Knowledge Management Encyclopedia and Dictionary

Compiled by Stan Garfield

1. Action Research - a philosophy and methodology of research generally applied in the social sciences.
It seeks transformative change through the simultaneous process of taking action and doing
research, which are linked together by critical reflection.
2. Adaptability - the ability to be flexible and adjust to changing factors, conditions, or environments.
3. Adoption - getting a new process or technology to be used routinely and repeatedly, so that there is
behavior change as a result of the new capabilities provided by that process or technology.
4. After Action Review - a discussion of a project or an activity that enables the individuals involved to
learn for themselves what happened, why it happened, what went well, what needs improvement and
what lessons can be learned from the experience. The spirit is one of openness and learning - it is not
about problem fixing or allocating blame. Lessons learned are not only tacitly shared on the spot by
the individuals involved, but can be explicitly documented and shared with a wider audience.
5. Aggregation - collecting content such as articles, social media posts, images, videos, music, and
more from a variety of sources around the web and making that content accessible in one place.
Usually, these websites are set up in a way to automatically aggregate content through RSS feeds.
6. Agile Methodology - a way to manage a project by breaking it up into several phases. It involves
constant collaboration with stakeholders and continuous improvement at every stage. Once the work
begins, teams cycle through a process of planning, executing, and evaluating. Continuous
collaboration is vital, both with team members and project stakeholders.
7. Analytics - discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data and text.
8. Anecdote Circles - events similar to focus groups but designed to elicit people’s stories—their real-life
experiences—rather than opinions. The role of the anecdote facilitator is to ask very few, open-ended
questions to help the participants recount real events. The facilitator spends most of the time listening
and whenever someone offers an opinion, asks for an example.
9. Appreciative Inquiry - the co-evolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the
relevant world around them. In its broadest focus, it involves systematic discovery of what gives life to
a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic,
ecological, and human terms.
10. Archiving - offline file storage for legal, audit, or historical purposes, using tapes, CDs, or other long-
term media. Archiving is the process of moving files that are no longer actively used to a separate
storage device for long-term retention. Archived files are still important to the organization and may
be needed for future reference or must be retained for regulatory compliance.
11. Artificial Intelligence (AI) - the capacity of a computer to perform operations analogous to learning and
decision making in humans, as by an expert system.
12. Assessments - capturing the current state of KM within an organization or department. They
determine where organizations are in terms of leveraging explicit and tacit knowledge, collaboration,
and the development of new knowledge for innovation. They assist organizations in developing a
vision of where they need to be, considering the strategy of the organization, and proven practices
within their industry.
13. Attention Economy - the collective human capacity to engage with the many elements in our
environments that demand mental focus.
14. Augmented Reality (AR) - an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects
that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes
across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory.
AR can be defined as a system that incorporates three basic features: a combination of real and
virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects.
15. Ba - a shared space for emerging relationships. It can be a physical, virtual, or mental space.
16. BarCamp - a user-generated conference primarily focused on technology and the web. An open,
participatory workshop event, the content of which is provided by participants.
17. Baton=Passing - a knowledge-transfer technique that enables both an expert knowledge push and
apprentice knowledge pull to be managed both naturally and quickly. Gives the right people the
knowledge they need, in the form that they can use it, at the most appropriate time.
18. Before Action Review - a tool to help a team assess the current knowledge and experience they
already have as a way to inform the planning stages of a new project. Outlines the intended
outcomes, lessons previously learned from similar projects, challenges therefore anticipated and
actions needed to ensure success in light of what is already known.
19. Behavior - the way in which a person functions or operates routinely.
20. Belief Management - recognizing those beliefs that both hinder and promote the advancement of a
leader's vision. This includes the leader's beliefs as well as those of the team.
21. Benchlearning - a process in which a systematic and integrated connection of performance
comparisons and measures of mutual learning is created to identify proven practices through
comparative learning systems based on indicators.
22. Benefits - the advantages of using knowledge management approaches, and the reasons for
implementing knowledge management.
23. Big Data - extremely large data sets that can be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends,
and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.
24. Blogs - websites where posts are made (such as entries in a journal or diary), displayed in a reverse
chronological order. Often provide commentary or news on a particular subject. Some function as
personal online diaries or logbooks. Combine text, images, and links to other blogs and websites.
Typically provide archives in calendar form, local search, syndication feeds, reader comment posting,
trackback links from other blogs, blogroll links to other recommended blogs, and categories of posts
tagged for retrieval by topic.
25. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) - an IT policy that allows, and sometimes encourages, employees to
access enterprise data and systems using personal mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and
laptops.
26. Business Intelligence - the ability for an organization to take all its capabilities and convert them into
knowledge.
27. Business Narrative - Collecting anecdotes from people about how they actually do work to make
sense of what is really going on in an organization so a set of interventions can be designed. It is
more about listening rather than telling.
28. Business Process Management (BPM) - a discipline that uses various methods to discover, model,
analyze, measure, improve and optimize business processes. A business process coordinates the
behavior of people, systems, information and things to produce business outcomes in support of a
business strategy.
29. Certification - the process of providing someone with an official document attesting to a status or level
of achievement.
30. Change Management - developing a planned approach to change in an organization to address
anticipated obstacles and to ensure successful adoption.
31. Chat - a text-based system that enables discussions among any number of participants in so-called
conversation channels, as well as discussions between only two people. Includes persistent chat
rooms (channels) organized by topic, private groups, and direct messaging.
32. Checklist - a type of job aid used to reduce failure by compensating for potential limits of human
memory and attention. It helps to ensure consistency and completeness in carrying out a task. A
basic example is the to-do list. A more advanced checklist is a schedule, which lays out tasks to be
done according to time of day or other factors. A primary task in checklist is documentation of the task
and auditing against the documentation.
33. Classification - creating and maintaining a taxonomy that can be used to organize information so that
it can be readily found through navigation, search, and links between related content.
34. Coaching - gives employees space, time, and tools necessary to grow and develop in specific areas.
Different from mentoring or training, coaching is set apart by the way a coach approaches a
conversation. Coaches do not teach but help through a process of discovery by using active listening
skills, asking powerful questions, expanding thought processes, identifying limited beliefs, designing
action steps, and following up.
