Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Knowledge Management (KM) has many varied facets and depends on what your
objectives are as to the ‘type’ of KM that you can implement. For sure, we can determine
that KM is to do with people, processes and technology (in that specific order of priority
and importance).
We can also determine that when we refer to knowledge we can also include information
and data. So to define KM in general terms means that we should be focusing on getting
the RIGHT information, data and knowledge to the RIGHT people at the RIGHT time.
As you can garner from the above, KM can be utilised in many different forms and, with
the right stakeholders ‘buying in’ KM has the power to transform an organisation.
Where to start?
Although KM will eventually be an organisation-wide discipline, it is important to start with
a small project. This will not only be more manageable but will also gain allies in order to
overcome any initial resistance and to gain the confidence of both management and
process owners alike. Many of you may have started a KM initiative already and do not
even recognise this as such.
The fact that so many of you have already established web sites and created FAQ’s
within those sites, (to meet common requests for information that customers themselves
can answer) have already started your KM implementation. This is a first step for many
as they use KM to increase the levels of customer service and support. This ‘self-service’
option is recognition of the growing demands of our customers as they become even
more astute thanks largely to the ‘information age’ of the Internet. Their knowledge
increases but so do their demands.
Level 2: Theoretical Knowledge; is the explanation how the general statement can be
practical implemented.
Level 3: Practical Knowledge: this knowledge explains exactly what the underlying
elements are that we need in order to “implement”, executes tasks within
business processes
Level 4: Potential Knowledge; this is level 3 but enlarged with extra concepts and new
elements of potential knowledge that could be enriched by which the process
performance could have more Added Value.
Level 5: Analytical Knowledge; from all the knowledge used in the process steps, a
complete and very detailed analysis is made.
Formulate measurable business objectives; Think big and start small. Become a
champion of a small project first without losing sight of the overall goals. But you
must ensure that all objectives stay measureable and be specific with numerical
objectives within given time frames.
Identify key subject matter experts. Identify key subject matter experts who need
to spend considerable amounts of time to ensure that the KM system is populated
with relevant knowledge content. Select subject matter experts who seem least
resistant to knowledge sharing. This will not only bring focus to a KM implementation,
but will also help to select subject matter experts, conduct detailed business needs
assessment, and identify appropriate initial content for the KM system.
Conduct a Knowledge Audit. The purpose of the audit is to identify the skills that
the organisation needs to carry out its main objectives. You will need to carry out a
“skills audit” within the organisation so as to establish what skills and tools are
needed to achieve the organisation’s main objectives. Whilst also considering what
skills are lacking within the organisation in the context of fulfilling its identified
Identify small first project. We would strongly recommend that a small but critical
first phase project be selected from the outset. The challenge is to not get
overwhelmed by the scope or attempt to tackle too much too soon.
Manage a flexible project scope. It might seem counterintuitive to suggest that the
project scope should be flexible, especially from a successful project management
perspective. However, the more rigid the scope, the more likely it will not meet user
approval on completion, especially when they have typically never used a KM system.
The challenge is to be open to requests and still not let scope creep play havoc with
project schedules. Deciding to have a well-managed, yet flexible project scope will allow
the KM Team to incorporate viable and useful change requests, manage resources with
confidence, and increase the likelihood of delivering a system that meets or beats
expectations.
Keep the user community involved. It is a common mistake to assume that end-user
input during the business needs assessment process has resulted in clear and
unambiguous requirements for the first phase of the KM implementation. User adoption
of new systems could be extremely low even though the system built is exactly what the
users had earlier said they wanted. The challenge is to keep users involved during the
project, solicit and incorporate feedback, and meet schedules and objectives. An ongoing
involvement of the user community will result in a shared feeling of ownership and
decision making. This will lead to higher user adoption, and the KM implementation will
see increased ROI and greater visibility across the organization.
Step 8: Capture:
Capturing the knowledge from the Knowledge carriers can be achieved through various
methods such as Focus Interviews; Visualisation; 7 why techniques and Social Network
Analysis. It is important to distinguish between Explicit and Tacit Knowledge and to
identify the learning elements such as case studies; Lessons learned; stories; tips and
tricks acquired and little methodologies.
Step 11: Become a KM mogul and create your own Best Practices:
Become your own best Practice ASAP. You must continually promote and Champion the
KM cause. Identify individual allies that believe in the project, enthusiastically advocate it
and have the influence to “make things happen.”
Likewise, obtaining some early successes in the form of “Good Practices” and better still
some Best Practices will endear more people will want to ‘buy-in and come on board.
External Best Practices can help but identifying your own internal Best Practice will have
a defining moment in your KM storybook.
There are 15 intersecting areas that explain, define and document the components of
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Contact:
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Vice president, Areopa S. E. Asia
nigel.dawes@areaopa.com
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