Knowledge Needs Mapping
- Dr. Moria Levy
- Apr 30, 2000
- 4 min read
Knowledge management in the long term is a managerial worldview. Knowledge should be managed wherever it exists; its management can help optimize or leverage the organization, and the cost involved in knowledge management is not higher than the benefits.
However, looking at the short and medium terms, every organization will discover that there are already many knowledge-intensive activities within it, where knowledge management can greatly help the organization. It is not possible to start managing all related knowledge at once.
Purpose of Knowledge Needs Mapping
The purpose of the knowledge needs mapping process is to surface the main topics where it is worthwhile to manage knowledge and to prioritize the topics that should be addressed before others.
Such mapping can be performed at the entire organization level or the unit level.
Parameters Examined for Each Candidate Topic
Level of Existing Knowledge
Examination of existing knowledge and its share in the skills required from holders of different positions. There are positions where knowledge that can be acquired formally (through courses, books, etc.) is required; in other positions, accumulated experience in the role is more dominant.
Questions that can be asked when trying to examine the level of informal knowledge:
What is the level of turnover in the position?
How is a new person trained?
What is the wording of a job posting for the position?
The first step is to identify the topics and positions where there is a "high level of informal knowledge."
Cost
Examination of the cost of knowledge management.
The cost of knowledge management involves several elements:
The existence of orderly work processes for performing the role
Actual implementation of these work processes; uniformity between the implementation by different people in the organization
Level of computerization integration in different work processes; level of use of operational software
Diversity of position holders (Are 1,000 people 200 positions of 5 people per position, or 1,000 holders of different positions?)
People's readiness for change
Cost of the establishment project: including cost of software changes, process, establishment of knowledge core, and implementation
Cost of ongoing maintenance for adding knowledge items and examining their currency on an ongoing basis
Benefit
The level of benefit that will grow for the company if the knowledge topic is managed, and the extent of pain to the organization if the knowledge is not managed.
To answer these questions, one must first look at the organization's goals and examine:
Which goals does the specific knowledge management advance?
To what extent does knowledge management advance the goal?
What will happen if the knowledge does not exist in the organization? What is the probability that such a situation will occur?
Life Expectancy
The level of life expectancy of knowledge items. Life expectancy is not an independent measure as it combines elements of cost. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to examine it on its own:
How long does each item "live" before it becomes obsolete? Items with high turnover have increased costs.
Timing
The critical time is when it is not recommended to enter into activity for a specific department/position. There are positions where the issue of time prioritization is easy to define and fixed (finance department - before year-end); in contrast, in other departments the issue can be defined according to the work plan (pressure to complete a project); there are positions and groups where there are many changes and therefore the timing issue must be refreshed periodically, and certainly before any decision to start activity in this group.
Success Probability
In every organization, knowledge management still requires proof. Since the topic is not sufficiently understood or sufficiently tangible, its necessity is not necessarily clear. As part of the mapping stage, the knowledge focal points recommended for the pilot should be identified. Those, beyond the knowledge management that will be achieved through them, can also be used as a marketing element for the topic.
Criteria for examining success as a pilot include:
People's readiness for change
Process dependence on external factors (which could delay it)
Marketing Potential
The implications for continuing knowledge management activities, if knowledge management succeeds, and various factors within the organization are exposed to it.
Parameters affecting the level of marketing potential:
Centrality of the discussed domain
Ability to expose the activity to many people in the organization
The image of the topic before knowledge management was "problematic" / "requiring improvement"
The degree of representativeness of the solution and the ability to infer from it regarding additional knowledge management projects
Conclusion
Mapping work is crucial for defining the priorities of managing knowledge within various organizational bodies. It should be remembered that everywhere, there is always knowledge, some of it managed and some not. The intelligent mapping should help focus on the knowledge focal points where it is worthwhile to prioritize treatment, both for the organization's benefit (more results with fewer resources) and for the project's benefit (if the importance of knowledge management has not been sufficiently internalized).
Knowledge management is a means, not a goal; the mapping must identify the places where this means indeed helps the organization achieve its main purpose - its goals.
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