Things You Always Wanted to Know About Knowledge Management, But So Far Nobody's Been Able to Tell You

1. What’s the nature Knowledge Management (KM)?
The nature of knowledge management is multidisciplinary. Knowledge management draws upon a vast number of diverse fields such as: Anthropology and Sociology; Artificial Intelligence; Cognitive Science (Psychology and some other sciences); Collaborative Technologies such as Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Groupware, as well as intranets, extranets, portals, and other web technologies; Education and Training; Information and Library Science; Information technologies such as knowledge-based systems, Document and Information Management, Electronic Performance Support Systems and Database Technologies; Linguistics and Computational Linguistics; Organizational Science; Storytelling and communication studies; Technical Writing and Journalism.

“We know more than we can tell” Michael Polanyi, 1966
“If Only We Knew What We Know”, Carla O’Dell, 2012

2. What is “knowledge” in an organization?
Knowledge is a capacity for effective action. Examples of knowledge assets (intellectual
capital) are those factors that help a team do its job well, such as expertise or skills,
intranet, computer with all needed functions, professional magazines, manuals,
network of stakeholders, membership in a professional association, office equipment, etc. 1) Knowledge is first created and only exists in the people’s minds. KM practices must first identify ways to encourage and stimulate the ability of employees to develop new knowledge. 2) KM methodologies and technologies must enable effective ways to elicit, represent, organize, re-use, and renew this knowledge. 3) KM should not distance itself from the knowledge owners, but instead celebrate and recognize their position as experts in the organization

3. What is tacit knowledge? Explicit knowledge?
Knowledge that is not recognized, articulated, documented or encoded is called tacit knowledge, though frequently it gets confused or mixed with implicit knowledge. The most common example is your expertise. Another is a proven work process that has not been documented. Knowledge that is documented in print or audio-visual material or encoded in knowledge bases is explicit knowledge. In general, the amount of tacit knowledge or implicit knowledge in any organization or individual may exceed that of explicit knowledge.

4. What is “knowledge management”?
Knowledge management (KM) is sourcing and deploying knowledge assets for better work performance. It includes providing the knowledge worker the right information she needs at the right time so that she can do her job well. A portal she can search with a search engine and a community of practice (CoP) she can ask professional questions are examples of KM tools for this purpose. A community of practice is a formal or informal grouping among workers involved in the same profession or practice, through
which members socialize and benefit from sharing or exchange of knowledge in the form of
latest gadgets and findings, “tricks of the trade,” new “tips” about what works, etc. KM is a framework for designing an organization’s strategy, structures, and processes so that the organization can use what it knows, to learn and to create economic and social value for its customers and community. A KM framework involves designing and working with the following elements: 1) Categories of organizational knowledge (tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge, cultural knowledge). 2) Knowledge processes (knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, knowledge utilization).3) Organizational enablers (vision and strategy; roles and skills; policies and processes; tools and platforms). 4) Innovation and adding value. There is no single, universal recipe for KM. Each organization has to think through and design its own strategy and approach. For each of the elements above, research and practice in KM has identified key questions, principles and lessons learned that may be used to develop a KM strategy. The overarching goal is to create organizational conditions that enable and promote the creation, sharing, and use of knowledge.

5. What is the difference between KM and Information Management (IM)?
KM focuses on information that is useful for effective action. KM is concerned with both explicit and tacit knowledge, while information management deals largely with explicit knowledge. While information management largely uses Information/Communication Technologies(ICT), KM uses both behavioral/social tools and ICT. Information management is the harnessing of the information resources and information capabilities of the organization in order to add and create value both for itself and for its clients or customers. Knowledge management is a framework for designing an organization’s goals, structures, and processes so that the organization can use what it knows to learn and to create value for its customers and community.

6. What is organizational learning?
Organizational learning is the set of individual, team and organizational processes and skills for creating new knowledge (e.g. work improvement, improvisation, process or product innovation) at all levels and units in an organization and for sharing or transferring knowledge across an organization to those who need it.

7. Is KM suited for a particular type of organization?
KM is suited more to organizations that rely or use knowledge resources heavily. However, the fact remains that practically all organizations use knowledge, and use a mix of horizontal and vertical organizational configurations. KM is important for all organizations. Today’s decision maker faces the pressure to make better and faster decisions in an environment characterized by a high domain complexity and market volatility, even in light of: 1) lack of experience typically from the decision-maker. 2) outcome of those decisions could have such a considerable impact on the organization.

8. Strategically speaking, there are four kinds of benefits from managing knowledge:

1) Create new value through new products or services (innovations); 2) Enhance current value of existing products and services (knowledge about customers); 3) Reduce/avoid costs/promote reuse (knowledge about processes); 4) Reduce uncertainty/increase speed of response (knowledge about the environment).

9. If we want to quantify the benefits, KM is applied to obtain:

1) Speed of Response; 2) Reuse of Knowledge; 3) Revenues from New Products; 4) Employee Empowerment and Satisfaction

10. What is the “knowledge cycle”?
The following steps constitute the knowledge cycle or knowledge value chain internal and external sensing -> knowledge creation (innovation) or capture -> organizing and storing knowledge, tracking and measuring knowledge and its impacts -> retrieving, transferring and sharing knowledge -> and using/reusing and applying knowledge.

