ICYMM: Knowledge Management Questions for 2015+

ICYMM: In case you missed me.

I often write in other blogs and properties and I am sure you don’t have the same Google Alerts I do – which means you can occasionally miss my writings.  In an effort to keep you always alert to what matters (you’re welcome – its my privilege to help) I will bring the links to those posts with a brief summary here.

At the end of last year I wrote a series of blog posts on Knowledge Management.  I am very fortunate to have excellent clients with no ego problems who sponsor me to do research.  In the topic of Knowledge Management last year I was lucky enough to have IntelliResponse (since acquired by 24/7), Parature, and Transversal do that.  In exchange for their support they received different deliverables – including the series of blog posts I am including here.

Knowledge Management should be changing.  It is, unfortunately, lost in thought instead.

The world has changed, and how knowledge is created, used, and maintained has changed: communities and reachable subject matter experts make it impossible to claim ignorance or ownership.  I began to cover that two years ago when I did my then Knowledge Management series talking about new models (you can find the series I published for Stone Cobra in my downloads section) – most notably the knowledge-in use versus knowledge-in-storage concept.

This year I wanted to explore more of what’s going on and how we need to change it and I covered it in four blog posts (with relevant quotes beneath each):

Does KM Even Matter Anymore? Starting the series with the right question in most of my clients’ minds: why bother? Is there a useful purpose to Knowledge Management? Well, read to find out… but as a spoiler: yes, more than ever.

The story for the demise of Knowledge Management has been told many ways.

The Most Important Job for KM in Customer Service.  I had this conversation so many times this past 15-20 years I’d been doing and researching KM that is becoming obsolete – except that people keep asking and few are doing it.  Maintenance.  Killer stats in this post, definitely must read to get justification for your program.

Just 34% of companies have proper maintenance processes for KM.

Why Aren’t KM Budgets Sufficiently Funded in 2015? Asking the question that always has been in my mind: do we set aside special money to support KM or do we just make it happen with hope and prayer? I got tons of good data in here as well.

Thus, KM becomes a “necessary evil” for customer service. Instead of being a discipline that can alter the way customer service is done, it is a cost item that results in a technology being implemented.

Finding the Right Place for KM in the Organization. I have long maintained that KM in customer service only is a waste of time and money (and if you read the previous entries on funding and purpose I think you’d agree).  Can you place KM somewhere else and leverage it in customer service? Read on.

Outside of the necessary knowledge sharing necessary to collaborate, virtually every function inside of the organization also needs access to the right information at the right time to succeed.

There were other things I did last year about it, webinars and research reports, infographics produced, writings and more.  I will continue to post those here as time allows – but I just like this series a ton since it outlines the potential for KM as we enter a new age in business: communities.

You will read more about that here this year and going forward as communities is the catalyst for the business transformation we are experiencing.  And one of the key tenets for my forthcoming book on business transformation.

What do you think? Missed much? Would love to hear what you have to say…

disclaimer: as always, being a client means you are generous beyond need and you recognize that I am bored beyond belief.  being a client means you sponsor my work and benefit by having pieces of it to use as you see fit.  being a client means i get to keep my editorial integrity and research that which furthers my agenda.  being a client has never meant and never will mean you can tell me what to research, write or say.  and IntelliResponse, Parature, and Transversal (as well as the many others over the years) know and appreciate that.