On 15th February 2008, we organised a small knowledge cafe in our class. The question given to all groups was to find out three things that will prevent Knowledge Management in any organisation. On the basis of that each individual was asked to come with three things that they will do as Chief Knowledge Officer of an organisation to enable the Knowledge Management. All the groups came up with quite a number of things that will prevent knowledge management in any organisation. Each group was asked to select top three things (selected on the basis of voting) out of their list. Each group consist of around six members. Following are the lists of three things selected by all the groups.
Group 11. No communication between people.
2. Not allowing people to express there ideas (No creativity, Stick to the procedures only).
3. No documentation of procedures/functions at all.
Group 21. No Communication Strategy (Intranet, Internet, Documentation).
2. No Learning and Development.
3. No identification of required knowledge.
Group31. No Socialization and Culture (no interaction, communication, and culture).
2. No System (No Storage and Documentation).
3. No Training and Development.
Group41. No Information Flow (No communication).
2. No Improvement of Performance.
3. No Systems/Tools
After thinking carefully, I have selected the three things as a Chief Knowledge Officer that I will do in order to enable the Knowledge Management in my organisation which is a Software Development Company. I will also demonstrate how they will practically solve the existing problems in my organisation related to Knowledge Management. The three things are as follows:
1. Communication between people
This topped the list for all the groups. According to me it is quiet obvious that the communication between the people is critical for the success of Knowledge Management in any type of organisation. No matter how much knowledge the people have, but if it is not shared between each other, then it will not increase the overall intellectual skills of the employees, and it will also result in the duplication of effort in solving the problem in day to day activities in an organisation, which will ultimately result in the poor productivity. So in order to increase the productivity of my organisation, I will make sure that there is huge amount of communication between the people in my organisation.
To make sure that I am able to make this happen, I will do the following steps:
- I will have Discussion Forums where people can post there problems related to Software Development. The people knowing the solution will provide the solution. Discussion Forums are a very popular tool for knowledge sharing in the area of problem solving on internet. According to one study, they constitute for 53% of many-to-many interaction platforms on internet (Cothrel J, 1999).
- I will have Blogs to publish research work done by individuals. Individuals will have there own blogs where they can write articles related to Development in new technologies, Software Project Management, New Programming Methodologies, etc. Blogs will be particularly very useful in Knowledge Creation which is a major knowledge management activity essential for modern business success (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) (Efimova L., 2004).
- I will have blog rating mechanism like Digg. This will ensure that best blogs are brought to the attention of the users.
But still there remains a problem of motivation. People are needed to be motivated so that they will share there knowledge. To make this happen, the activity done by employees on this tools will influence annual Performance Appraisal Procedures.
2. Regular Training & Development
As stated in point 1, the Knowledge Creation
is a major knowledge management activity essential for modern business success (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Regular Training & Development will be very helpful in increasing the knowledge base of the employees. This is vital importance in organisations like Software Developing companies due rapid change of existing technologies and introduction of new technologies. As my Training & Development strategy, I will organize regular training sessions on emerging technologies and changes in the existing technologies. This sessions will be taken by subject experts.
3. Allowing and encouraging people to express there ideas
Expression of ideas leads us to innovation, and innovation leads us to Knowledge Creation. Innovation provides new products and processes (Baldwin J., 2003). The foundation of many of the successful modern companies lies on the innovation. One of the best example of this is Google. They thought out of the box for the existing problems and defined even new problems and in turn applied innovation to find the solution for this problems. The solution to these problems leads us to the creation of new knowledge (Bontis N., 2002). This became possible at Google because Google allows its employees to express there creativity and ideas (Google Jobs).
To make this possible in my organisation, I will have policy and practice both in place. The policy to encourage people to express there ideas in terms of innovative solutions to the existing problems and to find new problems and then find solution to that problems. The practice will be to reward the people who come with useful ideas. Thinking out of box will be critical in every employee's promotion.
Importance of Knowledge Cafe
This was my first experience at the Knowledge Cafe. And the best thing I learnt in it was a new way to find solution to our problems. List all the possible things you will do (in a negative sense) to a particular job in. E.g. We were given to prepare a list of all the possible mistakes we can do while buying a mobile phone. Out this list prepare the top three list (on the basis of opinion poll). Negate this top three list, and it will give you the top three things which you will do make sure a job is done.
Aldo de Moor & Efimova L. (2004) , "An Argumentation Analysis of Weblog Conversations", 9th International Working Conference on the Language-Action Perspective on Communication Modelling
Balswin J., Hanel P (2004), "Innovation and Knowledge Creation in an Open Economy - Canadian Industry and International Implications", Cambridge Press
Bontis N. & Chun Wei Choo (2002), "The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge", Oxford University Press (US)
Cothrel J. & Williams R. (1999), "On-line communities: helping them form and grow", Journal of Knowledge Management, Volume 3 · Number 1
Google Jobs, Retrieved on 3-Mar-2008 http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=about.html&about=top10
Nonaka I. & Takeuchi H. (1995), "The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation", Oxford University Press.
