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Published April 2009

Emerging Methods of Knowledge Capture

 

  David Wilkins

Knowledge management as we know it today is at a crossroads. Historical models of knowledge capture rely heavily on formal processes, workflows and an assumption of known subject matter expertise. These assumptions manifest in knowledge management terms such as "taxonomies" and "knowledge architect."

Newer models of knowledge management can only be described in new terms such as "clouds," "crowds," "emergent," "networks" and "spheres." These terms reflect new conceptual models in which knowledge is regarded as an emergent phenomenon connected to both people and processes. In some ways, these newer approaches represent a natural evolution in response to possibilities afforded by technology. In other ways, they represent philosophically different models.

Knowledge management, while a revolutionary concept when first introduced into the business world, now is a predictable response to the changing nature of work. As organizations moved from the industrial-style production of goods and materials to an increasing reliance on knowledge, expertise and human capital, organizations felt an increasing pressure to manage this knowledge in the same way they managed physical assets such as facilities, materials and equipment. Knowledge was captured through structured documents that often required approval and check-in/check-out procedures. Content was structured by "architects" and organized into taxonomies.

Unfortunately, this traditional model poses a problem in a world where 30 percent of the workforce is eligible to retire in less than five years. Knowledge management as practiced in most organizations today relies too heavily on expert intervention, approval and management to capture the expertise of departing boomers effectively. Knowledge management also is too slow to adapt to emerging information and dynamically changing work practices, and it doesn't provide the necessary scale to capture the depth and breadth of experienced workers' knowledge.

More open, workflow-based models are required, in which knowledge capture is not an end unto itself, but a natural outcome of work tools and processes. To be deep and pervasive, knowledge capture must be part of the normal workflow. Fortunately, Web 2.0 technologies provide these capabilities and increasingly are used by organizations of all sizes as a mechanism to capture emerging best practices, long-standing knowledge and expertise, and new ideas that would otherwise be lost forever.

Organizations such as Ace Hardware, Cisco, Best Buy, British Airways, Ford, Dell, Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Environmental Data Resources (EDR) are embracing these open knowledge capture models. Each provides a different use case and model for the application of Web 2.0 technologies to capture knowledge and critical business information. In successfully applying these technologies, however, these organizations also have begun transforming their leadership paradigms from "command and control" to "coach and coordinate."