Brokering and managing information and knowledge
We all know how important information and knowledge are to the decision making of an organisation, but do you manage your information and knowledge well? Do you really understand the distinction between information and knowledge? Did you know that managing these two vital assets within an organisation takes different skills and approaches to do well?
The best way to think about the differences between information and knowledge is to consider riding a bicycle. If you had to teach someone to ride a bicycle, you could write down the instructions OR you could show them and let them experience all the concepts of balance, coordination and speed. From experience (and much wobbling!), it is clear that the written version is really only a small subset of the knowledge required to ride the bicycle.
There is a saying: you can say 30% of what you know, and you can write down 30% of what you can say. When we think about this we realise that knowledge is much more than the written word. Dave Snowden of Cognitive-Edge has 7 main principles of knowledge management which should be remembered.
- Knowledge can only be volunteered it can’t be conscripted
- We only know what we know when we need to know it, we
are pattern based intelligences not information processors - In the context of real need, few people will refuse to share
their knowledge - Tolerated failure imprints learning better than success
- The way we know is not the way we say we know
- We always know more than we can say, and we will always
say more than we can write down - Everything is fragmented, humans seek messy coherence
- There are limits to the semantic (word-based)web
This video from Natural Resources Canada is an inspiring approach to the importance of people and their knowledge, not just information.
Also, this video from Ron Young on What is Knowledge Management is a great starting point if you want to learn more.
If your organisation wants to undertake an information and knowledge strategy we can help you with the Information and Knowledge Resource Kit and our training sessions. There are also links to storytelling and how to use narrative as an important way of accessing and sharing knowledge.
Information and knowledge resource kit
| Find out more » about how to value, share, use and manage vital information |
Using storytelling for sharing knowledge
| Find out » how storytelling can influence and effect change. |
8 July 2010 9:46 am
