acquire knowledge, why employees are reluctant to share what they
know, and what kinds of knowledge people need. However, we still
think too much in terms of changing people’s behaviors and not
enough in terms of tapping into the potential people have for doing
better, doing more, and getting smarter.
By reviewing our knowledge management journey of the past
ten years, this chapter highlights successes and failures along the
way, provides “tips” (dos and don’ts), and suggests that we leverage
the energy that people already exhibit when fully engaged.
First We Discovered DocumentsEarly knowledge management focused on “things,” mostly docu-
ments, or in knowledge management terminology, artifacts.Part of
the reason was that we didn’t have any. Sure, there were libraries of
procedures, manuals, methodologies, and the like, but these were
not easily accessible and were often out of date.
Under the heading of “if we only knew what we know,” com-
panies conceived of digitizing and capturing documents, hoping
that this would resolve their knowledge management challenges.
Thus early knowledge management was extremely document-
centric,^1 following the mantra “Capture it, and they will come.”
At a global management consulting firm, we put in place a sim-
ple capture. Toward the end of a consulting engagement—actually
when the project reached 80 percent of its budgeted hours—
we reached out to the project manager for deliverables, tools,
methodologies, and so on.
Tip:If you’re in a project-based business and you want to capture a
project’s work products, don’t wait until the project is completed.
By the time the final report is being presented, the project team will
already have been dispersed. Find a way to identify when the proj-
ect is around 75 percent complete, and then reach out to the
project team to solicit content. If you like to aim high, build in
the capture steps as part of the project plan.232 LEADINGORGANIZATIONALLEARNING