With great interest I have read Roan Yong’s “Knowledge Management in 2012? Probably Dead”. And yes, I agree to what he has stated: KM got too academic - or always was? And the social web will be what will replace it. Roan’s article triggered more thoughts which are too long to just pack in the article’s comments: there are more problems of today’s KM than to be blown up; and why the social web is KM at it’s core.

Knowledge Management as it started was focused on activities and tools which are additional tasks outside people’s daily work. In the book ‘The New Edge in Knowledge’ this is referred to as “Above the Flow”. This book also mentions that we should focus more on “In the Flow” activities; things we know for long as personal KM or simply knowledge management embedded in people’s daily work. In my own field, I have been pushing for this integration and slowly our company starts to understand it’s value and we start to embark on this journey. What has enabled this move? First, we have realized that it’s very difficult to ask for additional efforts in times of a economic downturn; though, the value of knowledge sharing is still understood. The other driver for embedding KM in the flow is technology:

• consumerisation of business applications has led to a faster user adoption
• cloud-based solution drive people to store their information in a central location which makes sharing and collaboration easier
• mobile applications allow continuous, ubiquitous use of business tools
• social business applications have matured and are now available for large vendors

Roan argues that morphing KM into Social Business; and yes, I agree. But wait? Isn’t social business at it’s core and we just avoid to say The Word? Classic business applications did focus information transactions: send an e-mail, read a report, record a client visit, buy a new gadget, etc. The social web adds a new layer to these transactions: context! And isn’t information plus context equal to knowledge? At least I would argue that. Before we make the decision to buy the latest tablet we check our social context for feedback; when we summarise the client visit we add in the client’s twitter feed; when I receive an e-mail I see which documents, discussions, friends I share with the sender, etc.

For me, Social Web means that Knowledge Management has finally arrived.

I have a semi-allergic reaction to sounds bites that appear to lack thought before propagation. Its a part of my general complaint about modern politics. It used to be the case the politicians had to be able to hold an... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I will be speaking to a group of HR professionals on the confluence of KM and HR (webpage). I am interested in the intersections of both business disciplines, and how one might support the other in better managing their organisation’s human capital. The choice of topic is motivated by a frequent realisation in KM projects that success is often dependent on engaging - and having engaged - HR colleagues. There are several areas where I think HR and KM can work together.

In job interviews they identify candidates who demonstrate a propensity to share rather than hoard what they know. They look for candidates who maintain strong external professional networks that can be tapped into for knowledge and information.

In onboarding, they provide a map of what knowledge is critical to their business and where they can be found. Where tacit knowledge is concerned, they broker the necessary connections. They emphasise the employees’ role in updating staff profile and directory. By the same token they also stress “quality in, quality out” for information repositories.

That knowledge management is a line manager’s responsibility is promulgated through job descriptions. That knowledge sharing is an important competency is reinforced through competency frameworks.

In succession planning they help identify what knowledge the next cadre of leaders should possess, and figure out ways to bridge the knowledge gaps. They do this by reducing the responsibilities of would-be retirees and by tasking them to be mentors or coaches to their successors – with the blessing of top management of course.

How else do you think HR and KM can work together?

The Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Knowledge Lab faced the challenge of how to move accurate intelligence up the chain of command. Too frequently the intelligence analysis, painstakingly generated by front line analysts, was delayed and often severely modified by a chain of superiors before it reached policy makers who could act upon it. The intervention DIA undertook to enable telling truth to power, was called “Critical Discourse” based on the work of Argyris. The format was to bring together a team of analysts along with their supervisor, to jointly analyze the actual conversations that occurred between members of the team and between team members and their supervisor. Nancy Dixon

Waltraut Ritter has a scathing and important critique of KM in general and the MAKE awards in particular, taking some pot shots at some of the participating case studies at KM Asia 2011 in the process (scroll down to the 22 Nov entry).

“Knowledge management practices are often narrowly focusing on internal operations and not addressing larger questions about the nature and sustainability of the knowledge driving the organization. There seems to be a separation of KM from the overall business strategy, a general neglect of addressing the larger questions about an organization’s knowledge and how such knowledge may create societal value beyond a company’s financial gains.” She gives an interesting example from Mars, referring to the ingredients in their product Skittles: “Few of these ingredients have anything to do with real food, and one might argue that the industrial food industry contributes to decreasing knowledge about nutrition and food in society rather than contributing to informed decision-making on food. Could the organization use KM to establish a serious dialogue with customers? Develop ideas and products for a global, sustainable food production?”

Important and difficult questions, connected to the earliest visions of KM back in the 1960s. In 1967 L.K. Caldwell wrote an article for the Public Administration Review in which he asked how knowledge management could help ensure that “all relevant knowledge is brought to bear upon the problems that society needs to solve [...] At the very least, the manager of knowledge needs to discover what science can tell respecting trends or objectives that would be socially harmful.”

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