knowledge that is far more
complex to communicate than information and data
- Assess where in the organisation KM can realise the greatest
value and prioritise investments.
KM novices need culture switch
Nafisa Ashraf
Impact
To answer your key question first- yes, if you are looking at KM
from a "standing start", then KM is primarily a cultural issue. In
most medium and large businesses executives are facing an
information overload so that merely providing more is counter
productive. Also, although a knowledge infrastructure will become
necessary it is unlikely that this can be driven by IT initiatives
alone. What advice can we give?
- There has to be a top-down commitment to a knowledge-driven
culture, where knowledge sharing is actively encouraged and
rewarded and where best practice is actively sought and
promulgated. For example, by promoting the transfer of knowledge
across projects
- Drive the implementation of both Internet and intranet
environments; although this in itself is not a sufficient strategy,
these environments are crucial to the acquisition and dissemination
of knowledge
- The most immediate return and most visible benefits may well be
found in the customer service area, in marketing and in
customer-focused operations.
Do an information audit first
David Isherwood
Senior consultant, NCC Group
While KM is both an IT and a cultural issue, in most
organisations the culture would need to change quite significantly
so that information and knowledge are viewed as a resource and an
intellectual asset - and recognised as being of significant value
to your organisation.
The first step in the adoption of KM throughout your
organisation is to perform an information audit. This will need
to:
- Identify what information exists within the organisation, where
it resides, who uses it, at what cost and to what effect. Seek to
establish where information needs exist and which are not
adequately catered for, and what the consequences will be for
individuals, their departments and for the business as a
whole
- Understand how information assets are being put to use and how
these can be more effectively harnessed to achieve optimum
productivity and strategic advantage. The audit should focus
primarily on information and knowledge that benefits business
activity, initially you should look for breadth rather than depth,
identifying criticality as you go. Information activity should be
quantified, gaps in existing provision identified and any
redundancy of information gathering and storage effort highlighted.
The audit should map out how data flows, or fails to flow, and
confirm who owns and who manages critical resources.
As we are living and working in the most information rich era in
human history, it seems criminal not to use the knowledge the asset
can provide for our benefit. The trick is to liberate it without
reducing productivity in the process.