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This newsletter is a
guide to the several different type of Knowledge Management Audit.
Auditing your KM program is
always a good idea, but you need to know the purpose of the audit
before you start, and have a clear idea of what you will do with the
audit results. Only then can you be sure what sort of Audit you
need.
Explore our user guide below
to understand the audit options available to you.
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The 6 types of audit
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We describe 6 types of audit in
this newsletter. These are as follows:
·
An audit of your Knowledge Management Framework in order to
identify the strengths and missing elements, so that you can put an
action plan in place to close the gaps;
·
An audit of the KM culture, so you can develop a
plan and strategy to strengthen the supportive cultural
elements, and remove the blocking elements;
·
An audit of the knowledge itself, so you can
identify those knowledge topics in most need of attention, and so
prioritise and focus your KM efforts where they will make most
difference;
·
A high level KM maturity assessment of the
organisation, to get a very quick overview of strengths and
weaknesses;
·
An audit against a KM standard, for accreditation
purposes.
Contact
Knoco for more guidance on the type of KM audit you may
need.
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Audit of the KM framework
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Most organisations already do
some elements of Knowledge Management, even before formal Knowledge
Management implementation begins. KM is, after all, common sense, and
people have often made a start without even calling it "knowledge
management". However some critical elements of the Knowledge
Management Framework are usually missing, and the elements which are
present are often not joined up. Organisations usually commission a Knowledge Management framework assessment in the
early stages of their KM journey,& to identify the gaps and
to map out the actions for completing, and joining up, the framework.
A KM Framework audit will look
at the following elements:
·
The transfer of knowledge through discussion and
conversation;
·
The capture of knowledge, through recording,
documentation and codification;
·
The management of captured knowledge, through curation
and synthesis;
·
Seeking and re-using knowledge;
·
The roles and responsibilities which support the
above steps;
·
The processes which support the above steps;
·
The technologies which support the above steps;
·
The governance system which supports all of the above,
and seeks to develop and maintain the required behaviours.
The audit is
usually conducted through a series of interviews, or at a
workshop. A typical Audit output will look at
the status of all the component KM elements, indentify strengths
and weaknesses, compare the organisation to Best in Class, and
recommend actions to implement the ideal solution for the
organisation.
Contact
Knoco to learn more about the KM Framework assessment audit
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Culture is closely linked to KM
implementation. A supportive culture will accelerate implementation
while an unsupportive culture will slow or even block KM. However
Knowledge Management is itself a culture change agent, and a complete
KM framework will act to slowly change the culture. It's worth
performing a KM culture audit in the early stages of your
Knowledge Management Implementation in order to map out the specific
cultural blockers and enablers in your organisation, and then running
it again at regular intervals to map the progress of culture change.
A typical KM cultural audit
will be based on a survey and focus group discussions, and may
address some or all of the following cultural issues:
·
Openness vs. closed behaviours;
·
Honesty vs. dishonesty - The extent to which people
will filter knowledge and information when communicating with peers
or seniors;
·
Empowerment vs. disempowerment - the extent
to which people feel able to act on knowledge, independent of
approval from their leaders;
·
Learner vs. knower. The extent to which people put a
value on acquiring new knowledge as opposed to the knowledge they
already hold in their heads;
·
Need to share vs. need to know. The extent to which
people offer their knowledge to others rather than keeping it secret;
·
Challenge v Acceptance. The extent to which people
seek to understand why things are the way they are;
·
Collaborative vs. competitive. The extent to which
people identify with and share in the success of others;
·
Remembering vs. forgetting. This is the extent to
which people acknowledge and incorporate the past when making plans
for the future and the extent to which they consciously record decisions,
judgments, knowledge etc. for future reference;
·
Strategic patience vs. Short-termism. This is the
extent to which people consider the 'bigger picture' and try to
understand how their actions fit into the broader, longer term vision
for their organisation;
·
Relentless pursuit of excellence v complacency. This
is the extent to which organisations acknowledge there is always room
for improvement.
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Audit of the Knowledge topics
By Joaquim Carbonnel, Knoco
Spain |
There is no doubt about the
value added by knowledge management to an organization. But knowledge
management requires also an investment and an effort from the
responsible roles. One imperative consideration at this level
is to prioritise the Knowledge Management activities, and
to focus them on the knowledge topics of highest priority.
