‘Leverage’ will be the Key Word for KM in 2014!
‘Leverage’ will be the Key Word for Knowledge Management.
While a lot of noise is getting generated around getting ‘Social’ and ‘Gamification’, my strong conviction is that the Key Word for 2014 is going to be ‘Leverage’. After all, just as ‘all roads lead to Rome’, the objective of all KM efforts is to ‘leverage’ the knowledge residing in the organization and in its people, as well as knowledge available outside, for the benefit of the organization.
It was Peter Senge who first propounded the concept of ‘Leveraging Knowledge’ in his seminal work ‘The Fifth Discipline’ . Later Thomas Stewart carried the thought further in his tome ‘The Wealth of Knowledge’. All KM Techniques, Tools and Thoughts are in essence building around this objective- to unleash the power of knowledge that has accumulated in the course of business.
I have always advocated that for KM to succeed it has to have Business Impact. I have also espoused that most solutions to problems reside with the very people who are close to the ground. It is just it needs to be ‘uncovered/ discovered’ through a process of involvement. Unfortunately, the current organization structure almost mandates that solutions need to be directed from the top- according to hierarchy. However this is changing, with management thought veering around to the belief that a Manager is like a ‘Music Conductor’. He orchestrates the harmonious performance of individuals/ departments with specific expertise and blends their talents for success.
Similarly KM is harmonizing with L&D, Talent Management and Content Management to enhance the capabilities of the organization to address the business challenges in a sustainable manner. Social Network technologies and features, creating Gamification programs, using Analytics and Cloud, providing content on Mobile, are merely tools to achieve the objective.
When the organization does ‘leverage’ the internal powerhouse of gathered knowledge, it does so at a fraction of the cost it would incur to throw resources in search of an outside solution.
This is why I am so sure that 2014 will be good for KM. We only need to learn how to apply ‘leverage’ better than before.
Let me know what your Key Word is for 2014….