35. Cocreation - collaborative development of new value (concepts, solutions, products and services)
together with experts and/or stakeholders (such as customers and suppliers). A form of collaborative
innovation: ideas are shared and improved together, rather than kept to oneself.
36. Code-switching - occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language
varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation.
37. Cognitive Computing - simulation of human thought processes in a computerized model, involving
self-learning systems that use data mining, pattern recognition, and natural language processing to
mimic the way the human brain works. Makes a new class of problems computable, addressing
complex situations that are characterized by ambiguity and uncertainty.
38. Collaboration - interacting with peers and colleagues to exchange ideas, share experiences, work
together on projects, and solve problems.
39. Collaborative Team Spaces - workspaces designed to allow teams to share documents, libraries,
schedules, and files; conduct meetings, calls, surveys, and polls; and store meeting minutes,
discussions, reports, and plans.
40. Collective Intelligence - shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration, collective
efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making.
41. Communications - vehicles for informing current and potential users about progress in the KM
initiative through websites, team spaces, portals, wikis, forums, conference calls, blogs, newsletters,
distribution lists, and links.
42. Communities of Practice (CoP) - groups of people who share an interest, a specialty, a role, a
concern, a set of problems, or a passion for a specific topic. Community members deepen their
understanding by interacting on an ongoing basis, asking and answering questions, sharing their
knowledge, reusing good ideas, and solving problems for one another.
43. Community Management - leading a community of practice, including scheduling and hosting calls
and meetings, asking and answering questions, posting information useful to the members, regularly
spending time expanding membership, increasing member contributions, monitoring online
discussions, and intervening as necessary to ensure questions are answered and that community
guidelines are followed.
44. Competency Development - the practice of developing expertise in a specific way and in a particular
direction.
45. Competitive Intelligence - systematic collection and analysis of information from multiple sources
including defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers,
competitors, and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in
strategic decision making for an organization.
46. Complexity - the science of inherent uncertainty: some constraints, but everything is connected, and
we don’t know what the connections are. We can assess probability but cannot predict.
47. Conferencing (Audio/Video/Web) - online, real-time tools designed to allow two or more locations to
communicate by simultaneous two-way video and audio transmissions.
48. Content Management - creating, managing, distributing, publishing, and retrieving structured
information – the complete lifecycle of content as it moves through an organization.
49. Conversation - a discussion, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news
and ideas are exchanged.
50. Conversational Leadership - a leader’s intentional use of conversation as a core process to cultivate
the collective intelligence needed to create business and social value. It encompasses a way of
seeing, a pattern of thinking, and a set of practices that are particularly important when the most
important questions are complex ones that require ew ways of thinking together to foster positive
change.
51. Creativity - the ability to transcend traditional ways of thinking or acting, and to develop new and
original ideas, methods or objects.
52. Crisis Response - advance planning and actions taken to address natural and man-made disasters,
crises, critical incidents, and tragic events.
53. Crowdsourcing - the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting
contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from
traditional employees or suppliers.
54. Culture - the way things are done in an organization, and what things are considered to be important
and taboo.
55. Curation - collecting, selecting, assembling, and presenting information or multimedia content such as
photos, videos, or music for other people to use or enjoy, using professional, expert, or personal
knowledge and passion.
56. Curiosity - a strong desire to know or learn something.
57. Customer Intelligence - the process of gathering and analyzing customer data and turning it into
actionable insight.
58. Customer Knowledge - the science of knowing one’s customers: who they are, what motivates them,
what they want, need, love, or hate.
59. Customer Support - the range of services offered to help customers get the most out of products and
services and to resolve their problems. Includes answering questions, aiding, troubleshooting, and
upgrading to a new product or service.
60. Customization - the unique and comfortable user experience that a user creates according to
individual needs, preferences, and priorities. Enables a user to control website interaction, information
preferences, the way content is organized, and how a website is displayed.
61. Cynefin Framework - a conceptual framework used to aid decision-making created by Dave Snowden
described as a sensemaking device. Cynefin is a Welsh word for habitat. Cynefin offers five decision-
making contexts or domains – obvious, complicated, complex, chaotic, and disorder – that help
managers to identify how they perceive situations and make sense of their own and other people's
behavior. The framework draws on research into systems theory, complexity theory, network theory
and learning theories.
62. Databases - collections of information organized for easy access, management, and updating.
63. Data Lakes - storage repositories that hold a vast amount of raw data in its native format, including
structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. The data structure and requirements are not
defined until the data is needed.
64. Data Mining - finding anomalies, patterns, and correlations within large data sets to predict outcomes.
The practice of automatically searching large stores of data to discover patterns and trends that go
beyond simple analysis. Uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to segment the data and
evaluate the probability of future events.
65. Data Science - an interdisciplinary field about scientific methods, processes, and systems to extract
insights from data in various forms, either structured or unstructured. A concept to unify statistics,
data analysis and their related methods in order to understand and analyze actual phenomena with
 data. Employs techniques and theories drawn from many fields within the broad areas of
mathematics, statistics, information science, and computer science, in particular from machine
learning, classification, cluster analysis, data mining, databases, and visualization.
66. Data Visualization - any effort to help people understand the significance of data by placing it in a
visual context. Patterns, trends and correlations that might go undetected in text-based data can be
exposed and recognized easier with data visualization software.
67. Data Warehouses - copies of transaction data specifically structured for querying and reporting.
68. Decision Making - the process of making choices by identifying a decision that needs to be made,
gathering information, and assessing alternative resolutions.
69. Decolonization - active resistance against colonial powers, and a shifting of power towards political,
economic, educational, cultural, and psychic independence and power that originate from a colonized
nation's own indigenous culture.
70. Delphi Method - used to estimate the likelihood and outcome of future events. A group of experts
exchange views, and each independently gives estimates and assumptions to a facilitator who
reviews the data and issues a summary report. The group members discuss and review the summary
report, and give updated forecasts to the facilitator, who again reviews the material and issues a
second report. This process continues until all participants reach a consensus.
