Resources for a knowledge management strategy

Description

This brief examines how knowledge management can be used to improve organizational performance. The paper, Managing Knowledge to Improve Reproductive Health Programs, provides a useful suite of resources to use to help implement a knowledge management strategy. The purpose of knowledge management is to ensure that knowledge and information are shared with people who need it in a timely fashion to inform decision making. Although this tool was developed for reproductive health program managers, the resources and guidance provided are applicable across all public health content areas.

Knowledge management is recognized as a key strategy to support evidence-informed decision making. Knowledge management involves "systematically and routinely creating, gathering, organizing, sharing, adapting and using knowledge—from both inside and outside the organization—to help achieve organizational goals and objectives" (p.4). This brief includes information on the following resources for a knowledge management strategy:

Tools for Gathering Knowledge:

• After-action reviews
• Debriefings
• Electronic discussion lists
• Exit interviews
• Islands of excellence
• Knowledge harvesting
• Portals
• Study tours

Tools for Organizing Knowledge:

• Knowledge repositories
• Intranet and extranet
• Information coordinator
• Skills directory

Tools for Sharing Knowledge:

• Coaching
• Communication technologies
• Communities of practice
• Knowledge maps
• Mentoring
• Social network analysis
• Storytelling
• Twinning
• Workshops

Tools for Adapting and Using Knowledge:

• Evidence-based guidelines and protocols
• Lessons learned
• Proven tools and practices

Steps for Using Method/Tool

This brief provides tools and resources to help organizations meet the following knowledge management challenges:

1. Share knowledge within and between organizations and programs.

• Build personal relationships and social networks that cross organizational boundaries.
• Help people locate key sources of knowledge.
• Preserve institutional memory.

2. Learn from experience.

• Collect lessons learned and best practices within the organization. (One resource in the Registry looks at sharing internal best practices. Click here to view.)
• Search for proven tools and practices outside the organization.
• Exchange tacit knowledge regarding best practices and lessons learned.
• Learn from another organization with relevant experience.

3. Cope with too much or too little information.

• Find trustworthy sources to filter, prioritize and validate knowledge and information.
• Ask an information expert for help with retrieving knowledge.
• Carefully plan information-gathering systems to collect only essential data.
• Create systems to share knowledge with staff across the organization.

4. Institutionalize knowledge management.

• Gain support for knowledge management.
• Assess the organization's readiness for knowledge management.
• Design a knowledge management strategy.
• Take action to implement a knowledge management strategy.

The tool also includes two case studies on knowledge management:

• Sharing knowledge at the AIDS Competence Program
• Creating a poverty grading system at the Marie Stopes Clinic Society