KM Opportunities Survey
Originally published September 22, 2014
This survey can be used to help define the top 3 objectives for a knowledge management program. It helps ensure that the KM program is designed to meet the needs of the organization, and should be conducted once before beginning any new KM initiative.
1. Check all of the following challenges you are currently experiencing:
- It’s difficult for my team to make decisions, and when we make them, they are bad.
- It’s hard to find relevant information and resources at the time of need.
- We have to start from scratch each time we start a new project, and my team keeps reinventing the wheel.
- We repeat the same mistakes over and over.
- It’s difficult to find out if anyone else has solved a similar problem before or already done similar work.
- Information is poorly communicated to me, and I am unaware of what has been done, what is happening, and where the organization is heading.
- I can’t find standard processes, procedures, methods, tools, templates, techniques, and examples.
- I can’t get experts to help me, because they are scarce, in great demand, and unavailable when needed.
- We are unable to respond to customers who ask for proof that we know how to help them and that we have done similar work before.
- It takes too long to invent, design, manufacture, sell, and deliver products and services to our customers.
2. List any other challenges you regularly experience with sharing, innovating, reusing, collaborating, learning, and searching for knowledge.
3. From the challenges which you checked and the ones you listed, please rank the three most important in decreasing order of importance:
- <fill in the most important challenge>
- <fill in the second most important challenge>
- <fill in the third most important challenge>
4. What examples can you provide where sharing, innovating, reusing, collaborating, learning, and searching for knowledge are working well today?
5. What examples can you provide where sharing, innovating, reusing, collaborating, learning, and searching for knowledge worked well in the past?
6. What examples can you provide where sharing, innovating, reusing, collaborating, learning, and searching for knowledge worked well in the past or are working well today in other organizations?
7. What suggestions do you have for dealing with any of the challenges you identified?
8. What other needs do you have for sharing, innovating, reusing, collaborating, learning, and searching for knowledge?
9. What suggestions do you have for meeting the needs you identified?
10. Describe how knowledge management should work ideally.
Resources
