Knowledge Management

DIKW model

2007-10-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

This is an adaptation from Russell L. Ackoff, "From Data to Wisdom," Journal of Applied Systems Analysis

The DIKW model assumes the following chain of action:

Data comes in the form of raw observations and measurements.
Information is created by analyzing relationships and connections between the data. It is capable of answering simple "who/what/where/when/why" style questions. Information is a message, there is an (implied) audience and a purpose.
Knowledge is created by using the information for action. Knowledge answers the question "how". Knowledge is a local practice or relationship that works.
Wisdom is created through use of knowledge, through the communication of knowledge users, and through reflection. Wisdom answers the questions "why" and "when" as they relate to actions. Wisdom deals with the future, as it takes implications and lagged effects into account

Data has commonly been seen as simple facts that can be structured to become information. Information, in turn, becomes knowledge when it is interpreted, put into context, or when meaning is added to it. There are several variations of this widely adopted theme. The common idea is that data is something less than information, and information is less than knowledge. Moreover, it is assumed that we first need to have data before information can be created, and only when we have information, can knowledge emerge.

Data are assumed to be simple isolated facts. When such facts are put into a context and combined within a structure, information emerges. When information is given meaning by interpreting it, information becomes knowledge. At this point, facts exist within a mental structure that consciousness can process; for example, to predict future consequences, or to make inferences. As the human mind uses this knowledge to choose between alternatives, behavior becomes intelligent. Finally, when values and commitment guide intelligent behavior, behavior may be said to be based on wisdom.

Data
Specific local properties
1: factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation (the data is plentiful and easily available.)
2: information output by a sensing device or organ that includes both useful and irrelevant or redundant information and must be processed to be meaningful.

Information
Specific local properties
(1): knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction
(2) : intelligence, news
(3) : facts, data.

Knowledge
Specific local properties
(1) the range of one's information.

Wisdom
Specific local definition
(1) accumulated philosophic or scientific learning: knowledge. (2) wise attitude or course of action.

According to these definitions, data is the basic unit of information, which in turn is the basic unit of knowledge, which itself is the basic unit of wisdom. So, there are four levels in the understanding and decision-making hierarchy. The whole purpose in collecting data, information, and knowledge is to be able to make wise decisions. However, if the data sources are flawed, then in most cases the resulting decisions will also be flawed.

Knowledge Management Component Architecture

2007-08-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

The Knowledge Management Component Architecture consists of knowledge portals, knowledge components, and the knowledge repository.

A Knowledge Portal is a starting point web site where members of a knowledge community begin to enter, find, and access knowledge using the various knowledge artifacts. The knowledge portal may be designed to focus upon the type of work expected to be done by the knowledge user. Knowledge portal profile modes so far determined are:

knowledge subject matter access,
collaboration,
community description and,
a combination of the above.

At times, the knowledge user may wish to focus on knowledge relevant to a project being worked on within the context of the knowledge community, or he or she may wish to take an enterprise knowledge view.

A knowledge component is a self-contained, reusable object that can be used independently or assembled with other components to satisfy knowledge management requirements. There is the generic set of architecture issues relevant to all components. Knowledge components have to interface with the knowledge portal, with the knowledge repository, and with other knowledge components. A knowledge component may need to be customized to handle knowledge of events specific to a given knowledge community. In a like fashion, component behavior may need to be customized to satisfy the special needs of the specific knowledge community.

The Knowledge Repository consists of servers where knowledge indices and, often knowledge artifacts (documents, presentations, databases, charts, graphs, plans, audio files, and/or video files) are made accessible. Some searching may cross knowledge servers.

Global Virtual Knowledge Repositories are inter-connectable Knowledge Repositories, globally distributed, that look to be a single entity to portals and knowledge components. One search searches all.

