Quantum² Highlights
A newsletter of the Dialog leadership development program for information professionals

Dear Quantum² Member...
This time of year is especially significant for information professionals mapping out strategies for the dynamic management of information in their organizations for the next year. Read on for more about devising a working plan for these processes.

InfoStar Award Nominations

InfoStar award nominations are open once again for presentation at the forthcoming Online Information 2006 to be held November 28-30 in London. InfoStars are inspiring examples of innovation and creativity, whose stories provide insight into their personal achievements and leadership qualities, enabling them to serve as role models for others, regardless of their level.

If you know someone who meets these qualities, please complete the nomination form at http://scientific.thomson.com/quantum/forms//nominate

Quantum² Topic of the Month
Four Steps to Creating a Knowledge Sharing Plan

Following fast on annual budget setting and cost justification is the need to have an innovative plan mapped out for the coming year that is geared towards the effective sharing of organizational knowledge in order to maintain competitive advantage. This is easier said than done, as it involves changing the innate behavior of an organization, but it can be achieved by initiating knowledge sharing programmes and modeling knowledge sharing behavior.

In her book “Common Knowledge”, Nancy Dixon characterizes knowledge sharing as a process for intentionally translating work experiences into shared or common knowledge ( Dixon, Nancy. Common Knowledge. Harvard Business School Press, 2000). However, knowledge sharing only becomes meaningful to an organization when these processes are focused around and driven by actual business needs. These needs drive the pursuit of adequate competitive intelligence and advantage, all of which is ultimately doomed to failure if not supported by an appropriate knowledge sharing mechanism.

The process of building a knowledge sharing plan can be characterized into four distinct steps:

1. Identifying business needs
2. Understanding and matching knowledge sharing activities to needs
3. Selecting appropriate knowledge sharing tools
4. Modeling knowledge sharing behavior

While it does take some internal research in order to identify business needs, it is safe to assume that the most important business needs tie to the organizations strategic and financial objectives. Once the business needs have been identified, the next step is to pinpoint the knowledge sharing activities that can have an impact on those business needs, and to ask where there is a match between a critical business need and a knowledge sharing activity.

Once the knowledge sharing objective becomes clear, the third step of selecting the appropriate technology tools to support the knowledge sharing plan begins. The effective deployment of tools provides an opportunity for information professionals to use their collaborative skills in working with other organizational departments.

As a final step, the real opportunity to implement knowledge sharing behavior is to take on a project that allows you to model your plan to share knowledge. By taking on a leading role in such projects, the information professional and ultimately the organization, stands to benefit in many ways – successful transfer of critical business knowledge; improved access to information resulting in reduced project time and costs; relationship building and collaboration across organizational boundaries; and the creation of useful knowledge repositories to name a few. With such tangible returns on investment, the knowledge sharing activities have a clear organizational impact.

This summary is taken from an article by Libby Trudell, published in the September 2006 edition of the SLA journal, Information Outlook. Read the full article here. Reprint permission granted by SLA. www.sla.org .

As always, your suggestions for workshop topics are welcomed. Also, if you know a friend or colleague who would benefit from Quantum², please encourage them to sign up today.

Liz Blankson-Hemans
Director, IPMD
Dialog