Knowledge Flow & Flourish

Do these sound familiar in your workplace?

• People work in silos. We don’t know what is going on. People aren’t sharing what they know or what they’re working on. We’re not as productive or as innovative as we could be.
• Information is everywhere, it’s duplicated, and out of date. People can’t find what they need to do their jobs or to answer their questions.

As a leader with a passion for the utilization of knowledge and information within organizations, specifically in high tech, these are the two most common themes I hear. They are also incredibly difficult to fully solve due to the complexity of organizational systems, human behavior, and the nature of work. Are they solvable? If so, what’s the answer here?

I’ve been leading knowledge and information initiatives within technology firms for the past 15 years and am typically the individual to stand up solutions to these problems, growing teams from scratch. I’ve never had the privilege of working alongside other leaders or professionals in this area, so naturally, as the life-long learner I am, I’ve always been curious about how others approach these problems differently. While classes and reading can teach you a lot, I know (as a knowledge professional) that the gold lies in people’s heads. So, last year I set out on a project to have conversations with other knowledge-focused leaders to collect their wisdom and to share it back with the professional community, as well as with leaders who are struggling with these problems.

It would be helpful for you to know, for those of you not already familiar, that this field can be called Knowledge Management (KM) in some industries, or it might hide under other functions and teams, such as Agile, in other industries. Overall, what we’re talking about here is a profession where people solve problems specifically related to knowledge. You could argue that in our current knowledge-based economy, the majority of problems are of this nature.

There’s a joke that if you ask 100 knowledge managers what this profession is, you’ll hear 100 different definitions. This is because knowledge is complex and ever-pervasive throughout organizations. How you see it will be colored by the larger business or organization objectives at hand. We will explore more definitions later. For now, it’s best to leave it broad so we don’t limit our thinking.

In the coming weeks, I will be sharing a series of short articles exploring various topics derived from these interviews with knowledge leaders, along with my own thoughts.

• What is Knowledge Management (KM) and how does it help?
• What does it mean to be a KM leader?
• What disciplines comprise KM, and what other disciplines are related to KM?
• What are typical backgrounds and skills needed to succeed?
• How do you pitch and talk about the value of KM?
• What does a successful team look like?
• Are you already doing KM?

As you read the series, please share your comments to continue the conversation. I assure you that your agreeing and dissenting thoughts will help us all learn more from each other. My goal is to continue to grow and evolve the knowledge, insights, and leadership professions through our conversation and exploration.