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40 Chapter 2

and then on groups. The narrow focus on innovation as the reason for making use of
intellectual assets is somewhat limiting in this KM cycle. The authors discuss a number
of techniques to promote serendipity, outside-of-the-box thinking, and creativity-
enhancing techniques. Although the notion of promoting the most fl uid fl ow of
knowledge is a worthwhile pursuit, the uses of knowledge are much wider in scope
than mere innovation.
The learn stage refers to the formal process of learning from experiences as a
means of creating competitive advantage. An organizational memory is created so
that organizational learning becomes possible — from both successes (best practices)
and failures (lessons learned). The links between learning and creating value are
harder to establish than those of getting and using information. Learning in organiza-
tions is important because it represents the transition step between the application
of ideas and the generation of new ones. Time must be taken to refl ect on experience
and consider its possible value elsewhere. There should be a strong link between
organizational strategy and organizational learning activities. Learning is absolutely
essential after the getting and using of content — otherwise, the content is simply
warehoused somewhere and not making a difference in how things are done within
the organization.
The contribute stage of the KM cycle deals with getting employees to post what
they have learned to the communal knowledge base (e.g., a repository). This is the
only way to make individual knowledge visible and available across the entire orga-
nization — where appropriate. The last caveat is added because there is a tendency to
warehouse all knowledge, which should not be the focus of KM. Many authors use
this sequence of steps and they have the unfortunate effect of creating the misconcep-
tion that KM is all about making public all that resides within the heads of individuals.
Needless to say, the impact on motivation of employees plummets considerably! The
point of the exercise is not to post everything on the company intranet, but to cull
those experiences from which others in the organization may also benefi t. This implies
that the experience has potential to be generalized. In fact, a great deal of content to
be shared organization-wide must fi rst be repackaged in a generic format in order to
be of use to a wider audience.
Examples of content that employees should be encouraged to contribute include
the transfer of best practices across the organization to apply the experience gained
from experience or unit to others and lessons learned which refer to less successful
outcomes that should be noted so that the same mistakes are not repeated by others.
The authors describe a number of carrots and sticks that can be used to promote
knowledge sharing. Practice has shown some methods that do not work: sharing does