71. Design Thinking - a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to
integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business
success.
72. Dialogue - a conversation in which the participants are trying to reach mutual understanding. It is a
process of exchange of views and of knowledge, of both sides asking questions and of listening to the
answers. It is a combination of listening, advocacy, reasoning and consensus-seeking.
73. Digital Badges - validated indicators of accomplishment, skill, quality, or interest that can be earned.
Badges are a visual, short-term reward for completing an action, given to users for performing a
certain number of actions of a given type,
74. Digital Experience - the take-away feeling an end user has after an experience in a digital
environment. Using digital technologies, it provides some kind of interaction between a single user
and an organization, usually a company. Mobile apps, websites and smart devices all provide digital
experiences to customers, partners and employees using them to interact with companies.
75. Digital Transformation - the cultural, organizational, and operational change of an organization,
industry or ecosystem through a smart integration of digital technologies, processes, and
competencies across all levels and functions in a staged and strategic way.
76. Digital Workplace - what an employee reads and does digitally while working. Enables new, more
effective ways of working, raises employee engagement and agility, and exploits consumer-oriented
styles and technologies.
77. DIKW Pyramid - a hierarchical model with data at its base and wisdom at its apex. In this regard it is
similar to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, in that each level of the hierarchy is argued to be an essential
precursor to the levels above. It represents purported structural and/or functional relationships
between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom.
78. Discoverability - ways of making new content or information more likely be found, even if users don’t
know that it exists yet.
79. Distributed Work - work done at organizations with employees in different physical locations.
80. Documentation - user guides, manuals, and help files that allow users to read about what is expected
of them; the people, processes, and tools available to them; and how to use all of these in order to
share, innovate, reuse, collaborate, and learn.
81. Document Management - tracking and storing electronic documents and/or images of paper
documents, keeping track of the different versions modified by different users, and archiving as
needed. A document management system (DMS) is technology that provides a comprehensive
solution for managing the creation, capture, indexing, storage, retrieval, and disposition of the records
and information assets of an organization.
82. E-learning - tools that enable the delivery and tracking of online training courses.
83. Emergence - work processes that evolve in real time, in which the outcomes are not predictable and
employees must continuously make sense of, and adjust to, a changing situation. It is generally
accepted that new product development, customer service or any knowledge process conducted in a
dynamically changing marketplace must be an emergent one if a company is to turn unpredictability
to its competitive advantage.
84. Emotion - an organized response crossing the boundaries of many psychological subsystems,
typically in response to an internal or external event, which has been assessed as positive or
negative for the individual.
85. Enterprise Knowledge Architecture (EKA) - a representation of the business core knowledge areas
and their relationships. It helps understand the flow of knowledge from one area to another, the
knowledge interfaces, and the human expertise.
86. Enterprise Search - making content from multiple enterprise-type sources, such as databases and
intranets, searchable to a defined audience through a single, ubiquitous search engine.
87. Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) - internal, private social networking platforms used for
communications and collaboration within an organization.
88. Epistemology - the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It
addresses questions such as: What is knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? To what extent is it
possible for a given subject to be known?
89. Exit Interview - a meeting conducted with an employee leaving an organization. The purpose is to
provide feedback on why employees are leaving, what they liked or didn’t like about their
employment, and what areas of the organization they feel need improvement. Exit interviews are one
of the most widely used methods of gathering employee feedback.
90. Expertise Location - a process for finding experts on particular subjects, typically via a system
allowing individuals to enter details about what they know and can do, and allowing others to search
for all people having desired skills, experience, or knowledge.
91. External Access - the capability for users outside of a company's firewall to have access to selected
websites and team spaces to allow collaboration with retirees, partners, and customers who would
otherwise be blocked from the company's internal network. Requires technical, security, and legal
elements.
92. Extranets - intranets that can be partially accessed by authorized outside users, enabling businesses
to exchange information over the Internet securely. These are controlled private networks that allow
access to partners, vendors and suppliers or an authorized set of customers – normally to a subset of
the information accessible from an organization's intranet.
93. Facilitation - engaging participants in creating, discovering, and applying learning insights. In contrast
to presentation, which is typically characterized by a sage on the stage delivering content to an
audience, facilitation usually involves a guide on the side who asks questions, moderates
discussions, introduces activities, and helps participants learn.
94. Findability - the ease with which information can be found, meaning that users can easily find content
or information they assume is present on a website.
95. Gamification - application of typical elements of game playing (e.g., point scoring, competition with
others, rules of play) to other areas of activity to encourage engagement with a process or tool.
96. Goals - employee targets included in performance plans and communicated and inspected regularly.
97. Governance - the system by which entities are directed and controlled. It is concerned with structure
and processes for decision making, accountability, control and behavior at the top of an entity.
Governance influences how an organization’s objectives are set and achieved, how risk is monitored
and addressed, and how performance is optimized.
98. Graphic Facilitation - the use of large-scale imagery to lead groups and individuals towards a goal.
The method can be used in meetings, seminars, workshops and conferences. This visual process is
conducted by a graphic facilitator.
99. Help Desk - resource intended to provide the customer or end user with information and support
related to an organization's products and services. The purpose of a help desk is usually to
troubleshoot problems or provide guidance. Corporations usually provide help desk support to their
customers through various channels such as toll-free numbers, websites, instant messaging, or
email. There are also in-house help desks designed to provide assistance to employees.

100. Hunch Mining - the process of surfacing latent hunches from corporate decision makers as well
as workers and using them as models for data analytics.
101. Idea Management - systematically managing the process of collecting and developing ideas and
insights to get the most out of them.
102. Incentives - programs designed to encourage compliance with goals, improve performance
against metrics, and increase participation in KM initiatives. Includes points, badges, and
competitive rankings.
103. Information Architecture - organizing, structuring, and labeling content in an effective and
sustainable way to help users find information and complete tasks. Helps users understand
where they are, what they’ve found, what’s around, and what to expect.
104. Information Filtering - removing redundant or unwanted information from an information stream
using semi-automated or computerized methods prior to presentation to a human user.
