Knowledge Management – Defies definition

"There are many words and definitions I have never lost. But some I am only just beginning to truly understand"

~Mary E Pearson

How often have we used words fully comprehending the context in which we are using it, yet when asked the meaning of the word we would be stumped to give an accurate definition? Knowledge is apparently one such word; and when that becomes "Knowledge Management" you could actually end up writing a book of definitions.

This is how the Oxford English Dictionary defines knowledge. If so, how can knowledge be managed? Peter Drucker is credited with the quote "You can't manage knowledge. Knowledge is between two ears and only between two ears." And quite rightly so. If you were to manage the acquisition of skills through education, then that would be termed training and what is gained through experience can hardly be managed. An ancient Sanskrit text describes the process of how people acquire knowledge:

"Achaaryaath paadam aadatthe

paadam sishya swamedhayaa

paadam sa brahmachaaribhya

sesham kaala kramena
cha"

It explains:

From the teacher you receive a quarter of your knowledge
A quarter the disciple learns by his own efforts (practice)
A quarter he gains through interactions with his peers (fellow students)
The remaining comes only as time passes by (from experience)

I found this quite insightful, because it delineates the knowledge acquisition process and therefore gives us access to managing the acquisition process. It also appears that this could be equally effectively applied in the context of the organization. The organization, like the individual also learns in a similar manner; the only difference being that the teacher here might actually be the market place (in the case of organization's learning) and in some cases the market regulator.

Given this definition, I was trying to fit it into the current context of organizational knowledge and definitions by different leading knowledge management experts. Every organization which engages in some form of learning intervention, be it formal training and development programs or more unstructured learn-on-the-job forms, is providing employees with a "teacher" who imparts some learning. Similarly, as employees use their skills on a regular basis and learn from their experiences, they begin to know more than what they knew previously; the third kind of learning happens when employees engage in social interactions with other colleagues, customers, partners, suppliers etc. Every interaction will leave the employee enriched with a new learning and experience. The question then is, how can the organization manage these individual experiences and learning such that the sum total of this far exceeds the individual knowledge of each employee. And when this is put to use effectively, the organization benefits many fold than would be possible if each individual or group were to work in silos.

So, Knowledge Management then is the process by which an organization taps into the education and experience of individuals and makes it available in a manner that it can be used for the productivity and growth of the organization. This becomes possible by creating an ecosystem that fosters the creation, acquisition, collation and dissemination of knowledge. And we will know that such initiatives have been successful when we can measure the impact of this process on the ability of the organization to grow and profit from such knowledge.

With the advent of social collaboration and knowledge repositories, technology will also play a big role in enabling knowledge management by:

1. Making it possible to have social interactions and capture such tacit knowledge
   
2. Providing a structured and collaborative learning environment
   
3. A mechanism to capture insights and share it with other employees
   
4. And allowing people to benefit from the experience of others
   

While, seemingly it may not be possible to hasten the knowledge acquisition process, in an organizational context, what is important is how individual experiences can be collectively employed by the organization such that the organization's knowledge far exceeds its experience. Knowledge Management, then becomes a process of enabling individual skills and experiences to be gathered, collated and used contextually for enabling the organization progress in a sustainable manner.

A good knowledge management system would therefore have elements of collaboration and learning in order to be effective. By being able to integrate this to the performance of the organization it would enable the organization drive strategy and innovation.

When viewed from this perspective, we are able to appreciate the reason for Knowledge Management to exist as a strategic tool in organizations. We also realize the complexity of being able to gather such knowledge, process it in a meaningful manner, and share it with the entire organization such that it is available for use when needed. The challenges in enabling such a mechanism are multi-dimensional and involve people, processes, technology, organization structure, human behaviour and culture. When we look at the magnitude of activities that this will then encompass, it is quite easy to understand why a single definition eludes this subject.

Here are some definitions that are commonly used to define this subject:

• Knowledge Management is a concept in which enterprises consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares and analyses its knowledge in terms of resources, documents and people skills
  
• Knowledge Management is the process of applying a systematic approach to the capture, structuring, management and dissemination of knowledge throughout an organization to work faster, reuse best practices, and reduce costly rework.
  
• Knowledge Management is the deliberate and systematic coordination of an organization's people, process, technology, and organizational structure in order to add value through reuse and innovation.
  
• Strategies and processes designed to identify, capture, structure, leverage, value and share an organization's intellectual assets to enhance its performance and competitiveness
  
• Knowledge Management is a collaborative and integrated approach to the creation, capture, organization, access and use of an enterprise's intellectual assets
  
• Knowledge Management is understanding the organization's information flows and implementing learning practices which makes key aspects of its knowledge base available to the organization when required….
  

And so on it goes…

What is your definition of Knowledge Management? How would you go about explaining it?