Maturity before a Maturity model

Over the last 12 months, my love for knowledge management ( Well different people have different definitions!!!) has exponentially grown. I choose to use the term "love" for the simple reason that I seem to be engulfed in a passionate crusade to implement and understand the science and art of knowledge management.

While Google has been my primary source of information, I have been fortunate to discuss this topic and its usefulness with a lot of seasoned professionals in various industries. And one thing that emerged is that theres a deep lack of understanding of this subject. Sceptics turn to passionate believers once the scope of this opportunity is explained.

The second point that struck me is that theres a deep lack of understanding about the sustenance of this "program" / "project" and how does one go about its implementation. In reality one cannot consider this to be a project. Its a journey!

The third point according to me is the pertinent question... " Are we ready for a Knowledge management maturity model". In other words, is the organisation mature enough to embrace such a change of such huge proportions. Personally, I donot know how to gauge the maturity levels and my effort is about learning this very fact.

The APQC maturity model is a classic one. Most management gurus have extolled the virtues of standardisation and innovation. Incidentally these are levels 4 & 5 of the KMMM model.Our counterparts in Japan have excelled in continuous improvement. But the real challenge will be in creating a culture where we use our collective knowledge for innovation. In a world where people donot believe in staying in the organisation for more than a year...how do we get folks to look beyond today?

I read that in BP, in senior management reviews, when theres a "red" on the management dashboards, the arent supposed to ask " why is it red"...instead they are encouraged to ask " have you asked Mr.X? He had a similar issue in the past". .This is a huge paradigm shift. It forces you to collaborate...forces you to not reinvent the wheel.

GE had a wonderful program called the "copy cat" program that encouraged people to share and implement best practices. Both the creator and the "stealer" were rewarded. ICICI bank has a patent office. People give ideas and then the people and departments that implement these ideas are rewarded. More recently , I hear the TATAs have created the NANO through extensive knowledge sharing. A long journey indeed for them when you think of the TATA Estates to the TATA Nano.

I am convinced that organisations need to create a culture which encourages people to share knowledge . And therefore all folks who believe in the power of knowledge management need to be the evangelists to propagate this relentlessly. The mantra is " How can we show and demonstrate value to the folks who need it the most"

* Photgraph of the local tribal folk of Nilgiris. Camera Cannon 350D- ES 18-55