Know-Net's Guiding Principles

Know-Net adopts two guiding principles in assisting organisations embark in Knowledge Management initiatives:

1. Business value is generated by the explicit management of knowledge networks

The goal of managing knowledge is to create company value and improve performance. Although Know-Net does not neglect or underestimate the social and cultural issues of knowledge creation, sharing and use, it puts emphasis on the explicit management of business processes and systems that aim to leverage knowledge for the generation of corporate value. Our view is that knowledge management is not about managing knowledge per se or about managing knowledge workers, rather it is about managing the context within knowledge is created, shared and used.

We believe that true knowledge generation and sharing lies on the interaction and networking between individuals and their institutional groupings (teams, organisations and inter-organisations) as they make meaning together. Knowledge networking provides access paths that allow us to follow links to different, scattered sources of intelligence. Modern enterprises can achieve intelligence when they become aware of all the different information and knowledge sources. And it is only when they begin to link these through technological and social connections and to provide access through these links in meaningful ways that they gain knowledge that has business value and leads to innovation.

2. Knowledge Management needs to be an embodied, practical and on-going endeavour

Knowledge management initiatives should be embodied in the business environment, in the sense that they should be designed to implement business strategies and deliver real commercial benefits and not as an end in themselves; link explicitly to the actual organisational structures, business processes and technology of the company and take into account the cultural and human issues. All these aspects should be attacked in an integrated manner. For example, the returns on technological interventions are greatly diminished if users are ignored. Likewise, incentive-based or cultural change initiatives are liable to fail if they are not supported by the right organisational structure and the appropriate technological systems.

Knowledge management makes sense and delivers real value only when it includes practical, measurable steps that deliver concrete results. Knowledge management initiatives may aim to support the formal and informal networks by which knowledge can be identified, retrieved and shared, or they may try to identify, map, codify and capture knowledge so it can be accessed and applied as required. Anyway, they should have clear business objectives, be structured in an implementable and measurable way and lead to concrete outcomes.

A knowledge management initiative is an on-going integrated process, not a one-off activity. Organisations should pilot initiatives before attempting full-scale implementation in order to reduce risk and benefit from learning.