Archive for: Carla O'Dell

The New Edge of Knowledge by Carla O’dell and Cindy Hubert focuses on the best and most effective practices to ensure organizations have the knowledge needed for the future. Each chapter of the book shares ideas on new ways of working and collaboration by using knowledge management as a social network and how leading companies apply them.

Carla defines knowledge as information in action and knowledge management as a systematic effort to enable information and knowledge to grow, flow and create value. Social networking, one of today’s most popular ways of collaborating, has helped people be good at filtering, switching and organizing their memories. Social media becomes social computing when applied to a non‐commercial intent among people to share and co‐create.

Knowledge management, or KM for short, can either be done in the workflow or above workflow. KM in the workflow is when we enable staff members to collaborate, capture and share knowledge without an additional burden or interruption on their part. Knowledge management above the workflow is when we ask staff members to stop their work process to move to another mode to reflect, capture or share. One is not better than the other, it simply depends on the type of organization and the speed on which the knowledge is needed.

Furthermore, Carla describes an effective strategy in creating a call to action on identifying and prioritizing the organization’s critical knowledge. The first step in creating a call to action for knowledge management is to understand the value proposition for enhancing the essential flow of knowledge. The next, critical knowledge has to be identified. After that, the critical knowledge must be located. A key component is to develop a knowledge map that acts as a snapshot in time to help the organization understand what knowledge it has and what it lacks. The next step is to enable the knowledge flow process. A critical step to facilitate the transfer of best practices is to identify and adopt superior practices rapidly. By sharing what works best, staff members get the theory, evidence and expertise all at once.  Examination of critical success factors is usually essential. Often knowledge and best practices exist in every organization, yet employees rarely share them. And even when they do, methods are not necessarily implemented.

The author gives a special place to social networking in the way of capturing and sharing knowledge. Social networking refers to online sites where users can create a profile and designate a network of people to see their posts and following their activities. It is the pure manifestation of the user-driven philosophy. Social networks could become an essential adjunct for creating and sustaining the engine of relationships and knowledge in a Web 2.0 world. The guidelines for enterprise social networking are: ride the wave, every organization isn’t Facebook, imitate what works, observe what really happens, trust but verify, encourage extended networks and use social networking as an adjunct to expertise location.

The book also illustrates the ways to a cultivate knowledge‐sharing culture. There are three ways to directly influence the norms and behaviors of employees. First is to lead by example. Executive involvement lends credibility to KM programs and ensures the efforts will be long term. There are 10 desirable types of leaders for Knowledge Management identified as: progressive leader, investigative leader, all‐for‐one leader, trusted the leader, methodical leader, visionary leader, implementation leader, observant leader, innovative leader and follower‐centric leader. The second way is to brand aggressively. To develop a knowledge‐sharing culture, there is a need for consistent messaging- a formal and pervasive communications push and reinforcement of desired behaviors through rewards and recognition. The third and last way is to make it fun. It can be done by making Knowledge Management tools and approaches engaging, using humor, introducing friendly competition, enabling two‐way interaction and seeking inspiration elsewhere.

This book explores the knowledge management value proposition for any organization, provides proven strategies and approaches to make it work, shares how to measure knowledge management’s impact and illustrates high-level knowledge sharing with excellent case studies.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS
Keypoint #1: Lead by example. Knowledge management is a cultural shift for the organization, so it’s required for the leaders to go above and beyond in their support.

Keypoint #2: Knowledge management is not a new catchy phrase, it is the edge on which organizations of all types, for-profit and non-for-profit, will be competing within the new knowledge economy.

Keypoint #3: Brand aggressively and make it fun. Besides leaders in the organization actively carrying the banner of knowledge management, there is a need to make it stick.  Influencing an established culture will require every staff member to embrace it.

One Last Thing
“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged and increased constantly, or it vanishes.” Peter Drucker