Knowledge management: how to innovate with knowledge management

How can organizations implement effective knowledge management?

When you consider that an employee spends an average of 7.5 hours a week searching for information without finding it (source: Association Information et Management), it's easy to see why companies need to set up a knowledge management process to keep their knowledge capital under control.

But what exactly does knowledge management mean? How can it be implemented within the company, and with what tools? All the answers in this article!

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What is knowledge management?

Knowledge management: definition

Knowledge management (KM) is a process which aims to transform information into usable data in order to build up a useful knowledge base accessible to all employees.

This capitalization of collective and individual knowledge is achieved by implementing a set of procedures and tools to manage it effectively.

This knowledge can come from :

• internal to the company. This is the case for business knowledge and skills, and everything that has been created (research and development, tools, patents, etc.),
• external to the company. They have been legally acquired and exploited by the company, in particular by keeping abreast of its economic, technological, socio-cultural and legal environment.

Objectives of knowledge management

The aim of knowledge management is to make the most of the intangible capital represented by knowledge in order to :

• manage skills,
• capitalize on experience,
• promote access to knowledge,
• improve internal and external communication, etc.

Managing explicit and tacit knowledge

There are two types of knowledge on which a company can capitalize:

• explicit (or tangible) knowledge, which is physically materialized on paper or digitally. It can take the form of patents, procedures, analyses, plans, summaries, etc., and can be updated, stored and communicated.
• tacit (or intangible) knowledge, which refers to all implicit knowledge, know-how, best practices and innate skills, sometimes unconscious and therefore difficult to represent. The company's intellectual capital is therefore transmitted randomly, and is subject to the risk of loss or deterioration.

The challenges of knowledge management

The main objective of organizations wishing to implement good knowledge management is to be able to use knowledge as a performance gas pedal, in order to gain a competitive edge and become more competitive.

Knowledge management provides an effective response to a number of challenges faced by companies, including :

• improving decision-making by capitalizing on lessons learned from past projects ;
• motivating employees, whose knowledge and experience are recognized and valued, thus creating motivation and a sense of belonging to the organization;
• gain in productivity, with a significant reduction in time spent searching for information, greater autonomy and access to new knowledge to improve the quality of work;
• safeguard the knowledge of people leaving the company by ensuring the transfer of information;
• accelerate and optimize learning for new arrivals;
• empower employees by making information more easily accessible;
• safeguard intellectual capital, to ensure that it is passed on and does not disappear;
• foster innovation by facilitating collaborative working and sharing experience and knowledge.

Implementing a knowledge management strategy

The benefits of implementing knowledge management are substantial, and can really boost company performance.

Before taking the plunge, you need to be aware of the scale of such a project, which represents a real technological and organizational challenge. It will require a strong impetus from management to overcome potential resistance to change, and to secure the commitment of all the company's employees.

While there is no single method for implementing a knowledge management approach, here are a few essential steps to guide you on your way.

Step 1: Identify the knowledge to be safeguarded

From among the mass of knowledge in your organization, you need to select the ones you want to formalize, at least in the first instance. Not that some are more interesting than others, but it's important to evaluate them according to your own criteria (cost, usefulness, etc.), and choose those that will best serve your company's strategy.

Such an analysis requires a good overview of activities, processes, employees and stakeholders, so as to be able to pinpoint the :

• knowledge to be safeguarded, the key knowledge and skills that make activities work and are well coordinated, and on which it will be necessary to capitalize,
• knowledge to be acquired, with a view to improving productivity.

Step 2: Identify knowledge

To safeguard knowledge, it needs to be inventoried. This challenge is all the more difficult in the case of tacit knowledge, which is sometimes unconscious.

You can do this by :

• list the different departments, then the different services,
• list the various projects (completed, in progress and to come) for each of them,
• identify the skills, knowledge, processes, documents and other know-how that have gone into bringing these projects to fruition,
• conduct interviews to bring out unconscious knowledge and know-how, and then conceptualize them,
• complete by using feedback from work meetings, brainstorming sessions, an idea box, etc.