105. Innovation - the process by which an idea is translated into a good or service for which people
will pay.
106. Innovation Management - a business discipline that aims to drive a repeatable, sustainable
innovation process or culture within an organization. Innovation management initiatives focus on
disruptive or step changes that transform the business in some significant way.
107. Intellectual Capital - the sum of everything everybody in a company knows that gives it a
competitive edge. A metric for the value of intellectual capital is the amount by which the
enterprise value of a firm exceeds the value of its tangible (physical and financial) assets.
Includes human, structural, and relational capital.
108. Intellectual Property - any intellectual creation, such as literary works, artistic works, inventions,
designs, symbols, names, images, computer code, and documents.
109. Interdisciplinarity - combining methods and insights of two or more disciplines into the pursuit of
a common task. It is typically characterized by the crossing of traditional boundaries between
academic disciplines, schools of thought, or professions to address new and emerging issues.
110. Intranets - private computer networks that use Internet protocols, network connectivity, and the
public telecommunication system to securely share part of an organization's information or
operations with its employees.
111. Invention - a unique or novel device, method, composition, or process. The invention process is
the creative act of envisioning a new technology: forming a vision or idea of an artifact or
technological system having certain performance characteristics that sets it apart from other
technologies.
112. ISO 30401 Standard for Knowledge Management Systems - sets requirements and provides
guidelines for establishing, implementing, maintaining, reviewing, and improving an effective
management system for knowledge management in organizations.
113. Knowledge - information in action, focused on results. The set of beliefs that are true and that
we are justified in believing. The mental capacity for effective performance.
114. Knowledge Assets - an organization’s accumulated intellectual resources. Types of knowledge
assets include information, learning, ideas, understanding, insights, memory, technical skills, and
capabilities. Knowledge assets reside in documents, databases, software, patents, policies and
procedures, and more.
115. Knowledge Audit - a formal determination and evaluation of how and where knowledge is used
in business processes. Identifies implicit user needs and explicit information stores to evaluate all
information resources and workflows, and determine enterprise user access requirements. A
rigorous process using questionnaires, interviews and resource descriptions.
116. Knowledge Bases - repositories typically used to store answers to questions or solutions to
problems enabling rapid search, retrieval, and reuse, either by help desk personnel, or directly by
those needing support.
117. Knowledge Brokers - intermediaries (organizations or people) that aim to develop relationships
and networks with, among, and between producers and users of knowledge by providing
linkages, knowledge sources, and knowledge (e.g., technical know-how, market insights,
research evidence).
118. Knowledge Café - a conversational process that brings a group of people together to share
experiences, learn from each other, build relationships, and make a better sense of a rapidly
changing, complex, less predictable world to improve decision making, innovation and the ways
of working together.
119. Knowledge Capture - collecting documents, presentations, spreadsheets, records, processes,
software source, images, audio, video, and other files that can be used for innovation, reuse, and
learning.
120. Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) - a process where support teams not only provide real-time
customer, system, or employee assistance, but also create and maintain documentation as part
of the same process.
121. Knowledge Commons - information, data, and content that is collectively owned and managed
by a community of users, particularly over the Internet.
122. Knowledge Creation - inventing new concepts, approaches, methods, techniques, products,
services, and ideas that can be used for the benefit of people and organizations.
123. Knowledge Flow - how knowledge moves through organizations, including creation,
identification, collection, review, sharing, access, and use.
124. Knowledge Graphs - knowledge bases that use a graph-structured data model or topology to
integrate data. Knowledge graphs are often used to store interlinked descriptions of entities –
objects, events, situations or abstract concepts – with free-form semantics.
125. Knowledge Handover - a meeting at the end of a project, after the project team has identified
and captured their lessons learned, where they share and discuss these lessons with other
projects and interested parties such as community leaders and subject matter experts. It is similar
to a baton passing meeting, except that the learning points have already been identified, and the
lessons have been documented and added to the lessons learned database.
126. Knowledge Harvesting - a means to draw out, express, and package tacit knowledge to help
others adapt, personalize, and apply it; build organizational capacity; and preserve institutional
memory. The process of interviewing experts, documenting knowledge, and sharing the tacit
knowledge created within an organization so everyone can benefit.
127. Knowledge Management - the art of transforming information and intellectual assets into
enduring value for an organization's clients and its people. Fosters the reuse of intellectual
capital, enables better decision making, and creates the conditions for innovation. Provides
people, processes, and technology to help knowledge flow to the right people, at the right time, so
they can act more efficiently, effectively, and creatively. Enables sharing, innovating, reusing,
collaborating, and learning.
128. Knowledge Management Plans - documents for specific projects, departments, or functions that
detail what knowledge is needed by the project; what knowledge will be created; what system of
processes, technologies, and roles will be used to manage knowledge; what actions need to be
taken to implement the system; and which people are accountable for individual actions.
129. Knowledge Management Roles - the job functions and responsibilities of knowledge
management staff members and the related expectations and duties of extended team members
130. Knowledge Managers and KM Leaders - people who spend all or a significant portion of their
time leading knowledge management initiatives, sharing knowledge, and supporting others in
sharing their knowledge.
131. Knowledge Mapping - presenting what knowledge resides where (e.g., people, media,
organizational units, or sources of knowledge outside the organization) and demonstrating the
patterns of knowledge flow.
132. Knowledge Marketplaces - a way of identifying what people know and what they need to know
on a particular subject, and then connecting them appropriately.
133. Knowledge Modeling - a process of creating a computer-interpretable model of knowledge or
standard specifications about a kind of process, facility, or product. A cross-disciplinary approach
to capture and model knowledge into a reusable format for purpose of preserving, improving,
sharing, substituting, aggregating, and reapplying it.
134. Knowledge Processing - the activity of collecting, perceiving, analyzing, synthesizing, storing,
manipulating, conveying, and transmitting knowledge.
135. Knowledge Retention - methods of capturing or maintaining access to the knowledge of workers
leaving an organization due to new jobs, retirement, promotion, relocation, and role changes;
temporary work, contracting, consulting, and outsourcing; mergers, acquisitions, consolidations,
and reorganizations; changes in strategy, focus, or specialty; workforce reductions; short-term job
mentality; disillusionment; death, illness, and care giving.
