There are a few basic concepts and definitions you need to understand to use data, information and knowledge effectively in your organization. This can be complicated because the important terms in Knowledge Management are often used interchangeably. Here they are.
Data are raw facts.
Information is data with context or comparison.
Knowledge is information with guidance for action.
The Wikipedia online encyclopedia has some excellent resources on knowlege management. I've included a link to their general article on knowledge management on this page, as well as links to specific articles that seemed like they would be helpful.
Knowledge Management writers have also referred to explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is knowledge out in the open for all to find. Tacit knowledge is knowledge that's inside the heads of people, unshared.
Explicit knowledge can be captured in a document or a database or expert system. It can be expressed in rules or guidelines. Ultimately, it can be managed.
Tacit knowledge cannot be managed. It is the knowledge that's unshared.
Sometimes knowledge doesn't get shared because folks don't know what they know or that it's valuable to others. Sometimes knowledge doesn't get shared because organizational culture supports keeping knowledge secret.
The cycle of knowledge management is creating knowledge, capturing knowledge and using knowledge. Individuals do this naturally on their own. Organizations have to work at it.
Only human beings can create knowledge. At this stage of history there is no technology that can create knowledge and so it always begins as tacit knowledge.
Knowledge can be captured by being put into repositories. People are a natural repository of knowledge. When people work together they share knowledge with each other. That's the basis for apprenticeship programs.
Documents are repositories of knowledge. That's especially true for reports and other analytical documents. Document searching software is increasingly powerful and easy to use.
And databases are repositories of knowledge. These are the most structured repositories.
In order to use knowledge effectively, you have to get it to the point where it will have the most value and have it available when it's needed. You also have to present it in a form that makes it usable.
One of the most effective ways to get data, information and knowledge to the point of use quickly is the network. Intranets and the internet are great sharing tools. Sometimes that takes great technological sophistication.
Dell Computer's help system is an example. The system uses a giant knowledge base about Dell products and technology developed by the company, Ask Jeeves.
Dell's service reps use this to help solve customer problems. They get to see all solutions to similar problems that the company has ever handled. As reps develop new solutions, they are added to the database.
Not only that, the same database is available to Dell customers. That means that many times the customers can solve their own problems without needing to make contact with the company. That makes for happier customers and less costly service.
Dell's system is very sophisticated. Other systems are pretty simple. Annotated organization phone and email directories are great ways to find people experts. That's important, because the first place most people will go for a solution to a problem is their friends and other people.
There's also a lot being done today with sophisticated measurement systems that have been automated to deliver just-in-time data, information and knowledge to the desktop. A good example is what's happened with the Balanced Scorecard.
The Balanced Scorecard began as a way to measure organizational performance in areas other than financial. According to the original book the four areas were Internal Business Processes, Customer, and Learning and Growth, in addition to Financial.
The Balanced Scorecard is something that organizations like. According to the folks at Bain, the adoption rate of the Balanced Scorecard is right up there with Knowledge Management. But the abandonment rate is much lower and the Balanced Scorecard gets some of the highest satisfaction ratings of any management tool.
In addition to balance, a major strength of the Balanced Scorecard is the process you need to go through to define your measures and mate them to your strategy. You can't manage what you can't measure. And you can't measure what you can't describe.
Over the last few years we've seen management systems like the Balanced Scorecard mated with the power of computers and networks to deliver knowledge power to the desktop. The results often go by the name "Digital Cockpit" or "Digital Dashboard."
As we move into the 21st Century there are three models that work to use data, information and knowledge to improve organizational performance.
There are simple systems like that make data, information and knowledge available to workers on demand. These include systems like Xerox system to share technical knowledge among service reps, BP's simple annotated directories and other systems that help people connect to data, information, to databases and documents, and to each other.
There are complex systems that take effective management tools such as the Balanced Scorecard and use networks to increase their usability, flexibility and speed. This is a simple concept but now always easy in practice.
And there are complex systems, designed from the ground up to capture and use knowledge effectively, like the Dell customer support system.
No matter what sort of project you choose, you must pay attention to the things that make the project succeed.
