One of the hottest topics today in information management is getting a grip on knowledge! We live in an information-overflow world. How do we transform that information into knowledge? The right knowledge helps people and organizations to be successful. In the first blog I rambled about what KM is and such. In this blog I will discuss the 3 ingredients for successful knowledge management.

Three ingredients for successful knowledge management

To apply successful knowledge management, at least 3 ingredients are needed.

Organisation

Knowledge management should be integrated into the organization as a process. This links the process to actual budget and resources. I would be awesome if you can link this process to the business strategy then it will have full attention by upper management!

Technology

Technology is needed to manage knowledge. From discovering new knowledge to archiving and removing outdated knowledge. From making knowledge available to actually using knowledge.

Adoption

Technology and processes support employees in their daily work. Adoption is the process of teaching employees how to optimally use that assistive technology and processes.

Organisation

It is import to acknowledge that knowledge management is a process. A process that must be realized within the organization just as HR and marketing processes are guaranteed within an organization. The goal of this process is not the knowledge per se but to make the organization more agile as explained earlier.

At least the following roles need to implemented:

We now have budget and resources available to perform the necessary tasks. I will discuss what these roles are and what these people should do in a future blog.

Technology

Real-time information available within the context of daily work. That’s the promise the technology must deliver. Not an easy task! Microsoft is fulfilling this promise with Microsoft VIVA. Microsoft VIVA consists of 4 modules,  Connections, Insights, Learning  and  Topics. Within this blog we focus on Microsoft VIVA Topics (Topics).

Microsoft VIVA Topics allows  you to automatically organize content and expertise across your organization so you can easily use it within the context of your work.

Dynamic real-time content

Microsoft VIVA Topics makes the difference by looking for knowledge within the entire ecosystem of the organization. Topics does this by (very simply put) using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Topics goes in search of…. Topics  and creates a so-called topic card for each topic found. A number of topics are discussed on a topic card:

• Title
• Description
• Relationships (to other topics)
• People (Experts)
• Resources (Sites, documenten and other information)

Topics also offers the possibility to create topic cards yourself. You create these once and these are then maintained by Topics! Easy, right?

Delivering knowledge within the context of work

Whether I’m working in Word, typing an email in Outlook, reading a page on the intranet or chatting in Teams: the right and up-to-date information is now needed! I don’t want to search at all and certainly not in other systems. I think this is the most beautiful thing about Topics. Topics integrates with other Microsoft products such as SharePoint site pages. Integration with Teams, Outlook and Office is coming! So it does not matter where you work in Office 365, topics are automatically highlighted everywhere.

Adoption

The last point of the 3 ingredients is: Adoption. Adoption is a process in which employees are guided to embrace the (new) cloud workplace. The goal is to get employees to accept the change in a good way, reducing the gap between people and technology.

Adoption ensures that employees know how they like to use the technology you use, know how to use it and want to continue using it.

Conclusion

Over the course of 2 blogs I have tried to show you my view of how you can make Knowledge Management a succes. I also tried to show that it not about KM but about the employee! If employees make better decisions for the organization by having the right knowledge at the right time the organization ánd the employee benefit from it. By acknowledging the pitfalls that have been mentioned here and taking action on them, the first hurdle for successful knowledge management has been set. If you have any feedback on this item please contact me!