KM in Action: Relationship of Captured Knowledge to Future Decision Making
Posted by drdan01 on Tuesday, April 26 @ 19:25:07 CDT
How successful is your organization in capturing knowledge AND then using that knowledge as a basis for future decision making? Why does it seem that even when an organization has learned a "painful lesson" it seems intent upon repeating that lesson over and over?
The question perhaps is whether or not organizations are somewhat doomed to repeat mistakes or can knowledge management be effectively linked to organizational change?
It has been seven years since the publication of Carla O'Dell's book titled, "If Only we Knew What We Know" and it would seem that recent articles in Business Week, Fast Company, and Business 2.0 all demonstrate that in many organizations, critical knowledge frequently must be "relearned" at tremendous negative impact to both efficiency and effectiveness.
Industry experts agree that KM must be treated as an organizational change effort. Amrit Tiwana suggests that an organization must, "manage and implement cultural and process changes to make your knowledge management system as well as your knowledge management strategy succeed."
"I couldn't agree more, and I see that as a critical failure in many knowledge management implementation efforts," said KMPro's Dr. Dan Kirsch. He added, "In the ever changing environment within which today's organizations operate, successful implementation of knowledge management is more important than ever. And an organization's ability to change will have significant impact upon its ability to avoid being left behind."
Case after case seems to indicate that without the ability to gain top-management support for knowledge management, an organization can be expected to "relearn" its lessons time and time again. And that seems to expose a fundamental flaw in the ability of many of those actively involved in knowledge management implementation -- failure to achieve the cultural changes necessary to allow the organization to then actually take advantage of the benefits of having the knowledge. Knowledge gained is of no value if it isn't used properly.
"After all, what's the point of learning to become a so-called 'knowledge worker' if you're personally lacking the tools necessary to gain commitment or get buy-in from top management?" asks Dr. Dan Kirsch. "That knowledge worker can 'stand on the shoulders of giants' all day and still get nowhere, if that giant is standing in quicksand."
