What is Knowledge Management?

When range of practices and techniques are put together in order to distribute knowledge, expertise, and learning across the organization, it is termed as knowledge management. Knowledge management model also means that whatever knowledge an organization has, it is been put to the best use so that the understanding of the available resources becomes easier and every individual is more aware of the available knowledge.

What does a knowledge management involves?

Whether it is about maintaining a corporate library, or it is about professional training and mentoring programs, it would always have an aspect of knowledge management and these are then given a name of knowledge management programs. An information has to be right and has to given at the same time and at right cost. A knowledge management model includes a process which deals with it. To do all of this, knowledge manager plays a crucial role.

How does the knowledge management strategy works?

Any business success would also depend on implementing the right knowledge management strategy. It is right only if it is aligned with the business strategy. Every enterprise also has a knowledge leader to ensure that the knowledge management strategy is accurate and is not trapped by the common challenges which a knowledge management model can face. The success of a knowledge management program also depends on how well the cultural changes are being recognized in an organization.

Success of the knowledge management program

A knowledge management program is successful when its objective is being articulated within an organization only in the language which an organization uses to define the business objectives. This is how knowledge sharing becomes easy and quick in a particular enterprise. Success of the knowledge management also depends on the kind of content it has and how easy it is to use and access it.

How Knowledge Management Processes Help People in the Business Industry

Sometimes being knowledgeable about certain things is not enough. What really matters is how you apply your acquired metal skills on the actual work. This notion is true especially to those people who just graduated from college. They are so full of theoretical knowledge but with their inexperience, they have no idea on how to channel it to the actual job. This is also true of people with business and management degrees. Once they get a hand on experience in the business arena, all the knowledge seems to vanish in the thin air. However with knowledge management processes that is utilized in some business firms; you can put that stored knowledge into a good use.

Knowledge management processes are a series of process that enables you to exercise and put to a use the theoretical knowledge you acquired from schools or training. Each stage has a mentor and that person will help you go over the knowledge management models and analyze the theory to be executed in a certain situation. The exercise and the knowledge management models will help open your mind on to the actual world. 

The performance and reaction of the employee with the different stages is being observed and this will be the establishment’s basis to identify where you are good at. They will study the entire outcome thoroughly and would recommend further training if still needed or will put you on the actual work in an instant. In this process, employees will not only get the best version of themselves but know what they really are capable of. 

This process is being used in many business establishments already and they applied this process to make their employees the best that they can be. With this, efficiency and professionalism are expected to improve which will then make you an asset to the organization. 

Creating and Leveraging Knowledge: The True Essence of Knowledge Management

Approximately two years ago, the concept of knowledge management came up. It talks about handling or organizing knowledge that has to flow within the organization in the best way possible and that has to cover the entire thing. As quoted, it was said that knowledge management is the process of capturing, distributing and efficient usage of knowledge. Every organization needs to do all these in order to flow out well. It is the responsible sharing of all the enterprises’ information asset that can be a huge help to the group. These assets may include databases, documents and policies. Basically, it talks about the proper ways to handle knowledge in an organization. Knowledge has to be properly shared so that it can be used by the other members of the organization especially the new ones. 

Another important way to view knowledge management is to describe it as the movement to replicate the information and deploy it generously across the firm. It is very important to note that there are three kinds of knowledge. There are the explicit, implicit and tacit knowledge. Let us discuss how these three differ to one another. 

1. Explicit knowledge- These are the pieces of information or knowledge that is set out in touchable or tangible form. 

2. Implicit knowledge- These are the pieces of information or knowledge that are not set out in tangible form but they could be altered as explicit. 

3. Tacit knowledge- These are the pieces of information or knowledge that are gained through experience. 

Knowing all these kinds of knowledge will lead us to better models for knowledge management that can support our ways of effectively distributing this knowledge to the entire organization. Knowledge management is for development thus it is worthy to push through. This concept will work out perfectly when organizations and corporations will begin to realize that it is not about how well we capture knowledge but it is more on how we create and make use of this knowledge for the development of the entire team. 

Knowledge is unquestionably a great part of our businesses and professions. It is important to understand how your database is designed, how your organization presently handles knowledge and the best ways to have the senior managers approve business cases. There are certified knowledge manager certifications and workshops that can help you with effective knowledge management. 

