Sharing the power of knowledge

Published: 6 Apr 2018

ISO 9001:2015, the world’s leading quality management system standard, addresses the importance of knowledge in supporting quality. To learn more, the CQI London Branch invited Andrew Trickett, a highly experienced Knowledge Manager at Arup to speak at their event ‘Using Knowledge Management to Improve Quality’ on 20 February.

Trickett stressed that Knowledge Management (KM) is not “nice to do”, but it is a “must do”. He said that there should be a strong focus on the results and adding value to the projects quality professionals are working on. “Projects are not limited to one year, therefore it is not enough to carry our KM reviews just at the end of the project,” he said. Trickett added that KM reviews should be carried out continuously, to avoid “corporate memory loss”.

He presented the 5W approach, a KM tool which consists of the following key questions:

What went well?
What did we do differently?
What was an area for improvement?
What can we learn from this?
Who else needs to know?

“Organisations need to build upon their learnings, and ensure that their employees don’t make the same mistakes time and time again. KM should be considered as an investment and not a cost.” According to Trickett half an hour is enough to carry out a KM review.

Trickett outlined the importance of knowledge sharing within the organisation. He added that the KM reviews should be stored in an easily accessible way for employees. He also emphasised the role of trust as a key element of KM – if we lose the trust, people will not share their knowledge.

Reporting on the event, Rita Toth, PGDip CQP MCQI, Arup Management System Coordinator, said: “Knowledge is power, which helps people to understand and do things better. Introducing KM reviews gives organisations the power to make informed decisions and to create higher quality work in the future.”