Importance of Benchmarking for a successful Knowledge Management Implementation

2007-08-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

Acquisition and Creation of knowledge takes places from various sources such as Individual level, Group level, and Organizational level. Sharing of knowledge among stakeholders ensures in capturing, collating and creating specific, reliable, useful, up-to-date and timely knowledge. Organizations are today striving for improving their bottom line and therefore realizes the importance of involvement of customers and suppliers as sources of product and service innovation. Strategic partnerships with customers are viewed as long-term proposition.

Emergence of Communities of Practice has shown that individual and common goals and interests are taken into account to provide a natural focal point for organizing and promoting knowledge in a particular area. This helps to provide solutions to organizational problems, as well as to provide insight on new or innovative product and services.

Hence Benchmarking is seen as an important aspect with respect to Knowledge Management. It helps in understanding where the organization features in comparison with other organization's in the industry with respect to knowledge, competency and capability which helps in the growth of the organization.

Importance of Performance Measurement for a successful KM Implementation.

2007-08-20T19:47:00.000-07:00

Culture may be defined as a set of beliefs and values that provide identity and defines the day-to-day operations within an organization. This will include organization's purpose, vision, criteria of performance, the authoritative locations, decision-making orientations, leadership styles, compliance, evaluation, motivation et al.

A knowledge friendly culture is a key and critical component to successful knowledge management implementation. The organizational view and facilitation for both learning and innovation including how the employees are encouraged to build the knowledge base, in ways that enhances value addition for all its stakeholders is very important.

Organization Culture, which is a key element of managing organizational change and renewal is the biggest challenge for knowledge management implementation. It is this internal culture which can decide on the make or break of effective knowledge transfer, sharing and management. The employee behavior gets moulded to the organizational culture.

An open culture built around integrating individual skills, experiences and competencies into the organization's knowledge will be more successful. A culture of confidence and trust is required to enable and encourage the application and development of knowledge within an organization.

Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)

2007-08-18T20:34:00.000-07:00

Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is a concept that has grown out of a combination of knowledge management (KM) and personal information management (PIM) and cognitive human abilities.

This is focused on helping an individual be more effective and to perform better. Although we are focusing on an individual and his growth through gaining knowledge, the goal is to enable the individual to operate better in groups and in corporations as well. This is as opposed to the traditional view of KM, which appears to be more centered on enabling the corporation to be more effective by "recording" and making available what its people know.

A core focus of PKM is 'personal inquiry', a quest to find, connect, learn and explore. It is the increasing need to grow and learn for inidividuals and their responsibility to explore and self acquire, which has led to the Personal Knowledge Management. There is also a need to have processes and tools which will help the individuals to evalaute their present knowledge in given scenarios, ananlyzr their gaps and then try to see ways and meeans to bridge this gap. In todays world, we see lots of blogging, k-logs, and other measn to capture thoughts, ideas, opinions, suggestions, thoughts which helps in encouraging cognitive diversity, promoting free exchanges away from a centralized knowledge repository, which may be a reference location.

The four components of PKM are:

Just-in-time Canvassing - templates and e-mail canvassing lists that enable people looking for experts or expertise to identify and connect with the appropriate people quickly and effectively
Knowledge Harvesting - software tools that automatically collect appropriate knowledge residing on subject matter experts' hard drives rather than waiting for it to be contributed to central repositories
Personal Content Management - taxonomy processes and desktop search tools that enable employees to organize, subscribe to, publish and find information that resides on their own desktops
Personal Productivity Improvement - 'knowledge fairs' and one-on-one training sessions to help each employee make more effective personal use of the knowledge, learning and technology resources available to them, in the context of their own work

Importance of Senior Management Commitment for successful KM Implementation

2007-08-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

Knowledge Management has lots of benefits for the organization, but to have a successful Knowledge Management System implemented, the most critical aspect is Senior Management leadership and commitment.

For an effective and efficient KM, excellent information system infrastructure is necessary. To create Knowledge Assets and Culture, we need Databases, Processes, Manuals, Procedures, Strategies, Organization harts etc. Usage of network technology infrastructure such as Internet, Intranet, Lotus Notes, Global communication systems add effectiveness of transfer and sharing of knowledge. Hence Information Systems and Processes are extremely critical components.

