Knowledge is the DNA of a government organization. And knowledge management (KM) is the art and science of organizing, preserving, connecting and sharing that knowledge. The objective is to transform an organization into a learning culture that fosters critical thinking and facilitates better decision-making.

When knowledge is readily reliable, accessible and shared throughout an organization, knowledge workers can perform their jobs efficiently. The late Peter Drucker first discussed the idea of a knowledge worker in 1959 as a person who works primarily with information, or develops and uses knowledge in the workplace.

They make fewer mistakes, avoid redundancy, communicate better with their associates, and can draw upon all the expertise and capabilities of the organization. New knowledge workers can get up to speed quickly. When they can easily tap into institutional knowledge as a basis for action, they can better execute mission-critical transactions, provide better service, and ultimately develop innovative solutions to serve its associates, stakeholders and the public. This makes knowledge management a powerful tool for the public CIO -- who is uniquely positioned to foster KM initiatives through judicious use of technology.

Technology not only provides the means of access to the institution's knowledge, it can also help people make connections they would not ordinarily make, as well as inspire new knowledge. It can frame information in a manner that fosters new ways of thinking. When knowledge is easily available, contextual and relevant, it enhances routines. Through technology, individual knowledge sharing and group learning are supported.

Enterprisewide technology allows business solutions across silos and streamlines workflow processes -- two critical components of a KM infrastructure. Technology facilitates knowledge sharing by offering a wide range of information processing support, including tools for content management, collaboration, publishing, personalization and taxonomy development. It delivers information to local or remote users in a variety of formats, such as wireless or intranet.


Plugging the Knowledge Drain
The need for effective KM in government agencies is greater today. According to a May 2005 Forrester Research briefing, The Retiring Workforce Is Creating a Knowledge Void in Government and Regulated Industries:

46 percent of U.S. government employees are 45 or older.

45 percent of U.S. public employees will be at retirement age within the next five years.

For many government agencies, the turnover of knowledge workers due to retirement, reorganization and job mobility threatens the agency's ability to execute its mission. Mandated downsizing in the 1990s, the growth of outsourcing and increasing retirements in the work force have resulted in a loss of institutional memory, according to a 2001 U.S. General Accounting Office report. When expertise walks out the door, those remaining don't have the knowledge and experience to do those jobs; they must reinvent the wheel or risk failure.

KM can prevent this loss of institutional memory and expose new and existing workers to the expertise residing within their agency. It can help government preserve institutional knowledge by capturing and maximizing hard-won knowledge -- best practices, lessons learned and stories told -- and by connecting prodigies with apprentices.

The very process of collecting an organization's knowledge creates a culture that encourages individual knowledge sharing and learning. Assigning junior and mid-level associates to harvest knowledge from subject-matter experts, collaborative teams and workgroups preserves, and develops resources for a future generation of knowledge workers. At the same time, it embeds a learning- and knowledge-sharing culture in the organization.

Technology delivers the infrastructure to embed, preserve and influence knowledge. For example, many federal government CIOs have successfully piloted and implemented KM practices as part of the e-government initiative. The Federal CIO Council has established the Knowledge Management Working Group, an interagency body whose purpose is to "bring together guidance on the content, process and technology needed to ensure that the federal