As with any initiative you need a place to start, a solid foundation before you can proceed. This foundation is the first and most important step in a Knowledge Audit, it’s purpose is to gain a clear and precise understanding of what knowledge the organization and its people need to meet their goals and objectives.

You need to have a systematic approach defined when tackling something as complex as a knowledge audit. Break down the information gathering approach to ensure you capture as much detail as possible. This can be done using questionnaire based surveys, interviews, group discussions or a combination of these.

The biggest hurdle when composing questions is that knowledge is seen as a conceptual entity and therefore rather difficult to articulate. To overcome this you need to focus on issues like user goals, objectives, activities and decisions that are made on a day to day basis.

Keep in mind, the questionnaire that you use in interviews and group discussions is just a rough guideline to gain insight to the users day to day activities. The more flexible you are with the questions the more information you are bound to receive. So don’t hesitate to ask deeper more probing questions when you feel there might be some information you could use.

The end goal of such an audit is for you to be able to get a clear picture of what information and knowledge a person uses in his day to day activities, thereby allowing you to tie it into a framework you create at the end of this excercise. The whole purpose of this exercise is to make the end users job easier. Compromising on the audit at this stage could have serious repercussions later on.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

You’ve already spent a lot of time identifying where your company is placed in terms of launching an initiative like this as well as chalking out a strategy to deploy KM. Now comes the really difficult part, launching the initiative.

The first step is to identify whether its time to transition to this phase of KM. There are certain key indicators you can look for.

• You have created strategies to learn from your KM initiatives
• Strategies have been mapped out to replicate your pilot initiatives across the organization.
• There already exists certain communities of practices, or you have a KM intranet site.
• You have set the stage for initiatives by recruiting and training facilitators.
• You’ve set up a tracking mechanism to gain valuable feedback on your initiatives.

The points mentioned above are a few indicators that should prompt you to move into the third phase of your KM life cycle.

Now that you’ve moved into this phase there are certain initiatives that you can carry out.

The first being capturing of lessons learnt. This is critical to the long term sustainability of your KM initiative. Unless you know what went right and what went wrong in your pilots you might continue to make the same mistakes when you try replicating it elsewhere. Based on the lessons learnt you can take an informed decision on whether you want to carry on with the initiative or move on to something more lucrative.

Establishing replicable methodologies is another important part of this phase. The launching of a pilot allows you to focus on capturing best practices. Information of this nature can be easily used somewhere else in the organization. So a conscious effort must be made to track and capture all best practices during the course of the pilot.

The primary focus of this phase is to identify best practices , processes and lessons learnt so you can replicate it again and again. This is probably the single most profitable take away from a KM initiative.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

When do you know its time to move into the second phase of your Knowledge Management Roadmap?

• If, you have successful initiatives already been conducted at the grassroots level.
• If, An executive sponsor decides to support KM initiatives.
• If, You have identified pilots to showcase the benefits of KM.
• If, A KM steering committee has been put in place.

The points above make a very good case for establishing a KM Strategy in your organization.

The first and most important step is to identify a KM task force. Unless you have a group of people dedicated to designing and implementing KM initiatives, these activities will start taking a back seat.

Create a set of pilots that can effectively be used to promote KM. If there are already grassroots level initiatives being conducted make sure you bring them under the KM umbrella and provide visibility to them.

Once you’ve have a team set up to tackle KM and have identified a couple of pilots start the process of putting together resources to enable the execution of the pilot. This is a very critical phase as even if you have chalked out a comprehensive KM strategy and found a set of pilots that do showcase KM well a mistake in this phase could complete ruin your chances of successful implementation.

An overall KM strategy is built on the success of its pilots, failures in the initial stages could become a huge deterrent towards establishing KM an organization wide initiative.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Over the past few posts we’ve talked about a variety of subjects, Strategies to implement KM , How to run communities of practice, the effect of blogs on KM and so on. The most common question however is not how to implement KM but when. I thought I’d put together a few thought on when you should start think of looking at a Knowledge Management initiative for your organization.

So when is your company ready to start a KM initiative? If any of the following statements are true then its probably time for just that.

• A number of people have already started exploring the benefits of implementing KM in your organization.
• Someone has a personal stake in developing KM.
• KM has emerged as a topic of interest in your organization.
• The organization has a high-level vision of pursuing and implementing KM.

Right, now you’ve figured out that its time to implement KM in your organization, but how do you go about doing it?

The only way an initiative like this is going to gain traction is if people see a clear benefit to what they are already trying to accomplish. The main aim of any Knowledge Management initiative should be to make a person’s job easier, not more difficult.

The first step is to de-mystify KM, do not use complicated terms and strategies to define what it is, rather use simple definitions and examples that provide a clear, tangible picture of what its all about.

The second step involved finding people who are really interested in pursuing KM activities. Launching an initiative amongst this group of people will most definitely ensure a much higher success rate. Recruiting well respected and influential people in your company is a very smart way to promote the value of the initiative to the rest of your organization.

The third step involved looking for opportunities to implement KM. Use groups you feel can benefit with an KM initiative. Target low hanging fruit, market any win you have with the initiative however small , as it can be used as a platform to promote other initiatives as well.

