Shedding light on knowledge management; lessons learned lead to new ideas about sharing information

HR Magazine, May, 2004 by Pamela Babcock

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Indeed, many knowledge-sharing programs actually make it harder, not easier, for people to do their jobs because they fail to take into account the user's time and ability. "You must make using the knowledge management system simpler and more rewarding than not using it," Rosenberg says. He adds that if your program asks employees to use four search engines, three document-management systems and six collaboration tools on multiple types of computer systems, "you're dead."

Technology, experts agree, should be streamlined enough to integrate into a company's operations, and it must be appropriate to the task.

"Technology is an enabler of knowledge management, but it is not in and of itself the whole answer," Rosenberg cautions.

Accounting for Human Nature

Human nature is a key reason that knowledge doesn't get shared, Goman found in a recent survey of 200 mid-level managers. Team leaders often withhold information and dole it out on a need-to-know basis. Executives ask for collaborative input when they really want a rubber stamp. Managers fear hearing bad news. Post-Enron, there's also a reluctance to trust senior management.

In addition, some people don't know or trust their fellow employees, and some want power over others. Some fear their ideas will be ridiculed. And some simply forget, are too busy or don't want more work and responsibility, Goman says.

Companies looking to minimize or even eliminate these responses toward knowledge management can begin by looking at the way they treat both workers and information.

For example, the ability to listen to ideas is a critical component of effective knowledge management, but most companies are far better at snubbing or suppressing workers' ideas than promoting them, says Alan G. Robinson, a management professor at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts and co-author of Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations (Berrett-Koehler, 2004).

Trust and a willingness to share information--not control it--are other key attributes than can lead to successful knowledge management programs. Companies that don't trust their employees or fear they will put content in the wrong place can hamper the system by adding cumbersome layers of approval for contributing or accessing information. Rosenberg says one firm installed an elaborate customer relationship tracking system, but allowed its sales force--the people most in need of the data--only limited access because it feared defectors would take the information to competitors. (For more information, see "Protecting Trade Secrets" on page 52.)

To encourage information sharing, companies can recognize and promote people who learn, teach and share. Rosenberg adds: "We know, from an HR perspective, that people are attuned to what they are appraised for."

But incentives must be used prudently. One international high-tech firm used contributions to determine raises. Just before year-end evaluations, the system broke down with an overload of hastily composed submissions, many of them meaningless.