Knowledge and Talent in a People-Ready Business
Dan is an outstanding thinker/futurist and persistently challenges conventional wisdom. I might disagree slightly on KM cycles - I believe this is the third or forth time around for KM proponents since the nineties - but there are a lot of great points in this article. When put into today's hype, much of what we attribute to "Enterprise 2.0" and social computing has long been reflected by KM tenets (yes, the majority of KM efforts have failed over the years but we need to separate organizing methods and practices from the mostly IT-centric implementations). Click to read the full article which also contains a link to download the paper.
The first time around, knowledge management was hardly a smashing success. When organizations several years ago tried to take advantage of the experience and insights of their workers, they captured information in large, structured data systems for access and retrieval. Unfortunately, those systems were often cumbersome and difficult to use, leading to low levels of participation and abandoned knowledge bases. Workers also suspected their own positions might be at risk after they shared their personal insights and knowledge.
Today’s intensely competitive global economy is forcing everyone to reconsider knowledge as a competitive differentiator. Change happens too fast for people and organizations to rely exclusively on structured processes and the rigid IT solutions that support them. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on retiring baby boomers. The high turnover of the “Millennial Generation” right behind them will create new challenges for maintaining knowledge capital at work.
The technology behind knowledge management today is considerably more mature than 10 years ago. So, too, is our growth in understanding about the role of knowledge in empowering people. Rigid, structured systems for data capture can easily be supplemented with more user-friendly applications that provide better integration into day-to-day work.
However, technology alone is not enough. Microsoft believes that organizations must also be willing to change their practices and culture in order to succeed. This article summarizes the Microsoft vision for possible knowledge solutions and architectures that will support teams and organizations over the next decade.
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