Sunday, November 30, 2008

Ten Shifts in Knowledge Management

In just 2-3 years knowledge management has come a long way. It has:

  • attracted significant strategic interest from many quarters, including top companies and government agencies
  • spurred the release of several journals/magazines devoted exclusively to knowledge management
  • become an initiative in between a third and half of Fortune 500 companies
  • has delivered demonstrable benefits in a variety of situations
  • created market opportunities for suppliers, especially for software products and management consultancy
  • stimulated new ventures (cf www. knowledgeshop.com) devoted to exchange and sale of knowledge.

In my opinion knowledge management is really about:

  • managing information - explicit/recorded knowledge
  • managing processes - embedded knowledge
  • managing people - tacit knowledge
  • managing innovation - knowledge conversion
  • managing assets - intellectual capital

So what exactly is the future of knowledge management? 

Some believe that KM will shift in the following ways in the near future:


"1. From a Dimension of Other Disciplines to a Discipline in its Own Right - it will be a subject of degree courses and a profession distinct from information management. Watch out for the first Faculty of Knowledge Management.


2. From Strategic Initiatives to Routine Practice - The CKO of the future (if they exist) will embrace some of the functions of today's HR managers and CIO.


3. From Inward Focus on Knowledge Processes to External Focus on Knowledge Businesses - companies will identify how their knowledge assets can be recombined to create new knowledge-based businesses. For example, an engineering/manufacturing company might create an engineering consultancy business.


4. From Best Practices to Breakthrough Practices - rather than improve incrementally, companies should strive for 10x improvements in key areas, such as time-to-market, functionality per unit cost (yes - we have several examples of where this has been achieved).


5. From Knowledge Codification and Databases to Tradeable Knowledge Assets. Although publishers have done it for some time, many other companies are now realizing the opportunities from trading their databases e.g. fleet car managers and car reliability information.


6. From Knowledge Processes to Knowledge Objects - just as computer applications are going object oriented, so too will the application of knowledge. We will package knowledge as objects (that might include an information record, a multimedia clip, and access to a person) that can be manipulated and transmitted in different ways. There will be knowledge markets for them - precursors e.g. for IC design rights, already exist. See also http://www.knowledgeshop.com


7. From Knowledge Maps to Knowledge Navigators/Agents - maps are static representations of objects, and without extensive realtime map making capability (which could happen in the future) we need other ways to find existing and emerging knowledge. These will be human brokers (people with know-where and know-who) and intelligent software agents.


8. From Knowledge Centres to Knowledge Networks - although aggregating knowledge and knowledgeable people at knowledge centres gives critical mass, a more effective model may well be local nodes of expertise interconnected through human and computer networks i.e. the virtual knowledge centre.


9. From Knowledge Communities to Knowledge Markets - Communities are emerging that provide an effective vehicle for knowledge exchange. But as knowledge acquires value, and becomes 'productized' as objects (Shift 6) these communities will develop payment mechanisms and other trappings of a market place. The phrase "a penny for your thoughts" will have real meaning - people microchips embedded under their skin which handle knowledge transfer and micropayments under directives from the human brain!


10. From Knowledge Management to Knowledge Innovation. As ENTOVATION Colleagues will know, Debra M. Amidon sees Knowledge Management as a transition phase to something more fundamental. Management implies custodianship and managing what you know - innovation is creating something new and better, and that surely must be the ambition of all existing knowledge managers. It certainly is for me."

1 comment:

Karthik said...

Hi Joleen,

I agree with all your thoughts on future of Knowledge Management. Surely there is a major shift happening in the KM field. Like you mentioned, there may be a dedicated discipline termed "Knowledge Management".

I need you to share your thougts about this - my organisation is in the planning phase of implementing CoPs and my leaders are insisting to start this initiative as "Physical CoP" rather than vertical CoP. And, they also mention CoP initiatives come under "KM 2.0", so they feel they are venturing successfully into KM 2.0

I have insisted them that KM 2.0 or the Future of KM could be bringing V-CoP (Virtual CoP), which is synchronous and real time. But, we do not have the platform for implement V-CoP at the moment.

Please share your thoughts on this.