Joburg uses knowledge management to lift service delivery

30 June 2017

 

The City of Joburg’s Innovation and Knowledge Management Unit hosted its second annual Open Day at the Metro Centre in Braamfontein on Thursday June 29 to embed and promote a culture of learning among City employees.

 

Harvey Phalatse, Director of the unit, which is located in the City’s Group Strategy, Policy Co-ordination and Relations, said the Open Day was to create awareness of what it was all about. “As a department, we believe shared knowledge is power,” said Phalatse.

He said knowledge management was defined by the City as the process of creating, capturing and sharing knowledge to increase service delivery efficiency and effectiveness. He said all the participants in the Open Day were exposed to several knowledge management practices.

“We teach employees about the importance of documenting their work and saving it to ensure there is no duplication or replication,” he said.

He said an example of the value of knowledge management and innovation was the City’s role in the hosting of the Soccer World Cup seven years ago. “We hosted the World Cup in 2010 and Brazil was the host in 2014. Brazil came to us to find out how we prepared for the World Cup and which mistakes they shouldn’t make,” added Phalatse.

He said he would like to see City employees coming out of the Open Day session as “knowledge workers”.

“We want to forge a partnership with all employees so we can then document their work for future purposes. The Open Day is extended to all City employees. We don’t want to leave anybody out,” said Phalatse.

He could not emphasise enough the importance of engaging and sharing knowledge because “employees can learn something from one another. We want departments and entities in the City to promote a culture of learning and for employees to empower one another with knowledge,” said Phalatse.

Heads of department were asked to appoint knowledge management champions in their units to establish a forum. The purpose of the forum, Phalatse said, would be to inform the champions of the activities, practices and lessons learnt in knowledge management.

He added that the City had also initiated a Knowledge Exchange Programme to enable municipalities to exchange knowledge with others.