Knowledge Mapping
To create an efficient process for this portion of the task, a mapping
strategy would require triggers of some sort that represented clear
and consistent signals alerting anyone as to the logical category
or categories into which knowledge streams might be mapped.
For example, an e-mail is circulated that describes the outcomes
and follow-up actions related to a recent offsite event. Depend-
ing on the particular categories a company has established,
this could fall into one of several categories. One might be strat-
egy; another might be mission. The point is that for clear and con-
sistent mapping to occur, one would need to identify the triggers—
words, topical labels, or some other key indicators of the subject
matter.
It also seems reasonable to assume that over some period of
time, a listing of such keywords or triggers would be produced by
the company and become a dictionary of categories. Further, much
like a keyword search capability in some software programs, this
capability would enable anyone to quickly identify the likely cate-
gories into which the information would be mapped by simply rec-
ognizing the triggers for category mappings. It also seems plausible
that after some period of stabilizing such a system, any knowledge
stream, e-mails, memos, handouts, and other distributed informa-
tion could be coded with the appropriate knowledge map category
or categories. Over time, this type of process would become part of
the natural way of communicating and distributing information
throughout the company.
Metrics
As with any new initiative, some form of evaluation should be con-
sidered in order to determine its true value. In this regard, each
company would need to determine the appropriate value proposi-
tion for itself, but here are some suggested questions that might be
addressed in an effort to make that determination.
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