Breadth
I think one of the most fascinating aspects of knowledge management is its breadth. During my CKM course with KMI, we were shown the following KM landscape map, created by Chris Collison:
I immediately knew I wanted to print this and keep it at my desk. It’s a great reminder of everything we’re trying to pull together, and even what is only adjacent, nearby for a quick day trip if needed. I think it will help when creating a roadmap to think about what we might need or want to include, and how those might integrate with something else. It could help organize a KM team, understanding what areas might require different roles, and the context for how the team should work. It’s incredibly powerful (with a few fun moments!) and I know it will be something I keep with me during my KM career.
Another thing that it highlights for me, is that different practitioners will naturally fall into different niches, and have different preferences. You notice this almost immediately when you join a KM group and the discussion begins. Some will lean more toward the codification areas; others will want to discuss behaviors more, and a large portion will focus heavily on learning and communities. I love the balance that the diversity of thought brings to these groups, where we are all constantly learning and reminding each other of things to consider.
This is why it is so important to develop a KM team, and not just assign one person to try manage it all. In my limited experience, successful KM requires multiple phases of change at multiple levels of the organization, over an extended period of time. Almost like developing a civilization and culture across the continent shown in the map above, it can’t be done individually in a short period of time. And as internal social network analysis maps have shown, the more points of buy in, the larger the reach. The influence a KM team can have must then be so much larger than what one person can do alone. Success requires not only the ever elusive executive sponsorship, but maybe even more than that, a traceable path of support trickling down throughout the org chart.
Breadth is a benefit and strength of knowledge management. It should be utilized to the fullest extent.
