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More On The Death Of Knowledge Management
By Kevin Shea
Expert Author
Article Date: 2008-08-14
The idea Is KM Dead? was introduced during an interview with Larry Prusak, and since then the conversation about the question has been a hot topic among those of us blogging about KM.
Luis Suarez, Social Computing Evangelist @ IBM, pulled together related Is KM dead? blog content in a recent post, in which he asked if he should rewrite his job description although I think somewhat tongue in cheek.
Here is my comment to his post.
I think the bigger question is "Is IT Dead?" something posited by Nicholas Carr a few years ago in his article "Does IT Matter?"
He was pooh-poohed then, but maybe he was only a few years too early. I have written that KM is the last great "killer app" that remains after years of isolated task solutions solving problems in selected business areas. . but this "new KM" will be owned by the business, not IT. (post)
Knowledge management is a process activity .. unlike document management which is a task activity. Knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and using the knowledge to advance a company's product is more the domain of a business unit. It's fundamentally what a business is all about.
As a knowledge manager, I think you should be writing a new job description, not something completely different, just shifted more toward process and the business. You will have to shift to servicing the business and moving away from focusing on delivering IT tools and solutions. You will have to learn to deal with tacit information and how people "package" their thoughts. You will have to deal with the business when, soon, they will begin to see all this stuff as an asset and begin to accept more and more responsibility for all things currently IM/KM. You will have to focus on integration if you wish to remain a player, and working within a dynamic, recursive process. To be relevant in the future, IT (and a knowledge manager) has to fundamentally know how the business operates.
As you are rewriting you JD, I suggest that it is time to dust off Carr's writings and begin to re-evaluate his question "Does IT matter"?
Thanks for the trackback and taking the time to further the discussion. This is fun!
A simple slide show consolidates my thinking.
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About the Author:
Mr. Shea is the president of Binary Engineering, Belmont, MA, a process management consulting firm specializing in creating strategic and tactical process change and improvement in diverse product companies. He has over 28 years of experience in product development, systems engineering and process management consulting.
His current work focuses on creating collaborative methods to overcome execution inefficiencies and on applying current web technologies to achieve results. Mr. Shea has a depth of experience in getting new technologies adopted and working successfully in medium and large size companies.
He writes in the areas of collaboration, knowledge management, enterprise2.0 adoption, and related topics. His special interest is in assuring that interactions and integration are foremost in any adoption or implementation plan. Check out his blog: Process Collaboration
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