How do for-impact organizations such as yours begin to create a market - an internal and external focus - in knowledge?

Celebrated international business consultants at McKinsey & Company strongly propose that one of our largest sources of competitive advantage in our markets can occur by diffusing throughout our organizations our unique, proprietary knowledge about our constituents, competitors, and the techniques that reside in the heads of our staff.

When I translate that notion to our for-impact world (for-impact is a fresher term for nonprofit!), I tell myself that we need to earnestly invest in managing our knowledge.

Knowledge management (KM) has been around for a good decade in our country, but mostly driven toward for-profit corporations.  That matters little since our efforts at KM have failed to deliver an impact because organizations have failed to create a broad exchange of knowledge.

Establishing an internal knowledge market is important.  But we all know of folks who work in our agencies and organizations (maybe even you!) who know a lot, but keep things bottled up.

These colleagues of ours do not share their knowledge for many reasons.  First off, many of them hold back information and knowledge and only share it when they can get public credit.  They like riding in on the proverbial white horse with the source of important knowledge, sharing it to all with an expectation of accolades.  I've seen this hundreds of times and I'm tired of those antics.

Others fail to share information because they don't think beyond their own realm.  Operations doesn't share its knowledge with Development, and Development doesn't share its knowledge with the organization's service people.  Nearsighted colleagues abound!  They just don't see the big picture, do they?

And we've all witnessed the executive director or CEO who simply does not trust his or her staff with knowledge and dislikes the truthful engagement that comes when everyone participates in a discussion.  Are they afraid of what they might learn, perhaps?  Or, do they just don't believe that we can think for ourselves?  I call this Ostrich Management for obvious reasons!

The cycle is vicious and unfortunately, everybody suffers.

Thirdly, people don't share knowledge because of its inherent risk.  Risk associated with having to do more work, being questioned or criticized, or having the burden of fleshing out or substantiating a small piece of knowledge into something more practical or useable.

So, what do you do about it?

First, you have to start at the top.  If the executive director, president, or CEO does not buy-in, then you are limited.

Establishing an effective, efficient internal market in knowledge is less about investing in technology (although technological advancements tend to help us more easily share information and knowledge) than about encouraging "authors" to "trade" their valuable knowledge with other employees and even volunteer leaders.

Here are the i team's five suggested ways of incorporating cost-efficient KM systems into your organizational culture, as a beginning:

1. Close the loop on decisions!  Make your decisions and then loop back around to all who have been associated with the decision-making process.  This allows those "lower" in the decision-making process to understand and visualize the total process.  It also provides them with a sense of accomplishment and team effort, and showcases the total decision-making system.  More knowledge of a system = less fear about being part of that system!
2. Ask the BCQs.  Ask Basic Critical Questions (BCQs) throughout the organizations.  Start at the top and the bottom.  How do we know this is true?  This BCQ opens up the internal conversation, allowing many in your organization to join in an active debate, conversation, and dialogue about a single piece of knowledge.
3. Engage unlikely colleagues in discussions.  This makes sense!  It reduces insular thinking and opens up the dialogue among folks who would not ordinarily be brought into such talks.  Everybody has an opinion.  Plus, you may be surprised at how much someone from, for instance, your development department, knows about the activities that take place in your finance department, and vice versa.  Additionally, you'll be pleased at the fresh perspective that an "outsider" might provide on the issue or challenge at hand.
4. Open up the debate.  Why not begin friendly inter-departmental debates?  Why not purposefully throw on the table a conundrum and seek open dialogue?  You'll be pleasantly surprised at where some of the best ideas come from.  And, there's no better way to begin showcasing talent from deep within the organization; talent in thinking, creativity, communications, and problem-solving skills.  (This is also a great way to explore potential organizational leaders!)
5. Create logic trees.  Take the time to write down the challenge and "branch" off the effects, deep issues, secondary challenges, and root causes.  Often one topical issue has many underlying causes and effects.  Committing your challenges to paper and visually representing the process is often a great way to begin KM throughout the organization.

You have only one choice:  in the future, you must incorporate this style of thinking in your organizations.  Your organization will never move up the value chain until and unless you have a solid KM process in place.  Pure and simple. Read more in the i zone.

Mario Capozzoli