Creation of knowledge repository/assets, classification, codifying the knowledge, making it available for all in the organization, ensuring reuse for artifacts for optimization, knowledge sharing seminars, web casts/pod casts, discussion groups, bulletin boards, etc help in leveraging the expertise within organization. This is only possible if there is senior management support, and commitment.

Importance of Empowerment for successful KM Implementation

2007-08-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

Empowerment refers to a feeling of control and self-efficacy that emerges when people are given power in a previously powerless situation. This creates a sense of freedom which enables people to make better commitments to all their talents and energies to accomplish their shared goals.

The real advantages of knowledge management cannot be visualized without empowering employees. Empowerment requires more knowledge to be able to comprehend and contribute to the performance and achievement of goals. Empowerment makes people take on added responsibilities and solve organizational challenges by learning new skills in the area of work assigned. This also eventually leads them to become more competent.

The effective creation of knowledge assets, knowledge sharing and distribution happens when people have a sense of ownership and this is ignited when there is empowerment. Knowledge comes from expertise, learning, experiences and through empowerment, the organization can accelerate its capability.

Importance of Employee Involvement in KM Implementation

2007-08-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Teams are a social entity within an organization. The nature of today's work, which demands, multiple skills, fast delivery of services keeping high quality, etc., has increased the importance of high performing teams and we are no longer looking at single specialists. Teams are therefore, today's basic building blocks, more creative and ready to coordinate and complete jobs which helps in achieving common objectives through interactions and leverage on knowledge, expertise and multi-skills that exists within team members.

In today's competitive market where work demands that teams must access and apply distributed knowledge effectively, Teams become an essential source of Knowledge Management. Working in a knowledge-intensive organization, allows application of diverse skills and experiences towards process and problem solving. It is essential for all employees in an organization to be involved and committed towards fostering spirit of teamwork based on trust to ensure that "Right information, reaches the right individuals at the right time", which is the true goal of any Knowledge Management System within organization.

Criticality of Training Employees for Success of KM Implementation

2007-08-09T21:58:00.001-07:00

Employees are the key or prime assets of the organization. For an effective KM Implementation, it is essential for imparting awareness learning programmes and other learning programmes related to KM and tools et al to all the employees in the organization.

The knowledge of the employees and their contribution effectively goes a long run in achieving the organizational objectives. The degree at which, the information is shared throughout the organization makes an impact on a successful implementation of KM. Employee knowledge is a critical resource. The organizational if designed in a manner of "know more, do more and contribute more" will add value to its capability and growth. Successful performance management is not only depended upon the organized way of work and the competency of the employees, but also on how the tacit knowledge can be converted into continual process improvement and innovation leading to more opportunities and growth.

Sharing knowledge creates knowledge. Problems are solved effectively within organizations when knowledge and expertise are leveraged to maximum. Re-use of artifacts, methodologies, standards, best practices etc lead to more efficiency and quick turn over with deliverables of high quality. Organizations encouraging employees to deliberate and analysis on experiences and proven methodologies sometimes, bring forth others to question the rationale and applied knowledge in varied circumstances leading to new thoughts, breakthrough innovations and more creativity.

All this can happen if there is a high commitment and support from the leaders in educating their employees on knowledge management and its benefits.

My thoughts on Wiki as a KM tool

2007-08-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Wiki can be looked upon as the simplest online database that could possibly work. Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross links between internal pages on the fly. Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.

Wikis are becoming an intrinsic part of the capture of knowledge for many domains and industries. one of the primary benefits of wiki is that knowledge is kept up-to-date by individuals suing this and organizations can leverage on latest information and expertise.

Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.It is a good practice to have someone monitor contents and their accuracy when used within organizations.

Knowledge Ecosystem

2007-08-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

The Knowledge Ecosystem fosters the dynamic evolution of knowledge interactions between entities and is the name of a cycle of events that occurs when "explicit" knowledge is acquired by novice learners and becomes "tacit" knowledge over time and learning experiences.

