Posted By: Jeffrey Mann, Research VP
Many of my discussions with customers about knowledge management (KM)
initially focus on how to capture knowledge as it is created or flows
through an organization. Users want to know how to convince employees
to share their experiences or take the time to document best
practices or other insights. They ask about the best systems to
store, classify, search and distribute this information. All of that
is important, but often misplaced, I find. It's generally far more
useful to concentrate on how the organization will use knowledge
rather than just how to collect it. Ironically, emphasizing how
knowledge will be used usually ends up increasing the quality and
amount of information collected as well.
One of the reasons many people are hesitant to spend the time to
document what they know is because they don't know how, or even if,
it will be used. Too many KM initiatives gather great material, which
then sits unaccessed on a virtual shelf in some repository somewhere.
Focusing exclusively on how to capture knowledge means not building
knowledge access into daily business processes, training users how to
find information that can help them make better decisions faster,
publicizing how the use of someone's insights has led to success or
other steps that would encourage knowledge use.
Visibility into how captured knowledge will be used can be a
tremendous incentive to participate in knowledge capture efforts.
Subject matter experts are more likely to participate if they know
that their efforts will actually be used. Individual recognition can
often be the best incentive, in fact; far better than the clumsy
efforts to financially reward contributors that I have seen. It is a
cliché (but nonetheless true) to say that nothing succeeds like
success. Ringing the bell to highlight wins and successes, with
recognition for the user and contributor, can multiply this value.
Of course, exclusively focusing on how knowledge is used would lead
to a chicken-and-egg paradox: How can we use knowledge if we haven't
captured any? Often, this presents an excuse to dive into technology.
Many KM planners, especially those from IT departments, are more
comfortable dealing with the technology-driven issues of how to
capture, catalogue and store information in repositories than the
people-driven issues of how it gets used throughout the organization.
As with so many high-performance workplace concepts, finding the
correct balance is important. A good rule of thumb is to focus at
least as much attention on using knowledge as capturing it. This
would go a long way toward swinging the balance the right way.
