Knowledge Management - Capturing And Structuring Knowledge Into Reusable Assets

Many organizations have an approach for identifying and recording lessons learned, perhaps as part of a post-project review or similar process. Unfortunately, lessons learned reports have a tendency to end up on a shelf gathering dust, or lost in the un-chartered corner of a fileserver somewhere. Let's get real. How many people will really trawl diligently through a number of lessons learned documents in order to glean some key point? The reality is, if you can motivate employees to initiate any kind of "learning before doing" activity, then you?re doing pretty well.

Remember the last time you packed your bag in preparation for a business trip?

All those things you need to remember? tickets, passport, currency, itinerary, contact, driving license, power adaptor, Ipod?

We manage to remember the things we need for our business trips without going through each past suitcase-packing experience in our minds, one by one. Somehow, we maintain a meta-level list in our memories. And yet, when it comes to lessons learned, we expect people in our organizations to work thought a pile of lessons learned reports in the hope that a key insight will leap out at them?

We need to find ways to package knowledge into easily accessible "knowledge assets" - structured with a customer in mind.

The steps below are taken from the best-selling fieldbook "Learning to Fly - Practical knowledge management from leading and learning organisations", written by Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell. They don't require sophisticated, bespoke technology just a wilingness to think-through and structure what has been learned.

1. Identify a customer for this knowledge. Have a clear customer - current or future - in mind when considering the creation of a knowledge asset.

2. Get clear what your knowledge asset is really about. What is the scope of your knowledge asset? A knowledge asset needs to cover a specific area of business activity.

3. Identify a community of practice relating to this subject. The community will be the source of the knowledge initially, the users of the knowledge in immediate term, and the people who have an on-going responsibility for validating the future contents of in the knowledge asset. This is key ? or there is a real risk that you will end up with an electronic time capsule - a snapshot in time of the way things used to be done - rather than the current, prized know-how in your organisation.

4. Collate any existing material upon which you can base your knowledge asset and look for general guidelines. Provide some context so that people can understand the purpose and relevance of the knowledge asset. Are there general guidelines that you can distil out of this material?

5. Build a checklist illustrated with examples and stories. The checklist should tell the user of the knowledge asset:

"What are the questions I need to ask myself?"
"What are the steps that I need to take?"

Illustrate it with examples, stories, pictures, digital photographs, models, quotes, video and audio clips if possible.

6. Include links to people. Create a hyperlink to the person's personal home page or e-mail address wherever you mention them in the text. Include a list of all the people with any relationship with the content. Use thumbnail photographs if you have them available.

7.Validate the Guidelines Circulate the guidelines around the community again, and ask "Do the guidelines accurately reflect your knowledge and experience?" "Do you have anything to add?"

8. Publish the knowledge asset. Store the knowledge in a space where it can be accessed by its community. Often this will mean the company intranet.

9. Initiate a feedback and ownership process. Encourage feedback from users, so that they pick up and eliminate any invalid recommendations. Instil a sense of obligation that "if you use it, then you should add to it".

Over time, you'll build up a series of knowledge assets which relate to the key practices in your organisation ? the areas which can bring competitive advantage. The creation of these tangible knowledge assets provides a focus for the communities of practice associated with each one, and ultimately will give credibility to your knowledge management efforts.

--------------------

Chris Collison is a renowned expert in knowledge management and an experienced practitioner in the leadership and implementation of organisational change from a people perspective.

As a best-selling author, he has presented to audiences at business schools and at conferences around the world, and is a regular contributor to specialist knowledge management publications. Chris has worked with leaders at the highest levels of many public and private-sector organizations, sharing the practical experiences he gained whilst working in BP's knowledge management team, and his deep understanding of the human dynamics of major change programmes.

Visit the "learning to fly" website at http://www.learning-to-fly.org

---

The Leadership Imperative: Making Your Leadership Your Life

Nearly all leaders I've encountered are underachievers. They're getting a... Read More

Having Your Phil

February 2nd, at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Gobbler's... Read More

Problem-Solving Success Tip: Dont Leave Your Key Stakeholders Guessing

Communicate! Don't leave you key stakeholders guessing.We are generally not... Read More

Innovation, Idea Selection, Valuation

There is no sure fire route to commercial success, but... Read More

Hiring Great People And How to Be One Yourself: Five Secrets

Bad news.Your senior vice-president, your marketing director or your accounting... Read More

An Honest Look at Your Business

There is a difference between being comfortable and being in... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management ? Hierarchies

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Narcissism in the Boardroom

The perpetrators of the recent spate of financial frauds in... Read More

Doing More With Less

This is a bottom-line environment.Decreasing the downtime of revenue producing... Read More

HRM: Contributing to Well-being or Ill-being at Work?

If you were to take the people out of an... Read More

Problems with Group Decision Making

DECISION BY AUTHORITY RULE: Many groups start out with-or quickly... Read More

Organize your Office- Seven Solutions

1. Create a filing system with broad categories such as... Read More

Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing in a Business Perspective

Business IntelligenceBusiness Intelligence has become a very important activity in... Read More

How to Make the Best of it - Take Your Weather with You

I once worked in a place where there were three... Read More

Great Groups! - Getting a Group to Think Like a Genius

Great Groups! - Getting a Group to Think Like a... Read More

Agendas Make Meetings Productive

Having an agenda template that works well for you, week... Read More

Magnificent Meetings - 5 Tips for Success

Your impact at meetings will determine in a big way... Read More

10 Fundamentals for Effective Meeting

Here are ten fundamental concepts that characterize an effective meeting.Definition:... Read More

He Hate Me: Turning Their Bad Attitude Into Your Great Results

"He Hate Me" was the nickname of Rod Smart, a... Read More

Questions To Ask Employees You Want To Retain

Times of cost cutting and downsizing has dramatically impacted the... Read More

Project Management - Are You Done Yet

What happens when a Project Manager asks one of his... Read More

You Get the Behavior You Reward

On consulting assignments, here are some of the questions I... Read More

Disaster Prevention Tips For Hiring A New Manager

It happens over and over in businesses every day.Within large... Read More

Influencing the Organisation

There is a saying about management that suggests some managers... Read More

Running Successful Meetings - The Key Steps To Getting It Right

We all complain about meetings which are a waste of... Read More

How to Enhance Quality in Your Business

Every business must strive to provide quality products and services... Read More

Using Outlook to Count Responses

Here's a productivity tip that will save you a lot... Read More

The Power of the Contract in Performance Management

An essential step in managing the performance of salespeople is... Read More

Knowing versus Doing - Execution In The Workplace

Have you ever worked with someone who always seemed to... Read More

Performance Appraisal - Ten Stupid Things Managers Do To Screw It Up

Performance appraisals aren't fun. But a lot of the time... Read More

Train Me -- But Follow Through

My mechanic has me trained. When I take my car... Read More

Performance Management Made Easy

Performance Management is a process that both employer and employee... Read More

Innovation Management ? Measuring Failure!

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More