Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow

Get your organization's expertise out of its silos and make it flow-with lessons from over a decade of experience

Looking at knowledge management in a holistic way, Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow: How to Make Knowledge Sharing Work puts the proper emphasis on non-technical issues. As knowledge is deeply connected to humans, the author moves away from the often overused and therefore burned-out term "knowledge management" to the better-suited term "knowledge flow management."

• Provides lessons learned and case studies from real experience
• Discusses key knowledge flow components, success factors and traps, and where to start

Covering topics such as the power of scaling, internal marketing, measuring success, cultural aspects of sharing, and the role of Web2.0, Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow: How to Make Knowledge Sharing Work allows you to stay up-to-date with today's knowledge flow management, and implement best practices to position your organization to take advantage of all of its assets.

Foreword: The Generations of Knowledge Management xi

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xix

Chapter 1 The Human Touch 1

Why This Book? 2

Terminology and Definitions 7

Taking a Holistic View 10

Getting into the Flow 17

Case Study: ToolPool 18

Chapter 2 Getting Started 23

Project versus Initiative 23

Team Structures 27

Strategy and Assessment 28

Big Bang or Small 32

Chapter 3 Roles 39

Who Should Introduce and Drive Knowledge Flow Management? 40

Who Should Worry about Knowledge Flow Management? 43

Knowledge Intermediaries 50

Chapter 4 Basic Requirements for Successful Knowledge Flow Management 57

Passionate Initiative Support 57

Culture 61

Trust 64

Executive Support 68

Multiple Drivers 71

Chapter 5 Driving for Success 75

Internal Marketing: The Myth of Build It and They Will Come 75

The Pulse 83

Keep It Simple 85

Go Global: The Power of Scaling 86

Motivation 88

What If Your Knowledge Takes a Walk? 90

Chapter 6 Barriers 93

Barriers Hindering the Flow 94

Knowledge Is Power: How Long? 97

Sharing Knowledge Takes Effort 98

I Need Two More Weeks 101

Less Can Be More 104

Legal Limitations 107

Chapter 7 The Technology Trap 111

Asset or Pointer? 115

Tools: Not Only Technology 118

CoPs 118

Skills Management 119

“Knowledge Bases” 121

Portals 122

Open Space Technology 124

Search 125

Stories 126

Knowledge Transfer Sessions 127

Chapter 8 Measure and Analyze 131

Measure to Get What You Want 136

Measuring Quality 138

Analyze Your Initiative 140

Feed It Back 145

Chapter 9 Knowledge Flow Management: The Next Generation 149

The Role of Web 2.0++ 149

Social Media Internally 152

What about 2020? 153

Special Roles and Jobs 154

Stone Age: Creativity Leap through Communities 155

Technical Infrastructures 156

Chapter 10 Final Thoughts 163

Appendix A Key Success Factors 167

Appendix B Additional Resources 171

About the Author 173

Index 175

FRANK LEISTNER, Chief Knowledge Officer at SAS Institute, is responsible for driving internal knowledge management within SAS via worldwide initiatives. Before coming to SAS, he worked for Siemens-Nixdorf in a United States–Germany liaison role. He has been driving worldwide knowledge management initiatives within SAS since 1997 and has been a participant of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Learning Innovations Laboratory roundtable since 2003.

Why do so many organizations struggle with making use of existing knowledge? Why is knowledge sharing—an idea that makes so much sense—so hard to implement? And, why is it not embedded into the everyday practice of every organization if it is so strategic?

With proven ideas for making knowledge sharing a success—as well as insights for why it might not have worked before—Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow: How to Make Knowledge Sharing Work draws from author and knowledge-management expert Frank Leistner’s experiences, lessons learned, examples, and stories, illustrating what works—and what doesn’t work—within the organizational knowledge flow.

Holistic, comprehensive, and grounded in practice, this guide focuses specifically on the human side of making knowledge sharing work, with discussions on:

• Pragmatic tips and tricks on initiatives that really work and produce extensive value
• How you can influence the organizational knowledge flow
• What to consider before starting an initiative
• The roles you will or should play during your initiative
• Initiative support, culture, and trust—a recipe for knowledge flow success
• How you can use marketing to start—and sustain—an initiative
• Solutions for avoiding obstacles to knowledge flow
• New ways to look at technology and its role within the knowledge flow

Required reading for knowledge managers, CIOs, CKOs, CEOs, and anyone else faced with making decisions aimed at improving an organization’s knowledge flow better, Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow joins years of real experience with proven techniques to drive real business value from your organization’s knowledge flow.