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Knowledge InterrogatorsPersons responsible for managing the content of organizational knowledge as well as its technology. Knowledge interrogators maintain the database, remove obsolete documents and connect the users with the information they seek. Knowledge Management ProjectsIt is often difficult to launch a full blown knowledge management initiative across an organization. A better way might be to introduce a series of short burst knowledge management projects that can yield quick results. Knowledge management projects must be planned and executed carefully. Managing knowledge management projects is quite different from managing other projects such as software development. Knowledge is naturally fluid and closely linked to the people who hold it. This means knowledge projects cannot be structured as tightly as other projects. Success in the initial projects taken up is important to build the required momentum for knowledge management. Knowledge management projects are more likely to succeed if they start with a recognized business problem that relates to knowledge. That is what industry people call the “pain areas”. Customer defections, poorly designed products, loss of key personnel, or a lower “win rate” for service engagements are all business problems that might be traced to poor knowledge management. Attacking these problems and using the business value of solving them as justification for knowledge management initiatives are all good ways to build momentum. It is often non-core or feeder processes that benefit from knowledge management most according to a survey done by the Cranfield School of Management. These feeder processes do not generate income but provide significant inputs to the main processes. Such processes often involve a wide range of knowledge and expertise that must be mobilized in a short time span. In these processes, documents and workflow are usually important. The following factors can contribute to the success of a knowledge management project: A knowledge-oriented culture; Technical and organizational infrastructure; Senior management support; Clarity of vision and language; and Suitable metrics. Knowledge projects need the requisite technology and organiza tion infrastructure. Technological infrastructure is easier to put in place. Building an organizational infrastructure means establishing a set of roles and structures from which individual projects can benefit. Many companies find this difficult to do. Some firms have been able to establish multiple levels of new roles, from chief knowledge officers to knowledge project managers to knowledge reporters, editors, and knowledge network facilitators. (See also: Chief Knowledge Officer) Knowledge MappingThe process of identifying where knowledge lies in an organization. A map may be portrayed in many visual formats, such as a hierarchical tree or a node and link diagram. Knowledge mapping is usually carried out as part of a knowledge audit. A knowledge map plays a crucial role in identifying where knowledge resides in the organization. Developing a knowledge map involves locating important knowledge in the organization and then publishing a list or picture that shows where to find it, including both people as well as documents and databases. The main benefit of a knowledge map is to indicate whom to contact when some expertise is needed. Rather than managing with imperfect answers by contacting people who are the most accessible, the employee with a good knowledge map has relatively easy and quick access to the most appropriate knowledge sources in the organization. Without a knowledge map, it would be difficult or impossible to find such persons. A firm’s organizational chart cannot substitute a knowledge map. Most organizational charts are hierarchical, describing formal reporting structures and usually with far more detail at the top than at the bottom. But key knowledge may exist anywhere in the company. Indeed, cutting edge technical knowledge is more likely to be found at the lower levels. Also the most avid knowledge seekers almost always need to cross departmen tal boundaries and ignore reporting structures to get what they need. Technology can play a major role in constructing knowledge maps. Online Yellow Pages can allow users to search by topic or key word, making it easy to locate and compare potential knowledge sources across the organization. Moreover, an electronic map can be revised frequently unlike a printed one. This is a huge advantage in a rapidly growing organization. Since successful knowledge transactions depend so heavily on trust and compatibility, personalizing the entries can make the map more effective. In many companies, Knowledge Yellow Pages show a photograph of the person listed. A few organizations include a brief video clip. Organizational knowledge maps are political documents as well. If knowledge is genuinely important to an organi zation and those who have it are recognized and rewarded, then the knowledge map will be a picture of status and success as well as a knowledge locator. So, political issues cannot be skirted. Indeed, if politics plays no part in a knowledge mapping exercise, it is an indication that people are not taking the exercise seriously. (See also: Knowledge audit, Social Networks). Knowledge MarketsMarkets where knowledge is exchanged, bought and bartered like any other commodity. Like markets for goods and services, the knowl edge market has buyers and sellers who negotiate to reach a mutually satisfactory price for the goods exchanged. There are also brokers who bring buyers and sellers together. Knowledge market transac tions will occur when the participants believe that they will benefit in some way. Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak have given an excellent account of how knowledge markets function in their book, Working Knowledge. Knowledge buyers are usually people trying to solve unusual or complex problems. They seek knowledge to make a sale, do a task more efficiently; improve their skills or make better decisions. In short, they want knowledge to do their work more effectively. Knowledge sellers are people with a reputation for having substantial knowledge about a process or subject. Although virtually everyone is a knowledge buyer at one time or another, not everyone may be a seller. Some people are skilled but unable to articulate their tacit knowledge. Others have knowledge that is too specialized, personal, or limited to be of much value to others. Some people may possess valuable knowledge, but may be unwilling to share their knowledge. A knowledge seller is typically motivated by one or more of three factors: reciprocity, repute, and altruism. Knowledge sellers will share knowledge enthusiastically if they expect the buyers to be willing sellers at a future point of time. Knowledge sellers usually want recognition from others. Having a reputation for knowledge sharing makes achieving reciprocity more likely. Having a reputation as a valuable knowledge source can also lead to job security, career advancement, visibility within the organization and all the rewards and trappings of an internal guru. Altruism may also motivate knowledge sharing. After a certain age, some people have an urge to pass on what they have learned to others. Firms can encourage this tendency by formally recognizing mentoring relationships and giving managers time to pass on their knowledge. Knowledge markets are shaped by the social and political realities prevailing in the organization. If the political reality of an organization allows knowledge hoarders to thrive, there is no incentive for people to share their expertise. If it is considered a sign of weakness or incompetence within the culture of an organization to admit one cannot solve a problem, then the social cost of “buying” knowledge will be too high. Once again, the knowledge market won’t operate well. The not-invented-here mentality, i.e. the willingness to accept an idea or innovation from another department is another barrier to knowledge sharing. A variation is the class barrier, an unwillingness to give knowledge to or accept it from people in the organization who have relatively low status. Three factors in particular can cause knowledge markets to operate inefficiently in organizations: Incompleteness: People may not know where to find their own company’s existing knowledge. Asymmetry: Abundant knowledge on a sub ject in one department of an organization, may coexist with a shortage somewhere else. This makes reciprocity based knowledge sharing difficult. Localness of Knowledge: People usually get knowledge from their neighbors, as they know and trust them more. Face-to-face meetings are often the best way to get knowledge. Reliable information about more distant knowledge sources is usually not avail able. Also, mechanisms for getting access to distant knowledge tend to be weak or non-existent. People will be happy with whatever knowledge the person in the adjacent cubicle may have, rather than try to discover who in the company may know more. Trust is particularly important in knowledge exchange. Top management must consciously promote trust in various ways: 1. Trust must be visible: Members of the organization must actually see people get credit for knowledge sharing. 2. Trust must be ubiquitous: Trust should pervade the organization. If part of the internal knowledge market is untrustworthy, the market becomes asymmetric and less efficient. 3. Trustworthiness must start at the top: Trust tends to flow downward through organizations. Only if top managers are trustworthy, will trust permeate the whole firm. Informal markets play an important role in the buying and selling of knowledge. Probably the best knowledge market signals flow through the informal communities of professionals that develop in organizations. Within these webs, people ask each other who knows what and who has previously provided knowledge that turned out to be reliable and useful. If the person they approach doesn’t know an appropriate seller, it is quite likely that she might know someone else who does. Informal networks engender trust because they function through personal contact and word of mouth. A recommendation that comes from someone we know and respect within the firm is more likely to lead us to a trustworthy seller with appropriate knowledge than would a cold call based on the organizational chart or corporate phone directory. Such informal net works are also dynamic. Since people in the network communicate regularly with one another, they tend to update themselves as conditions change. People share information about who has left the company or moved to new projects, who has recently become a useful source of knowledge, and who has become reticent or less accessible. Of course, informal networks are not readily available to all those who need them. Their viability depends on chance conversations and local connections that sometimes work well but may not as well on other occasions. So formal markets also have a role to play in knowledge exchange. Which is why the intranet, forums and seminars will continue to play an important role in facilitating knowledge creation and sharing. 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