Wednesday, July 10, 2013
In the 8th Habit, Stephen Covey describe that now we are in knowledge era. Take a look at the picture below.
We have passed the Agricultural era too, so all of we did not have to plant and grow crops. Just let the modern farmer perform these jobs.
We also just left the Industrial era behind us! The legendary 5Ms (Money, Machine, Material, Man, and Method) are no longer the most important things. Now, we can not say that human is equal to machine, money or materials.
What is the most important thing now? Knowledge! Of course, we are in the knowledge era! Anyone can be rich if they have knowledge and utilize it in the right way.
In this era, the inventions are very fast. A good product or service will be replaced by a better one, only in a short time. Company and its employees have to think and act fast to win against their competitor... or die.
The problem is 'smart' employee is very rare. Event they are exist in your company, they easily being stolen by competitors who can pay them much better. If their go, so do the knowledge in their head.
Well, it is not easy to develop a smart employee. Although information is everywhere, but information is information. The abundance information can not make an employee become smart. Knowledge will make them smart.
If knowledge is a dress, data are the fibers, and Information are the fabrics.
Data - are the materials (facts, measurements, statistics) that have not been interpreted and thus, have no meaning.
Information - are the organized data with a meaning. Like data, information can be saved on computer, paper, tape, cloud, other media.
Knowledge - information that has a purpose or intent attached. Emergent, socially constructed, and exists in the head of a person.
In knowledge era, a company should manage the knowledge. Any creation of knowledge should be captured and refined. Then knowledge should be stored in the repository, not only in the smart-employee's head.
These knowledge have to be reviewed periodically for its accuracy and relevance. And of course, company have to make the knowledge are available at all times to anyone.
Okay, this is only a theory. Managing knowledge is not as simple as the KM cycle above, but remember, Knowledge Management is a must. So we must start now!
