The Complete Idiot's Guide to Knowledge Management

You don't need an MBA to make today's management buzzwords pay off for you!

You're no idiot, of course. You know that knowledge is power. However, teamwork is the key in today's new corporate economy, and keeping things to yourself won't benefit you or your company.

But you don't have to reinvent the wheel! The Complete Idiot's Guide© to Knowledge Management will show you exactly how to share information among your peers to help your company achieve greater success! In The Complete Idiot's Guide©, you get:

• Basic knowledge management models and concepts
• Step-by-step instructions on implementing the concept within your company or group
• Strategies for knowledge sharing
• The fundamentals of trying a pilot program
• How information technology relates to knowledge management
• The importance of culture in the program

• Part 1: Exploring the Oxymoron

1. What's in a name?
   Defining knowledge and knowledge management, as well as the reasons organizations do it.
• The Publisher and the Krona
• Exploring Knowledge Management
• Defining Knowledge
• Tacit and Explicit Knowledge
• Defining Knowledge Management
• Organizational Drivers for Knowledge Management
• And the Winner Are …
  
2. More Models Than a Car Show
   Looking at some of the influential thinkers in this field, and how their thinking has shaped the field.
• The World Has Changed, Says Peter Drucker
• What the Krona Started
• Employee Competence
• Internal Structure
• External Structure
• From Making Bread to the Knowledge Spiral
• Creating a Learning Organization
• Mapping How Value Is Created
  
3. What's a Chief Knowledge Officer?
   The new role in many organizations to lead knowledge management efforts and what kind of people fill that role.
• Somebody Has to Do It
• Stranger from Outside or Hire Within?
• In Search of the CKO
• CKOs Are Evangelists
• CKOs Are Entrepreneurs
• CKOs Are Persuaders
• CKOs Are Communicators
• CKOs Are IT Savy
• But What Do They Do?
• Where Do They Perch?
  
4. Knowledge Management Success Stories
   How Hewlett-Packard Consulting and British Petroleum successfully implemented knowledge management and what made them successful.
• Introducing Knowledge Masters at Hewlett-Packard Consulting
• What We Want to Be
• Getting Started
• Going for a Trial Run
• Phase One
• Phase Two
• Phase Three
• Keep the Fire Burning
• The Learning Organization at British Petroleum
• The Virtual Team Pilot
• How BP Learns Before, During, and After
• Comparing HPC and BP
  

• Part 2: Getting Started

5. Developing a Strategy
   What a good strategy has and how to develop one for your organization.
• Fundamentals of a Good KM Strategy
• Tailoring KM Strategy for Your Organization
• Look at Your Starting Point
• Advantages of an Executive Sponsor
• Developing the KM Pitch
• One Big Strategy or Multiple Projects?
• Connecting People or Writing Things Down?
  
6. Start Small
   How to get started with the right pilot while planning to scale up later.
• Why It's a Good Idea to Start with a Pilot
• Start with a Pilot
• Do Your Homework
• Define What "Done" Looks Like
• Involve the End Users
• Picking a Winner
• What's the Buzz?
• learn as You Go
• Start with Several Pilots
• Plan on Going Big
• Form Your Band of Revolutionaries
  
7. Building the Infrastructure
   Creating the team that will carry out the knowledge management effort and getting the resources needed.
• Deciding Where KM Belongs in the organization
• Decentralized Organizations
• Centralized Organizations
• Home Sweet Home
• Doing the Budget
• Developing Your Core Team
• Outside-the-Organization Memberships
• Celebrations
• Creating New Roles and funky Titles
• Forming a Steering Committee
  
8. Communities of Practice — The Killer Application
   Defining this new organizational structure and its key features, and how to start one.
• The Platypus of Organizational Structures
• The Three Dimensions of a Community of Practice
• The Life Cycle of the Community Platypus
• Planning
• Start-Up
• Growth
• Sustainment
• Closure
• The Most Important Member, the Community Coordinator
• Helping the Community to Develop the Practice
• Helping the Community Develop as a Community
• Launching a Community of Practice at SAP America
• Laying the Foundation
• Liftoff for the Community
  
9. Strategic Choices for Connecting People to People
   Some approaches commonly used to help people find the people and knowledge they need.
• Look in the Yellow Pages
• Yellow Pages for Expertise
• Keys for Success
• Danger Ahead
• Automation
• Best Practice Systems
• Best Practices Help the American Red Cross
• Making People-Finders Part of a Larger System
  
10. More Connection Choices
    Some approaches for transferring knowledge.
• Minds Going out the Door
• Part 1: What?
• Part 2: So What?
• Part 3: Now What?
• Minds in Different Places: Transferring Strategic Knowledge
• The Day-to-Day Stuff: Capturing and Transferring Knowledge
• Choosing Approaches
  

• Part 3: Can't Live with IT; Can't Live Without IT

11. Why Your CIO Has Gray Hair
    Learning how to be a good partner by understanding what drives your CIO and IT support.
• IT Serves the Needs of the Business
• Understanding the Business
• Building Internal Relationships
• Looking Ahead
• Showing Value
• Setting Standards
• Going Around the World
• Other Causes of CIO Stress
  
12. Nets, Nets, Nets
    Exploring the different types of nets important in knowledge management.
• Net 1: The Internet and the World Wide Web
• What an Intranet Is
• What You Can Do on an Intranet
• Benefits of an Intranet
• Building an Intranet
• Before You Leap
• The Minimum It Takes
• How to Start a Pilot
• Maintaining the Intranet
• What Is an Extranet?
  
