!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Streamline Training & Documentation: Knowledge Management Tools and techniques

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Knowledge Management Tools and techniques

The Knowledge Management Specialist Library, a section of the UK National Health Service's National Library for Health, (NLH) provides a useful inventory of the most common knowledge managment tools and techniques (somewhat edited here):
  • After Action Reviews (AARs) — capture lessons learned both during and after an activity or project.


  • Communities of Practice — link people together to develop and share knowledge around specific themes.


  • Conducting a knowledge audit — a systematic process to identify an organization’s knowledge needs, resources and flows, as a basis for understanding where and how better knowledge management can add value.


  • Developing a knowledge management strategy — i.e., developing a formal knowledge management plan that is closely aligned with an organization’s overall strategy and goals.


  • Exit interviews — to capture the knowledge of departing employees.


  • Identifying and sharing best practices — capturing best practices discovered in one part of the organization and sharing them for the benefit of all.


  • Knowledge centres — similar to libraries, but with a mandate not only to connect people with information in documents and databases, but also to connect people with each other.


  • Knowledge harvesting — a tool used to capture the knowledge of experts and make it available to others.


  • Peer assists — enable people to learn from the experiences of others before embarking on an activity or project.


  • Social network analysis — mapping relationships between people, groups and organizations to understand how these relationships either facilitate or impede knowledge flows.


  • Storytelling — to share knowledge in a more meaningful and interesting way than occurs when the knowledge is presented in a dry-sounding report.


  • White pages — an online resource that allows people to find colleagues with specific knowledge and expertise.
You can browse the wealth of health-related information made accessible by the NLH — e.g., evidence-based reviews of health care interventions — by visiting the NLH home page.

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