"Explicit" knowledge is defined as the type of knowledge which "can be expressed in words and numbers and shared in the form of data, scientific formulas, product specifications, manuals, universal principles, etc. This kind of knowledge can be readily transmitted across individuals formally and systematically."

"Tacit" knowledge, as defined "personal and hard to formalize...is deeply rooted in each individuals actions and experiences, as well as in the ideals, values and emotions they embrace."

In this cycle, the novice (or beginning) learner acquires knowledge in the form of receiving explicit knowledge from experts during the learning process. Through repetition, the phenomenon of "automaticity" occurs, in which the knowledge becomes intuitive to the learner progressing forward to reach an expert level. Eventually, the knowledge becomes tacit because can be remembered by the learner without job aids or references.

At this point, the learner becomes a subject matter expert and can then transfer knowledge out of his or her head and distribute it to learners in the form of explicit knowledge.

Knowledge Mapping

2007-08-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

Knowledge mapping is data gathering, survey, exploring, discovery, conversation, disagreement, gap analysis, education and synthesis. Knowledge Mapping is used to cover functions such as Knowledge Audit, a Network Survey and creating a map of the relationship of knowledge Assets to the core business process. In other words, it's an ongoing quest within an organization (including its supply and customer chain) to help discover the location, ownership, value and use of knowledge artifacts to learn the roles and expertise of people, to identify constraints to the flow of knowledge, and to highlight opportunities to leverage existing knowledge. This is an important practice since it aims to track the acquisition and loss of information and knowledge. The personal and group competencies and proficiencies within the organization is explored and it illustrates or "maps" how the information flow is happening through out the organization.

The key principles of knowledge mapping are:

Understanding the knowledge is transient
Explain the sanction, establish boundaries, and respect personal disclosures
Recognize and locate knowledge in a wide variety of forms: tacit and explicit, formal and informal, codified and personalized, internal and external, short life cycle and permanent
Locate knowledge in processes, relationships, policies, people, documents, conversations, links and context, suppliers, competitors and customers
Be aware of organizational level and aggregation, cultural issues and reward systems, timeliness, sharing and value, legal process and protection (patents, trade secrets, trade marks, NDA's, etc)

Benefits of Knowledge Mapping:

Encourage re-use and prevent re-invention, saving search time and acquisition costs
Highlight islands of expertise and suggest ways to build bridges to increase knowledge sharing
Discover effective and emergent communities of practice where learning is happening
Provide a baseline for measuring progress with KM projects
Reduce the burden on experts by helping staff to find critical information quickly
Improve customer response, decision making and problem solving by providing access to applicable information
Highlight opportunities for learning and leverage of knowledge
Provide an inventory and evaluation of intellectual and intangible assets
Research for designing a knowledge architecture or a corporate memory

Communites of Practice - A brief Introduction

2007-08-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

Communities of Practice (CoP)'s are formed by people who are engaged in collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor. These people share a concern or a passion for something they do and lean how to do it better as they interact on a regular basis.

A learning organization actively creates, captures, transfers, and mobilizes knowledge to enable it to adapt to a changing environment. CoP's help to accelerate this since learning from experiences has a deeper impact than learning from concepts.

Some of the major objectives of most CoP's are:

To enable colleagues to learn from one another through the sharing of issues, ideas, lessons learned, problems and their solutions, research findings and other relevant aspects of their mutual interest
To leverage on the expertise by fostering learning, simulating interactions, creating knowledge base, identifying and sharing best practices. Re-use of knowledge and artifacts without re-inventing the wheel, enabling better insight into risks & mitigation, and better management.
To generate tangible, measurable, value added benefits to the business

Organizations who give importance in developing and maintaining CoP's have benefited from a community's learning, knowledge and expertise.

Difference between Tacit and Explicit Knowledge

2007-08-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

Someone reached out to me on what is the difference between Explicit and Tacit knowledge and I thought I would pen down the difference here too!

