Environment scanning
Featured in the Knowledge Management training manual
By Mike Bagshaw & Paul Phillips
Category: Management
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
A prime purpose of knowledge management is to deal with the information that exists within the organisation in such a way that more value can be gained from it. It is also a way of limiting risk: failure to gather and use information (gleaning knowledge) can lead to a loss of competitiveness, missed business, and reduced profit. For example, one employee leaving the organisation may mean significant loss of customer knowledge, expertise in managing particular processes, a history of the business that may include understanding why things have been done on a particular way. In the latter case, this has often led to reinventing processes at great cumulative cost to the business. The first step in gaining value from knowledge is knowing where it is. This training activity involves the participants in locating where knowledge is in their organisations and encourages them to consider those factors which help and hinder the process of tapping that knowledge.
You begin this training activity with a brainstorming session to free participants’ thinking, based on introducing the rules of this technique to the group and using a fun topic. You go on to ask the group to focus on one question: ‘Where is the knowledge in your organisation stored?’ You run a short session using the CUP acronym and get the groups to cluster their brainstormed ideas using the category definitions. The training activity continues with a discussion based on the question of what helps or hinders the process of tapping this knowledge base. This is done using a simple ‘helps/hinders’ chart. A series of case studies are used to explore those factors which result in either knowledge sharing or knowledge as a source of self interested power. Finally, you summarises the training activity by introducing the idea of an ongoing key-points log.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to involve the participants in locating the knowledge in their organisations and thinking about what helps or hinders them in tapping into that knowledge.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:10:00 |
| No of Pages: | 13 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers for any programme which uses the collective knowledge and experience of the group to create new ideas or to find solutions to difficult problems.
Download the training activity, Environment scanning as featured in the Fenman training manual; Knowledge Management