Knowledge Management: Why should I care?

RMA Journal, The, Feb, 2002 by Ed Beasley

"The rapid rise of the internet in parallel with the exponentially growing capabilities of information technology (computers, communications, etc.) has effectively moved the industrialized world into a new economic paradigm.... In the industrial era, tangible assets were the major source of value; but in the information era, information has more value than tangible assets."

Patrick L. Sullivan, Value-Driven Intellectual Capital

Companies have huge in vestments in network infrastructure today. To make use of this already capitalized expense, companies are turning to knowledge management (KM).

KM is a process of defining who in your company needs to know what information, at what point in time, and how they can access it from wherever they are. An easy way to remember is the "who, what, when, where, why" rule of writing a composition. And you thought you didn't learn anything in eighth grade!

Is There Really a Business Issue Here?

Undoubtedly! Our friends at IBM cite the following training statistics:

* In year 2000, $54 billion was spent on formal training.

* In year 2000, indirect training costs were between $140 billion to $240 billion.

* Less than 30% of training gets transferred to workplace performance.

* 60% of employees spend an hour a day duplicating the work of others.

KM seeks to maximize employee efficiency and avoid rework and the dreaded "reinventing the wheel" syndrome. KM is a long-term, persistent business strategy that should involve all members of the organization. It seeks to identify, capture, document, share, update, and improve business processes.

Where Do You Begin a KM Project?

KM does not exist in a vacuum. Begin a KM strategy by first reviewing the company's mission statement. At the broadest level, we are seeking what's important to the business and what is not. A layer below the mission statement is the strategic plan. Assuming this is more than a dust magnet, the strategic plan should give interested parties some hints as to where KM energy should be spent.

More toward the bottom of the organizational block chart lie department plans and even individual job descriptions. All of these feeder documents can contribute to a robust KM strategy.

The intent is to stratify the organizational objectives into one of two categories: the significant few and the insignificant many.

"But Our Company Doesn't Have a KM culture"

Let's face it. Nothing can be done in an organization without the cooperation of the staff. Convincing employees of the merits of KM is not a hard sell. You would find nearly everyone in the workplace could agree on a list of adversities they confront each business day:

* Change is extraordinary and the pace is accelerating.

* Resources to accomplish a task are stable or decreasing

* Personnel turnover is a problem.

* Finding opportunities to train people and still accomplish the job are scarce.

* Finding qualified applicants with the right skills is difficult.

Implementing a knowledge management plan within the organization serves all entities: employee, department, and organization. As an increasing share of an organization's information is placed in digital form, companies must make efforts to define, categorize, and share it with those who need it. Management must also ensure that employees can find the information they need to perform their jobs. If the employee is new or unskilled, management must provide the tools to remedy the deficiency.

What Does the Absence of Knowledge Management Look Like?

Just about anyone who lives in a house with a basement will be able to relate to the experience of opening the basement door, walking down the steps, and then trying to find something. Anything. Maybe you have a garage instead of a basement, but the same principle applies: If you don't document where you put something, there's no way you're going to find it, at least not easily.

You could also walk into any Home Depot to see what a lack of KM looks and feels like. How do you find a little thumbtack within more than 1,000 square feet of space if you're left on your own? Is this how bank employees feel when looking for business information?

In most companies, it's not hard to find an example of information anarchy. Just open Windows NT Explorer, or a similar tool, and peruse the company server drive. Is the information segmented either by department or business process? Is the information current, or outdated? Are updates handled in a seamless fashion?

Does anybody really know what time it is? A company can devise, issue, and update all the policies and standard operating procedures it wants, but if the employee doesn't know they exist or where to find them, all effort is in vain. Couple this with the IT group's effort to have users constantly delete information as a means to save server space, and you have a perfect recipe for information dropout and classic re-work.

E-Mail--A Two-Edged Sword

The ease and speed of e-mail drive the frequency of e-mail communication, resulting in a glut of information, much of it unimportant. The technology itself drives the frequency of communication. Walk down any city sidewalk and note the number of people talking on cell phones. They talk because they can. They e-mail because they can.