Why Knowledge Mapping Is Important: 4 Tips To Get Started
A knowledge map is an organizational technique for identifying and managing what knowledge resides where in your organization.
The American
Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), a leading authority
in benchmarking, best practices, process and performance improvement, and
knowledge management, defines
knowledge maps as:
"Powerful
tools to inventory an organization’s critical knowledge and pinpoint areas that
may be at risk. In many cases, the simple act of creating a knowledge map
reveals weak links and bottlenecks in the flow of knowledge. By articulating
exactly how knowledge moves through the organization, teams can identify
improvement opportunities and make targeted adjustments to ensure that the
right knowledge reaches the right people at the right point in the process."
Knowledge mapping is a tactical practice for
organizing the knowledge within your enterprise and creating a conceptual
framework that follows knowledge throughout your organization and serves as a
guide for understanding the multi-layered processes, teams and resources existing
in within your organization’s knowledge translation processes.
An integrated knowledge mapping strategy will
provide your organization with the conceptual framework it needs to plot the
course knowledge travels within your organization.
Make no mistake. Knowledge mapping is not
easy – but it is critical to understanding the translational pathways knowledge
travels throughout your operation.
- Knowledge mapping identifies existing and potential gaps. It defines the steps your organization is taking in its knowledge management practice – and the mistakes being made that may hamper your organization’s ability to fully utilize personnel and technological resources.
- By knowledge mapping, an organization can understand the mechanics of knowledge creation and maintenance, bringing clarity to the knowledge enterprise that is so very vital to effective organizational management of technology R&D, clinical practice services and future organizational decisions of influence to crucial assets in health management data best practices.
- Knowledge mapping examines the steps currently employed in the creation, utilization and containment of knowledge resources and assets as they pertain to the function, coordination and understanding of digital assets pertinent to everything from policymaking to protecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and maintaining regulatory compliance at all levels.
- Knowledge mapping explores the relationship of knowledge within your organization, scrutinizing your organization’s knowledge assets at a contextual level, which allows for a tactical dive analysis into the tacit and explicit knowledge that powers enterprise productivity.
- Knowledge mapping also key in identifying and engaging key stakeholders in influencing required changes to the way knowledge is translated throughout your organization.
Getting Started
There are four key steps that aid greatly in
the initiation of a knowledge mapping process.
Getting Sponsorship: Knowledge
Mapping takes a significant time commitment and effort from your Subject Matter
Experts (SMEs). If you do not get the right
sponsorship and time
commitment from your SMEs you are bound to be unsuccessful. Talk to your
sponsors first before you jump into knowledge mapping by providing them an
estimate and discussing how long the entire exercise will take before asking
for your SMEs time. Your SMEs will be instrumental in getting your corrective
knowledge management steps identified and addressed.
Complete Picture: When
selecting SMEs, make sure you identify multiple SMEs to give a complete
perspective of the current situation. In many cases, one or two SMEs may
not give the entire picture of the gaps. Select SMEs across business
units, sites, countries to give a broad picture of the current process.
Remember to Fix the Real Issues:
Don’t forget to fix the issues – realizing
knowledge mapping is just a step in the process — after mapping,
the identification of issues and the subsequent fixing of those issues is
paramount. If you are just documenting your knowledge management issues without
any plan to fix the issues as they are identified and prioritized, there is
little benefit from performing the knowledge mapping exercise.
Close the Loop:
Follow up with all key stakeholders and engaged participants to confirm which
issues identified are high
priority or critical
to fix and how those issues will be best addressed.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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