Why do Knowledge Management (KM) Initiatives Fail?

The following blog post is by my guest blogger - David Schneider - I look forward to your comments:

Why do Knowledge Management (KM) Initiatives Fail?


The fact is that few knowledge management initiatives are successful. But, why is this result? What is the cause and effect? Is it because under qualified professional? Or is their more to it than that? What about a magic “silver bullet”? Is a cultural issue?

I believe the reason why knowledge management initiatives fail are varied as there are stars in the sky. I believe one of the main reasons knowledge management initiatives fail is based on how the organization views knowledge management. Knowledge Management is viewed just as a function of the call center. KM is more than a function of a call center and its benefits are far reaching as any Lean process or any other initiatives a corporation take put into practice. KM is mainly viewed by most corporations that have a KM effort as a cost of doing business. This is an error in philosophy, KM is a method of reducing expenses, improve productivity, and enhancing value.

KM will improve efficiencies that will increase a corporations’ profitability, enhances the quality of work, performance, and overall value of the corporation. KM allows tacit knowledge to be leveraged, transferred to increase the quality of work performed across the corporation. This tacit knowledge allows KM to eliminate the “reinvent the wheel” syndrome. This transfer of knowledge is the essence of knowledge management.

Outside of a corporations’ philosophy error there are several reasons for KM initiatives fail. Some of those reasons are as follows:

• Expecting KM technologies to replace KM processes or create processes where none exists.

• Lack of participation from all levels of a corporation.

• Forcing inadequate processes into new technology.

• Lack of maintenance and resources after initial standup.

• Lack of education and understanding of what KM means to the individual.

• KM does not become ingrained into the corporations work culture.

• Lack of involvement in creating and evolving KM content.

• Lack of metrics to measure the impact of KM on the corporation or insufficient/incorrect metrics being captured.

• Lack of monitoring and controls in place to ensure the knowledge is relevant and is current and accurate.

KM initiatives are essential to a corporations’ growth and is more than just the cost of doing business. Successful KM initiatives once completed and funded correctly it increase a corporations’ profitability, enhance the quality of work, and overall value of the corporation.

David Schneider
dschneider1023@yahoo.com

Opportunities for Knowledge Management

When determining if or when you should incorporate Knowledge Management (KM) in your organization you must first look for opportunities where KM can be used. In addition where KM can bring about visible results that can be communicated throughout your organization. An immediate KM initiative that can be leveraged is what is called no or low budget KM. These initiatives include conducting, capturing and distributing "lessons learned" on projects and other corporate initiatives, writing a "trip report" and conducting a presentation to your team when you go to a conference and/or attend an important corporate function (this promotes knowledge sharing), and conducting "brow bags" presenting a topic of interest. These activities all address one of the central themes of KM, Knowledge Sharing and Transfer. Keep in mind that when I say no or low budget there may be no cost to the organization or very little cost. An important factor in these challenging economic times.

I also mentioned distributing this knowledge throughout your organization. One simple way to do this is to make the trip reports and presentations, lessons learned and brown bag presentations available on the corporate intranet and send out the appropriate communication to let everyone know that this information is available along with the principle person(s) contact information. You should encourage people who leverage this knowledge to send the principle person(s) an email letting them know how it has made a difference for them. All of the emails should be documented and presented to management to show how KM can bring about visible results and that an official KM initiative (with budget) should be examined and launched.

This is one effective way in looking for opportunities for Knowledge Management. I look forward to your comments and contributions on this subject.

The Obama Affect

Happy Holidays to All!

During the next several post I would like to examine the affect the Obama presidential campaign, cabinet selections and governing strategy is being shaped by the principles, practices, and technology of Knowledge Management (KM). I am referring to this as "The Obama Affect". This is the first time in the history of American politics that someone has leverage KM in a political campaign and has ultimately changed how politicians will be elected. KM has many facets. Among its many facets KM includes knowledge acquisition, collaboration, knowledge transfer/sharing, and the technology and strategy to effectively leverage knowledge to shape decisions.

The Obama Team has instituted a push strategy executing a knowledge sharing policy that includes disseminating information about the the campaign, transition team, cabinet selections and future policies via , email, mobile devises, and Internet. As the Obama Team continues to add cabinet positions and shape their policy decisions the following links provide some insight into their strategy:

http://change.gov/

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

http://www.ontheissues.org/Barack_Obama.htm

A good KM strategy Includes:

KM Vision
Valuation of Knowledge Assets (People, Process and Technology)
Conducting Knowledge Audit
KM Strategy Details
· Knowledge Acquisition Planning
· Knowledge Transfer Planning
· Knowledge Sharing/Collaboration Planning
· Knowledge Management System Planning

We will examine each aspect of the Obama KM Strategy and I welcome your comments and suggestions.