The What, When, and How Behind Using a Knowledge Management System

The What, When, and How Behind Using a Knowledge Management System

In today’s knowledge-driven economy, many organizations recognize the importance of effective knowledge gathering and curation in driving success and innovation. As Learning and Development (L&D) professionals, it is crucial to identify and implement the right knowledge management tools that can help us with the curation efforts and also align with your organization’s goals and THEN facilitate seamless knowledge sharing and collaboration across people and departments. It’s a heavy lift.

But often, we get Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) confused, or we conflate the two terms. But they are very different applications. And when we try to fit a square peg into a round hole, we get wasted effort and money.

For reference, (very) generally speaking:

What is an LMS?

At its core, an LMS is a digital platform that helps organizations (and L&D departments) deliver and manage their learning programs. Visualize a centralized hub where learners can access online courses, training materials, and educational resources while administrators can track progress, manage enrollments, and assess learners’ performance. Having an LMS simplifies the process of creating, organizing, and delivering training content. It enables L&D admins to upload and organize training materials, track learners’ progress, and generate reports to assess the effectiveness of the training programs.

Additionally, an LMS may have more comprehensive tools, such as discussion forums, chat functionality, and applications to assist with social and informal learning, along with assessments, polls and surveys to facilitate interaction and engagement. It may also integrate with other systems, such as HR software or content authoring tools, to further streamline processes.

What is a KMS?

A KMS is a system for organizing reference materials (of all types) that are used on a regular basis. It simplifies the process of curating, storing, and sharing information across a company. A KMS is typically cloud-based software. Therefore it makes the content you store in it more readily accessible to employees (consider a KMS system with a phone app for easy information discovery). Who can then use those resources to complete tasks on the job with little to no distruption. These resources (performance support tools or job aids) include documents with FAQ information, checklists, decision trees, call flows, workflows, how-to guides, Q&A, SOPs, policies, etc. Currently, these may take the life of a SharePoint site. the issue becomes we don’t know which pieces of information are accessed or how helpful they are.

A more advanced knowledge base works more like a website or a wiki. In these KMS’s, you can create web pages allowing you additional options for organizing the documents into a flow or user experience that allows for employees to rapidly find the resources they need and rate the resources to help you ascertain their usefulness. Beyond the ability to store and share downloadable content, you can also create content and add content such as video or audio clips.

There are many types of KMS systems leading to a variety of functions and features, and it can all be very confusing.

via GIPHY

Let’s gather and share information about knowledge management systems, how to leverage them effectively, what features to look for, and when or if to use one. Are you just starting your knowledge management journey? Or perhaps you have the wisdom to share about the process? Let’s help each other be more effective and efficient when considering knowledge management processes.

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