Posted by Denham on April 17, 2001 at 21:57:20:

In Reply to: KM Audit posted by John P on April 17, 2001 at 16:54:27:

Greetings John,

Would recommend against going the questionnaire route for knowledge audits. Experience suggests the real value of an knolwedge audit comes from surfacing "what people know, but don't know they know". Questionnaires are not an effective route to this rich source of uncovered knowledge. What you need is evangelism, training and support to help staff reflect and uncover the best opportunities. Start 'conversations', tell stories, give examples and lead by example.

The pot of gold at the end of the knowledge audit, is not the location of explicit information, discovery of private knowledge stores or finding unknown sources of quality, highly applicable stuff!, it is surfacing and understanding the tacit assumptions, the values and core your organization holds about knowledge. If you already know what to ask, you surely will miss the 'hidden' gems that emerge from dialog, reflection, the synergy that comes from building on others ideas and intuitions.

Knowledge flows along relationships and is deeply embedded in key business processes and tacitly held mental models (of the industry, the competition, the opportunities and the 'business'). These are not reachable via administering a questionnaire, they will only surface once there is a forum and an evironment of safety and trust.

Conduct an inquiry, meet in a large room with pleanty of wall space, whiteboards and chairs that can be easily rearranged into smaller groups. Define your problem, identify the artifacts, list the values, look for the things that are not discussed. Repeat for other groups. Look at the distribution of authorities, who has access and controls what forums and who and how takes decisions. It is very stale knowledge knowledge that sits in databases, reports and formal repositories. Look at sources of customer and stakeholder innovation, look for tipping points and mavens, chart the networks the informal support channels and communication conduits.

Look for places where ideas collide, clash and bump together, look for boundary objects and for conceptual models that carry meaning between separate informal communities, look to connect the 'structural holes' in existing networks and seek to connect to weak ties and isolated clusters.

If you want a map that works and to be a guide to others, you have to explore the territory for yourself, not rely on secondhand pointers

• Knowledge mapping

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Follow Ups:

• Re: KM Audit Hossein 12:25:43 04/19/01 (1)
  • Boundary objects Denham 14:33:33 04/19/01 (0)

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