Managing Grey Matter
Managing Grey Matter
The phrase ‘Knowledge Management’ has now been in the international business lexicon for a while. However, while organisations are beginning to recognise the value that exists in their intellectual assets, a great divide still exists between recognising these assets and harnessing them.
To help bridge this, Standards Australia has, in a world-first, launched a 76 page Standard Knowledge Management: A Guide. The aim is to help businesses improve customer service, shorten decision making processes and enhance employee retention by acknowledging their value and using them to their potential.
By drawing on the combined expertise of leading knowledge management practitioners and academics, the standard brings together industry insight and experience to give Australia’s creative economy the means in which to take a major leap forward.
The Knowledge Economy
‘Knowledge management’ is a way of capturing, storing and disseminating the vital information that drives a company forward. To help facilitate this, the standard provides a flexible approach to knowledge management.?It recognises the diversity of companies and their document management requirements, so rather than firmly stating “this is how you do it!” the standard highlights tools and techniques that can help companies identify, share and use their most valuable assets.
“This new Standard gives senior executives, business and government leaders a flexible and iterative approach to ensure the knowledge in their organisation is created, shared and applied to strengthen the organisation.” said Sue Halbwirth, senior lecturer, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney.
“The standard is about transforming performance rather than conforming to a process” said David Rymer, deputy chair and thinker-in-residence at Intuosity. “Our economy is fuelled by ideas and the clever implementation of intellectual capital. Leveraging knowledge is central to the major issues facing Australia’s boardrooms and Governments.”
The Knowledge Ecology
Effective knowledge management practises can form a powerful ecosystem within a company and the economy at large. The more a company can harness and utilise its intellectual assets, the stronger it becomes and the more it contributes to the economic ecosystem of the country.
“We have learnt to protect the ecology of our planet” said Professor Theo Van Leeuwen, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. “Now we must learn to protect the knowledge economy of our planet”
Harnessing and protecting that knowledge economy is what Knowledge Management: A Guide is all about.
“Our Knowledge Management Standard is a global first. Its creative approach sets new benchmarks for innovation and thought leadership.” said John Tucket, Standards Australia chief executive officer. “There is growing recognition that knowledge and the ability of organisations to learn, innovate and adapt contributes significantly towards our national prosperity and competitiveness.”
In addition to the Standard Knowledge Management: A Guide, Standards Australia will also be releasing a knowledge management handbook for small to medium sized enterprises. The handbook, like the standard, will contain many tools to help smaller enterprises harness their intellectual assets and include case studies of smaller businesses.
Australian Standards are sold and distributed worldwide by SAI Global Limited and can be purchased online at http://www.standards.com.au and retails A$112.86 in PDF format or A$125.40 for a hardcopy.
For more information see http://www.standards.org.au.
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