The Partners in the Mapping Process
- Dr. Moria Levy
- Dec 1, 2000
- 2 min read
The first stage in a knowledge management project is the mapping stage. At this stage, we map the numerous knowledge topics existing in the organization and locate the knowledge items worthy of management—those whose management has the greatest added value for the organization's success. Implementation of this stage is typically conducted through interviews with company personnel or a brainstorming process. In any case, the main efforts are made with managers and experts in the organization.
Why specifically managers and experts?
From the understanding and thinking that they treasure within themselves, the knowledge, that personal asset we aspire to transform into an organizational asset. The knowledge we are seeking is the informal knowledge (Tacit Knowledge) stemming from the experience and expertise found within them. We wish to formalize and make this knowledge available to all (Explicit Knowledge). It is most natural to turn to these groups, and this group is worthy and necessary. Still, it is not sufficient for obtaining a complete picture of what knowledge the organization truly lacks. Salvation will not always emerge from managers and experts. Let us not forget that knowledge holders see it as trivial and do not always know how to point out what is missing because they have already "forgotten"—the knowledge and experience stored within them have become part of them.
Therefore, it is no less important to start from the opposite direction, the less natural one. It is recommended to approach new employees who have recently joined the organization and are still in the absorption stages. While they have not yet accumulated enough experience, they can help us understand what types of knowledge they felt were greatly lacking at the beginning of their work, where they mainly felt the gap stemming from experience, and what knowledge items would have helped them go through the absorption process more quickly and easily, had they been included in a knowledge repository. The findings we discover may be surprising. Ask, for example, a new employee in the information systems department, where was his main deficiency in absorption: in technological understanding (considered by us as a main criterion for absorption) or perhaps in business understanding of the organization?
It is not impossible that the answer you receive will not always lean toward the technological aspect.
In summary, the combination of experts, knowledge providers, on one hand, and new employees, knowledge consumers, on the other hand, will lead to improved mapping. In hindsight, it's trivial.
P.S. Even after the mapping stage, it is, of course, recommended to continue utilizing new employees in the implementation and deployment stages of knowledge management within the organization. The implementation and application of knowledge management will succeed better if we utilize these employees and provide them with the opportunity to take initiative and assume responsibility for the knowledge they possess, the knowledge they lack, and the knowledge they need. In this way, the value of the company's intellectual capital will increase, making waves not only in harnessing knowledge at the daily work level but also in paving the way for the broad deployment of knowledge management throughout the organization.
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