KM in Practice

Leadership is widely identified as a key enabler for successful KM cases in both academic and business literature. Whatever the role and responsibilities of leadership, few doubt that one or more people steering the whole effort and defining the knowledge agenda is an indispensable catalyst and a kind of broadly accepted best practice. Consequently, one of the first steps when taking up a KM initiative is the provision of leadership that will guide the enterprise through its transformation towards an open, knowledgeable and learning organization.

Leadership is the onus of the KM Board, an organizational committee instituted for the purpose of championing the process of change and developing an organized and systematic strategy and plan for the implementation of KM. The major burden of the Board is to set the direction and vision and create a general awareness about KM and the corresponding payoffs that exist for the organization and the individuals alike.

Creating a knowledge leveraging organization requires the active involvement of almost everyone in the organization. As a result, it becomes obvious that the steering committee, or the KM Board, has to be a cross-sectional team. In this way, it is secured that the Board will have a broad understanding of the business and will be capable of applying a holistic perspective to the initiative. However, the size of the Board should be kept small, so that possible ankylosises and inflexibilities, which often arise in large leading teams, will be avoided.

Last update: 15-04-2008 09:48