 |
Table of Contents |
 |
|
|
Business Planning
Based on knowledge audits, organizations looking to knowledge management develop
business plans aligned with their goal and objectives. To raise knowledge vigilance to the point
where attitudes are realistic and automatic and tacit knowledge is internalized, such plans
identify needs and issues within the organization and be couched against a framework for
addressing these. Needs and issues, as well as the business processes associated with them,
are determined by
- the external environment;
- the mandate, vision, goal, and objectives of
the organization;
- the overall strategic direction;
- the size and spread of the organization;
- organizational history and culture;
- staff skills and experience; and
- available resources.
There are two divergent approaches to knowledge management. The first creates a
system whereby all existing knowledge products and services flow to all staff. The second
enables staff to find what they want to know. These approaches are labeled organization-centric
and employee-centric.
18 They are not mutually exclusive, but the rise of the knowledge-based economy requires that more attention be given to the second. Top-down and bottom-up
approaches to evaluation coexist in ADB. Under the first, OED has assumed responsibility for
planning evaluations. The approach purports to provide integrity and quality of analysis,
impartiality and transparency, and independence of evaluation. The second approach is still in
early development. It relates to the conduct of self-evaluation at the completion of a program,
project, or TA and to country portfolio reviews.
19
Each of the two approaches to knowledge management has strengths. A business plan
for knowledge management must encompass both. The elemental steps of business planning
are
- identify key staff groups within the organization;
- conduct comprehensive and holistic analyses with the key staff groups to identify needs and issues and barriers to organizational performance;
- supplement the analyses with inputs from managers and organizational
strategy documents to determine an overall strategic focus;
- develop findings and recommendations to address the needs and issues and to tackle the barriers identified; and
- implement a series of knowledge management pilots based on the findings and
recommendations, leveraged by suitable knowledge management tools, and with concern for
measuring the effectiveness of outreach.
Figure 2 illustrates the process to develop a business
plan for knowledge management. Appendix 8 lists the knowledge performance metrics that can
verify the use of common knowledge management tools.
____________________
18 The first approach places emphasis on collection. The second approach prioritizes connection.
19 Self-evaluation has been expanded to cover country partnership strategies through the preparation of country partnership strategy completion reports.
 Back
Auditing the Lessons Architecture | Next
Putting it all together: The Strategic Framework |
Topics 
Top of page