People-focused knowledge management

Typical Knowledge-Related Areas: Knowledge needs for opera-
tions and strategic efforts; existing knowledge assets and resources;
important knowledge gaps; important knowledge flows within the
enterprise and knowledge exchanges with outside parties; knowledge-
related hurdles and other obstacles.
Purpose: Provide tangible evidence of the enterprise’s knowledge-
related strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and risks.
Knowledge Assets Mapping — Intellectual
Capital Inventorying
Knowledge Asset Mapping (KAM) and Intellectual Capital (IC)
Inventorying typically are performed to identify, locate, and assess
knowledge and IC assets or resources in parts or all of the enterprise.
KAM and IC inventorying are more in-depth than Knowledge
Surveys and Audits and involve enumerating and categorizing tacit
and explicit (including structural) knowledge. As an example, in a
manufacturing firm, KAM may be performed separately for the Engi-
neering Department or the factory operations. IC inventorying may
be performed for the company as a whole. KAM and IC inventory-
ing generally fulfill the same purpose and are similar to knowledge
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audits but focus on which assets exist and their state and importance
— at times also their value.
Typical Tacit Knowledge Asset Categories: Who are the knowl-
edgeable people, what is their level of expertise, how many are there,
and where are they located; what knowledge and expertise do the
people possess in terms of core knowledge, experience, and other
qualifications; which jobs and functions do people perform; what new
knowledge are people creating, sharing, learning — on the job, etc.
Typical Explicit Knowledge Asset Categories: Which structural
knowledge and IC assets exist within the enterprise — numbers, types
and categories of documents, databases, libraries, intranet web sites;
where are the knowledge assets located — within departments and
within repositories (such as databases, documents, etc.); how are the
knowledge assets organized and represented, and how can they be
accessed and utilized; why do these resources exist, how relevant and
appropriate are they for that purpose, are they of good “quality” (e.g.
up-to-date, reliable, evidence-based, etc.); what are the values of the
knowledge and IC assets — market value; where and how are the assets
utilized, and how much economic value do they create in utilization.
Purpose: KAM and IC are used to identify and categorize IC assets
to understand opportunities and shortcomings for operation and
overall enterprise success. In detail, the purpose is to provide infor-
mation required to set priorities, to identify which actions need to be
taken and which possibilities exist for leveraging IC assets.
Knowledge Landscape Mapping
Knowledge landscape mapping (KLM) is quite detailed and
requires considerable effort over periods of a few weeks or stretch-
ing to several months in some instances. It provides important details
for focusing on particular knowledge-related areas that need man-
agement attention. There are several reasons for undertaking KLMs.
When an enterprise first becomes concerned with KM, the major
reason is to understand what the KM focus should be and to iden-
tify areas that should receive priority management attention. Later,
after KM is an established practice, understanding the knowledge
landscape is a requirement to shape the continued knowledge man-
agement effort — practices, programs, projects, infrastructure ele-
ments, policies and procedures, etc.
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After the initial KM thrust has matured, regular KLM is required
to monitor enterprisewide KM effectiveness and to discover new
opportunities such as cross-departmental knowledge sharing and
opportunities for new strategic directions.