Knowledge Management 2 : Moving from Personal to Organizational

Implementing organizational knowledge management requires the full involvement of individuals at all levels across an organization. Only through the participatory design and development of knowledge management systems and processes can a development organization ensure that people actually employ knowledge management tools effectively. This also requires respect and acknowledgement for the value of personal knowledge management activities so that the best features of those activities can be leveraged and adopted across the organization.

Based on knowledge management in the corporate world, we identify eight core activities for implementing knowledge management systems that move from personal to organizational knowledge management:

1)Knowledge mapping , describes what knowledge an organization has, who has it and how it flows (or doesn’t) through the enterprise.

2)Commitment to multi-stakeholder planning , if knowledge mapping suggests that the organization is ready to become a knowledge organization, the organization needs to commit to multi-stakeholder planning for knowledge management.

3)Participant goal setting, participants in multi-stakeholder planning can better grasp the value of organizational knowledge management when they have the opportunity to integrate their personal knowledge management goals with those of the organization.

4)Organizational goal setting , participants in multi-stakeholder planning can more easily move to organizational goal setting when their personal goals have been heard and acknowledged. These personal goals need to be linked to organizational knowledge management goals.

5)Partnering/networking goal setting , knowledge management goals must also go beyond the internal functioning of the organization and look at the wider organizational context of relationships, partnerships and networks.

6)Measurement frameworks – monitoring & evaluation , measurement frameworks are critical to successfully implementing knowledge management systems and processes. These measurement frameworks need not be overly elaborate – as in the qualitative relationship ranking described above.

7)Selection of tools and processes , participants need opportunities to learn about knowledge management tools and processes employed elsewhere.

8)Implementation of tools and processes, tools and processes that are thrust upon people with little consultation are likely to fail.