A KM consultants post to the organization

Someone thought KM was needed at my organization. They made a business case, procured the funding, hired a contractor to find a SME and here I am. I can only think that if I was hired to work here that someone thought that something needed to change and that perhaps KM was the change agent. The notion of KM is simple and many times sounds like common sense. In simpler, less complex times perhaps common sense and the application of that common sense would solve the problems. But times are not simple.

Technology makes our lives easier, but we forget how complex all that technology and the surrounding processes are. It’s like your car. It’s easy to drive, but could you explain how it works or fix it? These days many of us don’t know how to change the oil let alone perform a tune-up. It’s the same at work. We follow the process or use the technology with little regard to what is under the hood. We just expect it to work every time. Plus, not only do we have to perform our core tasks, but we have to do all the administrative tasks that used to be handled by others. Oh, and our world is not limited to our immediate surroundings. Now we have to deal with issues that are potentially world-wide as the world has become a smaller place and “we” are all interconnected in some way. Complexity has nudged out common sense. Knowledge management practices attempt to help us deal with the complexity so we can focus on the important work that we are charged with doing. KM helps us collect knowledge and connect to knowledge so that we can make better decisions that have real world impact. In today’s knowledge intensive world “we” is more powerful than “I” and shared knowledge drives innovation, solutions, and decisions not a single solitary voice. Gone are the days when the boss had all the answers. Complexity has changed all that. And we have to change how we work in order to succeed in today’s environment.

The reasons for KM are compelling

• Consistent, rapid, and transparent knowledge flow both vertically within an office or department, and horizontally across the enterprise will lead to better decision making
• Standardized processes and frameworks will increase efficiencies, decrease cycle times, and shorten learning cycles
• Systematic knowledge transfer practices will capture essential knowledge reducing redundancy, providing best practices and lessons learned, and enhance learning
• Enhanced storage, organization and search practices and capabilities will make it easier to connect and collect to both tacit and explicit knowledge reducing the time to find essential knowledge and information
• Collaborative leadership broadens the diversity of opinions leading to richer thoughts, ideas, solutions, and innovations

The concepts of KM are fairly simple

• Leverage organizational knowledge and intellectual capital; human, structural, customer
• Build a collaborative enterprise
• Develop systematic processes by which organizational knowledge is created, captured, shared and leveraged

The goals are straight forward

• Increase the confidence staff have in the information and knowledge products they use to perform their work
• Help staff find, organize, and share knowledge they already have
• Increase collaboration and facilitate knowledge creation, sharing and transfer

and the expected outcomes are definable

• A strategic and systematic approach to leveraging organizational knowledge will enable better decision making, allow for faster learning, spur innovation, conserve resources, and strengthen relationships and trust across the organization and our constituencies
• Employees are empowered and expected to dialog, share ideas, and make suggestions to enhance our ability to successfully achieve our mission
• Harvesting best practices and lessons learned from across the organization will bring to bear better solutions and spur innovation
• Proactive sharing and collaboration across the organization will contribute to mission accomplishment
• Creating an operating construct that focuses on knowledge production, communities, and an ethic of contribution will boost productivity, efficiency, and agility
• Working in a smarter and knowledge-centric fashion will make for happier and more productive staff

however the execution tends to be problematic

• KM is seen as a technology solution
• KM is discussed in terms of a delivered project or initiative
• KM is seen as theoretical and academic
• KM is looked as something additive

For KM to be effective we need to agree on a few basic assumptions

• How we work can improve
• Knowledge flow bottlenecks and blockages exist and can be eliminated or minimized
• People want to collaborate and share but management structures sometimes prevent that from occurring
• Knowledge shared is more powerful to the organization than knowledge withheld, and the power of many is more beneficial than the power of one
• Working in a knowledge-based organization requires different skills than working in an industrial-based organization and those skills must be learned and practiced
• Given advances in technology, there may be better ways to do our jobs today than the way we did it 20, 10, 5, or even 1 year ago and we need to adopt and use these technologies and skills in order to better accomplish our mission and goals
• We need to change our behaviors and enhance our skills in order to effectively work in a knowledge-based organization

There are two types of KM behaviors – individual and organizational. Here is a sampling of both:

Individual Behaviors                                          Organizational Behaviors
I constantly think about who else needs to know what I know or what I learned and then pass that knowledge along	Encourage knowledge flow and transfer at all organizational levels
When capturing or storing content I consider who and how that content may be discovered in the future and take that into consideration when saving	Standardize work processes to the greatest extent possible
I develop a diverse network that can aid me in different facets of my job	Create and sustain avenues for knowledge transfer both offline and online
I constantly look for opportunities to improve work processes and identify them to my management	Ensure staff understand how to perform their tasks and provide them the tools and instructions needed for success
I speak up when I identify knowledge and information roadblocks and work toward eliminating or minimizing them	Continually identify and assess critical knowledge and information and develop methodologies for retention and transfer
I learn how to best use the tools and systems I use to accomplish my tasks including the technologies that enable me to perform my core tasks	Encourage cross Office and Center collaboration and networking
I treat every interaction as an opportunity to share and collaborate	Incorporate collaboration and sharing activities in IDP’s
I believe it is my job to contribute to the shared purpose of the organization	Reward and value collaboration in addition to individual effort
I am constantly learning and improving my skills and knowledge	Continually educate the organization on knowledge management principles
I feel it is my responsibility to share and I am comfortable doing so	Reduce the “risk” of collaboration for staff at all levels

Please comment back with your own examples of individual and organizational KM behaviors. The more we identify the better.

As for those “few basic assumptions” do you agree with or believe them? You could choose to just continue to do business as-is if you believe the current state of affairs is good enough and meets the mission goals. I certainly will take no offense to that perspective. Work gets done daily. Changing how work is being approached and conducted is scary and risky. But, I leave you with this; if not now, when? Because we certainly don’t do work like we did 30 years ago and we won’t be doing work the same 10 years from now.

KM is tangible. No, it is not a quick fix like installing a new application on your iPhone. But it is something real and something that can be good for you personally, the organization, and our constituents. For it to work you have to want it, and like anything worth having there is a price to be paid for getting it. Is it time for a change?

Advertisement