Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Knowledge management is the process of organizing, using, and sharing knowledge within the organization. According to IBM, there are three types of knowledge: tacit, implicit, and explicit.
Tacit knowledge is acquired through experience. An example of tacit knowledge could be leadership skills.
Explicit knowledge is captured in documents like manuals, reports, data, etc.
Implicit knowledge is often referred to as know-how. If we use the definition above for explicit knowledge, implicit knowledge would be how someone generates a report or data set.
I like to think of knowledge management like an organizational journal or scrapbook. It’s designed to provide history and context. Organizations need knowledge management because sometimes we forget why we created a policy, procedure, rule, etc. We just say to ourselves, “We’ve always done it that way.” That’s not always helpful, especially when it comes to strategic planning.
I was reminded about the importance of knowledge management after listening to a session during this year’s HR Technology Online 2024. Keynote speaker Michael Kannisto, Ph.D. founder of MindemicLab was presenting on how “HR Tech Success Starts with Asking the Right Questions”. In his session, he outlined a very comprehensive list of questions that organizations should be asking themselves when they are implementing a technology solution. While the list includes questions that you would expect, there were several that caught my attention.
BEFORE the implementation.
- Who hates the current system? Maybe we need to talk with them.
- How would our competition solve this problem? This could be a great question to ask in other problem-solving scenarios as well!
- How will success be measured? Always important to know before you start a project – not after.
DURING the implementation.
- If the implementation fails, how is it likely to happen? We’ve defined success measurements (above), it could make sense to also discuss what failure looks like.
- What’s a warning sign that we’re off track? I love this question. Organizations often get themselves into trouble by ignoring the warning signs. And it ends up being expensive to fix.
- Will this conflict with any existing policies and/or procedures? The answer is yes. Yes, there will be some conflicts. Organizations need to identify and address them.
AFTER the implementation.
- How do we create user adoption? If the organization implements a system and no one uses it, then it’s hard to realize success and return on investment.
- How / When will we evaluate the system? Establish a regular schedule (in advance) to review the system.
- How will we know when it’s time to change / retire the system? I know we don’t like talking about retiring a system that we just implemented but things do get old and outdated.
Again, I didn’t publish the full list of questions. Fortunately, Kannisto did posted them on his LinkedIn page if you’d like to check it out.
My big takeaway from Kannisto’s session was in the closing. He talked about revisiting the answers to these project management related questions during an HR strategy session. That’s when it occurred to me to include project management in the knowledge management process. Remind the HR team why a technology solution was implemented, the benefits and challenges experienced, and next steps.
It’s possible there are new people on the HR team who don’t know why the technology solution they’re currently using was selected. Frankly, there could be people who were on the implementation team that don’t remember why this specific solution was selected. We don’t have to revisit every detail, but when talking about future HR technology strategies it could make sense to provide some history with the numbers.
Project management teams cannot take the approach that keeping the details of why a technology vendor was selected and how the technology was implemented a secret. The key to a successful project is sharing. Just like the key to a successful knowledge management program is sharing. Organizations and individuals benefit from shared knowledge.
Kannisto’s session also reminded me that this approach could be valuable in non-tech settings as well. As the organization is discussing their talent acquisition strategy or employee experience or employee value proposition, think about how to bring some of those past discussions into the conversation. It’s possible they will provide some context to the current situation which would be helpful in the strategic planning process.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of San Francisco, CA
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