Features

Published May 2009

The Future of Knowledge Management

  

  Randy Emelo

Old knowledge management practices no longer fit today’s fast-paced environment. The future lies in understanding knowledge sources, measuring where and how knowledge flows and reinforcing knowledge with supportive relationships.

Globalization. Technological advancements. Organizational flux. Leaner workforces. All of these factors are impacting knowledge management practices and causing significant changes in the field. The commonplace use of person-to-document techniques is no longer adequate for today’s knowledge workers.

As organizations remain in flux, contracting and expanding rapidly, simply accessing data and information is no longer sufficient to help the enterprise flourish and spark innovation. Workers face the growing need to improve processes, products and services, all while doing the jobs of three people because of layoffs. Waiting for knowledge to trickle down from the top is not an option.

The reality of knowledge management today is that people need tacit knowledge and know-how directly from the source. Just reading a document is not enough. People need to interact with the person who has improved his or her service rating, increased sales leads or completed a technology implementation. They want to see firsthand what went right, what went wrong, how success occurred and how they can emulate that success. They need support from the person who has done it before and who can encourage and guide them as they apply the knowledge. Globalization and technology have made it far too easy to feel isolated, and people no longer want to go it alone.

The future of knowledge management is about connections. People want relationships. They want to share knowledge with one another, and they want to be connected to their colleagues. A recent survey by Triple Creek Associates asked more than 1,300 Web-based mentoring participants to rate the effectiveness of various training and learning opportunities. Respondents overwhelmingly chose hands-on interpersonal methods of training as the most effective, with 88 percent rating on-the-job training and 80 percent rating mentoring/coaching as highly or mostly effective. E-learning ranked lowest, with only 37 percent of respondents rating it as highly or mostly effective.

Human interaction is critical to meaningful development and learning complex skills. The survey results show that people involved in learning feel relational interaction is more important than simply having access to documents, data or facts. Organizations must tune in to this reality and offer ways for people to engage in social knowledge relationships.

How do organizations get people to share meaningful knowledge? How do they help people find the right knowledge sources? How do they get them connected with one another? How do they encourage them to share insight and information?

These are the questions learning leaders must address immediately. It may seem trite, but the truth is the future of knowledge management is now. The world is constantly shifting and unpredictable. Organizations do not have time to engineer a system from the top down, nor does such a rigid formation help knowledge flow to the ones who need it most. Learning leaders and the practice of knowledge management must adapt right now to keep up with ever-changing needs.