Tacit knowledge is what people carry in their minds and we find it difficult to access. There are times we are not ourselves aware of the the knowledge we possess and also how valuable it can turn out to be if shared with others. The transfer of tacit knowledge mainly happens through personal contact and trust but this is considered to be very valuable. Many times this is not shared, primarily because we are unable to communicate all we know. This knowledge is also a very valuable input when it comes to innovations.

Explicit knowledge on the other hand, is what is documented or codifies and can be transferred easily to others. The processes, procedures, journals, manuals, drawings or any such artifacts come under Explicit knowledge. This is a form whereby human knowledge is externalized.

Good Day!

Sujatha

Benefits of Knowledge Management

2007-07-31T20:17:00.000-07:00

Careful application of knowledge, like other assets, can result in better decisions, particularly, at the working level. It’s not decisions made by strategists at the top that make or break a company; but the sum total of the day-to-day decisions made at the front lines of an organization. Better decisions are achieved by spending less time on information gathering and more on the creative process. Decision support systems help with the analysis, but are still driven by the ability to find relevant information. Provides the tools to:

Increase relevant information access
Facilitate collaboration & knowledge sharing
Retain institutional knowledge
Overcome organizational & geographical boundaries
Shorten cycle time

Resulting in:

Lower cost of doing business
Higher quality products, decisions & recommendations
Increased productivity
More time analyzing vs.data collection

Difference between Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom

2007-07-31T20:15:00.000-07:00

To begin with, organizational data, information, knowledge, and wisdom, all that emerge from the social process of an organization, and are not private. In defining them,we are not trying to formulate definitions that will elucidate the nature of personal data, information, knowledge, or wisdom. Instead, to use a word that used to be more popular in discourse than it is at present, we are trying to specify inter subjective constructs and to provide metrics for them.

A datum is the value of an observable, measurable or calculable attribute. Data is more than one such attribute value. Is a datum (or is data) information? Yes, information is provided by a datum, or by data, but only because data is always specified in some conceptual context. At a minimum, the context must include the class to which the attribute belongs, the object which is a member of that class, some ideas about object operations or behavior, and relationships to other objects and classes.

Data alone and in the abstract therefore, does not provide information. Rather, information, in general terms, is data plus conceptual commitments and interpretations. Information is data extracted, filtered or formatted in some way (but keep in mind that data is always extracted filtered, or formatted in some way).

Knowledge is a subset of information. But it is a subset that has been extracted, filtered, or formatted in a very special way. More specifically, the information we call knowledge is information that has been subjected to, and passed tests of validation. Common sense knowledge is information that has been validated by common sense experience. Scientific knowledge is information (hypotheses and theories) validated by the rules and tests applied to it by some scientific community. Organizational knowledge in terms of this framework is information validated by the rules and tests of the organization seeking knowledge. The quality of its knowledge then, will be largely dependent on the tendency of its validation rules and tests to produce knowledge that improves organizational performance (the organization’s version of objective knowledge).

Wisdom, lastly, has a more active component than data, information, or knowledge. It is the application of knowledge expressed in principles to arrive at prudent, sagacious decisions about conflicting situations. From the viewpoint of the definition given of organizational knowledge, we now ask what an organization is doing when it validates information to produce knowledge, it seems reasonable to propose that the validation process is an essential aspect of the broader organizational learning process, and that validation is a form of learning.

So, though knowledge is a product and not a process derived from learning, knowledge validation (validation of information to admit it into the knowledge base) is certainly closely tied to learning, and depending on the definition of organizational learning, may be viewed as derived from it.

Goals and Objectives of Knowledge Management

2007-07-31T20:13:00.000-07:00

Knowledge management involves a strategic commitment to improving the organization’s effectiveness, as well as to improving its opportunity enhancement. The goal of knowledge management as a process is to improve the organization’s ability to execute its core processes more efficiently. Davenport et al. (1998) describes four broad objectives of knowledge management systems in practice:

Create knowledge repository
Improve knowledge assets
Enhance the knowledge environment
Manage knowledge as an asset

The key to knowledge management is capturing intellectual assets for the tangible benefits for the organization. As such, imperatives of knowledge management are to:

Transform knowledge to add value to the processes and operations of the business
leverage knowledge strategic to business to accelerate growth and innovation
Use knowledge to provide a competitive advantage for the business.

