What are the main goals and benefits of developing a knowledge strategy for your organization?

While this is the first step in the process, it should be noted that this will likely be a continued effort throughout the life of the organization, as new knowledge may be created by people who may not be aware of the organizations governance.

Before starting to develop any knowledge management (KM) strategy, make sure your audience/customers/employers have the maturity to be serious about a KM strategy. Many don’t and just have it to look good. It is easy to “talk” about KM; it is another thing to get the means to fulfill this ambition and get value out of it.

In a healthcare organization aiming to improve patient outcomes, the first goal is conducting a knowledge audit. The mission is to enhance medical staff's expertise in rare diseases. The audit reveals existing resources like medical journals, databases, and internal documents. However, there's a gap in real-time knowledge sharing among departments. To address this, a priority initiative is implementing a centralized platform for quick information dissemination. This strategic approach ensures targeted allocation of resources, fostering collaboration and ultimately advancing the organization's mission of providing optimal patient care for rare diseases.

Knowledge happens naturally. It isn’t waiting for a knowledge management strategy. But it can be helped if we put in measures to enable sharing, reuse, innovation and learning that span time and space barriers. That KM Strategy is about deciding which are the best set of such interventions to make in a given context. To make the good outcome more likely.

Eine Methode, die ich aktuell sehr hilfreich finde und auch selbst anwende, ist der "Knowledge Quick Scan". In den Kategorien: ?Wissen identifizieren“, ?Wissen erzeugen“, ?Wissen speichern“, ?Wissen teilen“ und ?Wissen nutzen“ l?sst sich der Status Quo im Bezug auf den Umgang mit Wissen in der Organisation messen.

Remember that having aligned governance (and a knowledge management team that will oversee the information that his captured) can help your organization achieve the consistent & accurate voice that you are working to establish.

Let's presume a financial institution, embraces a knowledge strategy goal is to foster a culture of learning and innovation. Recognizing the value of data insights, employees are encouraged to share innovative data management practices. Regular hackathons and knowledge-sharing sessions are implemented to capture new approaches. Additionally, partnerships with fintech experts are formed, bringing external insights. The outcome is a repository of cutting-edge data management techniques, enhancing the organization's intellectual capital. This culture not only boosts internal efficiency but also positions the institution competitively by staying at the forefront of data governance practices.

Developing a knowledge strategy is super crucial. It's about setting up an environment where everyone's insights and experiences are valued and shared. This not only boosts your internal knowledge base but also strengthens your position in the market. Collaboration, both internal and external—can be a game-changer.

Hilfreich, um neues Wissen zu schaffen, kann sein, feste Anteile der Stelle für Weiterbildung zu definieren. Diese Weiterbildungen k?nnen dann für etwas genutzt werden, das im entferntesten Sinne auch dem Unternehmen zu Gute kommt: F?higkeiten, Kompetenzen aufbauen, die sozial oder fachlich zu einem unternehmerischen Mehrwert beitragen. Und am besten wird dieses neue Wissen dann auch direkt nachhaltig dokumentiert und (ver)teilt.

Start by encouraging team members to share their expertise through blogs, wikis, or regular meetings. For instance, a project debrief after completing a complex task captures lessons learned. Utilize tools like knowledge bases or collaborative platforms to organize and store this information securely. By doing so, you create a wealth of knowledge that boosts productivity and innovation across your organization, much like unlocking hidden treasures for continual growth and success!

Part of the intent of organizing / categorizing knowledge is to ensure that you don't have multiple knowledge base articles (KBAs) that are similar, but say completely different things. You also want knowledge to be easy for your end-user to find. If you have multiple articles that say the same thing, but only 1 is accurate, your end-user may become frustrated and no longer trust the resource.

Organizing and storing knowledge involves creating a structured system, much like organizing a well-curated bookstore. Develop a taxonomy or categorization system to label and group content logically. For instance, in a company intranet, create site pages dedicated to specific topics like sales strategies or IT troubleshooting. Customize views based on roles or departments to tailor content accessibility. This approach streamlines information retrieval, enhances user experience, and promotes effective collaboration, akin to browsing through a well-organized bookstore with sections and genres clearly labeled for easy exploration!

One thing that is missing in organizations is that no matter how well-categorized or orderly knowledge is stored, it may still not findable or accessible. Have you ever found a pretty benign document but then had to reply through a form why you needed it. Even worse, once you finally got access to it, you didn't not need the knowledge or information and you spent time waiting for something that did not benefit the work you were doing.

