Features

Published May 2009

The Future of Knowledge Management

 

 

  Randy Emelo

Understanding how knowledge is transferred in the organization is critical to moving toward a more democratic and free-flowing pattern of knowledge sharing. If learning leaders do not tap into grassroots resources and allow people to access one another, they will alienate large sections of the workforce and stymie creativity and learning. Giving people the freedom to self-organize and search out the knowledge resource they need at the exact moment they need it will create a more equitable and streamlined practice for sharing knowledge.

How Do We Get It?
In today’s hectic 24x7 world, knowledge must flow rapidly and freely from expert sources directly to the people who need it. No one has time to wait around for data. Knowledge is critical, and getting the information needed exactly when you need it is vital to achieving success. To thrive, organizations must create democratic and transparent ways to access knowledge resources in-house that will help their workers find and interact more easily with the knowledge source who is also their colleague. The mantra for knowledge management must be: accessible, ubiquitous and democratic.

The use of technologies that help people create one-to-one and one-to-many knowledge-sharing and learning relationships can facilitate this type of knowledge exchange, leading to a give-and-take of information and ideas between all parties involved. By keeping these interactions in-house, all of the information shared and the ideas created are kept within the company, rather than lost to an outside source. This not only strengthens the organization from an intellectual capital standpoint, but it also strengthens the bonds between co-workers and creates an environment of goodwill and camaraderie.

The in-house structure also spurs organizations to find and leverage untapped resources, those people who somehow slip through the cracks. In-house knowledge exchange puts an emphasis on opening up the lines of information and communication, and invigorates knowledge sharing. Embedding this practice into core processes within the enterprise — such as on-boarding, management training and performance improvement — creates multiple learning avenues for employees at critical junctures in the employment experience.

CDW Corp. brought these ideas to life through its holistic online development suite, Achieve It!, featuring Web-based mentoring. The suite was designed to help CDW build an inclusive knowledge-sharing and learning culture in which co-workers are empowered to address their development needs; make cross-organizational connections with one another regardless of role, department or location; and engage in informal learning.

The desire for supportive learning relationships at CDW has skyrocketed, and the legacy practice of mentoring was easily adjusted to meet its needs as a vehicle for knowledge management. As a result, CDW won a 2008 ASTD Excellence in Practice Citation for the program.