Beyond the Tech Fix

Why Your Knowledge Management System Isn’t Working

“We spent a fortune on a knowledge management system that nobody uses.”

I hear some version of this lament from nearly every client I work with. The pattern is distressingly familiar: An organization recognizes its information silo problem, invests in a technology solution, and then watches in disappointment as adoption languishes and information remains stubbornly stuck.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Research suggests that up to 70% of knowledge management initiatives fail to achieve their objectives. But why?

The Technology Trap

The assumption underlying most failed knowledge management initiatives is that information silos are fundamentally a technology problem. If we just had the right system, the thinking goes, knowledge would naturally flow throughout the organization.

This assumption misunderstands the nature of organizational knowledge and how it actually moves between people. Here’s why technology-first approaches typically fall short:

1. They Ignore How Work Actually Happens

Most knowledge management systems require people to take extra steps — documenting what they know, categorizing information, uploading files to repositories. When these activities feel separate from the actual work people need to accomplish, they’re quickly abandoned under pressure.

Solution Approach: Start by mapping how work actually flows through your organization. Where do people naturally share information? What communication channels do they prefer? Design knowledge-sharing approaches that integrate with these existing workflows rather than creating parallel processes.

2. They Misunderstand Tacit Knowledge

The most valuable knowledge in organizations is often tacit — the expertise, context, and judgment that resides in people’s heads but is difficult to articulate. This knowledge builds primarily through conversation and collaboration, not documentation.

A financial services firm had created elaborate templates for capturing “lessons learned” after projects. Despite rigorous enforcement, the resulting documents were rarely useful because they couldn’t capture the contextual understanding that made the lessons meaningful.

Solution Approach: Create opportunities for direct interaction between people who hold important knowledge and those who need it. Consider approaches like mentoring relationships, cross-functional teams, and structured knowledge-sharing sessions that focus on conversation rather than documentation. If you want documentation, consider using lightweight tools like wikis, shared notes — even sticky notes on a whiteboard — that allow for easy updates and collaboration during the discussion.

3. They Overlook Social Barriers

Even the best technology can’t overcome social and cultural barriers to knowledge sharing. These include:

• Status hierarchies that discourage questioning or sharing across levels
• Reward systems that incentivize hoarding rather than sharing knowledge
• Departmental rivalries that impede cross-functional collaboration
• Fear of appearing incompetent by asking questions

Solution Approach: Directly address the human factors that impede knowledge flow. This might include revising incentives, modeling knowledge-sharing behaviors at leadership levels, or creating psychosocial safety culture that encourages questions and learning.

A Balanced Approach: The Knowledge Flow Framework

Effective knowledge sharing requires balance between three key elements:

1. People

• Who holds critical knowledge?
• Who needs access to this knowledge?
• What motivates or prevents these individuals from sharing?

2. Processes

• How does work actually flow through your organization?
• Where are the natural points for knowledge exchange?
• What formal and informal systems govern how information moves?

3. Technology

• What tools do people already use and trust?
• How can technology reduce friction in knowledge sharing?
• What knowledge truly needs to be reduced to information versus simply connected?

Starting Small: The Pilot Approach

Rather than implementing organization-wide knowledge management systems, consider starting with targeted pilots focused on high-value knowledge domains. For example:

• Create a “knowledge bridge” between your customer service and product development teams
• Implement paired working sessions between departing experts and their replacements
• Redesign specific meeting formats to include intentional knowledge-sharing components

One manufacturing client saw dramatic improvement by simply instituting 15-minute weekly cross-team stand-ups focused on surfacing information relevant to other departments through dialogue rather than prepared reporting. This lightweight process created more value than their previous document repository ever had.

Moving Forward

If your knowledge management system isn’t delivering results, don’t immediately assume you need a better system. Instead, step back and examine how knowledge actually flows — or doesn’t — in your organization. The solution may involve less technology and more attention to the human systems that either enable or prevent effective knowledge sharing.

In my next post, I’ll explore practical approaches to mapping knowledge flows in your organization and identifying critical intervention points. Until then, consider this question: What small step could you take tomorrow to improve knowledge flow across one critical boundary in your organization?