“Turningindividual knowledge into organizational knowledge is not a task for sissies.”
—Carla O’Dell, CEO, APQC
Theterm “knowledge management” (KM) conjures up all kinds of reactions andopinions, some pretty bad; perhaps you’ve heard a few of these:
“Maybe we need it, but we’re not really surewhat it is.”
“We don’t need it; our people are alreadysmart.”
“Yeah,we have some KM technology, I think.”
“We’re not doing it till our competitors do it.”
“Igot someone working on it, part time.”
“Doesn’t look like training; not our job.”
“Consultant or academic double talk.”
“It’s just like training, isn’t it?”
“This is something I.T. does.”
“Toodaunting; impossible.”
“Beenthere, done that.”
“Oh yeah, SharePoint.”
“Itdoesn’t work.”
“Tooexpensive.”
“Huh?”
Yes,knowledge management has had a difficult journey, hot one year and passé thenext. People have been burned trying to make it work. They’ve come up againstnon-supportive leadership only to hear from those very same people that the organization’s intellectual capital is amess and something needs to be done.
Andthere’s the rub—something does needto be done.
The problem is still with us
Wework in organizations that live and die by their ability to leverage theircollective “smarts.” But our inability to find the right information, right atthe moment of need, costs us time and money. We stumble, reinvent the wheel,and miss insights, all because we can’t find the information we need, when weneed it. Even when we can, we’re not always sure it’s accurate or complete. Ourcorporate intranets are in disarray and our people in the field run intoproductivity walls because they can’t get answers quickly and reliably enough.
Soperhaps we’ve not done a stellar job with KM in the past. Maybe we bit off alittle too much, tried half-baked technology solutions, or didn’t build aculture accepting of KM. But the problem has not gone away; instead, with moreto know and less time to know it’s gotten worse.
Revisiting knowledge management
Timeto revisit KM. This time, with a better understanding of what it is, and whatit can and can’t do. This time, we’ll think big but start smaller. We’ll learnas we go along and we’ll be ready to scale when needed. We will embrace KMtechnology, not as the solution but rather as an enabler. And, most of all,we’ll bring users and stakeholders along with us, rather than shoving it downtheir organizational throats.
It’sso easy, so tempting to simply take information and put it into courseware. Thenload it into our LMS and declare victory. We’ve done this time and time again. Sometimes,it’s the right move, but more likely, it’s not enough. Our people need accessto information and expertise, not just in structured courses but also in thecontext of their work—and workflow. Together, with the right training, we can gofrom knowledge chaos to effective knowledge management.
A new white paper
The eLearning Guild’s new white paper, Managing Organizational Knowledge,written by Steve Foreman and me, addresses this critical issue. It explores KM’s potential and what itmeans for organizational learning. It defines KM and distinguishes it fromother training and learning approaches, including eLearning and performancesupport. It looks at differing perspectives of KM, including “top-down” and“social” approaches, and provides an overview of the key components andtechnologies of a typical KM system. The white paper highlights key KM projectsteps and evaluation strategies, and presents several case studies. Finally, itdiscusses KM’s future and what it means—for organizations and for learning.
Maybethis time, you won’t call it knowledge management. Content management,information management, content curation, knowledge sharing, and other termscan work. Whatever name you give it, KMmakes relevant content readily available without interrupting the flow of work.It is a natural partner to performance support. Organizations can speed learning and increaseworkforce productivity through effective KM practices supported by technology. Byimplementing KM, you have another important component of a learning and performance ecosystem at your disposal.
Download the white paper, for free, here.
