In July 2008, Parachute published ‘Understanding Knowledge Management – A Parachute Consulting Guide.’

The starting points for this paper were twofold.  Firstly, a realisation that Knowledge Management (KM for short) was and is a misunderstood discipline that is often made unnecessarily complicated and secondly, a belief that within the UK public sector there are areas of excellent practice from which others can learn.  By linking these two thoughts together we realised that there was an opportunity to demystify KM, present a toolkit to help others build their KM capability, and use real-world examples from the public sector to demonstrate the art of the possible.

A third factor is the increasing focus on Information Management and especially Information Assurance, given the various problems that the Government has experienced over the past few years, both of which can be addressed through the application of Knowledge Management  techniques. 

Our aim has been to produce a report that informs and educates, using public sector case studies to support the major themes and show that the public sector has areas of great experience and expertise. 

We hope the report also demonstrates some of the benefits that a well designed KM strategy can deliver and how we approach the subject.  Because each organisation's business and knowledge are different, each KM strategy will be different, but all could benefit from applying a consistent, repeatable, approach.  Having read the report, if you would like to find out more about the Parachute approach to KM and how we can help you to develop a successful KM strategy, we'd be more than happy to come and have a chat with you.

We hope that you find the report both interesting and encouraging.

km@parachuteconsulting.co.uk

Useful links to other Knowledge Management resources:

Nonaka, I & Konno, N. 1995.  The concept of “Ba”. Building a foundation for knowledge creation.  California Management Review.

Despres, C. & Chauvel, D. 2000. A Thematic Analysis of the Thinking in Knowledge Management. In Charles Despres & Daniele Chauvel (Eds.), Knowledge Horizons: The Present and the Promise of Knowledge Management. Butterworth-Heinemann.

Perkmann, M. et al. 2005. Knowledge management in the public sector. A guide to good practice. British Standards Institute.

Transformational Government Annual Report 2006.  Cabinet Office.

Dale, S. 2008. Communities of Practice in Local Government. Semantix.

Glass, N et al. 2003. Review of Social Research in DfT. Department for Transport.

Jones, R. 2002. Measuring the benefits of knowledge management at the FSA. Financial Services Authority.