Results tagged “KMmaturity” from KM Edge: Where the best in Knowledge Management come together

Why and how to measure the impact of knowledge management are questions that never go away. A savvy reporter called me about this the other day. She said that she keeps hearing that people don't know how to measure KM. I admit that I find this upsetting given the amount of time APQC spends helping KMers do just that. It isn't always easy, but few things worthwhile are.

The holy grail of knowledge management measurement is to tie participation to outcomes. The more people participate in communities of practice, share information, use information, adopt practices, and so forth, the more we expect to see a correlation with business and mission outcomes. And we do.

But there is more to it than that.

Much has happened since APQC's last knowledge management conference in May 2008: We are well into the Big Recession and may bounce along the bottom for months; Barack Obama is president of the United States and, in addition to his many other attributes, has rock star status on YouTube; Twitter is now mainstream; and Facebook is a mainstay of soccer moms.

How has knowledge management fared in this uncertain and fast-moving environment? Not badly, and--if you use the cases to be presented this week at our 2009 KM conference as any barometer--the current recession has been a grand, if unplanned and unwelcome, opportunity for KM to show its value to leaner and more agile organizations.

Over the years, APQC has produced many knowledge management models and frameworks to help organizations develop their programs and meet their KM goals. Our most recent is APQC's Stages of Knowledge Management Maturity, which creates a shared vision of the KM journey in terms of activities, capabilities, and the financial and operational impact you should expect to see at each stage. Join APQC Executive Director Cindy Hubert--who is also a contributor to this blog--at our next KM community conference call to learn more about the stages of KM maturity and offer feedback. The one-hour call will occur this Thursday, January 29, at 10:30 a.m. central time. Click here to register.