Thinking out loud about “strategic knowledge sharing practices”…

I was talking with my friend Shawn

and he showed me this post about

knowledge strategy on his blog…

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http://www.anecdote.com.au/archives/2007/05/focussing_your.html

I thought… what if we use this framework of “knowledge strategy” to think about our knowledge sharing (KS) practices?

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Will we do a better job of STRATEGICALLY

exploring and applying our knowledge sharing

practices in our networks and organizations?

Will leadership see value and understand

why we are so passionate about KS?

Is this framework useful in practice? Is it flexible enough to allow things to fit in multiple places? Simple enough to help

orient and organize ourselves?

1. Attract and retain the best people2. Minimise the impact of people leaving – or better retain our

knowledge3. Encourage people to call for help4. Build better relationships 5. Improve ability to find relevant expertise6. Improve ability to search for and find information7. Avoid reinventing the wheel8. Find and applying good practice 9. Build skills and know-how10. Improve innovation11. Improve how we learn from mistakes and successes12. Better deal with complex situations13. Enhance collaboration

What if we explored these with a “communities of practice perspective?”

Community

Domain

Practice

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Knowledge/information

(Domain)

People(Community)

Practices(Practice)

Find expertise

Ask for help

Build relationships

Avoid “wheel reinvention”

Attract &retain greatpeopleCollaborate Minimize

impact of people leaving

Vision &plan

Learn from mistakes &success

Build skills, practices and knowledge

Search andfind information

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I’m still not quite sure how it expresses the

strategic value of knowledge sharing. Do you have any ideas?

Knowledge/information

PeoplePractices

It could be flexible…With tagging and categories,

any particular KS method could fit in a number of areas. “Calling for help” could fit in

both “People” and “Practices.” So I could sort

through methods with either view!

Knowledge/information

PeoplePractices

People could attach stories of methods in use, again

tagging by main area, sub area or any other way. This could facilitate organizing

methods even across languages! Woo hoo!

I’m getting excited. If this makes sense to

you, it might be something USEFUL!!!

We could dig deeper into any area, such as

collaboration, helping serve as a way to organize collections of practices and

resources for knowledge sharing.

For example, “collaboration” might

branch more deeply to methods for teams,

choosing collaborative tools, etc.

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Can this serve as a way to share, find, organize and reflect on

knowledge sharing practices? Is it a more strategic way to apply KS in an

organization?

What do you think?

???Full Circle Associates