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KM/Knowledge Services, Strategic Learning, and HR: Making the Critical Connection

August 12, 2010 By Guy St. Clair

We’re all agreed that a key element in the success of any KM/knowledge services strategy is strategic learning. Indeed, strategic learning is one of the three “legs” (as we often say) of knowledge services, converging with information management and knowledge management to establish corporate knowledge-sharing success.

One of management’s biggest challenges, though, is coordinating these key elements. From the SMR International perspective, there’s a critical first step: bring together HR and knowledge strategy leaders in the corporation, creating a special purpose community of practice to follow the progress of knowledge strategy implementation and, when required, to provide directed interventions when they are recognized and required.

Why HR? There are a couple of reasons. One has to do with the “place” of strategic learning and training within the corporation. Despite many well-intentioned (and on-going) efforts to move learning and training activities into a  dedicated functional unit, in most companies these activities fall under the aegis of HR and that’s not going to change. More important, though, is the fact that the HR focus is enterprise wide, and any programs, activities, or informational or regulatory direction is going to emanate throughout the company, adding authority to the process since HR – like legal, accounting or, of course, payroll activities – are given universal attention within the organization.

But HR is not necessarily an educational or knowledge-sharing function, you say. Of course, and that’s why the idea of a knowledge strategy-focused CoP connected with HR can be such a powerful foundation for excellence in knowledge strategy implementation. In working with the senior management person responsible for directing corporate knowledge strategy (whether acknowledged formally with a title along the lines of something like knowledge strategy director or not), HR management ensures that KM/knowledge services concepts, ideas, structures, and content match what the company needs.

And to add icing to the cake: The ideal CoP (or team or focus group or planning group – what you call it doesn’t matter) doesn’t just include HR management and knowledge strategy leadership. An ideal CoP with this focus will include senior management – or at least a representative of senior management – for each of the major divisions or operational functions of the organization. When top organizational leaders and management  thinkers come together with HR leadership and knowledge leadership, the company is on the road to established excellence in KM/knowledge services and by definition constitutes itself as a knowledge culture.

Tagged With: HR, human resources, KM, KM community of practice, knowledge services, knowledge sharing, Knowledge Strategy, The Knowledge Culture

About Guy St. Clair

Guy St. Clair is the Series Editor for Knowledge Services, from Verlag Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin, the scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. The series subject is knowledge services, the approach to managing intellectual capital that merges information management, knowledge management (KM), and strategic learning, presenting and discussing new and innovative approaches to knowledge sharing in all fields of work.

With Barrie Levy, Guy  is the author of The Knowledge Services Handbook: A Guide for the Knowledge Strategist (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020). He is also the author of Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century Organization (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016). [Note: Go here for the free PDF version of this book: https://bit.ly/3msI27V. ]

Guy is also the author of Knowledge Services: Five Free Webinars from Guy St. Clair, available to anyone who wants to learn more about knowledge services. The webinars are offered at no charge.

Guy’s other professional writings are listed in SMR International’s corporate website, at SMRShare. 

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