The last step involves creating a technology framework that can support the initiative. While KM is not just about technology it does form a large part of it, without the technology infrastructure it might be difficult to sustain many initiatives.

The biggest road block to any KM initiative is culture, ignoring it is the single biggest mistake many people commit while rolling out KM initiatives. Most importantly - Do NOT sell an enterprise level KM solution without the evidences to back up your initiatives.

While these are just some of the thoughts on how you get started, you will find dozens of smaller ways to improve on it once you get started. Remember, start small and work your way up.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

My last post introduced you to Wiki’s in Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS 2007 ). I have since had the time to explore this feature in greater detail, and to be honest was very impressed by what i discovered. I was a little apprehensive about the wiki feature for the simple reason that being part of the Sharepoint platform might have encouraged over-engineering. However aside for the rich text editor ( which makes the process of adding content that much easier ) the basic layout and functionality of the wiki hasn’t changed. So if you are a contributor on Wikipedia you needn’t worry.

The major benefit for corporates of having Wiki as a part of the new Sharepoint Portal is two-fold. The first obviously is that now corporates have the ability to tap into and facilitate the creation of information using tacit knowledge. The second is making use of Sharepoint features like security controls allows them to impose a greater level of control that doesn’t exist in wiki’s like Wikipedia ( a thought that scares them half to death i’m sure ).

So what does Sharepoint allow you to do with the wiki?

• Wiki pages can be created under any group or library , if for example you have a particularly interesting post on your Blog ( Another new feature of MOSS 2007 ) you could spin this off into a Wiki and have other people collaborate on it.
• Permissions can be set at a page level, which means you can restrict which pages other users have access to within the wiki structure ( something i haven’t heard off in most other wiki’s )
• You can also add Meta-data to your wiki pages, as with any other document library. So you can showcase pictures ( for eg ).
• You can also set e-mail alerts on your Wiki pages.

It also offers other features than we’ve come to expect from all Wiki’s :

• Interlinking / Creating new pages using double brackets ( [[ ]] ).
• History tracking of the document. The added advantage here is that being incorporated on the Sharepoint platform you can actually pull the persons contact information of the exchange server.
• Lastly, versioning and reverts of wiki pages.

If you are interested in the product i’d suggest downloading a free version and experimenting with it.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

We’ve known for a while now that Microsoft was slow in catching up with the rest of the world when it came to online collaboration and social networking. SharePoint 2003 is still being used to this day by a large number of corporations, and is widely renowned as the product that failed as a Knowledge Management tool.

SharePoint 2007 has made huge leaps ahead with incorporating social networking features like RSS, Wiki’s and Blogs as part of its basic setup. Sticking to the simplicity that we’ve come to expect from Microsoft products a person with zero technical knowledge can make use of these features. Though there will be a slight learning curve for new comers as most corporate users aren’t aware of what a wiki is and how it can be leveraged to generate information.

Creating a wiki is a pretty simple process, its like creating a document library , and once you’ve set it up the process of building on it is pretty straightforward. It even incorporates a full set of rich text tools and buttons that we have gotten used to on Word. They’ve even provided a provision to track the history of every wiki page!!

I’m still in the process of experimenting with the wiki’s on Sharepoint but from what i can see the future looks very promising. Sharepoint as a Knowledge Management platform? never thought i’d say those words, but looks like Microsoft have finally gotten their act together. A blessing for the organizations running 2003, if you still indend on sticking to the same platform i’d suggest upgrading, and upgrading fast.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

“Chop the head of the snake off and the body withers and dies” - a rather graphic visualization of Leadership but that describes it in a nutshell. KM Success factors, that we discussed at a broad level here describe what it takes to establish a successful KM practice.

Leadership plays a vital role in ensuring success in any initiative within an organization. The same holds true for knowledge management considering its a very new initiative. The backing of a strong leader is the cornerstone of a successful KM initiative. Executive buy-in and promotion goes a long way in sustaining the growth of KM, and since most employees look to the head of a company for vision and direction, his/her backing adds greater value.

Aggressive Marketing, Rewards and Recognition programs are but the first steps to spreading awareness on KM. However if are in the business of Knowledge Management for the long haul, culture changes need to be made as executive backing can only take you so far.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Microsoft KN was started with the sole objective of tapping the tacit knowledge of an organization. Designed to complement the Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server ( MOSS ) the knowledge network determines who an expert is and defines a social structure of all employees.

KN has 2 components, a client side application that resides on the users desktop that actually does the “Analysis” and a server component running on MOSS 2007 that collates all the information.

Figuring out what you’re expertise is, who your contacts are and so forth by mining information in your email box is the job of the client app. After completing the mining operation the KN client app suggest keywords and contacts that define you role in the organization. You can add/modify / delete the information here before its sent for to the server.

The client application also allows you to target folders in your outlook so that you have greater control over which areas the application is allowed to search and analyze.

Once your profile information is published to the server, when your colleagues use SharePoint Server’s search facility to try to find someone with a particular area of expertise or particular contacts, the KN server responds to the query with personalized results that are displayed according to social distance and inferred relationship strengths, which were calculated by algorithms developed at Microsoft.

Keep your eye open for more information on this, somehow i think this is going to be of huge use to the corporate world.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!