Traditional approaches to Knowledge Management fail.
The typical knowledge management approach is based on a knowledge development approach. In this approach, knowledge development is managed and people are identified and instructed to develop and capture knowledge in their area of expertise.
This requires extra time and effort, where one is never sure if the secured knowledge will be used at all. Generally, this approach already fails after one to two months because of extra work, being a thread for the expert, just extra info for the end-user..
Another applied approach is setting up communities of practices or communities of interests. It is an electronic platform where you allow people to discuss in an electronic format and to share information.
Generally, this approach already fails after six to ten months because of insufficient engaged core contributors, lack of procedures to capture produced knowledge, one is not aware when not part of the discussion.
The best motivator for change is the support a person gets that facilitates his work
A third applied approach is collecting all possible information on portals, making the jungle for the end-user bigger.
Pragmatic starting point
Addressing the issues of knowledge workers is the starting point for organisational knowledge management.
Knowledge management initiatives often fail because of their emphasis on the knowledge organisation. Knowledge, however, starts with and depends on your knowledge workers. You can start with huge change management initiatives to achieve your Knowledge Management objectives as an organisation. The best motivator for change is the support a person gets that facilitates his work.
To achieve your Knowledge Management objectives, we believe it is easier and faster to maximise the support of knowledge workers in three domains:
- Too much information
- Insufficient knowledge
- Lost knowledge
My simple pragmatic starting point/axiom is:
“Without a question to be answered or an issue to be solved, there is no direct reason to invest time and money in securing knowledge”.
Knowledge worker centric solution
Starting with a question-driven approach and adding a knowledge-building approach later on appears to be the most successful and pragmatic Knowledge Management strategy.
And, as a result of supporting your knowledge workers, you will achieve your organisational Knowledge Management objectives much more easily, faster and with more enthusiasm from your co-workers.
Incorporating reliability
Not all information and knowledge has the same level of reliability or is maintained with the same level of care.
The highest reliability (R1) is achieved when you are sure that:
- A known person with relevant expertise has written something down
- This person has enriched it with context (domain, target audience etc.)
- It was validated by another person with relevant expertise
- The information/knowledge is maintained (freshness date, half time)
A safety net
Studies show that 42 to 45% of questions are unanswered since people need to be involved in answering and understanding.
The most important safety net is automatic identification – competence databases are immediately outdated – of the most relevant people who can help on the subject, we cal this Automatic Expert Locator, based on the contribution one makes to the organization.
Essential elements
The essential elements of this knowledge approach driven by demand and supply include [see also www.TiNK.eu]:
- All your different information sources become accessible
- Employees no longer search, but find thanks to state-of-the-art features
- Employees are better informed and no longer drown in the abundance of information (JERI® – Just Enough Relevant Information, when and where needed)
- Integrate reliability of your sources
- Simple identification of the right expert(s) inside or outside the organisation
- Automatic integration of knowledge development and capturing
