Knowledge Management

[FamilyFirm at aol.com]

I am expanding my consulting practice into the area of "Knowledge
Management".  I am especially interested in the transfer of knowledge and
knowledge systems during the succession process (transfer of leadership,
ownership, management between generations in family owned businesses).  Some
of my clients have organizations that are quite large and which rely on huge
amounts of knowledge (both tacit and explicit).  The technologies and
procedures to "inventory" existing knowledge in an organization are in the
very early stages of development and have more of a hunting and gathering
approach than a farming approach.  I think that OS may be a way to more
deftly help organizations "know what they know"

Most of the knowledge that people swim in in their organizations is tacit
rather  than explicit.  It is my impression that the linear approaches to
inventoring tacit knowledge are like casting a net into water and pulling the
fish out.  You get content but no context.  I am more interested in making
the domain of tacit knowledge in an organisation visible without disrupting
the complex, (even chaotic) sources of some aspects of tacit knowledge. My
intuition is that OS could be used as a whole systems approach to making some
of the tacit knowledge of an organization more visible and thus, giving my
clients a competitive advantage in their market niche.  I intend to use this
when the opportunity presents itself wit a client.  Does anyone have any
experience with applications of OS in this kind of project?  General words of
wisdom would also be well received.

Joe PauL