Familiarity with Knowledge Map
When dealing with vast amounts of complex information, it is impossible to be an expert in any field; But most likely someone in your company has the knowledge to move forward. With the help of knowledge maps, teams and organizations can visually index large amounts of complex and collective knowledge that they think in groups so that it is easily accessible to all.
Knowledge maps are more than just powerful tools for organizing internal information about products, processes, programs, and results. Large and small companies use them to facilitate knowledge management processes, guide strategic improvements, standardize best practices, and identify areas where critical information may not be available.
What is a knowledge map?
A knowledge map is a visual aid that shows where knowledge can be found in a group or organization and how the most specialized people can be found.
These maps, often referred to as “knowledge management”, are organized using various interconnected nodes to make it easy to find information.
Why create knowledge maps?
When dealing with large amounts of complex data, not everyone goes to an expert on every issue. Having a simple tool to find people in the organization who have special skills is both time consuming and efficient.
Instead of looking for information you may not be familiar with, a knowledge map can direct you directly to someone who can help.
Benefits of Knowledge Map
Knowledge maps are a very powerful tool for managing a company’s vital knowledge. They can also identify areas in the organization that may be at risk.
Sometimes the simple act of creating a knowledge map shows weak links. It may also reveal bottlenecks in data and knowledge flow.
By accurately identifying how knowledge flows in the company, people can find opportunities for improvement.
In other words, they can make special adjustments to make sure that the right knowledge reaches the right people. Also, that knowledge can reach those people in the right part of the process.
Concept mapping
Concept mapping is another way to illustrate ideas through diagrams. However, instead of focusing on a single concept, concept maps are used to show the relationships between different ideas.
Concept maps are often used by engineers and designers to formulate, structure, and document knowledge and help solve problems with differing perspectives.
They are also useful for teams tasked with designing new products or processes.
How to use knowledge maps
You can create a simple but practical knowledge map for your team or goal in four easy steps:
Specify a topic for your knowledge map and set the framework. One easy way to do this is to use a pre-designed template provided by knowledge mapping software. Start with a topic (such as brainstorming) that is essential to your project or goal.
Branch from the subject of your knowledge to the various nodes that represent relevant sources of information. In an example of a brainstorming session, your nodes may include the following: Plans, Ideas, Procurement, or Preparation. Identify all the necessary resources and find out who to consult to gather information for each node.
Branch to more specific nodes if necessary. In a brainstorming example, your preparation node may lead to sub-nodes such as problem solving, target consumer, or at least the number of ideas required.
When gathering the data needed for each, consider the keywords that describe how your nodes relate to each other.
Now that it is a complete and coherent resource, your knowledge map can be reviewed to ensure that it contains all the vital information for the topic of your choice and any barriers to sharing have been removed.
Basic knowledge mapping tips
As you build a set of knowledge maps, you can systematically link them together to simplify the flow of knowledge within your group or organization.
Just keep in mind that although knowledge mapping can be a very efficient platform for displaying and sharing knowledge; But it is also exposed to information.