The 5 Commandments for the Knowledge Manager
- Dr. Moria Levy
- Oct 1, 2002
- 4 min read
As with everything else, knowledge management also has obstacles and traps that a knowledge manager in an organization can fall into when building a knowledge management strategy for their organization. Below are five common mistakes that are recommended to know, identify, and understand how to avoid making. The tip presented below is based on an article written in Destination CRM, and its purpose is not to innovate but to refresh and sharpen the 5 commandments that should hang on the wall of every knowledge manager's office.
1. Ready - Set - Aim
Description of the mistake: This is the most critical mistake that knowledge managers tend to make. Knowledge management will lead nowhere when trying to implement a knowledge management plan where knowledge management itself is the goal (i.e., why manage knowledge? To improve accessibility in general; there is no clear focus). As we've noted many times, knowledge management is not an end in itself but rather a means to achieve organizational goals. Knowledge management is centered on real business problems that have a direct impact on the organization's bottom line.
Symptom of the mistake: Employees don't use knowledge management solutions; there's no practical inspiration in the outputs that knowledge management presents, and the outputs cannot be implemented in a way that advances the organization.
The solution: Knowledge management strategy and solutions must be built in the context of a business problem or organizational goal, define criteria for the optimal solution, and identify the most appropriate technology. The questions that need to be asked by the knowledge manager: What are the business problems? Can they be influenced through knowledge management? If so, what will be the benefit to the organization? What is the right technology that will provide added value to employees and the organization?
2. Build It and the Employees Will Come
Description of the mistake: A smart knowledge manager will never underestimate the importance of an integrated implementation approach for a knowledge management solution in the organization among employees. The work is not done just by installing the solution on the computer. The real value is in usage. What's the benefit of a good solution if no one uses it?
Symptom of the mistake: The technology is so advanced that they think it's sufficient to attract employees; alternatively, the project is driven by the organizational IT department alone, which focuses on its strengths.
The solution: Choose user-friendly technology and build a methodology for marketing and implementing the solution. Both internal organizational marketing of the solution that raises awareness of the added value and benefit that can be derived from using the solution, and providing credibility to users. The implementation must be active in several critical areas to attract the rest.
3. People = Documents
Description of the mistake: If you examine yourselves how much knowledge and experience you have and how much of it is stored in documents, you'll find that only part of the knowledge is documented in the form of documents; furthermore, documents describe a specific context and time and one must know how to wisely utilize the knowledge existing in them as a basis and not as a substitute for thinking. Despite this, knowledge managers often view document repositories as the magic bullet that will solve their knowledge management problems.
Symptom of the mistake: Initially, the usage level might be high, but it will fade once employees don't receive added value from using the system.
The solution: Identify a typical problem that an employee might face, and that knowledge management is supposed to solve. Then ask a simple question: Will the solution be found in a document, or does the employee need to find a professional expert in the field who will help them find the solution? If the answer is the latter, there's a need for a solution that manages "knowledge owners," such as a knowledge community. If an organization has an extensive accumulated knowledge base in its documents ("documented knowledge"), it's recommended to manage the knowledge itself, while providing complementary means for its intelligent use.
4. The Big Bang Approach
Description of the mistake: Today, more than ever, companies focus on reducing risk in stock value and in the bottom line of performance. Grandiose knowledge management projects that require more than 9 months to implement and achieve business value are considered high-risk and often end up as candidates for having no solution.
Symptom of the mistake: Projects that take more than 9 months to implement and two years to show significant business value, and during that time, businesses change, the market changes, and employees change. In response, the project changes accordingly while wasting time, money, and human resources. Often, it doesn't even reach completion...
The solution: Divide the project into defined phases while choosing a focused group for a pilot. So that at the end of each phase, lessons are learned, necessary adjustments are made, and added value is measured before expanding the project to a larger group. This way it will be possible to reduce risk and show marketing results that will tempt and convince them to continue forward.
5. Sinking in the Quicksand of the Supply Side
Description of the mistake: There's a tendency for large organizations to assess what knowledge sources exist in the company and choose the knowledge management solution that will allow employees to access these sources. An approach based on supply as opposed to a demand-based approach. This stems from the overflow of knowledge and "why not utilize this knowledge and share it?"
Symptom of the mistake: A small percentage of usage of the offered knowledge.
The solution: Always think from the side of the receiver, the requester, and not from the side of the provider. Both regarding the essence of the knowledge, and even more so regarding the method of organizing and presenting it to the user.
And despite everything sounding trivial, stop and think for a moment: how many times have we all fallen into one of these traps...
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