Thursday, April 28, 2005

KM Thoughts

Methinks - Knowledge Management can be a complete success only when each and every employee puts the organization before himself or herself. Come to think of it, KM isn’t really an effort to overcome dependency on human beings. (That can never ever happen.) But it is to mitigate the risks of depending totally on the people. KM is, in fact, about realizing that each person has unique knowledge that needs to be leveraged upon. Some part of the explicit knowledge can be documented and converted into a procedure or a process, but that's about it. Who will improve it? Who will help the system evolve and adapt to change?It has to be understood.

KM folks are in an unenviable spot. For... for KM to be a hit, the basics (Employee satisfaction has to be on a high) have to be in place. And the basics cannot be controlled completely by the KM folks. The basics are established by the founders, managers and leaders in the organization. If an employee has to put the organization before himself or herself, not only does he/she have to be highly kicked about the organization's goals but also he/she should not be taken undue advantage of by people around him/her. There has to be a feeling of oneness with the entire orgainzation and its people. This is probably asking for the sun. Looks like I am getting to be a little pragmatic and not dream of an ideal 'only-in-the-dreams' world. But what this boils down to, perhaps, is that the CEO should own KM.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great entry - and great true ideas. I am just charged in my company to develop a reward system for knowledge sharing. Do you have any idea on how to approach this? Its a tough subject, and I couldnt find anything. If you want, please send something to always_wow@yaho.com.sg And keep on blogging!