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Knowledge Management – It’s all about you

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The practice of knowledge management and participation in Enterprise 2.0 is not just an organizational responsibility. It is also a personal responsibility. It simply does not happen without your active participation. This has always been true; before Web 2.0, before the Internet, before email, and before technology impacted our life so prevalently. Think about some popular KM techniques:
•    On-the-job training
•    Mentoring
•    Coaching
•    Apprenticeship
•    Succession planning
•    Networking
•    Teaching
•    Publishing

These all have a common purpose – knowledge transfer, and they all require active participation.

In today’s world we tend to focus on the tools that enable knowledge transfer. In many organizations KM is referred to by tools name; we use SharePoint for KM, or we teach in Blackboard, or I network on LinkedIn, or I publish in blogs like WordPress. Sometimes so much so that organizations begin to believe that the tool is KM or that it provides the collaboration or knowledge transfer. These tools are no more KM today than the Guttenberg printing press was KM when it enabled publishing, or the Pony Express was KM when it began mail service from east to west coast in the U.S., or the telephone was KM when it enabled voice connections and party lines, or the television when it revolutionized information transfer from one to many. The tools change, and always will, but the goal of knowledge transfer remains the same, and so does human active participation.
No matter the tool it is up to you, the individual, to actively participate in the transfer of information and knowledge. You decide to add knowledge to the repository, or update your SME profile, or attend a community of practice meeting, or mentor a colleague, or attend a company function, or network at a conference. No technology can make you think in terms of collaboration and sharing. This is up to you. You can hoard, or you can share. You can release only the information you deem necessary, or you can have a responsibility to provide. The adoption and use of KM is personal and up to you. Don’t get locked in the tool box. Become an active participant in knowledge transfer.

Comments

Submitted by Bob Larrivee April 29, 2010 - 9:43 AM

Art you are so right. Knowledge Management is all about Knowledge Exchange and it will not happen unless there is a willingness and active participation on the part of individuals.

Just like these forums, they are available but unless people actively participate there is no exchange of ideas and thoughts. Knowledge Management is a cultural mindset that for some comes easy and others not. For example, I was in a discussion about this last week in Philly at the conference. The individual I spoke with said he does not feel comfortable using technology to share and post information at work yet he regularly uses LinkedIn and Facebook to share with friends and colleagues. When I asked why not do this at work, he commented that his workplace environment was still locked into protectionist silos and the people there will share ideas but only when asked to and not in a proactive manner.

The tools are here, we just need to break down the cultural barriers.

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Submitted by Evgeniy Beloshytskiy April 30, 2010 - 7:26 AM

Knowledge Exchange is just a part of Knowledge Management. KE does not reflects Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Storage, Knowledge Update and so on. I think so...

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Submitted by May 01, 2010 - 7:02 AM

Bob that is a great story. I bet that mindset is more prevalent then I would have imagined. You share where you are comfortable, and most of us mimic the behavior of the crowd or corporate culture. It goes beyond "why should I share if nobody else does?" It the conditions for KE are not inculcated within the organization I can see how many folks would not think it is acceptable or in their best interest to share and collaborate.
I need to explore this further in my organization.

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Submitted by Nick Inglis April 29, 2010 - 9:59 AM

Great point on the personal nature of KM, sometimes that's where it all starts within an organization as well.

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Submitted by Douglas Schultz May 25, 2010 - 1:52 PM

I agree Art. It is a personal choice to share your knowledge and insights and to be willing to help those that follow behind you. And like Bob said, it's more of a cultural issue than a tool issue. We have plenty of tools.

I had a blog posting a few weeks ago that talked about Knowledge Hoarders and Knowledge Leaders. http://www.accesssciences.com/node/268

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Submitted by Danny Bronson May 31, 2010 - 9:02 AM

When I put on my psychology hat (and dust off the old books) I see that there is definitely a common psychology surrounding KM implementation. In certain environments, commoditization of an individual's personal knowledge equates to personal devaulation. So from my experience, you have that barrier to break through to get to free exchange and canonization of organizational knowledge. You can try to make the process less intrusive thru investments in integration tools but the process is still subject to Maslowe's hierarchy of motivators; and one's organizational survival still trumps "organizational self actualization". Smart organizations deal with the environmental factors and take them just a seriously as the technological ones (if there is even any other way of doing it now).

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This post and comment(s) reflect the personal perspectives of community members, and not necessarily those of their employers or of AIIM International