Steve:
All of your questions are valid and should be asked and answered before
one launches any major IT initiative.
It would be inappropriate for anyone to suggest that ALL learning
organizations should adopt the kind of system we are discussing. A solid
business case is required in every instance to determine the specific
requirements of the organization, independent of any solution. Not every
organization - and not even every aspiring Learning Organization will
require a system to achieve these goals. Some will be able to meet their
information requirements by other means such as staff meetings,
conferences, or through setting up document sharing directory on the
network.
Human interaction, I agree, remains an important part of organization
learning. A system for capturing information and distributing it is only
an enabling tool.
Yes there are many applications out there already capable of recording
data. Information often resides in formats that are not linked in any
direct way. The Knowledge Management process seeks to provide those links
by gleaning data from disparate systems, placing them in enterprise
databases which allow us to mine enterprise data, from which we can gain
some rich nuggets of intelligence.
In many instances, all that the "mining" will produce are some clues to
solving the problem, perhaps identifying people who may have the
experience or knowledge we seek. Sometimes the system will yield the whole
answer. The users still need to use their own intelligence and judgment to
determine the value of the information they obtain, and what further steps
should be taken to refine their search for answers.
It is not much different than the library research we do to get answers
from the literature in any given field. The only difference here is the
currency of the information, and the fact that the system allows us to
access information that we could not have found easily in any other way.
Brock Vodden - Vodden Consulting
"Where Systems and People Meet"
Serving South Western Ontario
brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca
Check out our website at
http://www.voddenconsulting.on.ca
--"Brock Vodden" <brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>