SAIC Integrated View Of Knowledge
A Simple, Straightforward, Integrated Approach to Knowledge Management
- A Simple Model Will Help the Organization Integrate Knowledge Quickly
- "The idea is not to create an encyclopedia of everything that everybody knows, but to keep track of people who 'know the recipe', and nurture the technology and culture that will get them talking". —Arian Ward, Hughes Space and Communications
"Knowledge" in your organization consists of your relevant information and experience. Your ability to successfully solve problems and make decisions - to improve performance - is directly related to your ability to effectively and efficiently integrate and apply both the information (explicit knowledge) and the insight and experience (tacit knowledge) that exists within your organization.
Your ability to effectively integrate both the explicit and tacit knowledge within your organization so that it is relevant, accessible, and immediately useable to solve problems, make decisions, and improve performance is critical for you to effectively deal with and, in fact, stay ahead of the rate of change.
Technology solutions, tools, and applications alone cannot do this for two reasons:
- individuals typically want to just "get their work done" and they may not go through the extra steps required to learn how to use the technology or tool, and
- there must be a well thought out process for defining and capturing the relevant knowledge in the organization.
There must be context for the capture and reuse of knowledge, a criterion that tools and technology by themselves cannot provide.
The individual should value the process and knowledge sharing should become part of the "way you do business." This means that sharing and reusing relevant knowledge must be woven into your daily business processes and operations so that real value is provided in your day-to-day activities. This "context of use" is critical to the desire of the individual in your organization to change the way they share and reuse knowledge which in turn is essential to enable an increase in operational or business performance.
Said another way, any KM solution must work within the context of your workflow. When knowledge is captured within the context of your business or operational process, you will find it more meaningful and easier to integrate. When organized and accessible in a way that makes sense to your knowledge users, it then adds value. Technology and tools cannot in and of themselves provide effective "context of use" and add this value. The value of your knowledge management solution comes from your ability to effectively and efficiently reuse knowledge to improve performance.
