Knowledge management is one of the key processes of any business, and the payoffs are huge.
If knowledge-driven culture is fully implemented, a common knowledge system will come into existence that is available for everyone working in the organization. It improves decision-making, decreases duplication of efforts, decreases costs, and facilitates the rediscovery of knowledge.
The question is: Why have so few companies been successful in implementing knowledge management at a high level? One reason is the lack of a proper strategy.
Knowledge-driven culture is possible, and with the right strategies, vision, and tactics, you can change behavior patterns within an organization.
Here are some steps.
1. Identify that knowledge-driven culture is significant
If you take an operational or tactical approach to knowledge management, and do not recognize the fact that it must be a strategic initiative, you will ignore the requirement for a behavioral change.
One of the major changes that you need to develop is a thorough plan for changing the culture of the company over time, as you are implementing the process.
To successfully implement the knowledge-based culture, every company support group must feel that they are a part of the action. They need to feel that they are also beneficiaries and contributors to the process. You can use any organizational change model, such as the 8-step process by Kotter, for guiding and facilitating the shift.
2. Use a lifestyle approach for this implementation
If you are trying to implement a knowledge management culture as a short-term project, it will be a mistake. Consider knowledge management as an organization-wide process that needs a lifecycle approach to the actual implementation. See it as a process, rather than a system or tool. It needs to be strategically adopted and initiated for different teams in a cultural sense.
So, knowledge sharing should be an integral part of your work culture. It must become the way you work with the use of systems and tools for capturing, storing, and sharing knowledge.
3. There are some silos that you will have to overcome
Most IT organizations are well-organized when it comes to technology lines, and can use tools such as knowledge graphs effectively. These companies will have technical management teams that provide transition, planning, and operational support for the tech infrastructure.
Application management groups offer you support for the applications that are important within the company. In the form of a by-product of your organizational structure, there are some support systems developed, including knowledge bases. To overcome these silos, you will need a compelling vision to get the groups involved with the right expectations.
4. Initially concentrate more on process and strategies, rather than tools
Many times, staff mistakenly sees knowledge management as a system or a tool, rather than a process. This is pretty common since managers and other practitioners have a background in technology. To compound the issue, vendors are looking for nothing more than to sell knowledge management tools, DBS, and systems.
However, these knowledge management tools can’t develop a knowledge-driven culture or a process on their own—you will need a solid strategy for it. Then, you must define and document the entire process together with the right tools and technology. After you have decided on the role of knowledge management in your core processes, select the best available tools and systems for your needs.
5. Knowledge gathering should be a by-product of work
Support tools and systems need to be implemented in the knowledge management workflow in a way that represents a by-product of the efforts.
For example, if an IT company is performing incident management, a search should be invoked automatically after the classification of the incident. There should not be any need for additional steps or navigation. You will need a match report that will return the probable solutions and workarounds as a part of the list. In case there’s no solution available, the analyst must devise and document a new one.
Moving forward with knowledge management strategies and culture
Introducing a knowledge-based culture in your organization is a strategic initiative. It has to be properly designed, planned, and implemented by using a lifecycle approach. You will have to undertake a company-wide process that will transform the culture and the way employees work.
Rather than thinking about the ways of searching the knowledge base for a solution to a problem, the support staff must be able to do it by carrying out a routine.
