Some knowledge assets lend themselves to being captured and stored. These tend to be relatively stable explicit assets such as policy documents. However, systems and technologies to capture, share and use knowledge shouldn’t be limited to documents. Organizations also need to consider ways to share elements of tacit knowledge – lessons learned or specific expertise, for example.
Well-used knowledge bases often have stories, photos, video clips and contact information about recent innovations. With emerging Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, social networking and blogs, there is potential to enhance knowledge sharing and management. But pitfalls exist too.
Across all systems, there needs to be work to ensure that: appropriate structure and standards are in place; content is refreshed and validated to encourage use; the systems can work across the organization; and the systems are accessible with appropriate search tools to support use.
In this capability area, we ask questions to help organizations assess whether they have appropriate systems, technologies and processes to ensure information and knowledge can be effectively captured, shared and accessed across the organization.
Senior and middle managers should consider the following questions: