Macro and Micro KM

My brother is a development economist - an LSE graduate that has spent his entire working life working on aid projects in Africa,  Asia and South America. In the aid and development business KM  has become a key issue but it's something that isn't well understood.  Did I have a good beginner's guide to KM my brother asked. Good question I thought, so I put together some stuff for him and also recommended 'The Idiots' Guide to Knowledge Management' by Melissie Clemmons Rumizen. In my quick 'beginner's guide' I used the terms 'Macro KM' and 'Micro KM' and thought that this was a useful way to separate big picture and small picture KM.

If you follow my thinking KM has two strands – the macro strand that sees knowledge as a strategic organisational issue, and the micro strand which sees knowledge more as a resource (among many) that simply has to be used more effectively.

Macro KM  sees the big picture and is more concerned with leveraging the value of knowledge than managing it. This approach now largely comes under the banner of intellectual capital and is based on the work of Sveiby, Edvinsson et al. For many organisations however this approach is too vague (and probably too strategic) to take seriously but in my view it’s critical in helping to explore the real (and sustainable) value of knowledge.

Micro KM is the KM that most people know about and have probably experienced. It rests on the simple premise that things could be much better around here if we only shared our knowledge more effectively. Easier said than done, but 90% of KM programmes attempt to tackle this issue and are effectively tactically rather than strategically driven.

Does your KM programme fall into the macro or micro camp? I've described them as 'strands' purposely to suggest that any KM approach should be doing both. Even when I work with clients on micro KM projects I also try to create a macro strand becuse ultimately if you don't get the big picture all micro KM projects will ultimately wither and die.