Embracing knowledge management practices requires boldness
This morning, I was having a run-through on some knowledge management principles and practices to develop a strategy for the uptake of some development solutions. Suddenly, it dawned on me that some organisations would not be willing to embrace these tools and methodologies. You know what? They sound simple and negligible for some “too serious” minds (in quote).
You know, KM always warns about assertive leaders and teammates and encourages socialisation as a major process for externalising tacit knowledge. Unfortunately, assertive professionals, who like to accord themselves too much respect among peers usually won’t socialise or support the idea. It looks useless to them, but for KMers, that is where people relax and then share several hidden nuggets in their heads. See the image below for a simple knowledge creation process by Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995.
Think about activities like the After Action Reviews (AAR), Knowledge Cafes, Storytelling, Learning Reviews, Collaborative Workspace, and more. Some managers may say “whoops! these are all the same exercises”, and they lose interest. Yet, these are the practices that help philomaths identify, generate or capture the pieces of nuggets that help organisations make better decisions and achieve improved results.
Only organisations, leaders and teams who are bold enough to “kick away the box” (not just think outside the box) can apply KM duly.