136. Knowledge Services - an approach to the management of intellectual capital that converges
information management, knowledge management, and strategic learning into a single
enterprise-wide discipline. A methodology, a structure, or a framework for enabling the successful
management of intellectual capital.
137. Knowledge Sharing - an activity through which information or expertise is exchanged between
people within or between organizations and communities.
138. Knowledge Succession - a road map for taking actions today to achieve sustained performance
and capability growth through strategic knowledge projects. The understanding of why we get
value, in terms of what we need to know, how we come to know it, when we need it, and what we
need to unlearn or adapt for future application.
139. Knowledge Synthesis - summarizing existing documents to create new content. More than
curating documents, it is combining them, removing duplication and contradiction, and updating
the content. The resulting document is organized, well-structured, and validated by an expert or a
community of practice.
140. Knowledge Transfer - the process by which one or more people (the source) teach other people
(the recipients) what the source knows so that the recipients are able to put that knowledge to
effective use.
141. Leadership - a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the
achievement of a goal.
142. Learning - the act of gaining knowledge from others, from existing information, and by doing.
143. Learning Frameworks - research-informed models for course design that help instructors align
learning goals with classroom activities, create motivating and inclusive environments, and
integrate assessment into learning.
144. Learning Histories - written documents that are disseminated to help an organization become
better aware of its own learning efforts. They include not just reports of action and results, but
also the underlying assumptions and reactions of a variety of people (including people who did
not support the learning effort). They draw upon theory and techniques from ethnography,
journalism, action research, oral history, and theater.
145. Learning Organization - an organization that encourages adaptive and generative learning,
encouraging employees to think creatively and work in conjunction with other employees to find
the best answer to any problem.
146. Lesson Management - collecting, analyzing, disseminating and applying learning experiences
from events, exercises, programs and reviews. These learning experiences include those that
should be sustained and those that need to improve.
147. Lessons Learned - explaining what an individual or team has learned as a result of their
experience, using documents, presentations, discussions, and recordings. This includes
capturing what was tried, what worked, what didn't work, what to do, what to avoid, problems
faced, how problems were solved, what to do differently next time, and key insights and nuggets.
148. Libraries - collections of resources in a variety of formats organized by information professionals
or other experts who provide convenient physical, digital, bibliographic, or intellectual access and
offer targeted services and programs with the mission of educating, informing, or entertaining a
 variety of audiences and the goal of stimulating individual learning and advancing society as a
whole.
149. Logical Framework (LogFrame) - a tool to help strengthen project design, implementation, and
evaluation used throughout the project cycle. Helps organize thinking, set performance indicators,
allocate responsibilities, and communicate information on the project concisely and
unambiguously. Consists of a 4 x 4 matrix with four column headings: objective or narrative
summary/hierarchy of objectives, objectively verifiable indicators (OVIs)/measurable performance
indicators, means of verification/monitoring and coordination; and important assumptions and
risks.
150. Machine Learning - giving computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. A
method of data analysis that automates analytical model building, using algorithms that iteratively
learn from data to find hidden insights without being explicitly programmed where to look.
151. Machine Translation - a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of
software to translate text or speech from one language to another.
152. Market Intelligence - information relevant to a company’s markets, gathered and analyzed
specifically for the purpose of accurate and confident decision-making in determining market
opportunity, market penetration strategy, and market development metrics.
153. Maturity Model - a set of structured levels that describe how well the behaviors, practices, and
processes of an organization can reliably and sustainably produce required outcomes. Can be
used as a benchmark for comparison and as an aid to understanding - for example, for
comparative assessment of different organizations where there is something in common that can
be used as a basis for comparison.
154. Measurement - numerical and visual tracking of performance against goals and operational
indicators.
155. Mentoring - a process in which an experienced individual helps another person develop goals
and skills through a series of time-limited, confidential, one-on-one conversations and other
learning activities.
156. Metadata - information about information – data fields added to documents, sites, files, or lists
that allow related items to be listed, searched for, navigated to, syndicated, and collected.
157. Methodologies - policies, rules, techniques, and procedures that prescribe how work is to be
performed and provide proven ways to do it successfully.
158. Metrics - operational indicators collected to monitor and communicate performance against
goals, areas for improvement, and progress toward the desired state .
159. Mind Maps - diagrams used to visually organize information. They are hierarchical, showing
relationships among pieces of the whole. They are often created around a single concept, drawn
as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated representations of ideas such as
images, words and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the central
concept, and other ideas branch out from those major ideas.
160. Mindset - an interpretative process that tells us what is going on around us. In the fixed mindset,
that process is scored by an internal monologue of constant judging and evaluation, using every
piece of information as evidence either for or against such assessments as whether you’re a
good person, whether your partner is selfish, or whether you are better than the person next to
you. In a growth mindset, the internal monologue is not one of judgment but one of voracious
appetite for learning, constantly seeking out the kind of input that you can metabolize into learning
and constructive action.
161. Mixed Reality (MR) - the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and
visualizations, where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. Mixed reality
does not exclusively take place in either the physical world or virtual world but is a hybrid of reality
and virtual reality.
162. Mobile Apps - computer programs or software application designed to run on a mobile device
such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Generally downloaded from app stores, which are a type of
digital distribution platform.
163. Most Significant Change - a change monitoring technique used for evaluating complex
interventions, based on a qualitative, participatory approach, with stakeholders involved in all
aspects of the evaluation. It involves the generation of significant change stories by various
stakeholders involved in the intervention. The more significant of these stories are then selected
by the stakeholders and in-depth discussions of these stories take place.
164. Motivation - the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Why a
person does something, involving the biological, emotional, social, and cognitive forces that
activate behavior,
165. Multi-Stakeholder Process - diverse actors (e.g., government agencies, producer organizations,
NGOs, private citizens, donors and others) collaborating to achieve a common goal. This
promotes better decision making by ensuring that the views of the main actors concerned about a
particular decision are heard and integrated at all stages through dialogue and consensus
building.