💡Some skills, knowledge and know-how may not be visible or have been identified by the managerial level. Engaging all employees is one of the keys to success in order to have a well-rounded vision of knowledge.

Step 3: Formalize knowledge

To formalize knowledge, you need to :

• represent it in the appropriate way, either in written form (article, guide, specification book) or in drawn form (diagram, graph, illustration, plan, map);
• organize it by categorizing it. It can be useful to classify information into different categories, the aim being to make it findable by those who need it;
• make it accessible, because that's what it's all about.

The easiest way to do this is to use knowledge management software, which proves to be an invaluable ally when embarking on this approach. Document360, knowledge management software, offers a wide range of functions to facilitate the creation and formalization of content.

It integrates a markdown code editor (a lightweight markup language commonly used for text editing) to enhance and personalize your documents: layout, integration of links, tables or images. You can then classify them in different categories or projects, and also access them using the quick search function.

Step 4: Share knowledge

This step is crucial, because it's all about ensuring fluid access to knowledge by those who need it, so that they can appropriate and exploit it to accomplish their missions.

It is also essential that everyone in turn can share their knowledge, whether by contributing to existing information (update, complement, remark, link with other information, etc.) or by sharing new information. It is this collaborative dimension that adds strength, value and relevance to a knowledge base.

Knowledge management software helps to share knowledge by facilitating the creation of content, and integrating communication tools to disseminate it.

This is the case with Elium, a collaborative knowledge management platform on which every employee can create, formalize, contextualize, enhance and share information of all kinds:

• report,
• web article,
• video,
• email,
• company chat, etc.

An internal newsletter and notification tool enables targeted content to be distributed directly to the people to whom it will be most useful, and interaction is encouraged by the possibility of commenting on it. An advanced search engine ensures that everyone can quickly find the information they need to make the best day-to-day decisions.

Step 5: Secure your data

Your organization's knowledge is your most precious asset, so it's important to secure it. Also, the European Data Protection Regulation (RGPD) imposes strict rules on the level of confidentiality of customer data, which must also be taken into account right from the start of the project.

You need to be able to manage the confidentiality of each piece of data, and determine with whom it may or may not be shared:

• externally (press, customers, partners, service providers, etc.),
• internal to the company,
• a department
• a certain function,
• certain people only, etc.

💡To help you manage it with complete peace of mind, some knowledge management software packages enable you to manage and set the level of confidentiality for each piece of knowledge in the base.

Step 6: manage knowledge updating

As part of a continuous improvement approach, to ensure that knowledge remains as relevant and useful as possible, it must be kept up to date.

This is either because of changes (in legislation, internal processes, etc.), or because new information or insights can modify or enrich it. It's also important to ensure that information flows smoothly in both directions. Here's what can enrich knowledge:

• feedback from the use of information,
• the vision and opinion of new employees,
• information watch,
• conclusions from conversations and debates,
• comments, etc.

The use of a collaborative platform, such as Netframe.co, is very appropriate in this respect. It enables company resources to be shared in a single workspace, and provides an always up-to-date knowledge base. All employees can easily keep track of activities relating to their projects and documents.

See all software Knowledge Management

Knowledge management: from process to culture

Implementing effective knowledge management has many benefits for an organization or a company.

It's all about creating a true knowledge management culture, because success ultimately lies in the appropriation of this tool by all employees, and not just in centralizing data. This is where the magic happens and the benefits are multiplied tenfold.

Indeed, the more information is used, contextualized, modified, improved, commented and debated, the greater its value. This knowledge base is designed to encourage collaborative working and stimulate collective intelligence.

And, for all this to work to its full potential, knowledge management needs to be an integral part of the corporate culture, involving every employee, be they department heads, team managers or employees. Everyone has interesting and complementary knowledge which, when combined, creates inestimable wealth.

Updated article, originally published in May 2020.