Thursday 23 October 2014


Connect and Collect in Knowledge Management - useful table


In a recent blog post I talked about charts and pilots, explicit and tacit, and briefly touched on Connect and Collect. Here is some more detail about these two approaches, and what is distinct about each one.


These two approaches to knowledge transfer are the connect approach, where knowledge is transferred by connecting people, and the collect approach, where knowledge is transferred by collecting, storing, organising and retrieving it). Each method has advantages and disadvantages, as summarised in the table below. Effective Knowledge Management strategies need to address both these methods of knowledge transfer. Each has its place, each complements the other.


Connect

Collect

AdvantagesVery effective
Allows transfer of non-codifiable knowledge
Allows socialization
Allows the knowledge user to gauge how much they trust the supplier
Easy and cheap
Very efficient.
Allows systematic capture
Creates a secure store for knowledge
Knowledge can be captured once and accessed many times
DisadvantagesRisky. Human memory is an unreliable knowledge store
Inefficient. People can only be in one place at one time
People often don’t realize what they know until its captured
Ineffective. Much knowledge cannot be effectively captured and codified.
Capturing requires skill and resource
Captured knowledge can become impersonal
Captured knowledge cannot be interrogated
Types of knowledge suitable for this form of transferEphemeral rapidly changing knowledge, which would be out of date as soon as its written down
 Knowledge of continual operations, where there is a large constant community
Knowledge needed only by a few

Stable mature knowledge
Knowledge of intermittent or rare events
High-value knowledge
Knowledge with a large user-base
Organisational demographics which suit this approach A largely experienced workforceA largely inexperienced workforce
CommentsOne traditional approach to Knowledge Management is to leave knowledge in the heads of experts. This is a risky and inefficient strategy. A strategy based only on capture will miss out on the socialization that is needed for culture change, and may fail to address some of the less codifiable knowledge.


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