A centralized knowledge repository with optimized search is so important. Most people don't have to look through folders and wiki pages.. even if they are correctly organized.

Share knowledge, create communities of practices (CoP) and improve the communication between peers. But to make it happen, the organization must involve upper management to get the political willingness to invest time and money so employees can perform activities as expected. Budgeting these activities is crucial to guarantee its sustainability, and a knowledge manager is needed to plan, monitor, and evaluate the entire program so that every year can better integrating all SMEs and key stakeholders into this process.

Remember that having dedicated resources to monitor knowledge creation is key for keeping the knowledge that may be created by "well-meaning" contributors accurate. Depending on who the knowledge is created by, you may notice that employees could use the space to ask questions or give guidance around something new they would like to see in the organization. Without someone to monitor this feedback, content contributors could end up feeling unheard thus decreasing their view of the positive impact that this shared knowledge platform is meant to create.

A Knowledge Strategy is a starting point, the genesis of where your knowledge bases are, where you want to be, and how you will reach there. Without a strategy, making knowledge a tangible asset is not only difficult, it may well be impossible. To add to the difficulty of the task, no organization can copy and paste a knowledge strategy; it is something that has to emanate from organizational goals, its needs, top management philosophy, business strategy, macroeconomic environment, and so many other factors. The task may be difficult but once you do formalise a strategy, you will find that sharing and transferring knowledge becomes more systematic, goal oriented, and even measurable.

Consider how cool it would be if your employees could find the answer that they need just by searching your knowledge base without having to reach out to someone directly to someone to get a simple question answered. Consider how cool it would be if the employee's who used to answer these simple questions could spend their time focusing on another area that helps your organization grow instead of answering those same simple questions over and over again.

A knowledge strategy aims to capture, share, and leverage your organization's collective knowledge to: Boost performance and efficiency: by making information readily accessible and fostering collaboration. Drive innovation and better decision-making: by ensuring everyone has access to the expertise and insights they need. Gain a competitive advantage: by turning knowledge into a strategic asset that fuels innovation and growth.

When the km has a built in feedback mechanism, it is advised to encourage the users to submit feedback when they seem to have an issue with the article - inaccuracies, missing details, not up-to-date, etc. The km management team then gets the feedback and updates the articles if necessary, while communicating it to the users - to encourage this open line of communication

Knowledge Management policies usually have a section where it speaks to document retention and expiration dates. Ensure automation is put on documents for review as well.

Wissensarbeit ist Arbeit - gerade das Aktuellhalten und Pflegen des unternehmerischen Wissensschatzes nimmt viel Zeit und Ressource ein. Sie sollten also genügend Ressource auch dafür zur Verfügung stellen, sei es mittels eines Wissensmanagement Teams oder Stellenanteilen von einzelnen Mitarbeitenden im Unternehmen.

Identifying "know-how" is important, as is the "know who". I typically describe a KM strategy as the "know why". Why we should be implementing KM. Linked to this is the purpose of the strategy. I read an article where is stated that 85% of KM initiatives have no clear objectives. I think about the outcome then not being better KM (e.g. collaboration, knowledge sharing etc). Instead, how KM can contribute to a greater goal, be that cost reduction, risk avoidance or growth. It should therefore contribute to the main strategy of the organisation it is being implemented in.

Consider hiring a dedicated Knowledge Manager and investing in a Knowledge Management team to oversee and align on the governance that you have worked so hard to establish. Having dedicated resources who cares about the content, and can work with your stakeholders will ensure that knowledge continues to remain up-to-date and effective!

Interesting hot topic! It is one its' own an area for many Knowledge Bulls to run :) Developing a knowledge strategy for your organisation is like investing in a diversified financial portfolio. Just as a well-balanced portfolio mitigates risks and maximises returns, a robust knowledge strategy ensures optimal decision-making, innovation, and growth. By having ready access to critical information, you make informed decisions swiftly, enhancing customer satisfaction through timely and improved services. Sharing ideas and insights fuels innovation, while streamlined access to knowledge reduces redundancy and accelerates project delivery, ultimately fostering sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

Tapping into the power of knowledge is vital for any organization's growth. This article beautifully highlights the essence of developing a strategic approach to harness, manage, and leverage knowledge.

I would add systematically developing knowledge here. Strategic knowledge management should also include the targeted further development of knowledge within the organization. This is one way to promote innovation in the organization.