Global Knowledge Management
- Nurit Ston Lin
- Jan 1, 2008
- 3 min read
Co-written with Yehuda Arad, Teva.
In a company like Teva, lessons and conclusions learned from events occurring at one site must reach other sites where similar conditions exist, even if these sites are on the opposite side of the world. This requires knowledge management. Thus, the benefit of global knowledge management is not just financial profit but also protection of the company's employees' lives.
Challenges of Global Knowledge Management
Knowledge management is a complex field; when you add the global component to the equation, knowledge management becomes even more complex and challenging. Open and hidden resistance, unwillingness to change, and fear of technology are some elements that make knowledge management difficult in a regular company. When dealing with a company like Teva, which has sites and units spread across many countries, the challenges increase significantly.
In establishing the global safety community, which includes one thousand eight hundred users from sixteen different countries, we had to deal with multiple cultures, multiple languages, work with various external and internal factors, differences in regulatory requirements from different authorities, and the local procedures derived from them. Even time differences posed a significant challenge... Try to schedule a working meeting for a team of content experts from India, Canada, and Ireland, and you'll discover it's less simple than it seems.
Dealing with Challenges
To address the challenges mentioned above, we defined several key activities: In the initial stage, we defined the central key roles: the referent and the content expert. From each major territory, we identified a referent who is responsible for both contributing information unique to their country to the portal and for implementing the portal among users, while adapting the information to their specific needs. This referent, who essentially serves as an implementation arm, helped us greatly deal with the abovementioned issues. Some materials assessed as unclear enough were translated into the local language, some information was adapted regarding areas of interest relevant to that country, and even different metaphors adapted to the local culture were used. We must not forget that a referent uncommitted to the project in a single country can cause loss of interest in the portal in that country, resulting in it falling behind in all knowledge areas relevant to it from around the world.
Additionally, we identified experts in specific topics. We conducted mapping work to identify the central experts in the portal's core areas across different countries. These experts were captured into a global team through a set of virtual meetings. Each team ensures the necessary flow of information to and from different countries and is responsible for identifying user needs and providing appropriate responses (all in coordination with local referents).
In certain countries where we identified a major language barrier that made understanding and implementing the material difficult, we established a dedicated portal with the platform adapted to present content in the local language. For example, a local community was established in Italy, and in the coming months, a Mexican community will also launch in Spanish. One of the most beautiful examples of cross-continental knowledge sharing we've seen is a virtual discussion that took place simultaneously in seven different countries with about 50 users participating. During the three-hour discussion, more than eighty questions were observed, to which the content expert team provided real-time answers. During the discussion, we saw that in addition to the answers provided by the experts, a spontaneous discussion developed among the participants, who took the opportunity to share experiences with colleagues facing similar challenges in different countries.
Summary
There are many advantages to establishing a global portal. The benefits of establishing such a portal, including rapid data updating across a wide distribution, exposing all users to news and updates, and creating a sense of brotherhood and community between sites spread around the world, are undisputable and justify the complex work of planning and building this type of portal.
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