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| About KM |
What is knowledge management (KM), and why do we need it?
Why do we do it?
By 2010, many public organizations will see as many as 50 percent of their most senior and knowledgeable workers retire or change careers. We must find a way to retain mission critical employee knowledge, codify it, and transfer it to the new hires. In the U.S. federal government, President George W. Bush issued in 2002 the President Management Agenda that discusses, among other things the importance of our human capital and KM.
Here’s an example
Say you have just discovered a simpler way to deal with the tree blight problem. Perhaps the next thing you might do is regale your nearest office mate with your new discovery. Together you celebrate your wonderful new finding, and ultimately you may pass the information on to someone else.
This is actually a fine way to share knowledge. It even has a name -- the water cooler effect. The only problem with it is, how far does that knowledge travel? Generally, it only affects people who are near you. But each of us creates knowledge every day. What a waste!
Where KM comes in
KM gives us a way to capture the content of hundreds of thousands of water cooler incidents that occur throughout the public sectorall over the country.
And it provides a way to organize the knowledge and make it available to anyOne on request. Imagine the power of being able to learn from the experiences of people on the other side of planet.
KM is about communities, it's horizontal -- cutting across the vertical lines of business, and it lives apart from command and control.
Making KM a priority
Organizations large and small, public and private are realizing that their ability to thrive -- or even survive -- depends on how well they help their staff share knowledge. And with the advent of new enabling technologies, this need is becoming reality here in the public sector.
An agency has decided to make KM a priority and is taking its firsts step toward implementing it. New approaches and technologies are playing a role.
But the key is people, from locating and organizing staff expertise to supporting communities of practice -- informal groups of people working on similar activities who share experience and solve work-related problems.
For a KM presentation, see What is KM? We also provide KM Quotes for your edification. |
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