We learn from experience. As we encounter new challenges, our successes and failures improve our ability to face similar challenges in the future. Unfortunately, progress by experience has classically been limited to the individual; we learn from our own experience, and others are forced to do the same. However, knowledge management has the capacity to change all of that.
By creating a single IT system capable of storing and retrieving the collective knowledge and experience of an organisation’s workforce, knowledge management shares expertise among employees. This allows for increased efficiency, improved decision making capacity and faster, more accurate issue resolution.
Additionally, knowledge management helps foster innovation. With easy access to shared ideas, experiences and up-to-date information, employees have the resources they need to think outside the box and make important cultural changes to adapt their organisation to better address evolving business needs.
Knowledge management may also help decrease employee turnover, by giving employees advanced insight into how to more effectively do their jobs.
But perhaps most importantly, knowledge management allows businesses to remain competitive. By sharing experience and information through easy-to-use tools, businesses become more flexible and intelligent, better prepared to spot issues easier and innovate more quickly.