Knowledge Leadership: When Knowledge Becomes an Operating Asset

Knowledge is an asset.

That may seem like an obvious statement, but many organizations do not treat it that way.

We understand physical assets. We understand financial assets. We understand technology, equipment, facilities, inventory, and intellectual property.

• We invest in them.

• We maintain them.

• We measure them.

• We replace them when they no longer serve the business.

But knowledge can be harder to see.

• It lives in people.

• It lives in experience.

• It lives in lessons learned, conversations, training, procedures, decisions, workarounds, customer interactions, and the accumulated understanding of how things actually get done.

And because it is harder to see, it can be easy to overlook.

Knowledge Has a Shelf Life

Knowledge is not static.

Processes change. Technology changes. Customers change. People change. Markets change.

Something that worked five years ago may still be valuable today. It may also need to be challenged, updated, or replaced.

• Experience can fade.

• People retire or move on.

• A person who knew exactly why a particular process existed may no longer be there to explain it.

That makes the conscious management of knowledge important.

If knowledge is an asset, then it needs attention.

• It needs to be captured.

• It needs to be accessible.

• It needs to be reviewed.

• It needs to be applied.

Captured Does Not Mean Accessible

This is where many organizations struggle. The knowledge may technically exist.

• It may be in an SOP.

• It may be in a training program.

• It may be sitting in a shared drive.

• It may be documented in a project closeout.

• It may be spread across several people who each hold a piece of the story.

But if the person who needs the knowledge cannot find it, understand it, or use it, its value is limited. A procedure that only gets pulled out during new-hire training is not necessarily organizational knowledge. A lesson learned that disappears into a project archive is not necessarily organizational learning. A great idea that only exists in the head of one experienced employee is certainly valuable, but it is also vulnerable.

Knowledge needs to move.

Knowledge Needs to Become Part of the Culture

This is where knowledge leadership becomes different from simply managing documents. Knowledge needs to be part of the natural rhythm of the business.

It belongs in the start-up meeting.

What did we learn yesterday?

What do we need to know today?

It belongs in the shift handoff.

What does the next team need to understand before they take over?

It belongs in the conference room.

What have we learned that should influence this decision?

It belongs on the floor.

Why are we doing it this way?

Is there a better way?

What is the operation telling us?

These are not necessarily formal knowledge-management activities.

They are simply ways an organization keeps learning alive.

Leadership Models the Behavior

Leaders have an important role in this.

A leader shares knowledge and learning with the team.

That models the behavior expected from everyone else.

A leader listens and asks questions.

That communicates that knowledge does not only come from the person with the title. It can come from the person operating the equipment, serving the customer, managing the process, supporting the system, or solving the problem.

A leader assimilates knowledge into application.

Sometimes that means making a calculated change and seeing what happens.

Then comes measurement.

• Did it work?

• What changed?

• What did we learn?

• What should we keep?

• What should we change?

And that learning goes back into the organization.

The cycle continues.

Knowledge → Application → Measurement → Learning → Knowledge

That is how knowledge grows.

The Goal Is Not More Information

There is an important distinction here.

The goal is not to create more documents.

It is not to build the biggest knowledge library.

It is not to give people another system to maintain.

The goal is to make the organization more capable of using what it already knows while continually learning more.

Knowledge is good to have.

It is great when applied.

And when knowledge is shared, challenged, tested, measured, and renewed, it becomes part of the culture.

It becomes something more than information stored somewhere.

It becomes an operating asset.

That is knowledge leadership.

Not simply knowing more.

Creating an organization that knows how to learn, remember, and apply what it knows.