At Lucidea we work on KM projects with clients around the globe, in almost every industry. One question that we hear again and again is “But isn’t SharePoint a KM application?” We love this question and we hate this question, because the answer is “it depends.”  It depends on what you mean by an application, and what that implies. This post covers some of the challenges of using SharePoint for knowledge management.

In my current book on promoting knowledge management initiatives within the corporate world, I warn against focusing too much on technology, which is a very common problem. But you will ultimately need to use technology for your KM program, so it’s important to understand it and use it in the optimal way. A critical component of successful technology procurement and rollout is a thorough understanding of how technology products are reviewed and approved.

It may come as a surprise that knowledge management isn’t simply about paper and electronic resources. Today's KM systems also capture the information in people's heads: the tacit knowledge, that when added to explicit knowledge completes the picture. The art and science of KM involves synthesizing the two for maximum impact. Please read on for some tips on how to make it work.

As mentioned in my first post on this topic, in order to sell knowledge management to your stakeholders, you first need to become a KM expert yourself. As an expert, you’ll develop a very clear understanding of KM’s benefits to your unique organization. I included seven of the major benefits of having a successful knowledge management program in Part One of this post; here are another eight—drawn from my new book, Proven Practices for Promoting Knowledge Management.

To sell knowledge management to your stakeholders, you first need to become a KM expert yourself. This involves developing a very clear understanding of KM’s benefits to your unique organization. Please read on for seven of the major benefits of having a successful knowledge management program, drawn from my new book, Proven Practices for Promoting Knowledge Management Program

There will, no doubt, be certain jobs and industries that will be dramatically impacted by artificial intelligence (AI). However, that can be said about virtually any technological innovation introduced in the past 30 years. A more interesting question might be, “How does the hype surrounding AI affect my career today?”

We have all been there, and I’ve been there a lot. In the not too distant past, I was required to use an IBM mainframe to do my “word processing” when PC based solutions had far better functionality. Later, I was required to use email software that wasn’t compatible with the internet. The list goes on, and the problem still exists. There is hope: please read on for some ideas on how to break away from legacy software.

In their recent Harvard Business Review article, Help Employees Create Knowledge—Not Just Share It, John Hagel III and John Seely Brown argue “the most valuable form of learning today is actually creating new knowledge.” Traditional KM systems represented a huge leap forward in terms of making explicit knowledge accessible and structured, but what knowledge management strategies and applications do we need in today’s business environment in order to maximize the intersection of knowledge and learning?

The single most important “KM sale” you can make is to your senior leaders. In my first two posts on this topic, I asserted that in my experience, if you get them on board, everything else will be much easier. If you can’t: try, try, and try again. Valuable tools for getting leaders' sponsorship and support include telling stories, making the business case, and selling the benefits. Please read on to learn about selling the benefits, drawn from my new book Proven Practices for Promoting a Knowledge Management Program.

The single most important “KM sale” you can make is to your senior leaders. As mentioned in my previous post on this topic, if you get them on board, everything else will be much easier. If you can’t, you must keep trying until you do. To get their sponsorship and support, tell stories, make the business case, and sell the benefits. Please read on to learn about making the business case, drawn from my new book Proven Practices for Promoting Knowledge Management.

The single most important “KM sale” you can make is to your senior leaders. If you get them on board, everything else will be much easier. If you can’t, you need to keep trying until you do. To get their sponsorship and support, tell stories, make the business case, and sell the benefits. Please read on to learn about effective storytelling, drawn from my new book Proven Practices for Promoting a Knowledge Management Program.

In a recent article, Knowledge Management in the Age of Social Media, author Robin Singh suggests that social media presents serious challenges to the traditional "knowledge base," and asks whether it can transform knowledge management. Please read on for some additional thoughts on social knowledge exchange as a supplement to classic KM.

The biggest mistake people make when selecting a KM system is to choose a platform instead of an application. The business case is dazzlingly simple—yet many organizations overlook it.

Open source software (OSS) is the technology world’s response to consumers who are price sensitive, but as with many things, it’s important to do your homework before making a commitment. Read on for some thought provoking suggestions on how to evaluate the best ILS or KM software for your organization. Maybe it’s open source, maybe it isn’t.

I am often asked “What do I tell IT when they want to replace an existing Lucidea solution with one they promise to build in SharePoint?” Well, there are many advantages with our Lucidea solutions, but here I’d like to share one simple but very powerful differentiator: date handling and date searching. Once you’ve read this, you’ll have a thought-provoking response for IT!

In my upcoming book on promoting knowledge management initiatives within the corporate world, I warn against focusing too much on technology, which is a very common problem. But you will ultimately need to use technology for your KM program, so it’s important to understand it and use it in the optimal way. A critical component of successful technology procurement and rollout is a thorough understanding of how technology products are reviewed and approved.

Pilots can’t fly unless they have instruments that tell them what the plane is doing at all times, and where it’s heading. KM professionals need instruments too, in order to assess whether the products and services they are providing are valued, and to understand what additional products and services might be needed.

In my upcoming book on promoting knowledge management initiatives within the corporate world, I share a number of tips on how to identify organizational barriers to knowledge sharing, and how to overcome them as you build the necessary culture for KM to thrive.