Sharepoint Is Not a Knowledge Management System The persistent confusion between knowledge and information

Although my focus these days has shifted from Knowledge Management to Conversational Leadership, I keep finding myself drawn back to KM.

One thing that continues to irritate me is the claim that platforms like SharePoint are Knowledge Management Systems. They are not. SharePoint and similar platforms manage information. They store documents, support coordination, and enable communication. All of that is useful, but none of it is knowledge management.

More fundamentally, I am not convinced there is any such thing as a Knowledge Management System at all. Much like the phrase “Knowledge Management” itself, the idea that a system can manage knowledge misunderstands what knowledge is.

Knowledge shows up in judgment, learning, sense-making, and action. It emerges in practice, often through conversation.

I recently wrote a short post making this argument and shared it in a small number of LinkedIn KM forums, including the KMI Knowledge Management in Practice forum. It attracted a lot of attention, and although most people agreed with the argument, I am not sure I see that agreement reflected in other KM discussions. Many KM practitioners still seem to implicitly conflate knowledge with information, even when they claim otherwise.