The aim of knowledge management is to continuously improve an organization’s performance through the improvement and sharing of organizational knowledge throughout the organization (i.e., the aim is to ensure the organization has the right knowledge at the right time and place).

Knowledge management is the set of proactive activities to support an organization in creating, assimilating, disseminating, and applying its knowledge. Knowledge management is a continuous process to understand the organization’s knowledge needs, the location of the knowledge, and how to improve the knowledge.

Managing Knowledge Effectively

2007-07-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

Effective knowledge management is not a panacea, it is one of many components of good management. Sound planning, good marketing, high-quality products and services, attention to customers, the efficient structuring of work, and the thoughtful management of an organization's resources is not diminished in importance by the acknowledgement that knowledge is critical to success and needs to be managed.

However, when a business faces competitors that perform well on those other dimensions, the difference between success and failure may well turn on how effectively it manages its knowledge (Davenport et al, 1998). Knowledge management success factors may be links to economic performance or industry value; a technical and organizational infrastructure; a standard, flexible knowledge structure; a knowledge-friendly culture; a clear purpose and language; a change in motivational practices; multiple channels for knowledge transfer and senior management support (Davenport et al., 1998).

In order to manage knowledge effectively in corporates and organizations, besides other factors, special attention should be given to contextual dimensions of organization such as strategy, technology and culture, that is:

Most important is building a strong culture to adopt and support it.
Defining effective strategies for using all knowledge resources efficiently.
Using information technologies (digital documents, intranets, expert systems etc) for developing knowledge management systems.

Cross Functional Collaboration

2007-07-31T20:09:00.000-07:00

Organizations today work in collaboration with many functions or shared services, which brings in the importance of a collective and coordinated effort in success of deliverables to Customers.
For every deliverable that goes to a Customer, every function within the organization is equally responsible to perform the activities which are defined as efficiently and effectively as possible.

The functional heads are responsible for the activities within their department, which allows for good management controls and procedures, but many times we find that no one owns the overall process and its results. Practically we find that functional heads develop strong mind sets and will approach problems in a different manner. This brings forth conflicting goals as different functions speak different "language".

The focus on Customer or industry becomes minimal and the focus tends to be only on functional matters and immediate superior goals. This brings in a silo mindset. An example of such a conflict occurs when the delivery unit is trying to meet the targets, but the quality team is holding on the deliverables due to nonconforming product.

In his book "Designing organizations: An executive Briefing on Strategy, Structure and Process" Galbraith J describes cross-functional efforts as a lateral coordination effort. All functions at the same level (lateral) should be grouped together to produce the required output. All functions are interdependent on each other, if the organization is to succeed and obtain Customer Delight. Schermerhorm, in his book "Management for productivity" provides some tips for improving subsystem integration:

Rules and procedures: Everyone understands what to do
Hierarchical referral: Coordination problems go to a common supervisor
Planning: Objectives and targets are known to everyone
Direct contact among managers: Face-to-face contact among managers
Liaison roles: Exchange of personnel to work in each other’s units
Task forces and teams: People from different units on task forces
Matrix organization: Create a matrix structure for specific projects

This helps in achievement of goals in the most efficient and effective manner.
~ Sujatha Das

Knowledge capture stages

2007-07-31T20:08:00.000-07:00

There are three stages at which knowledge collation or knowledge access is done and these are either before, during or after knowledge - related activities are completed.

When a new project or assigned is commenced, the information resources are searched for to gain the best practices or lessons learned for similar projects / assignments that were undertaken, to seek advice or understand problems, challenges, risks and issues faced; learn about the reviews and workarounds et al. Knowledge management practitioners offer systems, repositories, and corporate processes to encourage and formalize these activities.
During the progress of the project or assignment, knowledge is captured and recorded in the form of reviews, lessons learned, experiences, reusable assets, artifacts used in research et al.
Post implementation or completion, all insights and learnings are recorded for future use.

