Implementing a Knowledge Management Program for the U.S. Army

 

By Art Schlussel, CKM®, CDIA, ECM

 

Editor’s Note:  For the AIIM community, the term Knowledge Management has not been used very much because of perceived lack of consistency in the definition and use of the term.  However the term is now used by the Federal Government and military and has been adopted in very specific situations with a concrete, meaningful definition.  I believe it is time for AIIM to reevaluate the term and embrace its use in a standardized manner. This article is an excellent example of how the term is used in a working program.  Mark Mandel, editor.

 

The Secretary of the Army and Army Chief of Staff signed a memorandum titled Army Knowledge Management Principles (http://www.army.mil/ciog6/docs/AKMPrinciples.pdf ) on July 23, 2008. The memorandum clearly states that KM principles have implications for all Commands and Army organizations.  All soldiers (including National Guard, reserve, and civilians) will now have to understand KM competencies and how to apply them. The first of the 12 Army KM principles is to train and educate KM leaders, managers, and champions, but on what body of knowledge do you base KM training and education?

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Army KM Principles

People/Culture

1. Train and educate KM leaders, managers, and champions.

2. Reward knowledge sharing and make knowledge management career rewarding.

3. Establish a doctrine of collaboration.

4. Use every interaction whether face-to-face to virtual as an opportunity to acquire and share knowledge.

5. Prevent knowledge loss.

 

Process

6. Protect and secure information and knowledge assets.

7. Embed knowledge assets in standard business processes and provides access to those who need to know.

8. Use legal and standard business rules and processes across the enterprise.

 

Technology

9. Use standardized collaborative tool sets.

10. Use Open Architectures to permit access and searching across boundaries.

11. Use a robust search capability to access contextual knowledge nd store content for discovery.

12. Use portals that permit single sign-on and authentication across the global enterprise including partners.