The knowledge of
an organization tends to "infinite", and it is not possible
to manage something as big as the total sum of organizational
knowledge. Sometimes the management of knowledge simply fails because
the prioritization exercise has not been done and there cannot be an
agreement on which are the most important knowledge topics for
an organization or even for a functional area. We use the concept of
"critical knowledge": the knowledge topics that are
essential to achieve corporate goals. As even this knowledge could be
hard to manage, we must prioritize it following some agreed criteria.
It is helpful to consider some of the following questions:
·
The current importance of the topic;
·
The future importance of the topic;
·
The level of documentation on the topic;
·
The current level of diffusion of the knowledge,
·
The required level of diffusion;
·
The maturity of the topic;
·
The organisation's level of expertise on the topic;
·
The required future level of expertise;
·
The ease of replacing the knowledge if it were lost;
·
The risk of knowledge loss.
A useful
recommendation in this case is to implement a
knowledge scan. Its aim is to high-grade the knowledge topics
that needs more attention. The knowledge scan (or audit) helps you
focus Knowledge Management where it brings the highest value to the
organization (or where it reduces the risk of losing the knowledge).
To keep Knowledge Management "fit" as the organization
priorities change over time, we strongly recommend carrying out this
exercise whenever the main goals change. It will help keep our
framework updated and people and KM tools fully operational.
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Audit of the CoPs
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Many companies
introduce Communities of Practice as part of their Knowledge
Management Framework. Communities are not an instant solution - they
grow over time, and pass through several stages as they mature.
A CoP audit allows you to track the development of the Communities of
Practice, and the output from the audit can be used to plan the next
stage of CoP development.
CoP audits
review a number of dimensions related to the CoP, for example the
list below
·
Leadership and sponsorship
·
Business case
·
Resources and roles
·
Member engagement
·
Deliverables and activities
·
Trusted relationships
·
Processes
·
Technology
·
Rewards and recognition
·
Metrics
Outputs
like the one shown below can help identify which of these dimensions
the CoP needs to work on to reach the next level of development.
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KM maturity audit
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KM maturity audits are common
as a quick-look review of the current state of KM. At Knoco, we think
these maturity audits are OK as a general guide, but believe
that you need more detailed audits in order to draw any firm
conclusions. Knowledge Management is more of a step-change
than a maturation process, and using a maturity index for anything
other than a single KM component such as a Community of Practice can
be misleading.
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Audit against a KM standard
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At the moment,
there is no international standard for Knowledge Management which you
can be audited against. However an ISO standard is under
development and should be released for public review later this
year. Once this standard has been reviewed and published, we
will at last have an internationally agreed management standard for
KM which will provide the basis for internal and external audit.
Until then, watch this space!
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Take part in our 2017 survey of Knowledge
Management, and we will give you a free copy of the 2014 results,
as well as the 2017 results.
In
2014 we organised one of the most comprehensive surveys of global
knowledge management ever devised. The results were
fascinating, with insights about the maturity of KM by region and
sector, the size and composition of KM teams, the value delivered
by KM, the technologies, processes and governance processes
applied, and details of communities of practice, lesson learned
systems and best practice approaches.
This
year we are running the survey again, to see what has changed in
the last 3 years. Anyone who takes part will be rewarded with a
link to a free copy of the 2014 results, as well as being
sent a set of 2017 results when the survey closes.
Would
you like to take part?
If
you can answer on behalf of an organisation that does KM, or has
done KM, or plans to introduce KM, then please follow this link and take the survey.
Bear in mind that the comprehensive nature of the survey means it
may take up to an hour to complete, but this also means the
results are equally comprehensive and rich, so your time is well
worth investing.
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Some updates from across the
Knoco family are listed here.
·
Knoco Indonesia will conduct the 2nd Indonesia KM
Summit in Yogyakarta, Central Java - Indonesia on 8-9 August 2017. Contact Sapta for details.
·
Nick Milton will be taking part in KMUK in June
·
In May, Rupert Lescott and Don Dressler will be
running the Bird Island workshop at the KA
Connect Conference 2017 - a KM conference aimed specifically at
the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry
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