The Case for Knowledge Management

The following was a previous post from the "Process Waterhole". In this time of massive job loss and when employers are asking more for less from their employees I believe this is worth mentioning again:

If your organization is either loosing valuable knowledge due to staff retirement, staff moving to other departments, or dismissed for a variety of reasons, then your organization has a strong case for Knowledge Management (KM). Managing your human capital when staff enters your organization through employee orientation, mapping their roles, responsibilities and their work products as they perform their duties and executing a comprehensive exit interview are all aspects of a KM strategy aimed at moving your human capital to corporate capital.

Take a careful examination of your organization and determine if this situation is something you are dealing with and take the necessary steps to keep your organization viable by instituting a comprehensive KM Strategy.

I look forward to your comments.

Knowledge Management Education

I recently read the discussion and the associated comments around KM education, which includes university courses (Masters programs), Certification programs and Certificate programs. This discussion is hosted by Art Schlussel in the CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer) Forum in Linkedin. This discussion inspired me to elaborate on my thoughts concerning KM education. As I stated in my comments to Art for any education to be effective it must be supported by practical application including having experienced mentors work with participants who have recently completed any number of various KM training venues.

In this discussion Art mentioned that a partnership between the US Military and a well know accredited university to build a comprehensive KM training program is in its preliminary stages. However, the major issue is what does or will this training consist of and the fact that the US military wants it to follow their KM Competency Model (see above):

I believe that the KM Training should have a holistic approach, which will cover the following:
The Basics and differences between, Data, Information and Knowledge
Establishing "your" definition of Knowledge Management
Developing/Executing Knowledge Management Strategy (Including Knowledge Audits, Knowledge Mapping, KM Process)
Identifying and Address Knowledge Gaps (result from knowledge audit)
Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing (Communities of Practices
Knowledge Transfer Planning (Mentor Protege, Knowledge Codification)
Collecting/Applying Knowledge Management Metrics
Identifying, Planning and Executing KM Projects/Initiatives
Knowledge Management Tools (Wikis, Blogs, Search, KM Systems)

While this is not an exhaustive list, the approach must include the planning, strategy and processes applied for knowledge management as well as the software that will enable and support the execution of the KM program initiatives. The Army's KM Competency Model serves as a foundation to how the Army will approach KM and forms the basis of what KM will address from the Army's perspective. The Army's Enterprise KM Competency Model represents one holistic approach to institutionalizing KM. I believe that a holistic approach to KM is where we must begin in our training as well as our execution of KM at our organizations.