Knowledge Categories
Last updated
Last updated
There are three basic forms of knowledge to consider when it comes to knowledge management: explicit, implicit, and tacit. Knowledge management is such a complex process that there are numerous terminologies, solutions, and techniques. Knowledge-driven businesses like ours have the advantage to drive efficient business activities by applying readily-available knowledge from a comprehensive, well-managed knowledge base.
Knowledge in a business setting refers to the development of an organization's abilities, experiences, capabilities, and insight. All this is created, managed, and stored in the form of explicit knowledge, which is the focus of Individual Contributors, and tacit knowledge, which is the manager's focus.
To make it clearer, we separated the data and information into Extensive Knowledge, Realms Knowledge, and Organizational Knowledge.
Also known as KAI of the framework, this is about understanding the usage and configuration of a diverse set of tools/software/platforms, languages, protocols, etc. which affect your performance within the company. They are related to the scope of your position and employees should grow this knowledge and hard skills on their own, while the company will provide context on the application of the tool/software/platform within defined processes.
We have categorized the concepts that are present in our business and operations into domains of knowledge or activity. When addressing business leadership, each management framework requires proficiency in one or more of such domains, which are called Realms.
This is all about understanding the company’s products, the processes and tools/software/platforms related to their execution, the way all teams work, the concepts that are part of their scope, and how they contribute to the overall corporate strategy. It includes technical knowledge for non-technical people and business knowledge for technical people. For this category of knowledge, we provide pieces of training because this way we can ensure that everyone has the complete knowledge set to be a high-performer in our company.
Problems we had with knowledge management:
Inefficient when serving only individuals: Information needed by many was often shared from individual to individual in conversation or email.
Repetitious and time wasting: Often a few Subject Matter Experts are heavily relied upon to verbally provide information, and they spend their time repeating the same information rather than doing value-added work.
Impermanent so ineffectual: Research shows it is difficult for people to retain information, especially when it is transferred verbally.
No accountability or control: When no one was held accountable, the data shared could be inaccurate and out of date, and this was a problem that was difficult to fix.
A self-fulfilling prophecy that recurs: The knowledge transfer process stopped when information was shared, but the knowledge gap still existed in the wider organization, leading to problem recurrence.
Where knowledge shouldn’t be:
In inaccurate published content: Information may be published in manuals or on the intranet, and this may be outdated, inaccurate and hard to find, wasting time.
In somebody's head: Information only held in someone's head is only of use to that person. Worse, they will be interrupted frequently with questions about it.
In the cloud: Information may be recorded informally such as in emails, but this too is hard to find and often badly explained.
Another thing we realized is that person has different ways of learning, advancing, and collaborating. We recognized this and decided to share knowledge in two formats: reading and face-to-face courses with a practical application. Therefore, we share knowledge through our internal wiki Confluence and through our Learning Day.
