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The good news is knowledge managers now have another tool in their toolkit to help gain senior understanding and support.
So what is this new tool and what does it mean for Knowledge Management?
Author: Emma Dufty Senior Knowledge Manager at i3Works
Getting buy-in for KM from top management can still be difficult even though knowledge assets can make up to potentially 80% of a company’s total value.
So what is this new tool and what does it mean for Knowledge Management?
The answer is ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems or to be more precise Clause 7.1.6 Knowledge. As you may be aware ISO 9001:2015 is the world’s leading quality management standard, with over 1.1 million certificates issued worldwide. It’s reviewed every five years in order to keep it current and relevant for the marketplace and for the first time the standard explicitly mentions knowledge.
Some might argue that it is only a clause within a quality standard rather than a standalone KM standard itself, whereas others say the new clause is too high level in its requirements.
However I believe by adding knowledge to an established recognised quality standard means knowledge is now seen as a requirement and not an optional extra for organisations. It raises the awareness of the management of knowledge to senior management but by not being too prescriptive it doesn’t weigh KM down into bureaucratic information or document management. It allows organisations the freedom to define their own needs within the simple guidance that organisation’s need to:
- Safeguard themselves from knowledge loss, and
- Encourage them to acquire knowledge through learning from experience, mentoring and benchmarking.
For Knowledge Managers it now moves KM from the “nice to have” to an “essential” for any organisation looking to retain or apply for ISO 2001:2015. This means that sufficient attention must be paid to managing knowledge to ensure good and consistent quality of services and goods. So it is imperative that the quality team and senior management understand the implications and value the importance of KM to the organisation.
In summary, KM has attained the same status as other professional disciplines within today’s organisations and, as such, needs the same level of support, leadership and governance.
