Understanding knowledge management
Knowledge management ensures organisational know-how doesn't exist only in people's heads. It captures, organises, and shares what the organisation knows - processes, expertise, lessons learned - making it accessible to everyone who needs it.
KM activities
- Capture and document
- Organise and categorise
- Share and distribute
- Apply and improve
Business benefits
- Faster onboarding
- Consistent operations
- Retained expertise
- Better decisions
Types of knowledge
- Explicit knowledge: Can be documented - procedures, policies, facts, data. Easy to capture and share.
- Tacit knowledge: Harder to articulate - expertise, intuition, judgment, skills gained through experience. Requires different capture approaches.
- Embedded knowledge: Built into processes, systems, and routines. May not be obvious but shapes how things work.
- Cultural knowledge: Unwritten norms, values, and "how we do things here." Often learned through observation and experience.
Tacit knowledge is most at risk
When experienced employees leave, they take tacit knowledge with them. This is the expertise that can't easily be documented - the judgment calls, the "feel" for situations, the relationships. Succession planning should include knowledge transfer before departure.
KM practices
Common KM approaches
Implementing knowledge management
Start with
- Identify critical knowledge
- Assess knowledge risks
- Choose appropriate tools
- Build sharing culture
Sustain with
- Regular content updates
- Recognition for contributors
- Integration into workflows
- Leadership participation
Common mistakes
Technology over culture
Buying tools without building sharing culture. The best wiki is useless if people don't contribute or use it. Culture change matters more than technology selection.
Document everything approach
Trying to capture all knowledge creates overwhelming, unused repositories. Focus on critical knowledge that matters most. Quality over quantity.
No maintenance plan
Creating content but never updating it. Outdated knowledge is worse than no knowledge. Build review cycles and ownership into KM from the start.
Key takeaways
Knowledge management captures and shares organisational know-how so it's not lost or siloed. Focus on critical knowledge, build a sharing culture, and maintain content over time. Both explicit (documented) and tacit (experiential) knowledge need management.
RosterElf's staff management helps Australian businesses maintain operational consistency through standardised scheduling and documented processes.
