Buzzword: “Knowledge Management”?

14. July 2008 by Rick Abbott.

Knowledge Management - is there really such a thing as managing your knowledge? Isn’t it more accurate to call it “Knowledge Capitalization”? Let’s break it down by pulling the most appropriate definitions from Webster for these terms:

• Knowledge Management - “the technologies involved in creating, disseminating, and utilizing knowledge data; also any enterprise involved in this”
• Knowledge - “the body of truths or facts accumulated in the course of time”; “acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation”
• Management - “the act or manner of managing; handling, direction, or control”; “skill in managing; executive ability”
• Capitalize - “to take advantage of; turn something to one’s advantage (often fol. by on): to capitalize on one’s opportunities.”

Seems to me that the primary objective is to “take advantage of” the “body of truths or facts accumulated in the course of time”, as opposed to just “handling or controlling” this information. It’s no accident that business users have become gun-shy about the whole “Knowledge Management” concept. This has become an IT driven endeavor, and as a result the focus has been put on “handling” and “controlling”, task oriented words, as opposed to end goals such as “capitalize”.

Too many “Knowledge Management” systems today place a disproportionate emphasis on the collection and storage of knowledge, and not enough on the end results. This makes it prohibitively expensive for users to add information, which dooms the system to mediocrity. All of us involved in delivering technology solutions should be focused on the end benefit of our work. In the case of “Knowledge Management”, put the focus on finding ways to capitalize on the “body of truths or facts” that are part of the corporate history.

How do we do this?

1. Information capture should be as seamless to the knowledge worker as possible - for instance a user should be able to designate certain directories on their laptop as sharable, and the knowledge system will automatically scan for changes and upload. Same with corporate web sites used for collaboration on projects or other initiatives
2. Categorization should be automatic, with multiple categories associated (or tagged) to each piece of information. Users should be able to enhance or override the categorizations, but it shouldn’t be a mandatory step
3. Collaboration should be enabled for a particular unit of information, with this activity becoming part of the body of knowledge
4. Users should be able to access information in a variety of ways (e.g., mobile phone, Excel, corporate applications), in addition to access via a web browser
5. A feedback loop should be available to capture results from knowledge exploration, including benefits achieved. This will have three advantages - (1) it will provide insights into the effectiveness of the knowledge system as a whole, (2) it will give other knowledge worker ideas on how to best exploit the underlying knowledge, and (3) it will close the loop by providing suggestions on how to improve on step 1.

Knowledge Capitalization should be, like learning itself, an iterative process.

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