13. Between You and Me with Collaborative Tools
    The technologies available for helping people to work together.
• Characteristics of Collaborative Tools
• The Lowly but Popular E-mail
• Talking Together Electronically
• Electronic Meeting Systems
• Working Together
• Shared Documents
• Shared databases
• The Electronic Whiteboard
• Videoconferencing
• Putting It All Together: Integrated Solutions
  
14. Finding the Information You Need
    Approaches for getting useful information from your IT systems.
• Staying Out of the Junkyards: Managing Content
• Managing Content with Taxonomies and Search Engines
• A Taxonomy in Action
• Search Engines
• One-Stop Shopping with a Portal
  

• Part 4: The Showstopper of Culture

15. Culture Is You, Me, and Everybody Else
    Looking in depth at what a culture is and what shapes it.
• The Three Levels of Organizational Culture
• Culture Is Learned
• Culture Is Stable
• The Importance of Understanding Culture
• Seeing the Invisible
  
16. Working with Organizational Culture
    Techniques and must-dos for changing a culture.
• Change the Way People Work
• Discovering the Shadow Organization
• Helping Leaders to Walk the Talk
• Leaders Are Always on Display
• This Means You, Too, Change Agent
• The Importance of Middle Management
• Aligning Rewards and recognition
• Creating New Heroes
  
17. Managing the Change
    How to take charge of the change, and not let the change take charge of you.
• The Change Process
• The Future State
• The Current State
• The Transition State
• Resistance to Change
• A Road map for the Journey
• How Big Is the Change?
• Who's for You? Who's Against You?
• Learning the New Ropes
  
18. Spreading the Word Far and Wide
    Techniques for communicating what must change, who must change, and why.
• Refining Your Message
• telling a Story of the Future
• Awareness to Commitment to Passion
• Awareness
• Commitment
• Passion
• Help from Communication Experts
• Other Tools in Your Communications Kit
• A Xerox Tool
• Concept Visualization Video
• Your Press Kit
• Putting Together a Communications Plan
• Continuing to Listen
  

• Part 5: Keeping Score

19. You Get What You Measure
    Basic do's and don'ts for measures, regardless of the specific approach used.
• Measure for a Purpose
• Past and Future
• Too Many Measures Is Too Much
• Ride the Wave of the Current System
• Coping with Skeptics
• Combine Numbers with the Story Behind Them
• You Are What You Present
  
20. Developing Measures
    A step-by-step process for developing measures
• Determining Your Goals
• Naming Your Audience
• Defining the Measures
• Deciding What Data Will Be Collected and How
• Displaying and Analyzing Your Measures
• Looking at Your Team of Measures
• Reaching Retirement Age and Other Employment Rules
  
21. A Sampler of Measurement Approaches
    Some common measurement approaches used by many organizations
• Developing a Balanced Scorecard of Measures
• Determining a return on Investment for Knowledge Assets
• Measuring If Knowledge Management Has Grown Up
• Asking Employees What They Think
  
22. Measuring Intellectual Capital
    Some measurement approaches for assessing intellectual capital
• A Typology for Measuring Intellectual Capital
• Intangible Assets Monitor
• Three Categories
• A Generic Example of Typical Indicators
• The Celemi Intangible Assets Monitor
• The Skandia Navigator
• Intellectual Capital Index
• Possible Pitfalls
  

• Part 6: Settling In for the Long Haul

23. Where Did We Go Wrong?
    Some pitfalls often encountered to avoid in implementing knowledge management.
• Build IT and They'll Come
• Ignoring Critical Differences
• A Kinder, Gentler Place by Tomorrow
• Betting the Farm on a CEO or Other Sponsor
• Stopping Before You're Done
  
24. Moving to the Big Time
    How to scale up successfully after a successful pilot(s)
• How Long Will It Take?
• Time Line at Hewlett-Packard Consulting
• Time Line for British Petroleum
• Consolidating Lessons Learned
• Expanding the Effort
• Looking Again
• The Rush for Gold
• Ramping Up
• Paying for Your Sins
• Part of the Establishment
  
25. Lagniappe: The Thirteenth Doughnut
    Some techniques and supporting information for managing your own knowledge
• IT Support for Personal Knowledge Management
• Managing Your Personal Capital
• Knowledge Stock
• Knowledge Currency
• Knowledge Flow
• Connecting Yourself to People
• Giving to Get
• Making Connections
• Tips on Networking
• Forming a Network of Mentors
  

• Appendixes

1. Glossary
2. Web Sites
3. Books and Articles
   

This is supposed to be an easy read: it is not. More confusing than helping.

Even though the total coverage is good, she doesn't manage to give more than a shallow overview of stuff and thereby confuses the reader on how the subjects are related (or even why).