Communication Strategies for Knowledge Management

“Communication is one of the biggest enablers for knowledge management in any organization. Your people need to know the what, where and why of the KM initiative if you want to ensure its success.

The number of methods of communication strategies have increased in leaps and bounds since we entered the age of information technology. E-mail, RSS feeds, posters, etc are just some of the methods to enable the distribution of information. The extensive use of clever visuals also aids tremendously with getting the message across. Some companies have even gone so far as to create video clips of success stories in their organization. Even something as simple as a screen saver can be a powerful tool when it comes to reaching out to your people.”

Blogs and SharePoint 2007

“In “Its all about the Blog” we discussed how the Blog has gone from being a simple medium of communication to a powerful media tool, and “Blogs and KM” addressed the issue of managing knowledge in an organization through Blogs. Since the last few posts have focused on certain aspects of the Sharepoint 2007 server ( MOSS 2007 ) i decided to do a small article on how Blogs were implemented in this environment.

Microsoft realized that in creating a content authoring platform they couldn’t afford to leave out the one aspect that has revolutionized the method by which content authoring is being tackled today, namely blogs. So in an effort to harness Blogs and promote their use in a corporate setting Microsoft introduced Blogs in their latest version of Sharepoint.”

List of Blogging Tools

“While I’ve focused a considerable portion of this blog to various topics from strategies to best practices in Knowledge Management. I think it’s time i featured a list of technologies / tools that can be used under the KM umbrella.

This first article is dedicated to a list of blogging softwares available in the market, i have however only focused on open source applications/free applications.”

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I just read an interesting report on CMS watch by Ann Rockley, Contributing Analyst

“In an exchange with me yesterday, ECM/WCM vendor Interwoven confirmed that it no longer provides an XML-based content component management capability. (We had invited them to participate in our vendor product reviews for the forthcoming Content Component Management Report.)

This came as a bit of a surprise, because Interwoven has had some history of focus in this area. Its “TeamXML” product (released in 2001 after an acquisition) and related integration with Arbortext Editor and XyEnterprise’s XML Professional Publisher (XPP) could provide some level of XML content support, content component management, content re-use, and multi-channel publishing. However, TeamXML quietly faded away. I have been pursuing clarification on whether this functionality still existed somehow, because The Rockley Group has numerous clients who license Interwoven and want to be able to use it for more than Web Content Management.

It seems TeamXML never accompanied the major TeamSite upgrade to version 6.0 some time back. Yesterday’s final response on the subject came via e-mail from Interwoven, “Team XML is no longer a product offering, thus we don’t have a significant amount to share with this report.”

Like other CMS Watch analysts, I don’t provide advice to vendors, but I find it a little surprising given EMC’s recent move more deeply into the content component management field with its acquisition of X-Hive.”

Read it here…

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It is a widely known fact that a large number of organizations do very little towards implementing a comprehensive idea management solution. Though a lot of them do follow the “email your suggestions” approach, very few stop to consider the detrimental impact of an approach like this. Listed below are a few points on the benefits and disadvantages of using a email based Idea Management Solution.

Benefits:

Wide audience : Since everyone in the company is listed on a central mail server, getting the message across is the simplest thing in the world.

Ease of use: E-mail is used on a daily basis by everyone, so using it as a platform to send and recieve ideas would be a straightforward exercise requiring very little effort.

Low cost : Almost every organization has their email systems already set-up, so the added advantage of rolling out a “zero-cost” initiative to most is too juicy an opportunity to pass up.

Drawbacks:

Unstructured : Since most emails can be sent in any format, creating a template doesnt do very much good as a lot of people will just bypass it ( as there isn’t a system in place to enforce these rules ).

Disorganized : Most ideas end up becoming large chain mails in the organization and the actual idea gets lost in the jumble of text. Tracking and Feedback : Its is extremely difficult to implement a tracking system to check the progress of an idea if it is in the form of an email. With hundreds of ideas being submitted , its impossible to organize them efficiently and thereby provide feedback to the submitters.

Evaluating : The biggest challenge of using a email based system to evaluate ideas is that evaluators aren’t given a platform that can help them rate and comment on the ideas they recieve and retrieve them in an orderly or structured fashion.

Unfortunately, while the points made above do have merit, the overal negative impact of an email based system far outweigh the benefits. A dedicated standalone system is required to manage ideas, provide feedback and rankings and most importantly allow collaboration amongst your employees. The fastest way to cripple an initiative like this would be establishing a system that could not provide feedback to an employee on the ideas he’s submitted, allow him to take a look at other ideas, and most importantly establishing a ranking methodology where he/she is rewarded for the ideas.

More on Idea Management Systems to follow…….

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When i first started blogging on the subject of KM, it had more to do with getting my own thoughts on the subject in order, rather than getting other people to read what i put up. Since I , like a lot of you, have spent a ridiculous amount of time reading/researching articles on Knowledge Management. I felt that a blog was a great way to for me to digest this information observe its practical implications, and break it down into snippets of information, beneficial ( i hope ) to others interested, or curious, about the subject of knowledge management.

In a couple of days ( August 15th ) Gridlock would have turned 6 months old. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who’ve taken time to read my posts. Specially those amongst you who’ve left comments and sent me e-mails ( which i am surprised to say is a much larger number than i had anticipated ). I am also very thankful for those of you who’ve decided to subscribe to my feeds ( I’ll try to keep my posts as interesting and diverse as possible. )

I believe very strongly in the power of knowledge and more importantly sharing, which was another reason i started featuring other blogs and websites. Unless you know whats out there chances are you might miss something great.

