The latest post on Jay Cross' blog is a rather interesting one. Theres a point he makes ...
"In brief, you measure the impact of informal learning the same way you measure the impact of any investment in the organization: by its outcomes. Are people able to do their jobs? Are they challenged? Are they working in top form?"
In a nutshell, the point here is, that unless we look at KM as an investment, we are looking at the wrong side of the picture. Whether people are able to do their work better or not will not show up on the financial statements. Though, one could argue that it would, over a period of time, but then, there is no way that a cause and effect relationship can be built up, when they are so separated by space and time.
Which is why, it is importat, as I have written earlier, that KM, and hence Knowledge, must be measured within the context of business results, rather than in a vacuum. Of course, this requires an understanding of two things: One, that training and KM are investments, which should be looked at accordingly, and two, that business outcomes can be related in some way or the other with knowledge within the organization. This would actually follow from this page I came across.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Measurements and KM
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Hi Atul! What a great blog post! I really enjoyed it and I think you are spot on in your reflections. I have never been very much in favour of measuring KM, since it has always been looked in ways that are not reflective of how knowledge workers process and share their knowledge, but you surely bring in a good point on how it could potentially be measured.
It is funny as well, because earlier on today I also created a blog post referencing Jay's insights around the subject of figuring out the ROI of social software: http://tinyurl.com/2etr8h. And pretty much along those very same lines...
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