The goal of this article is to help KM practitioners articulate a KM approach in their organization. Much of the time KM is described in programmatic terms. In my experience this makes KM challenging for business leaders and managers to grasp. I have started to describe KM in terms of a management approach and/or philosophy and this seems to be resonating well in the organization. As I was recently told by a senior executive, “You describing KM as an approach and/or philosophy is something I can get my head around in a strategic context.” I realize that this may not resonate well with KM purist, theorists, or technologists. But my job is to find ways for management to move the organization towards a culture of collaboration. This approach seems to be working.
I call KM a concept because it is an intangible. You can’t purchase “KM” or hold it in your hands. KM is a business approach or philosophy. A KM approach is one that incorporates the conscious integration of people, processes, and technology in how business is conducted. It is a business approach based on collaboration, sharing, and knowledge flow. It can also be viewed as a leadership style. In fact an organization’s leadership style will significantly impact the success of a KM approach. Let’s look at three different styles:
Comparing Three Types of Leadership – Harvard Business Review July-August 2011
| Command and Control | Consensus | Collaborative | |
| Organizational Structure | Hierarchy | Matrix of small group | Dispersed, cross-organizational network |
| Who has the relevant information? | Senior management | Formally designated members or representatives of the relevant geographies and disciplines | Employees at all levels and locations and a variety of external stakeholders |
| Who has the authority to make final decisions? | The people at the top of the organization have clear authority | All parties have equal authority | The people leading collaborations have clear authority |
| What is the basis for accountability and control? | Financial results against plan | Many performance indicators, by function or geography | Performance on achieving shared goals |
| Where does it work best? | Works well within a defined hierarchy; works poorly for complex organizations and when innovation is important | Works in small teams; works poorly when speed is important | Works well for diverse groups and cross-unit and cross-company work, and when innovation and creativity are critical |
At its most basic level KM is simply a management tool. It is a management tool that can help solve business challenges by identifying and filling knowledge gaps, by minimizing or eliminating knowledge flow blockages, by capturing key knowledge and transferring it to those who need to know, by cultivating an ethic of contribution, and by developing a collaborative management approach which:
- Ensures staff have joint responsibilities in addition to their individual goals
- Compensates and rewards staff on collective goals and responsibilities
- Bounds staff to both performance and learning goals
- Eliminates power struggles, silos, individual heroic actions, and the like
- Pushes staff to collaborate with others outside their immediate work area
KM consists of principles, competencies, approaches, methods, and practices that can be leveraged as leaders set goals and priorities, managers make decisions, and staff accomplishes their work.
KM as a business approach is grounded by generally accepted KM principles and enabled by KM competencies. The principles include:
People
- Train and educate organizational leaders, managers, and champions
- Recognize and reward knowledge sharing
- Establish policies and promote collaboration
- Use every interaction whether face-to-face or virtual as an opportunity to acquire and share knowledge
- Prevent knowledge loss
Process
- Protect and secure information and knowledge access
- Embed knowledge assets in standard business processes and provide access to those who need to know
- Use standard business rules and process across the organization
Technology
- Use standard collaborative tool sets
- Use open architecture to permit access and searching across boundaries
- Use a search capability to access contextual knowledge and store content for discovery
- Use portals that permit single sign-on and authentication across the organization and broader enterprise
The competencies include:
These principles and competencies exist to help meet the KM goal which is to aid knowledge flow and to collect to and to connect to organizational knowledge (aka intellectual capital). If this concept is important to the organization, or leader, or manager then they should employ a KM management approach. So what might that look like? It could simply be that as we find knowledge gaps or expose issues with certain job processes and functions we ensure that we look at potential cures through a people, process, and technology lens. This approach helps us look at challenges holistically enabling us to make more informed decisions.
| How do we… | People | Process | Technology |
| …create a common vision? | |||
| …develop expertise? | |||
| …share expertise? | |||
| …determine who needs what knowledge/information? | |||
| …ensure the right people get the right knowledge/information at the right time? | |||
| …transfer knowledge within the organization? | |||
| …store and organize our knowledge/information? | |||
| …ensure updates are shared? | |||
| …capture new knowledge/information |
How you organize your day and your workspaceKM approaches can be used at every level of the organization. Personal KM is what you do to help you with knowledge flow, collection and connection. This includes activities such as
- The formal and informal networks you associate and participate in
- The tools and technologies you use to communicate, collaborate, and share information and knowledge and the processes associated with their use
- The learning activities you participate in as both a student and teacher
- Your personal culture; are do you operate better in a Personal mode (face-to-face, person-to-person) or in a Codification mode (using e-mail, documents, briefings, databases, etc.?)
- Your bias towards risk as it applies to collaboration and sharing (do you feel comfort and a responsibility to share or do you think it dilutes your power and stature or may have some other potentially negative consequences?)
Departmental or office level KM is obviously focused on a part of the organization. Each entity has its own culture towards collaboration and sharing and may have rules (written or unwritten) on what is acceptable or tabu. Of course each manager has their own management style. It may be collaborative or it may be command and control. This management style will impact the organizations ability to abide by the KM principles. These “norms” will influence your personal KM, office level KM, and enterprise level KM.
Enterprise level KM provides the catalyst for adopting a KM approach throughout the organization. Leaders who demonstrate KM behaviors through their actions show the rest of the staff that collaboration, sharing, collecting, and connecting is important to the success of the organization. Policies that drive and guide collaborative behaviors in the people, process, and technology dimensions reinforce a culture of collaboration and an ethic of contribution.
So what about all those “KM tools” we hear about? There are both hard and soft tools. Hard tools include technology hardware and software that for the most part assists with collaboration, networking, searching, reporting, business intelligence and related items. Samples of these tools include Traction, MS SharePoint, MS Communicator, Google, Skype, blog and wiki software, etc. Soft tools have more to do with KM methods. Samples of these tools include After Action Reviews, Communities of Practice, Knowledge Audits, Peer Assists, Storytelling, Retrospect, etc. Tools, both hard and soft, are just that – tools. They are enablers to collaboration, sharing, collecting, and connecting. A technology alone is never “KM” it is just a technology no matter what the vendor says. It takes people, process, and technology combined to actually implement a KM approach and that approach should be aimed at solving some business challenge or knowledge gap.
What about “KM initiatives?” Those are operational efforts to address knowledge gaps or collaboration related issues. For instance there may be initiatives around better information search and findability, or about bringing disparate groups together to solve a business issue, or to develop a methodology to capture and transfer knowledge from experience staff to junior staff, or to create a subject matter expert directory, or develop a portal for a specific subject, etc. These initiatives may not be described in these terms, but in terms of solving a business issue. They could simply be customer service, or process improvement, or human resources initiatives. These initiatives are the tactical side of KM. When an organization makes the strategic decision to take a KM management approach it is accompanied by tactical initiatives that aim to solve knowledge gaps and enhance collaboration, sharing, collecting, and connecting. These initiatives are usually sponsored and prioritized by a Knowledge Management Steering Committee or similar entity that is comprised of business leaders and/or managers. The committee ensures that management resources are available and accounted for, and that metrics are captured, shared, and analyzed to ensure objectives are being met.
So there you have it. I hope this article has taken some of the mystery out of KM. The number 1 take-away is that KM is a management approach. So when you hear KM; think approach and philosophy not tool and technology.
