Many of us are familiar with the concept of knowledge management, which focuses on the capability of an organization to collect information (both tacit and explicit) in a logical and efficient manner. In theory, this is meant to enable the workforce at large with the information they need to be able to do whatever it is they do more efficiently and with greater confidence.

But what happens when a skill or capability is being sought (rather than just raw information) in order to do something creative or somewhat off the beaten path? There is clearly no substitute for experience!

Recently I was asked to explore potential solutions in the area of expert identification. The request came from a large organization (over 5000 employees) spread over a wide geography with countless decentralized pockets of expertise. An aging workforce was also a key concern; projected attrition over the next five years was upwards of 30%. I must admit that they were doing a relatively good job of managing well-defined knowledge such as standard business processes, policies, and operational protocols. However, seeing as innovation was critical to their survival, the ability to identify and engage the appropriate person or groups was central to the corporate strategy.

On a positive note, work patterns were evolving within the company and the collaborative mindset was starting to take hold. An example of this was a burgeoning collection of online communities, where message boards were being used to share experiences and pose new challenges in various aspects of the business.

The Challenge: “We like how the message boards foster a sense of community, but we want to connect people with subject matter experts (SMEs) who can help with questions that have not been considered before. It would also be nice to shorten the cycle and immediately identify the one or two people are best suited to address the problem at hand.”

The Solution:

Thanks to the Google Effect, we all know that a quick search is the prescribed approach for finding anything – so why not apply this to finding experts?

What I realized is that those discussion groups are a gold mine of information, especially because they incorporated feedback mechanisms that rated the “usefulness” of responses.

So now we have a few key ingredients:

• Raw discussion information housed in a series of discussion groups
• Rating metadata describing the value of responses
• Enterprise search technology

Some data mining is required in order to understand the correlation between individual employees and their expertise on given topics or subject matter areas. This allows for an understanding of who has an interest/passion for which topic area. Cross-reference this with the usefulness of each individual’s responses, and suddenly there is a distilled (and fairly reliable) listing of experts by topic. Furthermore, since these groups are voluntary for the most part, whoever you identify is likely to be someone who will be more likely to be helpful if you were to reach out to them directly!

You may be wondering about those brilliant minds who are being excluded simply because they are not participating in the communities. In reality, this is more of a social issue than anything else. The willingness of someone to help a colleague is not a mandated role, and company culture may not even encourage or reward it. Personally, if I were looking for an expert, I would hope that their capability would be coupled with a genuine willingness to help. Active participation in online communities serves as a proven track record of this :)

In my next post, I will look at expert identification beyond the enterprise. In a world of integrated value chains, blurred organizational boundaries, and strategic partnerships, it’s only prudent to realize that critical expertise may not be on your payroll. Our Connected Business Model considers approaches to ensure that external expertise can be effectively identified and leveraged. For more information on how your organization could benefit from employing such strategies, feel free to contact me directly at Aslam.Jamal@Avantage.com .