'Knowledge management family,' a way towards success

by Gamini T Pandikorala

The world has now found that the vast amount of data and information cannot be called 'knowledge'. Until you find methods to dig value out of this ever expanding ocean of data, you will be like a 'beggar sitting on a pot of gold.'

Naturally the knowledge management has become the hottest topic in the 21st century. It has no established universal definition. It is 'the process through which organisations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge based assets.' It refers to multidisciplinary approach to achieving organisational objectives by making the best use of knowledge.

Its focus is on processes such as acquiring, creating and sharing knowledge and the cultures and technical foundations that support them. (Internet).

This article views knowledge management in terms of people, specifically how a person belonging to a family unit can begin to develop his/her ability to influence others with the knowledge, first within the family, and at the place of work.

A country will not be satisfied now by 'putting a nation on wheel' by supplying the cheapest car to the market. Instead, the suggestion is to give an idea and a tool with a 'framework' to each family to develop themselves to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Prior to introduction of the concept of 'Knowledge management family' designed to achieve this objective, it's pertinent to present some of the comments and 'questions of assessment' framed by knowledge practitioners. They are useful to assess ourselves and realise the urgency of finding techniques to develop people rapidly to fulfil the needs of the modern world.

In a survey conducted in an international company they have found that the 42 percent of corporate knowledge is in employees' brains. It's they say some times inaccessible and trying to share this knowledge is a challenge. About 12 percent 26 percent and 20 percent was in the electronic knowledge bases, in paper documents and in electronic documents respectively. However, some of the world class companies' knowledge workers such as software engineers, marketers and R & D Executives hold knowledge which accounts for 95 percent of the value with only five percent of tangible assets.

Knowledge management

Various instruments have been developed to assess knowledge management and organisational effectiveness. These instruments cover elements of how well an organisation is learning and applying its knowledge.

Questions to employees have been developed to find knowledge sharing effectiveness such as:

Do you get appropriate lessons learned sent to you in areas where you can benefit?

Is individualised learning usually transformed into organisational learning through documenting that knowledge?

Are there lessons learned and best practices repositories within your organisation?

Do you typically work in teams or groups?

Is the main product of your organisation your knowledge?

Are you working against knowledge hoarding culture?

According to knowledge managers, their systems can be applied for so many fields. 21st century belongs to the nations, organisations and individuals who are able to derive benefits from knowledge management systems.

The idea of 'knowledge management family' has been designed to develop purely a Sri Lankan system creatively, without struggling to reinvent the wheel of course.

The responsibility is given in this proposal which can have far-reaching effects to the families living today. The writer expects that the Higher Education Ministry would consider the proposed idea favourably. With suitable modification it can be used for the success of their projects targeting to produce KSAM graduates and introducing 'The Cloud Based System' to state Universities (as reported in Sunday Observer recently). Any reader who can grasp the message in this article can begin the project with their respective families almost immediately and enjoy benefits to their families from day one, while immensely contributing to the long term goals of the country as well. The steps are as follows.

Agenda for the first meeting of the 'Knowledge management family '

'All family members except children below 12 no upper age limit - minimum number of members 2 - should sit together (round table) duration of the meeting can be decided by agreement of the family members.

Head of the family addresses the meeting, briefing on the basis of the following. (Use only what is relevant to your family.)

Explain the purpose and importance of the meeting and the background. East or west there are no owners of knowledge. As the smallest unit in any culture the family is ideal to absorb and develop this concept. All worldwide researchers get automatically networked with your family network. If their findings are relevant it can be absorbed in any way you like. When knowledge family networks are developing media both English and Sinhala will no doubt realise that they have an important role to play. You can see how your family gets strengthened by becoming 'knowledge management family' Ideas can come from anywhere - from friends and foes - process is done in your brain independently and sharing with other members. The couple who committed suicide recently as reported in the press, could have taken a better decision if they were a 'knowledge management family'.

Success

Knowledge management is much more than IT systems and applications. Achieving targets would become a great problem if knowledge management concept does not get established to create the culture to make the best use of rapidly developing IT technology. Trust is all important for the success of any team. As you know it's guaranteed by nature in a family unit. All the members are aware when it is lost and will know how to rebuild it. (Rely on KM principles and research)

Knowledge hoarding mentality is another problem. If it happens in any family 'knowledge family network' can handle it very successfully. The subject can vary from ordinary domestic matter to education etc. If all your family members are professionals your contributions would be great.

General weakness of human beings is that they are reluctant to implement their ideas for various reasons. The advantage in the family when all are in network any idea can be implemented as you can rectify, if unexpected damages occur, with minimum loss.

Weaker members can be strengthened and helped. Your family invariably become a 'learning family' if you seriously take this idea and begin the journey.

Now discuss with your members and decide on what should be the vision of your family and get their views as to how to meet your family goals. Knowledge Management experts say that the main product of any organisation is its 'Knowledge.' You can find out what's your family knowledge is and how it can help your son/daughter to obtain good grading at O levels, high Z score at A level, select a good university course/job, selecting their future partners etc. If your family becomes a 'Knowledge family' the idea will spread fast as your links with other networks also get strengthened automatically.

Lessons learnt

Time has to be allocated to discuss and analyse 'lessons learnt'. Important message to be conveyed to your members is to find out to what extent a member is responsible for any wrong doing committed by him/her. This is an indirect training to look inwardly as a habit. However, as all of us are linked to interconnected systems' it's nothing but fair for other members involved to volunteer to do an inward analysis to find out their contribution to that wrongdoing, knowingly or unknowingly. Encourage members to give their ideas/suggestions about 'knowledge management family' concept and request them to keep a record of day to day problems such as managing the family budget, cost cutting and savings etc.

Solutions to family problems can be discussed at the next meeting for which a date and time can be agreed upon.

Agenda can be modified to suit the needs of your family. What's suggested is only a basic framework. As you know family meetings are very informal. The pioneer of the concept of 'knowledge management' once said 'I would rather be roughly right than precisely wrong.'

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