Knowledge management: Is HR in the know? By Rob Lewis

Sure, sometimes HR people have to keep secrets. But in a truly successful company, knowledge is something that is shared by all. Can you get your staff to pool their collective brain power into a formidable corporate hive-mind without creating an office of automatons? Rob Lewis finds out if knowledge management has the answer.

One of the early goals of our departing prime minister was to establish a "modern, knowledge driven economy". His first term, coincidentally, saw the rise of the concept of knowledge management (KM). Boardrooms had chief knowledge officers. Software programs like Lotus Notes and Domino became popular applications. Something called the internet was going to be very useful too. Knowledge management was going to herald the dawning of a new business millennium. What happened?

David Gurteen is a KM consultant and founder of the Gurteen Knowledge Community. "KM hasn't been as successful as the early hype but then often nothing is," he admits.