11. What are some KM tools and techniques?
ICT/technically-oriented tools; Behaviorally-oriented tools; Knowledge Bases, Internal and external sensing; Market analysis; KM audit, competitive intelligence; surveys; Complaints desk, social network analysis, Focus Group Discussion, interview Creation or capture; Data mining, R&D, work templates, buy Intellectual Property Rights; team learning, documentation, mentoring; Organize and store Portal, intranet, Expertise locator, Who Knows Who Directory; Track and measure; Balanced Scorecard, intellectual capital accounting; Learning history, process documentation; Retrieve, transfer and share; Search engine, e-group, e-learning. Communities of Practice, transfer of best practice, cross-visit, storytelling; Use/reuse or apply; Role-based portal, work templates; Help desk, action learning.

12. Does going into KM means/needs being techie and computer savvy?
KM without computers can be done (at a very small, personal scale, not companywide), but KM with computers is better, and more consistent. The best KM is one that is both high-tech and high-touch.

13. Is there any personal benefit from KM?
Good KM entails paying attention to what works well or what works better (performance improvement, improvisation, creativity and work innovation) and to continuously reflecting about and learning from work (self-improvement, continuous learning and professional advancement). If a person values productivity, innovation and learning, then he or she will derive personal satisfaction from organizational KM. Using any KM tool that shortens work time or learning curves, reduces chances of mistakes, or enhances quality and productivity of work outputs, can be personally satisfying.

14. Are knowledge management specialist job opportunities growing or declining?
Over the past decades, the information and knowledge professions have become an important facet of the modern economy. The rise of the Internet and the impact of globalization have changed the way companies do business and led them to direct their attention to the importance of managing knowledge and information. Realizing the value of intellectual capital and the need for managing organizational intellectual assets, organizations are seeking a new generation of information professionals who are able to work in intensive and complex knowledge environments. Job opportunities are growing!

15. How Big Is the Knowledge Consulting Marketplace?
Surveys show that more than $10 billion for 2015. As with all such surveys, it’s a question of what is included. Just as most mainstream management consultancies today do not have separate KM lines of business, surveys do not now separate KM revenues. More important is to understand why companies use consultants for knowledge management, so you can develop yourself a profitable niche. Commonly cited reasons are access to unique expertise, an external objective perspective, to speed up progress by adding resources to an internal KM team, to make sure all factors are covered, to avoid pitfalls and mistakes. Whatever your prior consulting experience, there are plenty of opportunities for motivated professionals to develop a KM revenue stream.

16. How Do I Become an Instant Expert on Knowledge Management?
Just remember that maybe much of what you already do might reasonably be re-branded as knowledge management. Check our courses, maybe our new Certification Course and other higher level courses to appear during 2015-2016. Then re-describe your own services with the knowledge vocabulary. It is essential you have a basic grounding, so take at least one of our courses.

17. What’s the Need for Knowledge Management?
“Knowledge has become the key resource, for a nation’s military strength as well as for its economic strength… is fundamentally different from the traditional key resources of the economist (land, labor, and even capital…) we need systematic work on the quality of knowledge and on the productivity of knowledge… the performance capacity, if not the survival, of any organization in the knowledge society will come increasingly to depend on those two factors” [Drucker,1994]. “The coordination and exploitation of organizational knowledge resources, in order to create benefit and competitive advantage” (Drucker 1999). Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker,” and later in his life considered knowledge-worker productivity to be the next frontier of management.

18. What are the benefits to learning how to effectively manage organizational knowledge?

1) Leveraging core business competencies; 2) Accelerating innovation and time to market; 3) Improving cycle times and decision making; 4)Strengthening organizational commitment; 5) Building sustainable competitive advantage

19. What’s the valuation of Intellectual Capital?
1) It is important to consider the widening gap between corporate balance sheets and investors estimates of corporate worth. 2) Globally, knowledge-intensive companies are valued at 3x to 8x their financial capital.

20. What is Human Capital?
1) The body of knowledge the company possesses; 2) Consider, only as an example, knowledge in the minds of Microsoft o Google’s software developers; researchers, academic collaborators, business managers, … just to give an example. It’s valid for (much) smaller companies; 3)Knowledge in the minds of vendors and customers.

21. Which Forces Drive Knowledge Management?
1)Increasing Domain Complexity; 2) The Acceleration of Market Volatility; 3) Intensified Speed of Responsiveness (it is competitiveness at its maximum); 4) Diminishing Individual Experience.

22. What are Knowledge Management Systems?
1) Information technology facilitates sharing as well as accelerated growth of knowledge; 2) Information technology allows the movement of information at increasing speeds and efficiencies; 3) Moore’s Law establishes that computational power doubles each 18 months. But human knowledge doubles each year, and the pace is increasing. Technology facilitates the speed at which knowledge and ideas proliferate; 4) A Knowledge Management System is not only about technology. Though it’s very important, technology solves 20%, the rest is “social.” 5)Effective knowledge management is not about making a choice between software or people, classroom or hands-on, formal or informal, technical or social. KM uses all options available. And all of these options need each other.

Education and training in knowledge management
“I was never trained on KM. I’m just learning it by doing, by trial and error, though it is certain that expenses and perils are not indifferent…”. What would I like to find in a course that would train me to start a project and professional career? Some of us are wondering about exactly, what is it?

©  2015 – Excerpts from the book “Knowledge Management in Organizations” by Virgilio Forte (Ed. Alfaomega)