7 Knowledge management Best Practices

If your organization implements a formal knowledge management strategy for the first time, it is important that you give good thoughts about what you want to achieve and the type of tools you need to achieve your goals. What you do at this formative stage will determine how well your company is able to reap the benefits of knowledge management.

Here are seven best practices that will help you compile and implement an effective knowledge management strategy:

1. Your organization's identification is knowledge

What knowledge is contained in your organization and where current knowledge is stored? Knowledge is not just a singular phenomenon. This includes explicit knowledge, which is documented and easily transferable; Implicit knowledge, which is not documented and usually resides in the brains of people; and embedded knowledge, which is built into various processes and procedures. An effective knowledge management strategy takes into account all types of knowledge.

2. Set goals and priorities

What do you want your knowledge management strategy to accomplish? Is your goal to improve customer service, operations, or intra-organization collaboration? If you have multiple goals, what are the priorities? Having clear goals and objectives will help you choose the right tools, set tasks and responsibilities, and define metrics to measure how well your system works.

3. Create knowledge creation, identification, and easy sharing

Knowledge management systems will only benefit your organization if it is easy to use. The goal is to reduce the cognitive burden of your employees and the time spent on low-level tasks, not to improve them. Give your employees access to the information they need and give them an opportunity to collaborate. Also, keeping everything in one place Don t requires employees to use different systems to access information related to customer service, sales, and marketing, for example.

4. Create a culture of knowledge sharing

A knowledge sharing culture is one that foster knowledge sharing across organizations with the goal of making the whole organization more productive. It recognizes that there is a difference between information and knowledge, and seeks to turn the first one into a second one. This is an environment where collective knowledge is rewarded over individual knowledge, where failure is seen as an opportunity to gain new knowledge, and where working together is the norm.

5. Use what you know to find what you don't

Knowledge management is not just about gathering knowledge organizations to a centralized location so that it can be used by all employees. It's also about recognizing gaps in knowledge and working to fill them. In an environment where innovation is important to success, no business is able to think it already knows everything.

6. Think Long term

Ideally, the strategy you apply now will support the growth of your companys into the future. Think about what kind of knowledge management tools you might need to walk down the road and leave room for them in your current implementation.

7. Use the right technology

Many knowledge management software packages are available, ranging from bare-bones to tricked-outs. The features you need will depend on your goals and on the resources you have to devote to them. Before investing in the first knowledge management system you find, do your research and select the one that best reflects your goals. Keep in mind that flexibility is one of the top features of any app.

Implementing a knowledge management strategy is one of the best steps you can take to move your business to the next level. Following these seven best practices will help you identify, determine, and implement strategies for business success.

By: David Milner