A knowledge map is a tool for identifying and organizing the knowledge that exists in your organization. Knowledge map software is a powerful way to inventory your organization’s critical knowledge while identifying knowledge gaps and other areas of weakness.
Improving the Flow of Critical Information
In many instances, the process of creating knowledge maps will show you bottlenecks in the flow of key knowledge and weak links. By precisely delineating how knowledge flows through your organization, your team can pinpoint opportunities for refinements and make targeted improvements to ensure that the best knowledge reaches those who need it.
Knowledge mapping is a strategic practice for managing knowledge in your enterprise. It creates a conceptual framework that shows the knowledge throughout your organization while providing a guide to understanding your teams, their multi-layered processes, and the resources that exist in your knowledge translations processes.
Knowledge Mapping: A Worthwhile Effort
A comprehensive knowledge mapping strategy provides your company with the structure to plot the courses that information travels in your enterprise. This takes considerable effort; however, it is a proven method to understanding how information is used and disseminated throughout your operations.
- Knowledge mapping pinpoints existing and potential weaknesses. It identifies the steps your company is implementing in its knowledge management practices. It also shows where mistakes may hamper your company’s ability to fully utilize its resources and personnel.
- By creating a knowledge map, your entire company can understand the basics of knowledge creation and management. This brings clarity to the enterprise that is crucial to efficient organizational management in areas such as R&D, IT, operations, and finance. And it influences future decisions regarding assets and data best practices.
- Knowledge mapping also examines the current steps that your organization is employing to create, utilize, and capture knowledge assets and resources in relation to the coordination, function, and understanding of digital information. This includes areas such as policymaking, maintaining regulatory compliance, and personally identifiable information (PII).
- Knowledge mapping examines the relationship of knowledge in your enterprise. It scrutinizes your company’s knowledge assets at a practical level, which enables you to conduct a thorough analysis into the explicit and tacit knowledge that drives enterprise productivity.
- Knowledge mapping is critical in acknowledging and engaging key stakeholders who can influence the required changes necessary to make knowledge management a powerful change agent in your organization.
A comprehensive knowledge mapping strategy provides your company with the structure to plot the courses that information travels in your enterprise. This takes considerable effort; however, it is a proven method to understanding how information is used and disseminated throughout your operations.
In a very real way, you can think of a knowledge map as an atlas of all your files, documents, recordings of best practices, web pages, and databases. Your knowledge is at your fingertips to improve operations.