Be Among the Biggest Companies That Got Knowledge Management Right

The relevance of personal knowledge management is felt by more and more companies with its important role of being the foundation of the knowledge management efforts of the entire team. Every company desires to come up with a more effective knowledge sharing and a culture of collaboration. The world of social media has undeniably contributed much in making the flow of knowledge a fluid one. This is very evident in the status quo. Personal knowledge or tacit knowledge is a greater level of knowledge mainly because it is something that we do not learn through information but from our experiences. Some people are struggling while others feel like this has grown naturally with them throughout the years. The best way that we can maintain knowledge is through constant sharing and learning from the people around us but it could be better if we learn things all by ourselves.

There are two types of knowledge that you should know to get the right strategy in knowledge management. These are the explicit and tacit knowledge.

v  Explicit knowledge is passing on knowledge with a use of a book or manuals that explain the company’s safety protocols. This kind of knowledge is easier to pass on to someone else compared to the other type of knowledge.

v  Tacit knowledge is a kind of knowledge that is learned through experience. This kind of knowledge is difficult to transfer.

Knowledge management companies understand the value of maximizing these types of knowledge to come up with an effective knowledge management strategy in retaining the know-how that runs the business. Retrieving collective intelligence is essential for the new employee. You have to make yourself ready for situations when an employee that you consider as an asset to your company suddenly declares that he no longer likes his job and wants to find another one. Cases like this happen. You have to be ready by coming with an effective plan for knowledge flow. Tacit knowledge can be difficult to pin down so you have to come up with the best system that can support exactly what you want to happen and that is to pass on the important knowledge that your new employees want to possess. Check out www.kminstitute.org for assistance that you can get. Be among the biggest companies that made it to where they are now because of an effective knowledge management.

Creating and Fostering a Culture in Knowledge Management for Continuous Productivity

Knowledge that is gained through experience is the highest form that a person could ever have. The loss of knowledge is a very dangerous possibility which may also happen to your company or organization. It can be a great loss once your employees decided to leave the job that they have been doing for your company for many years and leave with the tacit knowledge, a kind of knowledge that is not documented but gained through experience. This can be an alarming scenario especially when you are not yet well-established thus you have to make preparations about the possibilities of facing this scene before it’s too late. A good knowledge transfer has to be implemented.

Implementing a useful continuity practices may not be easy. Knowledge transfer in tacit knowledge may require reliable systems. Personal knowledge management can really mean a lot. You can check out www.kminstitute.org for helpful information about a knowledge management company that can assist you. You need to be well-guided on how you can possibly share the KM knowledge in a variety of formats. In order for your business to gain continuous success, you need to create and foster a culture in which knowledge is continuously retained and transferred. Do not let the loss of personal, undocumented knowledge hinder the productivity of your company.

 As the nature of knowledge becomes fluid, you need to make use of important tools to your advantage. You need to have a design application that can allow all your employees to have an immediate access to important information. You may also create a learning environment with a massive network of databases. This can create a healthy environment where the members of your company can constantly evaluate their own performance. You know, you need to come with helpful strategies to make sure that your community is always aiming for personal growth and constant improvement. Creating a social-bookmarking system can also be an advantage.

The traditional “storytelling” can be a help in refining knowledge. You have to allow your workforce from any part of the globe converse in professional way. Losing employees that can be a great asset to the company could be inevitable so you have to be always prepared. Managing knowledge in today’s fluid environment may not be easy but as long as you have the right approach, you’ll certainly gain success.

The Challenge of Facing Personal Knowledge Management

If there is something that’s truly worth our time and efforts, it must be personal knowledge and management. It is a collection of processes that a person make use of in order to gather, classify, store, search, retrieve and share knowledge in his everyday life and activities. You have to maintain a good process about this aspect in your life so you will have increased responsibility for growth and learning. You may need to keep your focus on your individual skills while keeping your attention to variety of disciplines like cognitive, psychology and philosophy. Personal knowledge management is broad in every sense thus you have to keep your concentration on the general side and have the necessary skills and knowledge in everything.