166. Natural Language Processing (NLP) - a branch of artificial intelligence that deals with analyzing,
understanding, and generating the languages that humans use naturally in order to interface with
computers in both written and spoken contexts using natural human languages instead of
computer languages.
167. Neural Networks - computing systems made up of a number of simple, highly interconnected
processing elements that process information by their dynamic state response to external inputs.
Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are algorithms or actual hardware that are loosely modeled after
the neuronal structure of the mammalian cerebral cortex but on much smaller scales.
168. Onboarding - the process of introducing a newly hired employee into an organization. An
important part of helping employees understand their new position and job requirements.
169. Ontology - a set of concepts and categories in a subject area or domain that shows their
properties and the relations between them.
170. Organization Design - a process for shaping the way organizations are structured and run. It
involves many different aspects of life at work, including team formation, shift patterns, lines of
reporting, decision-making processes, and communication channels.
171. Organizational Development (OD) - a critical and science-based process that helps
organizations build their capacity to change and achieve greater effectiveness by developing,
improving, and reinforcing strategies, structures, and processes.
172. Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) - a structured way to visualize how communications,
information, and decisions flow through an organization.
173. Organization Management Rhythm - a process for creating an optimal calendar rhythm in which
filtered information is presented at the point of decisions.
174. Participation Inequality - the empirical rule of thumb that in most online communities, 90% of the
users never contribute, 9% of the users contribute a little, and 1% of the users account for almost
all the activity.
175. Peer Assist - a process in which a team of people who are working on a project or activity call a
meeting or workshop to seek knowledge and insights from people in other teams.
176. Peer Review - the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the
producers of the work. It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a
profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are used to maintain quality standards,
improve performance, and provide credibility.
177. Personalization - a technique in which a system identifies users and delivers to them the
content, experience, or functionality that matches their role.
178. Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) - collecting information that a person uses to gather,
classify, store, search, retrieve and share knowledge in their daily activities and the way in which
these processes support work activities. PKM is a response to the idea that knowledge workers
need to be responsible for their own growth and learning. It is a bottom-up approach to
knowledge management.
179. Personal Profiles - online tools allowing individuals to enter details about who they are, where
they are, what they know and can do, and their affiliations, and which aggregate their
 contributions, social media posts, and other activities to provide others with a comprehensive,
searchable view.
180. Planning - the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve a
desired goal. Planning is also a management process, concerned with defining goals for an
organization's future direction and determining the missions and resources to achieve those
targets.
181. Platform Economy - economic and social activity facilitated by platforms. Such platforms are
typically online sales or technology frameworks. By far the most common type are transaction
platforms, also known as digital matchmakers. Examples of transaction platforms include
Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, and Baidu. A second type is the innovation platform, which provides a
common technology framework upon which others can build, such as the many independent
developers who work on Microsoft's platform.
182. Podcasts - recordings that can be listened to online, or downloaded manually or automatically
through syndication, and then listened to on mobile devices whenever is convenient.
183. Portals - websites that provide personalized capabilities to users through the use of
customization, building blocks, and integration of multiple sources.
184. Positive Deviance - an approach to change based on the observation that in any community,
there are people whose uncommon but successful behaviors or strategies enable them to find
better solutions to a problem than their peers, despite facing similar challenges and having no
extra resources or knowledge.
185. Prediction Markets - speculative markets created for the purpose of making predictions. The
current market prices can then be interpreted as predictions of the probability of the event or the
expected value of the parameter.
186. Premortem - a managerial strategy in which a project team imagines that a project or
organization has failed, and then works backward to determine what potentially could lead to the
failure of the project or organization. The technique breaks possible groupthinking by facilitating a
positive discussion on threats, increasing the likelihood the main threats are identified.
Management can then reduce the chances of failure due to heuristics and biases such as
overconfidence and planning fallacy by analyzing the magnitude and likelihood of each threat,
and take preventive actions to protect the project or organization from suffering an untimely
death.
187. Process Automation - using tools to automate previously manual processes, such as producing
proposals, creating presentations, developing products, managing surveys, or managing
reporting.
188. Process Documentation - a method of internally capturing all the information necessary to
properly execute a business process within an organization. This creates a process document: a
detailed description of every requirement needed to properly execute a process.
189. Process Improvement - the business practice of identifying, analyzing and improving existing
business processes to optimize performance, meet standards, or improve quality and the user
experience for customers and users.
190. Process Mapping - visually depicting the steps of a work activity and the people who are
involved in carrying out each step. It graphically shows the inputs, actions, and outputs of a
process in a clear, step-by-step map of the process.
191. Project Management - the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, managing, leading, and
controlling resources to achieve specific goals.
192. Promoting/Selling KM - convincing executives, stakeholders, users, and team members to
sponsor, support, adopt, and use knowledge management people, processes, and technology in
support of their work on an ongoing basis.
193. Proven Practices - the process of selecting, documenting, and replicating methods and
approaches that have proven to improve business results so that others in similar environments
or with similar needs can benefit from these demonstrated successes.
194. Recognition - praise, publicity, and promotion for performing desired behaviors .
195. Records Management - maintaining the records of an organization from the time they are
created up to their eventual disposal. This may include classifying, storing, securing, archiving,
and destroying records. Records management is knowing what you have, where you have it, how
long you have to keep it, and how secure it is.
196. Reflective Practice - the ability to reflect on one's actions so as to engage in a process of
continuous learning, paying critical attention to the practical values and theories that inform
everyday actions. This involves examining practice reflectively and reflexively, not just looking
back on past actions and events, but taking a conscious look at emotions, experiences, actions,
and responses, and using that information to add to one’s existing knowledge base to reach a
higher level of understanding.
197. Reporting - collecting, publishing, and distributing metrics and producing documents with text
and graphics to communicate performance against goals, areas for improvement, and progress
toward the desired state.
198. Repositories - structured lists and databases that allow documents and other files to be stored,
searched for, and retrieved.
199. Research - creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It
involves the collection, organization, and analysis of information to increase understanding of a
topic or issue.
200. Retention Interview - a question-and-answer process that continues until the interviewer feels
they have reached core knowledge, expressed as future recommendations, based on ground-
truth.
