One of the goals of many knowledge management (KM) projects is to \u2019support and\/or increase knowledge sharing\u2019. While on the surface this is both a sensible and desirable goal, in practice it is often ineffective.<\/p>\n
This briefing explores some of the issues with the goal of \u2018knowledge sharing\u2019, and proposes an alternative approach that can be applied to knowledge management projects.<\/p>\n
The first challenge is to define what \u2018knowledge sharing\u2019 means in practice<\/em> . On the face of it, the meaning is self-obvious: to encourage the sharing of knowledge or information between members of staff within an organisation.<\/p>\n When this is probed more deeply, however, KM teams tend to start talking about \u2018capturing tacit knowledge\u2019 and other similar topics. Unfortunately, this simply introduces further jargon, but no greater clarity.<\/p>\n Knowledge sharing is certainly an important concept for those in the knowledge management and information management disciplines (ie the readers of this article).<\/p>\n The starting point to moving beyond this terminology, however, is to recognise that it means little to anyone else in the organisation.<\/p>\n This next issue is that the concept of knowledge sharing will generate little enthusiasm (and therefore action) amongst staff. In fact, when asked (or instructed) to \u2019share your knowledge\u2019 staff will typically respond with confusion, passive resistance or hostility.<\/p>\n The simple fact is that staff simply don\u2019t \u2019share knowledge\u2019, they conduct whatever work activities are required in their jobs. In our terms this may include sharing knowledge, but to them they are \u2018updating client details\u2019, \u2018discussing project schedules\u2019 and the like.<\/p>\n The only exception to this is where the target staff for knowledge management initiatives are information managers, who have the responsibility for KM-like duties. Here knowledge sharing may make sense.<\/p>\n A danger with the goal of knowledge sharing is that it quickly shifts the KM team into \u2019solutions mode\u2019.<\/p>\n For example, knowledge sharing initiatives may focus on implementing a new expertise directory, or on improving collaboration tools.<\/p>\n While these solutions may be potentially useful, if they don\u2019t meet specific business needs they won\u2019t be widely used (if at all).<\/p>\n Many organisations are now littered with unused systems as the result of this emphasis on delivering knowledge management solutions.<\/p>\n The final challenge with knowledge sharing as a goal is that it doesn\u2019t provide a clear direction for action.<\/p>\n With such a broad goal, there are many possible targeted staff groups, many possible business processes to focus on, and many individual issues to address.<\/p>\n In many cases, KM teams become trapped at this stage, and are unable to develop a clear and concrete roadmap for their knowledge management activities.<\/p>\n To avoid these issues, it is recommended that \u2018knowledge sharing\u2019 not be discussed beyond the confines of the KM team.<\/p>\n Instead, KM initiatives should take the following approach:<\/p>\n In this way, \u2018knowledge sharing\u2019 could become \u2018improve the coordination of project teams\u2019, or \u2018increase consistency of interaction with customers\u2019 or \u2018reduce processing errors\u2019.<\/p>\n By targeting a specific problem that is meaningful to staff, real action can then be generated.<\/p>\n Written by : James Robertson<\/p>\n Source : http:\/\/www.steptwo.com.au\/papers\/cmb_knowledgesharing\/index.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the goals of many knowledge management (KM) projects is to \u2019support and\/or increase knowledge sharing\u2019. While on the surface this is both a sensible and desirable goal, in practice it is often ineffective. This briefing explores some of the issues with the goal of \u2018knowledge sharing\u2019, and proposes an alternative approach that can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,9097],"tags":[33,348,4680],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-knowledge-management","tag-add-new-tag","tag-knowledge-management","tag-knowledge-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63,"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/63"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Ferry1002.blog.binusian.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Generates little enthusiasm<\/h3>\n
Focus on solutions not problems<\/h3>\n
Does not direct activities<\/h3>\n
Alternative approach: focus on solving business problems<\/h3>\n
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