Reframing the KM discussion

A shift in focus

This year, we will see a significant shift from broad and ambitious digital transformation and AI strategies to more specific use cases and projects. It’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, overly ambitious transformation projects were never going to work in the first place. On the other, a maniacal focus on merely automating existing manual processes will likely result in more complexity and technology knitting that will unravel at a future date.

Instead of major digital transformation efforts, we will see more narrowly focused projects aiming to adapt to “new normal” realities.

Therefore, there is an abundance of information and knowledge management opportunities to innovate and deliver massive value within organizations. As always, the biggest challenge will be getting interest and financial sign-off from the board or the executive level.

Knowledge management may appear to be a nice-to-have, rather than a critical requirement to top management so we need to think about reframing the KM discussion with executive-level decision makers and focus on the “new normal” priorities. Rather than talk about knowledge management in and of itself, we may want to talk about how customers and remote employees can self-serve and how we can improve support services and call center and sales effectiveness. We may also want to keep an eye out for remote projects within our organizations that leverage machine learning/AI, robotic process automation, and blockchain to see how we can leverage the insights, automation, and decentralization these technologies inherently offer.

For when you take a step away from your particular day-to-day information and knowledge work, you can see IT and transformation efforts for what they really are, an organism made up of “micro”-services, technologies, and projects that are totally dependent on one another for success, even if they so often seem to be in conflict with one another.