A business case?

A business case for Knowledge Management?

For SMEs, making a formal case for knowledge sharing may be unnecessary. However, there should be an understanding of the problem that you are trying to address and a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve. There are common problems in construction:

• If you do not employ direct labour, it may be that anything the guys learn on your job, they take with them to someone else’s job. How can you optimise the benefits of their learning by retaining knowledge in your business?

• You may be acutely aware that some of your projects are profitable, some break-even, and others make a loss. How can you transfer best practice across the projects?

• Is your own work affected by ignorance of others, be they clients, consultants, main contractors, trade contractors, or suppliers? Could sharing knowledge beyond your firm improve your own project performance?

It may sound ultra-simplistic, but some important findings have shown that story-telling is an important way in which people share knowledge. What's important isn't just the successes or failures that they talk about, but the discussion and debate that it stimulates. A story can 'pave the way' for a person to 'open-up' and describe an issue that they're grappling with or ask for help. Furthermore, stories spread. How can you get your guys talking so that they share what they know with each other and you?

'Best practice' is a common phrase in construction, but transferring it is difficult. That's because some knowledge is 'socially embedded' - its rooted in the collective practice of a group of people (ie what they do). We call this 'sticky' knowledge. In these cases, sharing best practice may involve moving small groups of people who have collective 'know how'.

These examples are designed to illustrate that knowledge sharing will not necessarily involve huge capital investment or IT systems. However, once you've identified the issue you want to address, a plan should be formulated and implemented that tackles those specific needs. For example, you can't have an after action review if the guys will have already disappeared off site to work on someone else's job, or if you think they won't want to share what they know with you. But you can stimulate story-telling so they share what they know (like the way they've responded to problems on the job) with each other so that they work more effectively, and with your people, so that you can build on their experience. It'll also help you know who knows what.

Although you can easily steer clear of capital investment, some changes to working practices (and maybe attitudes!) may be necessary. And you will need to consider the resources available, the largest of which will probably be time. We return to these issues in the 'Next steps' section.