When employees have questions, do you make sure the answers are easy to find, or do you keep them scratching their heads? Is knowledge well managed in your organization, or do you rely on sharing tacit knowledge among employees, or potentially duplicating redundant work?
Nowadays, most organizations are full of knowledge workers. That is, they rely on knowledge of usability and accuracy to perform their job roles. When employees are far from tangible products, the quality of collective intelligence determines the success or failure of an organization.
Fortune 500 companies lose at least $31.5 billion annually for failing to share knowledge.
This means that organizations need a knowledge management system to help organize and share this knowledge across the company. Without a centralized knowledge repository, employees will be forced to search for important answers from disparate sources, wasting time and resources.
What is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge management is the storage, organization, management, and sharing of knowledge within and outside any organization. Knowledge management relies on the success of people, processes, and technology, and is often the difference between a business and its downfall.
Knowledge management systems are used to provide employees with access to important information through search or discovery. These systems are initiated and maintained by the operations team, who are responsible for the quality of this knowledge.
Knowledge management started by storing knowledge in a set of Google Drive folders for sharing, but soon evolved to leverage a knowledge management system to manage expertise and provide all the features needed for users to quickly search and retrieve knowledge without having to resort to colleagues and customer service.
The importance of knowledge management in an organization
Knowledge workers rely on up-to-date and accurate knowledge to perform their jobs properly. The problem is that knowledge is an ever-changing asset, so it can be difficult for companies to determine if they are aware of it.
As knowledge expert Peter Drucker once said, "Knowledge, unlike all other resources, is constantly obsolete itself, so much so that today's advanced knowledge is tomorrow's ignorance." Moreover, important knowledge is susceptible to rapid and sudden shifts. ”
Knowledge management is the process of managing this knowledge on an ongoing basis, making it a useful resource for employees. A knowledge management system can adapt to changes on a regular basis and deliver knowledge in the form that works best for employees.
With the right knowledge management resources, employees will be more productive and work more effectively with the rest of the team. They will save time searching for information and will be empowered to share their knowledge for career advancement.
Key benefits of knowledge management include:
- Employees are empowered to achieve their goals and therefore waste less resources and time;
- As key employees leave the organization and take knowledge with them, less important knowledge is lost;
- Employees are able to make better decisions because they have access to the knowledge they need to perform their jobs;
- Businesses have a significant competitive advantage over their competitors when it comes to knowledge transfer and retention.
7 key challenges in implementing knowledge management
Despite the benefits, organizations face several hurdles when implementing knowledge management. There are many challenges to knowledge management. In this article, we'll discuss some of the most common challenges.
Outdated technology
Employees of a business are likely to have their own systems and methods for finding knowledge within the organization. Unfortunately, these solutions can be very outdated and not suitable for modern knowledge management systems. They may be using clunky search features or struggling with knowledge distributed to many repositories.
When employees struggle with legacy systems, this makes successful knowledge sharing nearly impossible. The technology is not suitable for an agile modern organization that needs lightning-fast access to knowledge to stay competitive.
Staff shortages
Sometimes organizations lack the contribution of employees to knowledge-sharing efforts. If employees don't take the time to document their knowledge, then any knowledge management initiative will fail. When employees are busy with other tasks, they don't realize the importance of investing in future knowledge.
Many teams are grappling with employees not prioritizing knowledge sharing because it's not embedded in their culture or rewarded and motivated. There is no system in place to formally create and distribute knowledge, so employees keep all the knowledge in their heads and panic when it comes time to ask questions.
Lack of time
Closely related to the incompatible priorities of employees is a perception that there is a lack of time to create knowledge. When a project's deadline approaches, no employee stops to document their knowledge because they simply don't have enough time. Other tasks were listed as more important, and as a result, the KMS was put on hold, because no one used it.
Management commitment fails
Before a knowledge management initiative can take root, it must have the support of senior management. Unfortunately, management is often slow to adopt new technologies, and when employees don't see the right patterns of behavior, they follow the example that has already been set.
When managers don't share knowledge, employees hoard it, believing it's the right thing to do. Senior leadership is responsible for instilling a culture of knowledge sharing, but they may feel that knowledge is not important to their role or department.
Resist organizational change
As we mentioned earlier, employees may have adopted their own knowledge-sharing techniques and systems, even though these are not suitable for true knowledge management. Convincing employees to adopt a new approach can be difficult because they resist organizational change, and they may have seen similar initiatives fail before.
Changing to new ways of doing things often feels like it takes more effort than existing patterns of behavior, no matter how inconvenient they may be. Employees will be skeptical about the value of a new knowledge management system if they believe their approach is already working.
Unreliable sources of information
A business may already have a knowledge management system, but employees perceive it as an unreliable source of information. Perhaps the knowledge is inaccurate or outdated, which tends to do more harm than good when employees make critical business decisions.