Some people may oppose the idea that personal knowledge is manageable. There are group of people that says we can take control on the personal information that we attain everyday but we cannot have the direct control over personal knowledge management. They claim that knowledge is never an individual product and that it actually emerges through connections. Social interaction and our communication with other people also influence our personal knowledge management. There are knowledge management companies that offer assistance in using your personal knowledge to the maximum advantage.

Personal productivity improvement is a tool that can make a more effective personal use of the knowledge, learning and technology. However, there are some cases when knowledge management comes from too much focus on technology when the true problems actually lie on the organizational processes and practices. Thus you have to be with a leading educational institution that is the home of the official KM Body of Knowledge. It has to be committed to researching, defining, publishing and sharing KM knowledge in many formats that are necessary for a true productive experience. You can check out www.kminstitute.org for a helpful assistance that you can get.

We have to take advantage of every opportunity in managing knowledge in a more productive way. As the context of knowledge increases rapidly, it is important to acknowledge and apply the best practices or introduce new technologies and methodologies that are helpful in capturing and sharing knowledge in the best way possible. Most importantly, you have to understand that deeper knowledge is not through facts but through interactions with people. Socialization plays a very important role that we cannot neglect. 

Approaches to Knowledge Management: How Do We Tap the Potential?

The organization of intellectual resources in a company is crucial, among all others, in the planning and the overall accomplishment of objectives. Knowledge pervades the whole organization that’s why it can be able to tackle all the necessary entities for it to propel to success. Before the utilization of this knowledge to be effective it must be recognized and categorized first. This will guide the organization to effectively utilize and make use of available resources in managing their day-to-day operations. In the field of knowledge management, companies need to equip themselves with the right skills to enable them to project a kind of framework that will incorporate all their machinery and manpower in achieving the success that they aspire.

Widen Your Vision

In any course of a projected plan of a company, always remember that knowledge management is just a part of the overall “strategic intelligence”. There are still lots of resources that you can focus on and adapt for your organizational tasks. The benefits of knowledge management, when it comes to organizing your intellectual resources, go far beyond any type of resource management. The implication of having thoroughly managed and addressed intellectual resources will help in the overall achievement of goals within a company.

Measure the Outcomes

Central to the benefits of the knowledge management approach is the evaluation. In this case, you must be able to build knowledge management metrics in order to measure the outcomes of the initiatives. Know how effective you manage your resources without any compromise. This will guide you in making any subtle changes or improvement in your overall organization of resources. You must also be able to recognize strong points like celebrating success in your knowledge management efforts. Success can be easier to reach with the help of knowledge management companies. They help organizations to manage their intellectual resources and to allocate them to their appropriate domain.

Create Proper Relationship

Your knowledge management strategies should also appropriately fit into your organizational culture. You must be able to build the kind of connection or link between your strategies and the culture that pervades in your organization. Only when you are able to create a relationship will you achieve the best and suitable environment for your efforts. The importance of aligning your strategies to the culture of your organization will help identify issues that you need to address like the system or the way your employees work in the field. Having a knowledge management degree will provide you wider perspective and knowledge on the things that you need to remember when dealing with the organization and management of resources. You must be able to tap this entity for you to create a harmonious link between the strategies you have set and the culture you are in.

Implement

Most importantly, developing a well-designed KM implementation will be a great tool in the organization. All planning and no implementation will just be futile efforts. You must be assertive enough and firm with your approaches especially in the implementation of your strategies to help build the solid foundation for the company. Even personal knowledge management is crucial to help oneself in having a definite way of contributing greatness to the organization. The field of knowledge management is a vast field to discover but its fruits are beneficial to the overall progress of the organization.

Let Yourself Free from Ignorance

“Knowledge is power”. This is the most commonly used quote when we speak about knowledge. This line sums everything that really, knowledge is so powerful. But acquiring knowledge is not just as easy as how we say it. Knowledge is such a wonderful possession a man could have. It is a treasure no one could steal but could be shared and enjoyed. Knowledge as we define is a collection of what we have learned from our childhood until the last breath of our life. Acquiring knowledge is totally a continuous process of sharing what you have and gaining from what others have to offer. The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of thing we do not understand. Being a knowledgeable person, you can better understand the different things happening around us. It gives higher foundation to live our life in better ways.

