I was personally pleased and pleasantly surprised too at the no of reactions and feedback obtained for the random observation of the Mahabharatha being our first wiki. In fact the more I dig , the more similarities I find from our great past to our modern present. I am a reasonably organised individual and have been able to run fairly streamlined functions in my professional career too. However, one thing that has been tough and almost never been able to put to action is to collectively document organisational knowledge, which I have been handicapped by the loss of personnel , inability to articulate matter which cannot be described in words easily, lack of transfer of knowledge gained through observation and other unstructured content repositories. etc.
In an era which is increasingly valuing specialists and specialist domains, managing one's organisational learning has become paramount. More thrust is being given to internal dependence for knowledge. Thus, we hear many a organisation and so many management gurus speaking about converting your organisation into a knowledge organisation and your employees into knowledge workers.
While the actual effort and method for such a transition can be deliberated , I found some cues in the way our scriptures are organised and how they determine their purpose. Lets for a moment draw up a parallel . Just as the (sastram) Scriptures define a way to lead the human life and help us fulfill the human life, the KM portal would tell anyone in the organisation, where they stand on their progress and how their own goals ( KPI's ?) ought to move, where they could share and look out for information from various other related and interlinked departments/ domains.
Just as the scriptures are more a " May I help you ? - centre", the KM portal is also s May I help you centre for the organisation. If you want to know something , here is an help desk for you to approach. If you can manage on your own, just fine., else it is there to help. The KM portal grows more out of volunteering and self initiatives and like the scriptures cares for those who seek help.
Just as "sas" would mean to teach, and "trai" means "to protect", KM would learn form contribution, teach us in turn and protect us as we go forward.
I was also intrigued by the way the structuring of the messages (which I see as knowledge) in the Vedas. They are not found in a single place or sub head... some are in Rg, some in Yajur so on and so forth. Just the way organisational knowledge on any single subject is just not resident only at some top echelons or in a single entity. Just as the vedas are non human products, it would be akin to a vision or passion/mantra of any organisation.
The primary purpose of KM according to many experts is the transfer of "tacit " knowledge to "explicit " knowledge. This can be done only through interpretations, metaphors and analogies which eventually will drive home a message. Thats exactly how the Vedas are interpreted.. They are so abstract that it is not possible to interpret them. Thus the emergence of secondary scriptures, which have brought to us various ideas of the vedas though strories, some true and otherwise, which are systematically arranged, something we dont find in the vedas. This is a parallel purpose of knowledge management - transfer through metaphors, analogies to bring out a realistic product for the organisation.
Just as the vedas would guide us to lead a life of dependence or independence, organisations also, eventually would attain their Sreyas by becoming tired of their dependence on knowledge elsewhere and start looking within. This exactly is where all members of the organisation will gravitate towards..
The knowledge Portal!!
No comments:
Post a Comment