How organisations of different KM maturity plan to use the KM standard
The 2020 Knoco survey shows (among very many other interesting things) data on how organisations plan to use the ISO 30401 standard. I have further analysed the dataset to see how the planned usage varies with KM maturity.
213 people answered the question, and the answers are shown in the pie chart below. Click on the picture for optimal resolution.
The various options on the chart represent escalating levels of involvement with ISO 30401:2018; the ISO management system standard for Knowledge Management, and the pie chart shows the percentage of respondents choosing each as the highest level of planned usage.
19% of the respondents were unaware of the standard, and 27% know about it but will not buy or use it.
The remaining 54% will make use of the standard in some way, even if they have not quite yet decided how. Only a very small percentage(4%) are seeking, or have achieved, certification. “Other” options include the following:
Balancing ISO against operational readiness needs. Champion is working to make the value connection: I am aware of it but not using it in (Organisation) as far as I know: I’m in the translation workgroup: organisation is not interested in using it: Probably will do it but not yet: Still early days to think of an ISO certification: Unfortunately seen as “a nice to have” and not top priority: We have a copy of it and would like to implement it within our firm, as a way of embedding KM but we are aware, from KM forums (in legal sector), that it only has one moderator at the moment and is struggling to be implemented in organisations, so we have no examples of where it has been successfully been implemented to demonstrate to our senior management – i would like to learn more about how this could be done.: While I am aware of ISO 30401, business is not. As KM is not openly identified as a business priority and under resourced the will to bring ISO 30401 to the table is not there.
The barchart below splits out these figures by the self-designated maturity of KM within the organisation. Again, click on the figure for better resolution.
We can see the following:
- Organisations early in the journey are less likely to have heard of the ISO standard (bottom blue segment). This makes logical sense.
- The percentage planning not to engage with the standard does not vary much with maturity (red segment).
- The percentage planning to use it to inform their KM program is greatest in the most mature KM organisations (purple segment), as is the percentage who have conducted an internal review or audit (orange segment).
- The highest percentage planning certification, and the only organisations who have been certified, are in the “well in progress” category. When you think about it, that also makes sense. The standard adds most value as a check against your KM framework prior to finally embedding it into organisation process and structures. Once KM is embedded, its harder to change.
- The “don’t know” category is biggest when KM is new. Again – makes sense.
- The “Other” category is biggest where KM is most mature. Again that sort of makes sense – if your organisation has KM fully embedded, the standard will have many more uses than seeking certification or as a yardstick – you can use it more creatively.
Shared by: Nick Milton
October 9, 2020
Leave a Reply