In my daily sift through enterprise tech rants I came across an interesting article on CMSWire. Let me first say that I am generally a big fan of CMSWire. Their short to mid format writing is insightful poignant and sometimes even entertaining. Admittedly, my appreciation goes back months not years, but I really like what I’ve seen so far.
However, I’m not sure this article hit the mark. In it Roan Yong theorizes that the concept of “Knowledge Management” in the enterprise is dead and more importantly been replaced by “Social Business.”
To me, KM — as we know it — is finished. It’s going to die. It’ll probably be dead before the end of 2012.
That’s a horrible thing to say, I know. But I also know that KM is going to be reborn. It is going to be reborn into something related — but different from KM as we know it.
What is KM going to be reborn into? I only have one answer to this: Social Business.
Let’s address this is two parts:
Is Knowledge Management dead?
While I’ll be the first to admit that the term itself is dated. This is no revelation. For a variety of reasons, many of which Yong accurately aludes to, the meaning behind the terms as been jargonized to death. It was used to solve too many problems and consequently associated with too many failures. In some ways it was doomed from the beginning as it so easily triggered people’s “corp speak radar.” Even so, I’m not sure I’ve seen any terms replace it even from a naming standpoint.
Nothing left to manage.
I don’t know anyone who works in a department that is essentially KM but called something different. I’ve seen some internal marketing managers that are in charge of KM duties and vice versa but in most cases the organization is small and the title is a legacy title. It’s not a choice of accurate or inaccurate, dated or current.
So the name might not be hip or current anymore, but is the concept still alive? Do companies still need to dedicate resources to organizing and distributing expertise, documentation, historical artifacts, institutional knowledge? Yes, now more than ever. There are many reasons for this but few more compelling than its relation to the “Baby Boomer” generation. Over the next 10 years we will see more people retire in America than ever before. Every one of those retires carries with them a vast knowledge base that has gone largely unexposed. It’s been past from generation to generation in a system that more closely resembles Native American story telling than systematic archiving and preservation. Clearly, it is not a problem that micro-blogging and shared workspaces can solve. Not only is Knowledge Management still alive it is vital and urgent. Time is running out.
Is Knowledge Management being replaced by social?
Um, no. Yong wants us to believe that by saying that social is replacing KM (or at least the KM is dead) that he has spoken some sort of sacrilege. It elicited no such response in me. If KM goes away I’ll merely adapt to its replacement the same way most all of us have many times in our careers. Of course that is a subject for a different post. Has Yong ever worked in legal or government? Document management is still king and e-Discover is one of the largest growth areas those business sectors. While a great deal of a business’ e-Discover needs can be addressed with social business, it by no means solves everything. I would also contend that one of the biggest stumbling blocks with the adoption of social and even electronic collaboration is the inability for social tools to integrate with document management. If a document is stored in a SharePoint list or workspace, it is does not have a relevant Interwoven document number and that goes both ways. If your business’ main revenue source is producing documents (legal, government, academia) document management and by default Knowledge Management is still very much alive.
Further, let’s look at Yong’s evidence of replacement.
- Proliferation and rapid adoption of social technology, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft Sharepoint.
I’m not sure what the point is here. Are many companies starting to see the benefits of creating a more open and collaborative workplace? Certainly but I don’t see how that is evidence that KM is no longer necessary. It really just another tool at the disposal of a KM team.
- Proliferation and rapid adoption of mobile platform, e.g. iPad, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy tab and other tablet devices.
With knowledge and documentation splintered on so many devices and so many platforms, managing it has become an even bigger problem. Ultimately, I believe it will make things easier but transitioning to mobile without some well thought out KM and IT policies is a nightmare waiting to happen.
- Increasing adoption of cloud technology. To reduce cost, many organizations are moving their intranets to the cloud. This hastens the adoption of social media and mobile gadgets.
Again, this seems to evidence the rising popularity of social but has nothing to do with a diminishing need for KM. It may signal the end of the Intranet as we know it, but that is an entirely different point. (and one I might agree with)
- Application of Big Data to Business Intelligence. Social technology and mobile platform make collection of big data possible. Big data, in the hands of a talented Chief Data Officer, can be turned into powerful business intelligence.
In any organization I’ve ever known to have a Chief Data Officer that person is a technologist by trade. Who is the business side equivalent of a Chief Data Officer? You guessed it, KM. I could see a morphing of KM and Data Management, but that’s a big jump.
- The rise of Gen-Y in organizations. Gen-Y was born digital. Instinctively, they know what social business is, and are bringing the concept to life in their workplace.
See my response to points two and three……
Yong’s arguments for replacing KM with Social Business are like saying nobody walks anymore because there are airplanes. It’s true that the airplane has replaced the cross continent walkabout, but what’s your point?
I understand that Yong wants to make a splash. He’s a journalist, that’s his job. I understand that he wants to prepare us for the inevitable migration from Knowledge Managers to Community Managers but this is grandstanding. It’s headline without substance.
I’m sure Mr. Yong is an excellent writer and very knowledgeable in his subject matter. This is the first post by him I’ve read so it wouldn’t be fare or reasonable to judge him based solely on this. However, it is exactly this type of social cool-aid guzzling that makes those of us championing its adoption in the workplace look bad. Is social collaboration an evolution in business process and knowledge management? I think so, but to call it a replacement is shortsighted at best. Subscribing to social dogma leaves its supporters open to ridicule, disrespect and failure. I love social as much as the next person, but its value is that it helps knowledge managers, not replaces them.