Organizations implement various ways of knowledge capture and creation of assets to enable reuse of information, quick reference for all and as a learning and increase in competencies.

What is Knowledge Management?

2007-07-31T20:06:00.000-07:00

Data are collection of facts, measurements and statistics whereas Information is defined as organized or processed data that are timely (i.e., inference from the data are drawn within the time frame of applicability) and accurate (i.e., with reference to original data). Knowledge is information that is contextual, relevant and actionable. While data, information and knowledge can all be viewed as assets of an organization, knowledge provides a higher level of meaning about data and information and therefore tends to be more valuable. Knowledge as a resource is valuable since it focuses attention back towards what is important. Over time, information accumulates while knowledge evolves.

The management of corporate knowledge and intellectual assets that can improve a range of organizational performance characteristics and add value by enabling an enterprise to act more intelligently is known as Knowledge Management. This is a process that helps organizations identify, select, organize, disseminate and transfer important information and expertise that are a part of the organizational memory that typically resides within an organization in an unstructured manner. The value addition this provides to an organization are effective and efficient problem solving, dynamic learning, strategic planning and decision making.

Knowledge Management focuses on identifying knowledge, helping transition of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge so that this can be shared in a formal manner and thus creating knowledge repositories which will enable reuse. Knowledge management enables the communication of knowledge from one person to another so that it can be used by the other person. The domains in which knowledge concepts are leveraged in organization through knowledge initiatives are:

Sharing Knowledge and Best practices
Instilling responsibility for sharing knowledge
Capturing and reusing best practices
Embedding knowledge in products , services and processes
Producing knowledge as a product
Driving knowledge generation for innovation
Mapping networks of experts
Building and mining customer knowledge bases
Understanding and measuring the value of knowledge
Leveraging intellectual assets

Importance of Environment

2007-07-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

When we speak of managing knowledge, it requires a single location wherein a certain area of focus or specific kind of knowledge can be accessible or collated by people within an organization. Tools and stategies and people who work together to align knowledge capture, codifying, classifying, storing and making it available to all does a great job in this. But most importantly, information resides in the minds of people. In an ideal situation, we create awareness that people are expected to share what they know with each other - learn and grow together.

In our everyday work, we are required to draw upon a variety of knowledge to be able to deliver what we are expected to do. This may not be always availble to us in specific area of expertise. In these scenarios we learn to research and look for information else where. The sources of such information may be books, internet, experts whom we know in the industry et al.

One of the very efficient and practical way of learning is to gain knowledge from a person who is truste and who is also an expert in the area in a personal interactive session. So when we speak of knowledge management in organizations, we speak of creating a coporate culture, which fosters mutual respect and learning through pro-active interactions among people within the organization.

Creating an atmosphere that encourages personal interactions and discussion allows knowledge to be spread and enhanced. Knowledge sharing, however, is still an ideal goal that many corporate organizations are now trying to reach. It is, however, the heart of knowledge management. How well are we succeeding in this attempt is yet to be seen! My personal feeling is there is still a long way to go. More awareness; more proactivness and interactions among people; cutting across egos, personal inhibitions or fear of competitiveness that needs to be removed to bring forth a successful culture.

Motivations for Knowledge Management in Organizations

2007-07-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

There may be different reasons why Knowledge Management will be developed within organizations. Some of them are:

The need for making available, increased knowledge content for the development and provision of products and services.
For facilitating and managing organizational best practices, innovation and continual learning
For achieving better quality products in shorter development cycles.
For leveraging the knowledge of subject matter experts across the organization
For managing the distribution of data and information in different business environments, enabling people within to reuse information and best practices.
For employees to benefit from "networking" wherein there is a personal and team growth by way of learning and sharing information.
Managing the intellectual capital developed within the organization.

