Knowledge Management and Innovation interactive group meeting

Today I went to one more meeting at this group and the main topic to discuss was Management Model for KM. First, Correios (Biggest mail company of Brazil) presented how is their management model, and then Gerdau (a brazilian multinational siderurgy company) presented their model and an interesting case of Community of Practice. At the end of the presentation session Petrobras presented the strategic plan for KM to 2020.

After a coffee-break, where I had a chance to talk to many people from different companies including a guy from Petrobras that told me about a book “The Living Company” written by Arie De Geus, who worked in Shell for many years and his book is one of the references for Knowledge Management.

At the discussion part I was together in a table with some other private companies to discuss how can we get a management model for knowledge management in place. Not only what is needed but also how can we get there. The answer was that we need first a “click” in somebody’s head to realize that KM can be something to help his/her needs for the moment or for the future. Then, one of the ways the group realized this model could appear (thinking bottom-up) was this person getting what are the strategic goals of the company, articulate with sponsors intra-area and inter-areas, check the existing actions, and draw some possible scenarios for future and how those can impact an area or even a company result. One of the things this model must have is consider 4 big areas:

• Strategy (aligned to the company strategy),
• Structure (formal or informal, KM needs a representative person that will be the owner),
• Processes/Technology (to give directions on how the knowledge will be managed and supported by what) and
• People (the ones who have the knowledge).

I came back with a lot of ideas in my mind, thinking on how to bring Shell KM (that is strong in different ways in other countries) to Shell Brazil.