Education plays the biggest role in gaining greater knowledge.  There are different approaches and techniques used in teaching and learning. Theories of different founders of education are being well studied and relayed to educators to have a deeper understanding in the role of teaching and learning process. The very crucial task of educators is how they are going to impart knowledge to their learners. 

Aside from graduating or finishing a common course of study, one could upgrade the level of learning he/she has. Try to have another twist in your career by experiencing other flavors of the social circle. Living in the knowledge era where people maximize the use of their knowledge, get higher degree of importance in the social world. The success of every organization will depend on its ability to generate, adopt and diffuse knowledge to become knowledge organizations. The skills and tools required to manage a knowledge organization build upon, but are different from, those required to manage an industrial-era organization. These new skills and tools are found in the emerging domain of knowledge management.

Having further knowledge is exposing in a knowledge management degree courses which provide what expert practitioners need to know to carry out successful enterprise and what professionals need to know for greater career success.

An individual may also undergo personal knowledge management in uplifting the quality of knowledge he/she does. There are skills that can be developed in exposing an individual in this management.

1. An individual have an in depth realization by reflection to oneself.
2. An individual will have greater opportunity to manage learning. One may become aware of the things to be learned.
3. One biggest advantage of this is that an individual will become information literate. He will learn what the needed and important factors are and how to find these factors.
4. Since, personal knowledge is use; it strengthens the use of intuition, critical thinking, personal views, expression and interpretation.
5. Moreover, personal knowledge management provides to maximize the use of one’s creative thinking. The use of imagination, appreciation and inference are developed.

It is good to be successful in everything that we do. Let not ignorance rule your life. Open your eyes to bigger possibilities of attaining goals with the knowledge you have. Be aware enough to the proper use of knowledge that we have. 

Top Knowledge Management Companies

The presence of knowledge management companies will vouch for the pivotal role of the concept on any business company or organizational structure. The consolidation and the recognition of best knowledge management companies have started in 2000 and this task is no easy since the inauguration of more companies in the past years. The recognition of best KM companies is a year-long process among colleagues, analysts, select group of users, and system integrators. The 13 years of continuous efforts on finding best solutions for knowledge management have sparked a whole new era in this new field.

The value of knowledge management in any organization is huge in terms of business operations and the fulfillment of goals. The right approach towards knowledge management is a key to an excellent and sustainable resource among best companies. The management of intellectual resources coupled with employee engagement, in part of the workforce, is an undying strategic structure in maintaining the duties and responsibilities of organization in excellent grounds. Knowledge management companies hold much of the structure in the overall organizational scheme of a company. Their role is achieving greater heights in the fulfillment and the accomplishment of goals and success among top business companies.

The selection of best knowledge management companies is governed by several criteria. All of the companies possess one common characteristic. All of them have helped in creating a market, redefining and enhancing them. They also possess velocity of innovation and the agility to properly serve customers. Though KM companies have a well-defined role in a company, personal knowledge management still matters among employees. Individual efforts in management resources are also a key and a beneficial addition to the overall effort of allocating and managing resources. The recognition of KM companies is a marker on the expanding value of knowledge management as a strategy to be incorporated in any organization’s role.

Top KM companies include:

A2iA—Natural handwriting recognition, intelligent word recognition (IWR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR) technologies.

Alfresco—Open source enterprise content management system developer for Microsoft Windows and Unix-like operating systems.

Attensity—Social analytics and engagement solutions.

Connotate—Web data monitoring and collection for the business user.

eGain—On-premise or cloud software for knowledge-powered, multichannel sales and service.

Exterro—Solutions for legal hold, early case assessment (ECA), data collection and processing and other electronic discovery processes.

iDatix—iSynergy document management solution designed to solve transactional and paper-based problems in accounting, human resources, customer service and operations.

IntelliResponse—Software platform that allows customers and service agents to ask questions in natural language.

kCura—Web-based platform servicing the analysis, review and production stages of the e-discovery reference model.

Lymba—Natural language processing-based solutions to transform large unstructured data collections into actionable knowledge.

Microsoft—Complete software solutions for home and office.

