The subtitle of The New Edge in Knowledge is How Knowledge Management is Changing the Way We do Business. Knowledge management is becoming one of the longest running shows in business and Carla O’Dell and Cindy Hubert of APQC have been there from the beginning.
The book begins with a foreword by another of the KM All-stars, Larry Prusak. He notes a 1995 conference at UC Berkeley and offers some of the main principles of knowledge management that were articulated at the time:
“Knowledge is a fixed pool, a collection of resources that can be measured and used by standard management practices.”
“Technology is the key tool to unlock the value of this resource,. The more technology the better.”
Now before you jump all over these old school ideas that gave KM a bad name, Larry does it for you. He notes that these principles were not suitable for working with an intangible such as knowledge. He adds that despite this KM did not die and is experiencing a resurgence. I would agree on both counts.
He modifies the principle as follows:
“Knowledge is better understood as a flow. It is highly dynamic, nonlinear, and difficult to measure or even manage.”
“Although technology surely has its place, working with knowledge is primarily a human activity…”
Carla and Cindy pick up on this and note several new trends that have increased the potential for knowledge management such as enterprise 2.0 tools and the increased reach of the digital world in the work place, including mobile access.
Now there are those that use knowledge management as a whipping boy in describing the benefits of enterprise 2.0. There are also those that prefer to show how enterprise 2.0 helps achieve some of the promise of knowledge management. Clara and Cindy are in the latter group and I belong there as well. I think it is the more constructive approach. This promise is what first attracted me to the Web 2.0 tools seven years ago.
The book provides a comprehensive version of how best to implement knowledge management in 2011. It begins with an updated framework to guide program design initiatives and goes on to cover developing a value proposition. It then offers a variety of approaches to chose from and examples of successful ones. There is a chapter devoted to the new enterprise 2.0 tools and how they impact approaches. These tools are explored further as they go into detail on social networking. Following chapters cover governance, culture, and metrics. Four in-depth case studies conclude the book.
If you want a guide to implementing knowledge management in 2011, this is a good book for you.
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