Before this post gets rather long winded and pointless , i would like to say.. if you have read or heard about a blog or a website that might be important or interesting, in the context of knowledge management, do send me an e-mail aboutkm@gmail.com ( or leave me a comment ). If you do find this blog interesting please forward it to people who might like it as well…

For those of you who don’t want to do either, a simple “Hi” would be just fine!

Cheers,

Arjun Thomas

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One of the biggest challenges corporates face is locating experts within their company. It is estimated that companies waste 1000’s of man hours just hunting for the right people. Deals have fallen through, mistake made all because the right people couldn’t be located in time.

In this day and age where almost all the information we work on is digitized and since most of us are accessible via e-mail, messenger service or through video one would think locating a person ( in your own company ) shouldn’t be that much of a problem. Unfortunately the issue is more with locating the right person than just anyone, and Expertise Management Systems seem to be the best way to manage this.

Expertise Management addresses one of the biggest concerns of Knowledge Management, harnessing tacit knowledge. An average organization converts about 5-10% of their employees tacit knowledge into explicit information. Attempting to do so with the rest is a foolhardy proposition, the best way to maximize the use of tacit knowledge is to open up as many channels for that knowledge to flow through your organization. An Expertise Management system does just that. It helps users get in touch with the right people at the right time.

Now we’ve figured out that we need an expertise management system, next comes the question of how to implement a solution like this. Creating a template is the first step, this helps you list out all the information you’d expect to capture from an experts profile in order to help other people locate him/her.

A basic Expertise Management system has the following processes :

• Identify the experts
• Describe the expertise of the expert
• Provide an expert matching mechanism
• Enable users to communicate with the experts
• Provide a feedback mechanism
• Manage the process

Tackling each of the above steps in a systematic manner and creating a framework around it will give you the first glimpse of your expert management system.

Creating a “living” expertise management system involves a little more work as the system need to “mine” information areas associated with the expert ( email , articles ) and update their profile constantly. The Microsoft Knowledge Network discussed here looks very promising. Will keep you updated with more information on this technology.

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In “Its all about the Blog” we discussed how the Blog has gone from being a simple medium of communication to a powerful media tool, and “Blogs and KM” addressed the issue of managing knowledge in an organization through Blogs. Since the last few posts have focused on certain aspects of the Sharepoint 2007 server ( MOSS 2007 ) i decided to do a small article on how Blogs were implemented in this environment.

Microsoft realized that in creating a content authoring platform they couldn’t afford to leave out the one aspect that has revolutionized the method by which content authoring is being tackled today, namely blogs. So in an effort to harness Blogs and promote their use in a corporate setting Microsoft introduced Blogs in their latest version of Sharepoint.

Being true to Blogs Microsoft hasnt tampered too much with the basic layout, which means there is a seamless transition to corporate blogging for people who are already familiar with the concept of personal blogs.

They’ve incorporated a complete gamut of features that we’ve come to expect from any Blog.

Some of these are :

• Comments
• Categories
• Blogroll
• Search
• Permalink
• RSS feeds
• Calendar

Using the Sharepoint platform allows for certain additional features to be incorporated into the Blog. You can now publish information on your blog via e-mail’s, this includes sending documents as attachments ( something most blogs dont support ). API support for word 2007 actually allows you to directly interface with your blog and submit content through a word document on your desktop. Advanced features like Sharepoint permissions can be inherited and used throughout the Blog.

Multiple Authors can contribute to the same blog, and since the Blog ( like most of the features on Sharepoint ) is built on Webparts it really allows an amazing level of customization. Mobile View allows users to access blogs on Sharepoint via their mobile phones, a very useful feature as the percentage of people living on their Blackberry’s and Treo’s seem to be growing at an alarming pace.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of using the Sharepoint Platform to host your Blog is the fact that you can get details like user contact info and such as the application interfaces directly with the organizations exchange server. A feature that most corporate would definitely find very useful.

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Communication is one of the biggest enablers for knowledge management in any organization. Your people need to know the what, where and why of the KM initiative if you want to ensure its success.

The number of methods of communication strategies have increased in leaps and bounds since we entered the age of information technology. E-mail, RSS feeds, posters, etc are just some of the methods to enable the distribution of information. The extensive use of clever visuals also aids tremendously with getting the message across. Some companies have even gone so far as to create video clips of success stories in their organization. Even something as simple as a screen saver can be a powerful tool when it comes to reaching out to your people.

Using a combination of some of the methods described above is a great way of spreading the word on any initiative. As we all know, the greatest driver for knowledge sharing is recognition. A communications platform gives you the ability to promote employee recognition across the organization.

Things to keep in mind : As with most organizations, there is a central channel by which company wide information is dispersed. In most cases via e-mail as this is the cheapest and fastest way to ensure that the information gets to everyone. The draw backs of using such a platform for your KM initiative are the fact that these “vessels” are used to send information about everything, minor and major. The end result of this is a large portion of employees don’t even bother to check it.

So, at the end of the day how do you ensure that your message isn’t lost in all the noise? If you are looking for a simple answer there isn’t one. All i can say is look at everything you send out twice, pilot it with a bunch of people who can give you an outsiders opinion, and most importantly keep your fingers crossed.

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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.

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