One distinct lesson I had to grasp quite early in my career as Knowledge Manager was an advice from a senior KM professional (now senior executive in one of SA's most successful financial companies) which went something like " the biggest mistake that we knowledge managers do is forcing people to value our contributions or unique abilities within an organization when we should be creating service products that we know people will need in the not so distant future '

Ofcourse at the time, a very young KM professional who had just completed her Honours degree, (and obviously knew everything) his advice did not hit home, it was somewhat "theoretical"- too academic for my liking and stuff for 'professors' not a young, brilliant go-getter like myself. Little did I know that the two linked sentences was all the advice I needed to succeed in this dog eat dog world called 'workplace'.

One other KM professional wrapped it nicely by quoting her business friend who said that 'people buy things that take away an itch or pain not aspirin'. You might have invented aspirin and be trying to advocate its use but unless the person you are communicating with has a need to use it they won’t'. As knowledge managers we need to package our messages to suit our target audience. We must communicate relevant messages to relevant people. But that is difficult when you dont get the support and buy-in from senior management , some say, but I think the fact that KM is still very much a visionary field gives us an opportunity to shape and turn it into what 'we' want it to be rather than what 'they' want it to be by focusing our energies on devising innovative solutions so when 'they' start feeling the pain we are there to provide the pain killer. For example, when someone tells us they are in 'Marketing', we immediately assume that they are creative, innovative and flexible. The same goes when you speak to someone on the phone and they refer to themselves as 'professor', one will be forgiven to think that they are probably old and wears specticles. The question is what do we want people to visualize when we refer to ourselves as Knowledge professionals?

Recently due to the recession, many HR managers had an added responsibility to do something most of them had never done before- 'downsizing'. One HR executive shared a story about how their KM department have assited them not only by doing a skills audit but also aligning it to the business objectives to identify their current levels of skills, skills they can afford to do with and those that they will still require after the recession. The one lesson they learned as HR professionals he said, was 'you need to be careful what knowledge you tell the world you dont need anymore". This means that by letting go of say for example, 'Engineers', you are basically telling them your business do not rely on them and therefore be mindful that after the recession these might just be the skills you want to attract in your company. The question is- will these Engineers be willing to come back or even want to associate themselves with your company that told the whole world they do not need them?

For HR managers it is all about doing what the business wants or need at the time- saving the company money but as learned in this particular case, HR managers needed KM managers to assist them doing it right. Thats all that KM really is- ensuring that corporate memory is not only protected but shared, circulated and re-used for the benefit of an organization. While it's said that decisions are the life blood of an organization, it has to be the correct blood, flowing into the correct veins at the right time and in the right quantity!

Yours in Knowledge sharing;