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The KM Team 399

and information management, records management, and web and content manage-
ment. Since 1987, TFPL has worked with organizations in both the public and private
sectors to help them develop and implement knowledge and information strategies
and to recruit and train information and knowledge leaders and their teams. TFPL has
drafted a guide of KM skills and competencies to provide a clear and practical overview
of KM skills and competencies that draws on the practical experience of organizations
in a wide range of sectors and with varying approaches to KM. In general, these KM
skills include:

• Time management to use time and energy effectively for acquiring knowledge
(spending all day surfi ng the net is probably counterproductive)
• Use of different learning techniques to absorb key knowledge and learning quickly
• Effective skills of advocacy and inquiry to present knowledge to and gather knowl-
edge from others
• Informal networking skills to build infl uence to gain access to people with
knowledge
• Resource investigation skills
• Effective IT skills for recording and disseminating information
• Skills of cooperative problem solving
• Open dialogue skills.
• Flexibility and willingness to try new things and take educated risks
• Active review of learning from mistakes, risks, opportunities, and successes
The TFPL knowledge management skills map (http://www.tfpl.com/resources/skills_
map.cfm) is based on an extensive international research. The project team contacted
over fi ve hundred organizations involved in implementing KM and identifi ed the roles
that they had created, the skills that were needed in those roles, and the additional
skills that were required across the organization. These key skills included an under-
standing of the KM concept — the philosophy and theory; an awareness of the experi-
ence of other organizations in developing KM solutions and approaches; an
understanding of and the ability to identify the business value of KM activities to the
organization; and an appreciation of the range of activities, initiatives, and labels
employed to create an environment to create, share, and use knowledge to increase
competitive advantage and customer satisfaction (see table 12.1 ).
The KM team ’ s skill requirements can be built up from the set of critical skills or
core competencies, such as an ability to learn, autonomous, wait to be told, collabora-
tive team player, sees the big picture, makes connections, learns from mistakes, ability