Organizations are realizing the potential of Knowledge Management, but the rigor seems to be slow even today!

Sujatha

The 8 Cs of Knowledge Management

2007-07-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

In one of my discussions with a friend, the question of what would you look at when we create a KM framework came up. I thought this would be a good topic to cover for today's blog too!

Quoting from Madanmohan Rao's "Leading with Knowledge", the 8 C's of KM while developing a framework are:

Connectivity: What connectivity devices, bandwidths, interfaces, technologies and tools do your knowledge workers have when they are in the office or on the road?
Content: What knowledge assets are relevant to the context of your workflow, and what are your strategies for codification, classification, archival, retrieval, usage and tracking?
Community: What are the core communities of practice aligned with your business and what organizational support do you have for identifying, nurturing, and harnessing them?
Culture: Does your organization have a culture of learning where your employees thirst for knowledge, trust one another and have visible support from their management?
Capacity: What are your strategies for building knowledge-centric capacity in your employees, for instance, via workshops, white papers, mentoring and e-learning?
Cooperation: Do your employees have a spirit of open cooperation, and does your organization cooperate on the KM front with business partners, industry consortia and universities?
Commerce: What commercial and other incentives do you use to promote your KM practice? How are you "pricing" the contribution, acceptance and usage of knowledge assets?
Capital: What percentage and amount of your revenues are invested in your KM Practices, and how are you measuring their usage and benefits in monetary and qualitative terms?

These set of questions actually help us decide on a strategy to be taken when we look at creation of the framework of Knowledge Management in any organization.

Cheers,

Sujatha

Barriers of implementing Quality and Knowledge Management

2007-07-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

Some of the barriers we find in implementing Quality & KM in organizations are:

Setting Priorities: The work load of associates within organizations which do not allow them to take action on activities that give in results in the long run and create stability. Team does not want to think long term, since short term challenges are more of a botheration.
Sidetracking: Instead of focusing on main concepts, ancillary issues such as cost and time, takes more priority.
No buy-in: Lack of confidence in the originator 's competency, knowledge and skills by other for the true situation and needs,as expressed by the originator. Perceptions build around little exposure and not wanting to explore and take risks or look at opportunities.
Shortsightedness: No willing to wait for complete implementation or giving time to see the effects and high demand of results before agreed upon time lines. Not willing to see the long-term results and impacts. Concentrating on issues rather that identifying and removing root causes.
Organizational Politics: Internal competition rather than collaboration of activities; the "know-all" attitudes from senior members not creating a pro activeness; ego-clashes, jealousy, feeling threatened by competency and skills of others, looking only for power and popularity et al, diminishes the organization's culture and growth.
Time: Lack of interests and stretching beyond whereby the solution misses the timing requirements of the problem at hand. The importance is then lost.
General: Lack of communication and required information that demands specifics at the right time for the right people to take actions.
Rigidity: Not being flexible and adaptable poses serous problems in implementation.
Single sightedness - seeing the best practice as the answer to everything, even where it is not warranted

A strong knowledge and awareness in the Leadership coupled with a drive for excellence and growth proactively will reap high success and excellent results within organizations.

A Brief Introduction to Knowledge Management

2007-07-25T04:24:00.000-07:00

Knowledge management and intellectual capital are terms frequently being used today's world. In this age of information organizations see their people as their key assets. The knowledge, skills and competencies of these people add to the growth of the organization. The challenge is how to tap this knowledge and make it available to all who will benefit it. A challenge that cuts across corporate libraries and information centers.

Knowledge is broadly discussed as being of two types (Davenport 1998). One is explicit knowledge, such as customer information, market information and so forth. This type of knowledge can be easily handled by technology. The other is tacit knowledge, knowledge that is in peoples' heads. There is a general recognition that we cannot actually manage tacit knowledge, because tacit knowledge cannot be documented. It can be transferred, but only through relationship.

Knowledge Management ('KM') comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning.

Keep visiting this blog to read more on Knowledge Management from some more experts in this area.

Good Luck,

Sujatha Das