201. Retrospect - a process to capture team-based learning from an important project or initiative of
any kind, upon its completion. The goal is to identify key success factors and recommendations
for continuous improvement and more effective future action. These are turned into a knowledge
resource, for use by the team or by others when tackling a new project cycle or a similar initiative
in the future.
202. Return on Investment (ROI) - a financial metric for calculating the probability of gaining a return
from an investment. It is a ratio that compares the gain or loss from an investment relative to its
cost.
203. Reuse - using a process, an approach, or a knowledge object again after it has been used
before – in particular, what others have already learned, created, or proved – to save time and
money, minimize risk, and be more effective and efficient.
204. Rewards - financial and tangible awards, including salary increases, promotions, bonuses , and
gifts.
205. Risk Management - the process of identifying, monitoring, and mitigating potential risks in order
to minimize the negative impact they may have on an organization.
206. Ritual Dissent - a workshop method designed to test and enhance proposals, stories, or ideas
by subjecting them to dissent (challenge) or assent (positive alternatives). It is a forced listening
technique, not a dialogue or discourse.
207. River Diagram - a self-assessment tool that enables an organization to identify its own strengths
and weaknesses and to develop an integrated strategic approach. It is a method of converting
graphic information into an accessible diagram illustrating performance and benchmarking, the
capability for learning, measuring performance levels, and laying the foundation for creating a
strategy for managing and sharing knowledge within an organization.
208. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) - an application of technology, governed by business logic
and structured inputs, aimed at automating business processes. Using RPA tools, a company can
configure software, or a robot, to capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction,
manipulating data, triggering responses, and communicating with other digital systems. RPA
scenarios range from something as simple as generating an automatic response to an email to
deploying thousands of bots, each programmed to automate jobs in an ERP system.
209. Search Engines - tools that allow searching for sites, documents, files, list items, content,
answers to questions, and other digital information. They allow specifying the scope or domain of
 the search; whether to search on text, images, or metadata; and how results should be
presented.
210. SECI Model - describes how explicit and tacit knowledge is generated, transferred, and
recreated in organizations. Socialization (tacit to tacit) is the process of converting new tacit
knowledge through shared experiences in day-to-day social interaction. Externalization (tacit to
explicit) is a process whereby tacit knowledge is articulated into explicit knowledge so that it can
be shared by others to become the basis of new knowledge. Combination (explicit to explicit) is a
process whereby explicit knowledge is collected from inside or outside the organization and then
combined, edited, or processed to form more complex and systematic explicit knowledge. The
new explicit knowledge is then disseminated among the members of the organization.
Internalization (explicit to tacit) is a process whereby explicit knowledge created and shared
throughout an organization is then converted into tacit knowledge by individuals. This stage can
be understood as praxis, where knowledge is applied and used in practical situations and
becomes the base for new routines.
211. Semantic Web - a mesh of information linked up to be easily processed by machines, on a
global scale. It is a web of data -- of dates, titles, part numbers, chemical properties and any other
data one might conceive of. RDF provides the foundation for publishing and linking data: an RDF
triple is subject, predicate, object.
212. Sensemaking - the process of creating situational awareness and understanding in situations of
high complexity or uncertainty in order to make decisions. It is a motivated, continuous effort to
understand connections (which can be among people, places, and events) in order to anticipate
their trajectories and act effectively.
213. Sentiment Analysis - the use of natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and other
data analysis techniques to analyze and derive objective quantitative results from raw text.
Sentiment analysis (or opinion mining) is a technique used to determine whether data is positive,
negative or neutral. Sentiment analysis is often performed on textual data to help businesses
monitor brand and product sentiment in customer feedback, and understand customer needs.
214. Shadowing - the opportunity for an individual from one area of an organization to work alongside
and gain experience with the role of another individual and gain an insight into that particular work
area. It can also be used to provide an individual within a department the opportunity to work
alongside more experienced colleagues so they can learn and develop within their current role.
215. Skills Inventory - a database of the skills, education, and experiences of employees. It captures
the professional expertise, attributes, and abilities of the workforce and provides a point-in-time
view of the skills and skills gaps of a workforce.
216. Social Business - the use of Enterprise Social Networks, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites,
podcasts, mashups, tags, tag clouds, pins, ratings, and folksonomies within an enterprise .
217. Social Media - web- and mobile-based technologies used to turn communication into interactive
dialogue among organizations, communities, and individuals.
218. Social Network Analysis (SNA) - mapping and measuring relationships and flows between
people, groups, organizations, animals, computers, or other information/knowledge processing
entities. The nodes in the network are the people and groups while the links show relationships or
flows between the nodes. SNA provides both a visual and a mathematical analysis of human
relationships.
219. Social Networks - collections of people who are acquainted or connected as friends, business
contacts, or colleagues and communicate, collaborate, or help one another as needed .
220. Social Software - a range of tools that facilitate social networking, typically personal web pages
with bios, interests, links, photos, videos, personal networks, posts, and comments.
221. Stakeholders - people with an interest in a knowledge management program, including senior
leaders, middle managers, knowledge workers, subject matter experts, knowledge management
champions, and knowledge managers.
222. Storytelling - using narrative to ignite action, implement new ideas, communicate who you are,
build your brand, instill organizational values, foster collaboration to get things done, share
knowledge, neutralize gossip and rumor, and lead people into the future .
223. Strategy - a set of guiding principles that, when communicated and adopted in the organization,
generates a desired pattern of decision making. The way that people throughout the organization
should make decisions and allocate resources in order accomplish key objectives. A strategy
provides a clear roadmap, consisting of a set of guiding principles that define the actions people
should take (and not take) and the things they should prioritize (and not prioritize) to achieve
desired goals.
224. Subscription Management - providing tools that allow content providers to reach subscribers on
an opt-in basis, and subscribers to sign up to receive periodicals and other communications
based on their interests.
225. Surveys - polls used to discover organizational opportunities and user preferences, needs, and
challenges and to determine how employees view a KM program and its components .
226. Syndication - a way of providing content such that it can be subscribed to using an RSS (Really
Simple Syndication feed reader or integrated into a website as a subset of that site.
