Knowledge Management, anyone?

When everyone is grappling in the dark, someone must switch on the light. To do so, this person must know where the switch is. Likewise, when employees are hard pressed for knowledge they need, when they need it, someone needs to be able to point in the right direction.

The ability to steer others away from darkness born out of ignorance to light based on the right knowledge is a critical skill. A skill that is born out of an innate ability to manage knowledge better.

This process of managing knowledge better means managing knowledge proactively by seeking to understand issues and opportunities better before responding to them. Through a well thought out knowledge transfer mechanism that elicits knowledge from “where it resides” to “where it is required” proactively before it needed is necessary. Unless this is done, the tendency to seek out knowledge and information only after issues go out of hand and problems emerge remains a nagging problem in most organizations.

The term “knowledge management” is often associated with library management or with having a good document control system. Some insists that training and development is synonymous with knowledge management. This is based on a reactive mode of dealing with knowledge. We need knowledge only when the need to learn to deal with issues and situations arise.

Most books published on the topic of Knowledge Management portrays it a system that is closely associated with Information Management. This has led to a common misconception that Knowledge Management is an additional “system” that needs to be somehow integrated into the existing information system. In this regard, huge investments are made to integrate such systems without adequate clarity on the value this will bring to the organization as a whole

Being acquainted with knowledge management for the last twenty years, I wish to share my thoughts on what it has evolved into, why is it ever so important in today’s world and more importantly how it can be gradually infused into the way of working to help people do their work better. More importantly I will discuss how managing knowledge should be undertaken dynamically, proactively and iteratively to spur collaborative efforts within an organization as well as with other stakeholders outside the organization.

I will be posting a series of articles on this very interesting topic. Hopefully the articles will not only shed some light on the concept but bring about the realization of how critical it is in a growing uncertain and complicated world we find ourselves in.

By,

Dr. Rumesh Kumar

Certified Knowledge Manager, Knowledge Management Trainer