Why are so many knowledge systems second-rate?
Why are so many knowledge systems second-rate? And they are. Even Professor Tom Davenport acknowledged that ‘...Knowledge Management isn’t dead, but it’s gasping for breath.’* And there is a famous global company dismantling its global knowledge organisation and going local in yet another attempt to re-boot KM.
If you still don’t accept there is a problem ask yourself where do your Knowledge Workers go first when they need knowledge to do their jobs:
Their personal network?
Google?
LinkedIn?
Your company’s knowledge system?
Or try - do you find it easy to keep your knowledge system full with relevant, up to date, top quality content?
If your answers aren’t “your company’s knowledge system” and “very easy” you have a second-rate knowledge system.
So the question is why can’t we get knowledge management to work? What do we keep getting wrong?
When your knowledge system was built did they use Best Practice? Why do so many knowledge systems built using Best Practice under perform and keep having to be re-booted? Is the reason 'because of the Best Practice they used', or 'because they used Best Practice'?
When can you use Best Practice?
Is it appropriate to use Best Practice for complicated scenarios?
When is it inappropriate to use Best Practice?
Is it inappropriate to use Best Practice when the domain is complex?
Is your organisation complicated or complex?