Building Smarter Organizations

Being a “smart” organization—to learn quickly and apply that learning to making changes—is essential for survival in this age of hyper-competition, global power shifts, and technological change. In “dumb” organizations, the flows of knowledge and idea into and through the organization are limited and slow. Those flows are restricted by the organization’s command-and-control culture, the maze-like organizational and business structure, and limitations imposed by closed communication technology. There are three matching and inter-linked solutions to improve flows: reducing unnecessary complexity, moving to a collaborative culture, and using an Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) technology. The focus of this chapter is a step-by-step approach to justify, design, measure, and roll out an ESN suite.

Knowledge Management on Demand

For some organizations, “knowledge management” is the name of a department staffed with experts and the description for an element of corporate culture. In others, certain aspects of KM (typically large projects) are outsourced to global consulting firms. In still others - often smaller entities - it may be a function supported by one-time or occasional consulting assistance to diagnose requirements, recommend solutions, and perhaps guide implementation. The chapter explores the business model and value proposition of “purchasing in” consultants who bring to bear their experience and expertise from many other engagements to the specific needs of every new client. Specifically, the chapter looks at success factors for organizational managers in achieving value from the consulting engagement.

The Learning Organization

The practice of using reviews of past events as (often expensive) investments in learning for the future pays off. Why don't all organizations use the practice as a matter of course? The chapter explores how barriers are similar to all other barriers to successful knowledge management and include such obvious elements as high level ownership and a culture of valuing the learning every employee can contribute to the organization's future. A key element is the organizational will to learn from what happened in the past. The After Action Review is used to illustrate a model for organizational learning.

Getting Started with Social Media for Knowledge Management

This chapter explores how, as social media tools and platforms become more common inside organizations, KM teams need to incorporate them into their toolbox. It is necessary to learn how they work and how they can be used to be effective in accomplishing the organization’s knowledge and information-related goals. It is not as easy as jumping onto Facebook or Twitter and suddenly engaging. The technology is more difficult to set up; getting buy-in from senior executives is not always easy; and getting a sufficiently wide adoption of the tools can be a challenge if employees are not ready for it. Planning and change management are needed to encourage success.

Communities in the Workplace

Communities in a work setting—also known as communities of practice—are groups of people coming together as a consequence of work or occupation-related responsibilities. This chapter explores how these groups allow practitioners or knowledge workers to share stories of their experiences and compare notes on topics such as procedures, vendors, and teamwork. Engaged communities encompass a range of activities including regular meetings or conference calls, storytelling, speaker series, participating in intranet or online discussion groups, information sharing and content curation, sharing calendars of events and key dates, polls and surveys, review of resources and software, thought leadership, professional development and business development. The chapters shows how benefits of communities can be augmented through improved engagement of community members, community management and administration, and implementation of a subject taxonomy.

Postscript

In this chapter, four of the book's contributors comment on their experience of leadership in the field of knowledge management. Due to the intrinsic nature of the discipline and due to the ways in which knowledge management manifests in organizations, leadership in KM requires a wide range of soft skills and considerable finesse.

A Context of Challenges

Whenever professionals meet—be their topic of conversation talent recruitment, customer service, or product innovation—they are in fact discussing knowledge management even though the term may never be uttered. It is now widely realized that technology was not the answer to the challenge of harnessing “what the organization knows” and applying it for efficiencies and strategic advantage. The chapter takes a look at common stresses experienced in today's organizations – from dealing with information overload to facing the question “who owns knowledge management – and who should?” Contrary to the tempting assumption that “it is all figured out now,” knowledge management is very much surrounded by a number of enduring organizational challenges not solved by the evolution of technology.

Planning for Knowledge Management

As data, information, and knowledge proliferate, professionals continue to grapple with the need to get their arms (or head) around it all. Needs analysis, information audits, and knowledge audits represent a range of processes intended to aid in understanding what an organization knows and how the workers can best access the knowledge. The chapter examines the knowledge assessment process with practical examples based on project experience. Drawing on case reports from the literature and studies undertaken by the author, the chapter addresses various methodologies, possible outcomes, typical challenges, and occasional pitfalls. The author’s experience sheds light on techniques and strategies leading to strategic recommendations and successful project results.

Tools for Talking

The simple act of conversing with colleagues and fellow members of communities of practice is a powerful vehicle for exchange of knowledge and for learning. Fostering opportunities for productive conversations is a strategy to consider seriously in enhancing knowledge transfer among individuals. Tools for enhancing the effectiveness of conversations—in person and virtually—are described in this chapter in the context of real life activities such as unconferences, mind mapping, and real-time collaboration and communication tools.

Knowledge Culture

Every organization exhibits a culture made up of the beliefs and norms guiding the day to day behavior of the individuals in it. Culture may or may not be in alignment with senior management's official pronouncements, formal operational rules, or the public image an organization's leaders wish to project. Culture may support or undermine discipline in managing and sharing knowledge. This chapter explores how certain key characteristics are common for organizations in which knowledge management is a priority underpinned by funding and by senior management rewards for behaviors supporting the use of knowledge toward overall organizational benefit.