227. Systems Thinking - a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's
constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger
systems.
228. Tags - non-hierarchical keywords or terms added to documents, websites, files, lists, or social
media content. Tags allow related items to be listed, searched for, navigated to, and aggregated.
229. Taxonomy - a particular classification arranged in a hierarchical structure that can be used to
organize information so that it can be readily found through navigation, search, and links between
related content.
230. Telepresence - technology that allows a person to feel as if they were present, and to give the
appearance of being present, at a place other than their true location .
231. Text Analytics - analyzing unstructured text, extracting relevant information, and transforming it
into useful business intelligence.
232. Thought Leaders - experts in a specific field who are widely followed and respected. They have
deep knowledge, widespread experience, and an extensive body of work, including publications
and presentations. Most thought leaders not only have a command of their subject area, but they
are also passionate about it and eager to share their knowledge with others to benefit a company,
organization, or cause.
233. Thought Leadership - the expression of ideas that demonstrate someone has expertise in a
particular field, area, or topic, including innovative thinking full of useful information and insight.
234. Threaded Discussions - tools for carrying on conversations among subscribers on a specific
subject, including online and email posts and replies, searchable archives, and discussions
grouped by threads to show the complete history on each topic.
235. Training - classroom courses, self-paced courses, and recorded webinars that allow users to
learn what is expected of them; the people, processes, and tools available to them; and how to
use all of these to share, innovate, reuse, collaborate, and learn.
236. Transformation Map - a visual representation of the strategic planning and execution process,
including all the important elements of successful strategic change: goals, actions, milestones,
timelines, results, and impact. A tool to present the way from strategy to execution, while at the
same time ensuring organizational and leadership orientation.
237. Trust - the faith you have in someone that they will always remain loyal to you. To trust
someone means that you can rely on them and are comfortable confiding in them because you
feel safe with them.
238. Turnover Binders - military documents used for turning over an assignment that covers some of
the important aspects of the job, tidbits to be aware of, procedures for events, and more.
239. unConference - loosely-structured conference emphasizing the informal exchange of
information and ideas between participants, rather than following a conventionally structured
program of events.
240. Understanding - not only knowing something, but also grasping its cause or explanation. To
know in a deep sense what it is and how it has come to be.
241. Usability - making products and systems easier to use, and matching them more closely to user
needs and requirements.
242. Use Cases - descriptions of the ways in which a user interacts with a system or product, and the
results and benefits of doing so.
243. User Assistance - providing support by phone, email, chat, enterprise social network (ESN), and
screen sharing to users, including tools consulting, finding reusable content, connecting to
knowledge sources, process support, training, communication, and other help .
244. User Experience (UX) - a person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or
anticipated use of a product, system or service .
245. User Interface (UI) - the point of entry to a knowledge base or intranet that provides navigation,
search, communication, help, news, site index, site map, and links to all tools .
246. Valuation - quantifying the value of knowledge assets, reuse, and innovation so they can be fully
appreciated by the organization, including customer pricing, cost benefit analysis, and project
justification.
247. Value - the financial justification for investing in knowledge management, including Return on
Investment (ROI) analysis.
248. Value Network Analysis (VNA) - a methodology for understanding, using, visualizing, optimizing
internal and external value networks and complex economic ecosystems. The methods include
visualizing sets of relationships from a dynamic whole systems perspective. Robust network
analysis approaches are used for understanding value conversion of financial and non-financial
assets, such as intellectual capital, into other forms of value.
249. Value Networks - the natural way that work gets done — any set of roles and interactions that
generates a specific kind of business, economic, or social good. Value network modeling
provides a human-centric, role-based, network view of any business activity.
250. Values - basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions. They provide
the general guidelines for conduct. Cultural values are those accepted by organizations that
reflect what is important in each context.
251. Videos - recordings that can be viewed online, or downloaded and viewed on mobile devices .
252. Virtual Meeting Rooms - online, real-time tools designed to allow teams to share presentations,
applications, and white boards during meetings.
253. Virtual Reality (VR) - a computer-generated environment with scenes and objects that appear to
be real, making the user feel they are immersed in their surroundings.
254. Vision - thinking about and planning for the future with imagination and wisdom and articulating
the desired state.
255. Webinars - live online educational presentations during which participating viewers can ask
questions, offer comments, and participate in polls and discussions.
256. Websites - related web pages (hypertext documents displayed to a user in a web browser)
located under a single domain name.
257. Wikis - websites that allow any user to easily add, remove, edit, and change most available
content. Wikis are effective for collaborative writing, self-service web page creation, and shared
maintenance of information. Anyone can edit a wiki page, links and new pages are automatically
generated, and there is a revision history that lists all previous versions, with the ability to undo
changes and revert to a prior version.
258. Wisdom of Crowds - the process of considering the collective opinion of a group of individuals
rather than a single expert to answer a question. The aggregation of a large group’s answers to
questions involving quantity estimation, general world knowledge, and spatial reasoning has
generally been found to be as good as, and often better than, the answer given by any of the
individuals within the group.
259. Workflow Applications - software that connects and sequences different applications,
components, and people, all of which must be involved in the processing of data to complete an
instance of a process.
260. Workflow Process - embedding knowledge creation, capture, and reuse in business processes
so that these steps happen routinely as part of normal work.
261. Working Out Loud (WOL) - an approach to collaboration in which employees form a virtual
network and are encouraged to talk about their work and publish what they do. The goal is to
inform others about current projects and to respond, learn, and apply the knowledge of others to
their own work. WOL combines observable work (creating spaces where others can engage with
your content) with narrating your work (posting in social software). Leading by example and
persuading others helps create an open culture of truth, transparency, and trust; provides
feedback loops; and spans organizational boundaries.
262. Workplace Design - the process of designing and organizing a workplace to optimize worker
performance and safety.
263. World Café - a structured conversational process intended to facilitate open and intimate
discussion, and link ideas within a larger group to access the collective intelligence or collective
wisdom in the room. Participants move between a series of tables where they continue the
discussion in response to a set of questions, which are predetermined and focused on specific
goals.