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Why Knowledge Management Matters To Your Organization and YOU!

When Knowledge Management (KM) was initially introduced to organizations, it was primarily focused on the acquisition of repository products designed for document and records management. While this capability is necessary and valuable, it fails to provide for the true retention and transfer of organizational knowledge.

Over the past decade, KM has matured into a formal discipline composed of a collection of knowledge processes and practices. In Why KM Matters, Chuck Tryon explains this evolution and describes each of the KM elements. He then explains how each knowledge process and practice directly impacts organizations and people within the organization.

This presentation also provides insights into the most significant challenges facing organizations as they implement a Knowledge Management strategy designed to share and transfer both tacit and explicit knowledge.

Why KM Matters is the by-product of over twenty-five years of research by Mr. Tryon into implications of the knowledge age on organizations. Chuck holds a masters degree in Knowledge Management from the University of Oklahoma and is responsible for several breakthrough concepts derived from his research and study.

Additional information on Mr. Tryon and this approach to Knowledge Management may be found on the home page of www.TryonAssoc.com. For additional reading, download "Bridging the Knowledge Gap: Parts One and Two" and "Project-Based Knowledge Management" from the Tryon and Associates website.

Oct 7th

MORE BRICKS, LESS STRAW - Improving Productivity of Knowledge Workers on Single-Time Efforts

As organizations become more dependent on single-time efforts to generate new value, great pressure is applied to the people resources who will do the work. Management often responds to the demands for rapid delivery by applying industrial era practices that worked well when operating factories and general staff. These measures, however, do not fit the realities of modern knowledge workers.

The result on projects is a limited number of people are commonly assigned to far too many projects. While this may ?look? productive to high-level observers, it is failing miserably. Projects are taking far too long to complete, project planning is largely ignored and knowledge professionals are being blamed and compromised in the process. As a result, morale is low in many project organizations.

This presentation examines the reasons for these problems and identifies behaviors that are creating the loss of productivity. A series of specific strategies are then provided that should be implemented by modern project-dependent organizations to more fully utilize knowledge professionals on their projects.

As Peter Drucker noted, "...making knowledge workers more productive requires changes in the attitude not only on the part of the individual knowledge worker, but on the part of the whole organization."

The concepts presented in this paper are the result of a six month research project conducted by Chuck Tryon. Over 30 senior project professions ranging from CEOs to experienced project team members, participated in this research. This research is a by-product of Chuck's work with the University of Oklahoma on Knowledge Management.