With the growing importance of knowledge management, every professional, manager and policy maker needs a quick boost of knowledge about knowledge. While we cannot make you an instant expert, we can at least point you in the right direction and help you get started with the essentials. At the bottom of this page are details of related post to help you in your quest.
1. About Your Organizational Context
Unless you live in an isolated enclave, you will be aware that your external environment is subject to change and interdependence as never before. We are evolving into a networked and global knowledge economy where organizations are knowledge intensive, where technologies such as the Internet are changing the fundamentals of business, where value is in intangibles, and where the old rules no longer apply. See also Part A: An Interdependent World in Knowledge Networking.
2. About Communications
In simple terms - what people hear is not what they are told! Whether your focus is sharing knowledge, building trust in virtual teams, or developingknowledge leadership, communications is at the core. I once asked a Chief Knowledge Officer what were his three key ingredients for success. His response: "Communications, communications, communications". The keys to effective communications are to be a good listener, to choose the appropriate medium (e.g. face-to-face vs. email vs. telephone), to position your message in its wider context, to make your communication relevant (i.e. adapted to the recipient's knowledge and needs), and to express your thoughts clearly and concisely. There are checklists on communications in the toolkits in Knowledge Networking: Building the Collaborative Enterprise.
3. About Information and Knowledge
Knowledge is very complex. It comes in many forms and types (e.g. see Know-Who and Other Knowledge. The most common distinction is that between explicit and tacit knowledge. The former is codifiable and expressed in documents, databases and other tangible forms. The latter is that in people's heads and not easily codified. You can't therefore simply relabel information management as knowledge management or information systems as knowledge solutions - but suppliers do! When asked, most people say that over 70 per cent of their organization's vital knowledge is tacit. Yet, what do their knowledge programmes focus on - explicit knowledge or information!! A good knowledge management programme will give as much attention to thepractices for developing and sharing tacit knowledge (e.g. learning, knowledge communities, knowledge networking) as they do explicit knowledge or information.
4. About Inter-Organizational Networks
A significant source of business improvement and innovation in a knowledge-based enterprise is the knowledge that is created and developed across organizational boundaries, such as customer knowledge. For example, it is reckoned that over three quarters of organizational innovations are a result of collaboration or absorption of external knowledge. Knowledge Communities and Knowledge Networks should be nurtured, since they span organizational boundaries and help the flow of knowledge across hierarchical 'stove-pipes'. Focus on links and navigation - the organization's networkers are the unrecognized heros in many organizations. They should be recognized and rewarded. Complement human networks with a collaborative technology infrastructure, such as groupware or an intranet.
5. About Intellectual Capital
I believe Einstein is cited as saying "Not everything you count counts, and not everything that counts is counted". Too true!! Writer Tom Stewart says: "You can't see it; you can't touch it; yet it makes you rich. For this very reason you will find accountants and financial analysts fighting shy of trying to measure it. Yet intellectual capital measurement is something worth getting to grips with. The key things to know about intellectual capital are to categorize it e.g. into human, structural and customer capital, and to develop meaningful measures by which you can measure and manage it. SeeInsight: Measuring Intellectual Capital or for more depth read 'Measuring the Value of Knowledge'.
6. About Intangibles
Most companies are worth several times more in market terms (i.e. stock price x number of shares) that their balance sheets indicates. After allowing for market imperfections, or sentiment (such as with Internet stocks) the difference is essentially intellectual capital. In mid-1997 the average market to book value ratio for the Dow Jones industrials was over 5, and for companies hat are particularly knowledge-intensive e.g. biochemical companies, it is often 20x or more. Therefore, measuring and managing intellectual capital, including intellectual property such as patents, brands, copyrights and designs, is an important management task.
7. About Innovation and Creativity
These often get confused - see Creativity is Not Innovation. Being smart does not inevitably result in being the best. Being more creative does not automatically make you more innovation. Effective innovation requires the translation of creative ideas into improved processes, and/or commercially viable new products and services. Thus, creation is the starting point of the innovation process, the generation of new knowledge, that subsequently needs converting and encapsulating into usable or marketable forms. This requires the effective management of knowledge throughout the innovation process. See also the pages on knowledge innovation at the ENTOVATION web site.
8. About Human Resource Management
Most organizations do not know how many people they employ! Knowledge about your most critical resource is often inadequate. How good are your competency management systems? Do you have ready access to an expertise directory? The HRM function should provide is a vital 'soft' infrastructure for knowledge management, that includes reward and recognition systems, competence mapping and assistance with facilitating knowledge communities.
9. About Information and Communications Technologies
The success rate of introducing new information systems is not high. Introducing knowledge solutions, which are end-user oriented, less procedural in nature, add another layer of complexity. Despite the growing variety of KM tools and infrastructures (such as intranets) that are available, the critical success factors are 1) strong linkage to business needs; 2) People (human interface, individual styles and user characteristics) and 3) Processes e.g. seamless integration with ways of working and workflows. See 'The Impact of IT on Organizations' and Hybrid Managers.
10. About Knowledge Initiatives
There is no 'cook-book' approach. Every organization is different. Therefore an initiative needs be set against its organizational context, the business priorities, and the key people and influences. You will need to identify key hooks, such as related initiatives (e.g. quality, customer service, new product development), change of key personnel, new business opportunity or situation, significant shift in business performance, organization restructuring (e.g. merger, downsizing) - all opportunities for a new initiative. Those that succeed will selectively choose an appropriate lever. See also the article'Knowledge Management: Making It Work
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