If the information is not useful, then the adoption of the KMS will be a complete failure. Employees will often use the easiest and most reliable way to acquire knowledge, and in this case, it is the minds of their colleagues. An unreliable KMS is worse than no KMS.
Information is not readily available
Your organization's information may be in one place, but it's hard for employees to access it. This may be because its structure is not intuitive or the search function is not powerful enough. Needless to say, when employees don't have access to information, they move away from using existing knowledge management systems and turn to their colleagues.
This can be a particular problem when using a tool like Cloud Drive, as the more files you have, the harder it is to search and the harder it is to filter the results. Without an intelligent search system, knowledge becomes difficult to understand.
An effective way to overcome challenges
There are specific steps organizations can take to help them overcome common knowledge challenges inherent in their knowledge management strategies. In this part, we'll explore seven ways organizations can overcome these issues and succeed in knowledge management.
Set clear goals
Knowledge management becomes more realistic when businesses know exactly what they want to achieve. Perhaps the goal is to increase productivity within the organization or reduce duplication of effort. Implementing a knowledge management strategy must be worth the effort, or it's doomed to fail.
The goals set must be achievable and motivate employees to adopt the new system, showing them the benefits they will reap if they follow the plan. At some point, employees should know that the existing system is not working, which will make them willing to accept new goals.
Assemble a team
Knowledge management is always a team effort. No single individual will be responsible for the success of KMS, as a team must be assembled who will contribute to contributing, updating, and distributing knowledge. This requires team members to have clear roles and responsibilities. For example, a business leader might have a team of content moderators.
Building a team that will roll out and maintain a knowledge management strategy is important for accountability. They will not only be responsible for the creation of knowledge, but they will also model the cultural change necessary to ensure the success of the initiative.
Choose the appropriate process
Knowledge management requires a set of processes for storing and sharing knowledge. Businesses need to let employees know how they can submit their contributions, and how to flag an article for review. Businesses need to manage the end-to-end process of all knowledge-related activities to embed knowledge management into the organization.
Documenting the process may help ensure that the team is following the various steps. Knowledge management will be different in every company, and every employee hired by a business needs to understand how the business works.
Simplify matters for your team
If the change is more complex than they're used to, the team's team won't accept it. If the existing knowledge process is easier to handle, the team will stick to the existing way and resist change. A powerful yet simple knowledge management system is the solution that encourages teams to adopt new ways of sharing knowledge.
Simple doesn't mean simple! A knowledge management system should be easy to use and flexible enough to adapt to different ways of working. Technology should shape itself according to the needs of the team, not the other way around.
Promote a culture of knowledge sharing
Senior leaders and knowledge advocates in an organization can drive a culture of knowledge sharing. Employees are more likely to follow suit when they see influential leaders exemplify the right behaviors. More critically, when employees see the benefits of knowledge sharing, they are motivated to participate.
When knowledge sharing is culturally recognized, employees become more engaged and willing to contribute. Knowledge sharing should be so ingrained in your culture that it is natural to use knowledge management systems and tools to find and share knowledge.
Configure the appropriate knowledge management software
Knowledge management can't be achieved without the right tools to store and share knowledge. Forward-thinking companies invest in solutions, such as knowledge base software, to help them with knowledge storage and retrieval that have the right set of features to help organizations achieve their goals.
Baklib's solution is an intuitive content management system that enables employees to write and publish articles. Articles can be placed in a structured and clear categorization system and can be accessed through a powerful, fault-tolerant search. With Baklib, it's easy to create and find content, which is essential for your knowledge management efforts.
Motivate employees to contribute
The employee's job role should include that they should contribute to the knowledge management system. Reward the most prolific contributors in the form of financial bonuses or additional time off. Employees are more likely to share their knowledge when they see the reasons for contributing.
A robust knowledge management system includes contributions from across the organization. Everyone on the team has something valuable to offer, and their help can enable the business to develop a more helpful resource base. A knowledge management strategy can only succeed if employees are highly engaged and willing to share their knowledge.
summary
Knowledge management is a powerful way to increase organizational productivity. When employees waste less time searching for knowledge, they can spend more time on value creation and mission-critical activities. Businesses are more successful when they are able to tap into the underlying knowledge in their workforce.
When employees are empowered, they create exceptional products and services and provide a better standard of support for the business's most important stakeholders, customers. Knowledge should not be a morale-draining burden, but should be an important resource for organizations to protect and share now and in the future.
Tools like Baklib can help organizations take their knowledge management work to the next level. By leveraging Baklib's content creation process, knowledge can be made available to everyone in the company at any time, which also leads to increased profits and overall business growth when everyone gets the job done quickly.