NewsGator Technologies—Enterprise social computing solutions with direct integration with SharePoint's collaboration platform.

San Jose State University SLIS—Graduate degrees and leadership development for professionals who organize, manage and enable the effective use of information and ideas.

Keys for Knowledge Management Success

Every leader is ought to know how to lead a company and how to make use of intellectual resources to propel it to success. There are several entities governing the management of any organization or company’s goal and all the strategies that accompany it. What every leader should know is how to effectively utilize the available resources in the company’s own advantage in fulfilling its goals and achieving the success. Several approaches come when the resources are well mobilized especially if they are given the utmost importance with all other factors of the game.

What knowledge management is after is the proper organization of intellectual resources and the information system within a business environment. You should learn how to align your knowledge management strategy with your organizational strategies, goals, and objectives. This will enable you to create a unified approach with every goal that you are after. There are several knowledge management companies that help you to settle and get into the art of organizing your resources and incorporating them into your company’s mission and vision. When you have merged your knowledge management strategies to the company’s goals you can easily make a harmonious environment that easily achieves the success for the company.

A well-designed knowledge management implementation that involves the three main entities, which are people, process, technology, will help you to structure a path that will govern all your KM strategies throughout the company. People are of the finest knowledge resources and the workforce that you can have. With the manpower that they have, you can make a company that largely deals with the implementation of goals and the achievement of success. Personal knowledge management will also come in the way if individual employees are taught how to work efficiently and how to have a good standpoint with the company’s objectives.

Incorporating knowledge management as a part of the human capital strategy, succession planning, workforce development, and/or quality management is a step that will gradually reform the structure of the company’s workforce. A knowledge management degree is required in some aspects to equip leaders with the right approach and management of a company’s intellectual resources. When a leader is equipped with knowledge management skills, he can be able to serve better the company with all the strategies laid on the fulfillment of goals. He will also be able to align KM approaches to fit the organizational culture of the company that he serves.

Leading an organization will require you to have unique abilities in managing and mobilizing all the available resources without taking their potentials for granted. Having the right approach in the knowledge management will help leaders and managers to pursue the company’s goals while enriching their abilities in their particular field.

Sharing What You Learn Separates Success from Knowledge

Knowledge is one thing that we acquire from our daily experience and it is also what we use as a foundation to keep ourselves up for new experiences in the next days. From small business up to the biggest companies in the world, a consistent generation and flow of ideas or insights are very important to maintain a good stand in the business world.

Because we have tremendous experiences every single day, it is also every day that we learn. One of the common mistakes that some think about knowledge is that success is based on its amount. This means that the more you know, the greater the possibility you can be successful in your chosen field. This common thinking is defied by the concept of knowledge management used among companies in many parts of the business world today. Why is this so? Well, everyone in their respective industries would love to see their business growing and reach their goals.

In plain words, knowledge management or simply known as KM is something that applies proven methods to leverage knowledge and this would accelerate your organization to a higher level of performance. KM also emphasizes sharing knowledge as a big factor in success. What would you do with the knowledge you have in your head if your hands won’t apply it? Application always counts for people who work under KM.

And because KM established success in many organizations out there, the International Knowledge Management Institute (KM Institute) came to life.  KM Institute is known to be the leading educational Knowledge Management formed in 2004. And in 2005, it was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA. The company’s dedication to provide professional and efficient KM training and solutions did not stop at organizations but it also reached individual needs through what KM Institute calls personal knowledge management.

The way they provide a wide range of training covering many sectors in business is a clear indication justifying how sharing knowledge leads to success. Today, having a knowledge management degree serves as an asset for someone who’s planning to enter the field where tight competition in between organizations exists. We are in era of continuous discovery and evolution of concepts to make our lives better. The concept of sharing knowledge is also a way to expand your territory and cover different groups that in return can help us in doing business. No matter what standard a company might have to say that it is successful; may it be profit, customer satisfaction, development, or security; learning does not stop right there.

Changes happen every day and it is also as often as that you have to adapt. That is the reason why you have to keep on reading, communicating, and managing what you know. What you know right at this point may not be applicable to what your business would deal have to deal with tomorrow. Start sharing what you have in mind. Who knows that it might be a key to your success?