This post was originally published by Conner Burt on lessonly.com.
Organizations are filled with talent-rich and intelligent people, and an organization’s knowledge management tools ought to follow suit. The intelligent people that makeup quality organizations need equally capable knowledge management tools that would make Einstein proud.
Einstein, after all, famously opined that imagination is more important than knowledge. Boil that statement down, and you are left with the notion that sparking human creativity is an essential aspect of any knowledge management tool.
From this, some key things to look for in knowledge management tools are:
- Flexibility allowing for creative expression
- Ease of use
- Specialized knowledge
- Technical proficiency
The importance of flexibility
For organizational management, options are a great thing, and nothing gives options quite like flexible platforms. A flexible knowledge management system will allow creativity to flourish, leading to more instructive approaches that help everyone grow in institutional knowledge.
Approaching knowledge management in new and exciting ways will make it more engaging for all parties involved.
Ease of use is essential
For any knowledge management tool, ease of use is essential. Bloated and clunky software makes it a chore to create educational resources, and the end results will highlight the inefficiencies of bloated approaches as a result.
Ease of use is an Einstein-approved strategy due to the fact that productivity is an essential aspect of knowledge. The easier a product, theory, or idea is to use and implement, the easier it is to produce with an increased capacity. Knowledge management enables users to create more educational content and higher quality resources at the same time.
When in doubt, specialize
At some point in a career, most experts specialize in a certain field or industry. Einstein was no stranger to this, and your knowledge management tools shouldn’t be either. Specialization allows you to cater to your knowledge management approach to the needs of your industry in question.
In turn, this functions similarly to science having specialized fields such as biology, chemistry, and the like. Simply put, knowledge management tools that allow for specialization are also an Einstein-approved strategy.
Technical proficiency is Einstein approved for knowledge management
Finally, Einstein would not be Einstein were it not for the fact that he excelled in his field. Similarly, a knowledge management tool must be technically sound and proficient. In practical terms, setup should be easy, and the tools should easily integrate with pre-existing software that an organization makes use of.
Following these simple steps will enable any organization to find a knowledge management tool that would make Einstein proud.
