One of the problems with "knowledge management" is that it just sounds so great, but nobody seems to know what it is or care about getting any agreement on the concept. For some folks, it's software. For other folks, it's culture. For still others, it's best practices.
That was brought home when I picked up a news release from Arthur Andersen LLP with the headline, "Knowledge Management is Key to Success for Automotive Suppliers in the New Millennium -- Arthur Andersen Automotive Forum Reveals Importance of Managing Information."
What the folks at Arthur did was survey 27 automotive suppliers and two manufacturers to determine successful knowledge management practices. So "practices" looks like it's going to be their "definition" of knowledge management. The release summarized the findings in three key points:
- Knowledge management areas requiring the most improvement in supplier organizations are culture, technology, and measurements;
- Knowledge gaps are emerging as suppliers' responsibilities increase;
- Suppliers believe improving knowledge management can lead to measurable benefits in improving lead times, relationships with customers, and increased operational efficiency.
WALLY'S COMMENT ... Now, that looks really good, but it doesn't say much.
Knowledge management areas get boiled down to everything in the organization -- the culture, the tools and the way things are measured. We're told that knowledge gaps are emerging as responsibilities increase. Wow! What an insight. And then we're told what suppliers believe. Not one bit of that addresses actual best practices in knowledge management.
Here are a couple of basics. Whatever you decide knowledge management is, it will include culture components (in the wonderful Deal and Kennedy definition, "the way we do things around here") and technology components. Those technology components don't have to be fancy "knowledge management" software. They can be as simple as sharing things on email, or posting tips to Lotus Notes. Here are two crucial things to remember:
There is no magic stone. There's no piece of software, no packaged program, and no magical consultant that will make this painless or even easy.
You can pretend that knowledge management is about software but software is only tools. Good knowledge management, which I define as 'everything you do so that you only have to invent the wheel once,' involves changing the way you do things and that involves changes in practices, reward systems, management and just about everything that goes into your culture. That's never, and never will be, easy.
This article originally appeared in Wally Bock's Briefing Memo newsletter in 1998.
Reviewed: 2/15/03
Top of
page
If you enjoyed this article, you may want to use the search engine on this page to find other articles of interest. The search engine searches this site as well as Wally Bock's Monday Memo newsletter site and the site which describes Wally's speaking and consulting services.
Reprinting and Reposting This Article
You may reprint or repost this article providing that the following
conditions are met:
- The article remains essentially unaltered.
- Wally Bock is shown as the author.
- The notice Copyright 2003 by Wally Bock or similar appears on the article.
- Contact information for Wally is included with the article. You may refer readers to this Web site as a way to meet this requirement. Please link to http://www.bockinfo.com/
- Here is the wording we suggest when linking to this site. "The article you've just read can be found on Wally Bock's extensive Resource Web site along with many other articles and resources."
Any other reprinting or reposting requires specific permission which is almost always
granted. Click here to request permission if necessary.
