Knowledge Management Explained in Five Disciplines

By Tim Wieringa @ Green Chameleon.
Extract:
Here is a suggestion to split Knowledge Management into five disciplines.
One: Information Management & Search
Examples:
* knowledge libraries in large corporations that allow global access to documents across departments and subsidiaries
* social bookmarking tools that classify websites and allow other users to share them
* search engines that are indexing vast collection of documents and websites
Two: Collaboration
Examples:
* contact relationship management (CRM) tools that efficiently share and store relevant information to customers, suppliers, and business partners
* corporate wiki tools that allow the capturing of experts’ knowledge and allow collaboratively develop this knowledge
* project management tools that allow disperse teams to share information, have discussions, and manage tasks & deadlines
Three: Workflow Definitions
Examples:
* the right design of a costumer complaints process can ensure that the sales departments receives more information about the customers and the research & development department gathers important input on how to improve the products
* project management methodologies can include processes to capture project reports which are automatically shared in a knowledge library
Four: Networking
Examples:
* social networking platforms allow to publish a personal profile, exchange thoughts, and keep in touch with colleagues and friends
* in online discussion forums questions are answered by a broad community; the answers are then available for the entire community for future reference
Five: Training & Learning
Examples:
* corporate induction seminars gathers all newcomers in a company at one time and provide them an introduction at the same time; this could also be done with e-learning tools
* professionals in a specific field of interest gather regularly in conferences to exchange their latest findings and discuss about it
* training programs for ‘Efficient Meetings’ (just as an example) can be conducted in two parts: a) a brief introduction to the latest findings for this topic, b) a discussion among the participants on how these findings could be applied in their environment. Continue reading: KM in Five Disciplines