Guide for Implementing Knowledge Management

05-Nov-05

I would like to hear from people who could recommend any literature suitable as a holistic guide or standard for implementing KM into an organisation. Whether this be for an organisation which is completely new to KM or established. For example, organisational IT has literature such the IT Infrastructure Library which can be utilised by an organisation as a type of check list to guide IT initiatives and is a defacto standard. Guidance for a KM strategy is available over various sources of literature but to my knowledge not in one place.
Ricky Ohl

Details

Author:: Ricky Ohl
Publisher:: KnowledgeBoard
Date:: 05-Nov-05
Categories:: Business Processes, Human and Social, Benchmarking and Measurement, Knowledge and Information Theory, KM Strategy and Vision, Assessment and Measurement, Strategy and Vision, Human Side of KM
Sections:

This article has been read 12659 times.

Tools

Member comments (6)

Share your views with other users: add your own comments to this item.

Joana Nkosi, 12-Jun-06 @ 13:45PM

KM STRATEGY

Hello everyone
I would like to have some tips on what requirements are there for a successful KM strategy. What is a KM strategy and what does it entails. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

Emlyn Phillips, 20-Nov-05 @ 06:05AM

"The Knowledge Management Toolkit"

Hi Ricky,

I've found this book by Amrit Tiwana to be really useful. It's not the cheapest book on the shelf, and I took a gamble by buying it shrink-wrapped, but it was worth the price. Very practical in its approach.

Amrit Tiwana
The Knowledge Management Toolkit
Prentice Hall PTR, 2002
ISBN 0-13-009224-X

I paid 57 Singapore dollars for it :-)

Cheers,

Emlyn

Ricky Ohl, 12-Nov-05 @ 00:13AM

Thanks for the comments.

I will check out "Learning to fly" and http://www.lpcube.com/. Yes there is a large quantity of disparate guides available and as you say, deciding on what is valuable and which to use is difficult. More so for newcomers. Yet, IT Infrastructure Library has made their guides/standards broad enough to be of general use but also adaptable to specific situations. However, in IT strategy initiatives a range of grey areas is encountered but in KM there is potentially a much broader range (e.g. intangibles) which can make it more unique and complex.

I also found Sawyer, K. & Gammack, J. (2006) Developing and Analysing Core Competencies for Alignment with Strategy. International Journal of Knowledge Management, 2(1), 53-66

Ricky

Lakshman Pillai, 09-Nov-05 @ 04:31AM

Right KMMM is the Guide

Ricky,

I totally agree with Denham and Ed. No single organization would require all the KM systems but what you need is right KM systems that are aligned with your business. While looking at the holistic view (True KM), focus on your immediate pains. Leverage the right KM expert to get more visibility into your specific problems as well as the solution.

Each business function and industry require a different KM approach. Visit http://www.lpcube.com/ to learn more. Do not restrict yourself to generic approaches such as Document Management System and Collaboration Technology.

Expectations must be in line with KM systems in action. I have seen many cases where a sample of KM is implemented with a very high (unrealistic) expectations that lead to frustration and failure.

To ensure success, "Think Big and Start Small". How fast you can move depends on the energy level of the team and the sophistication of KM systems and KM Maturity Model you embrace.

Ed Mitchell, 07-Nov-05 @ 23:32PM

seconded: try Learning to Fly

Hi Ricky,

I happily second Denham's suggestion to read 'Learning to Fly' - have seen it heavily read and bookmarked by all sorts of KM practitioning people looking for just such information.

Chris and Geoff hosted a Gurteen workshop on this a while back and I was lucky enough to visit. I wrote a 'review' here.

Denham Grey, 07-Nov-05 @ 21:26PM

Many guides - select your strategy

Greetings Ricky,

Guides there are a plenty, what is hard, is to decide the form, type, and kind of KM best suited to your organization.

You may wish to try "Learning to fly" - a book by Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell. They follow a very practical approach.