#enterprise knowledge

We always know more than we can say, and we always say more than we can write down.  – David Snowden

Formal Knowledge Management frameworks usually categorize Knowledge into tacit and explicit and that helps to classify  knowledge into what is codifiable versus what can’t be codified in the context of an enterprise. KM has tried to codify what is possible and claim victory over explicit knowledge. To gain access to tacit knowledge, KM has also resorted to personal networks through communities of interest and communities of practice. 

In the information age, when we are constantly subsumed by needing and wanting to know more and bombarded with more than we can usually handle, we develop curious habits of dealing with it. We have also evolved in the ways we ‘handle’ information outside of our organizations, but that’s not the subject of this post. Within the enterprise, the KM group usually has remit and responsibility over the management of some of the Knowledge assets, but rarely all. The KM groups buy or create the best possible knowledge management solutions, sources, storage systems and publishing platforms. But not many KM teams engage in training the company's staff on what good personal knowledge management would look like. This should be considered important - let me explain why. Let's start with some categories of Enterprise Knowledge :

What we know we know – this is the universe of documents that we know exists. We have usually created these documents, contributed to their creation or know we will need them for future reference. For this need,  enterprises will offer varied methods of personal, restricted and unrestricted storage options in the form of hard drives,  shared servers, team spaces/sites and the enterprise portal and ofcourse, the trusted email.

What we need to know (and should) – this is the universe of memos and guidelines and any other material that is deemed as both necessary and appropriate for the enterprise to ‘push’ to employees in order to get them as synced together as possible, think performance review reminders, compliance guidelines,  policies, company news, required or recommended training and the list goes on. Enterprises will usually ‘push’ this kind of information via emails, or the enterprise portal or the enterprise social network (depending on the sophistication of its systems and the adoption rate of each). This too is a challenge in larger organizations that need to push a lot of information to their employees for all sorts of reasons including informational, compliance, employee engagement, and mandatory action.

What we want to know – this is the kind of information that we are looking for in specific circumstances. For example, we are working on a report and are missing the data point on a public company’s annual revenues. We know exactly what we are looking for, but need to get connected to the source of the information. In some cases, it is simple codified information like a client company’s revenue numbers, but many times it might be something like the sales strategies of a privately-held company (the kind of information which is sometimes codified and sometimes not – in either case, it is usually hard to find largely because it is sensitive or proprietary or both).  For this kind of need, we will often also rely on sources that are external to the enterprise, largely because the search engine Google has contracted the world of information to a few clicks (yes, they have spoiled us forever) and, zealous sharing of knowledge, even the proprietary kind, happens more often than not. Knowledge workers will also turn to formal and reputed sources of information like Factiva, Lexis Nexis and many others that offer the benefit of indexed information that is easy to search and more credible to cite.

What we don’t know we don’t know – this is the kind of information that we run into through an enterprise social network. The chances that you will come across both people and information that will teach you something that you don’t know (but could benefit from knowing) are exponentially higher than any other source of information that you would have been given access to within the enterprise.  This is largely because serendipity plays a huge factor in the discovery of such information. Typically, an individual turns to his or her personal networks and communities of practice to connect with tacit knowledge that was not codified. The KM department of today helps in that area as well through enterprise social networks, which amplify knowledge sharing through a community of practice and beyond. In the long run, this is also where we can distinguish ourselves both at the individual level and the organizational level because we could learn of new ways of thinking about something or in fact discover something sooner – in both cases, accelerating our personal learning curve and expanding the horizons of our mind.