Table 5 Questions to be addressed when applying the principles of KM capability development in practice

1. Moving from ‘building’ capacity from scratch towards ‘developing’ capacity of healthcare organisations

• What existing knowledge and skills within a healthcare organisation could be utilised for KM projects?

• Where in the organisations are these knowledge and skills located?

• How can these knowledge and skills be further developed?

• What KM skills are currently lacking and how can their development be supported?

• How will the newly acquired knowledge and skills integrate with existing ways of doing things within an organisation?

2. Moving from passive involvement in formal education and training towards active, continuous participation in KM practices

• What KM activities are the staff actively involved in?

• How are the roles distributed between the external facilitators and the local staff involved in KM projects?

• What arrangements are in place to enable the facilitative role of external KM experts?

• What incentives can be provided to support the engagement of local staff in KM activities?

• What mentorship and shadowing options are available for healthcare staff?

3. Moving from lower-order, project-specific capabilities towards higher-order, generic capabilities

• What mechanisms will ensure maintenance and further development of capabilities within an organisation?

• How will project-specific knowledge and skills be transferred to other areas of practice?

• What theoretical models, frameworks and approaches can be useful to guide the local development of KM capabilities?

• What are the arrangements for updating organisational protocols, guidelines and procedures related to KM?

• What are the arrangements for identifying new learning opportunities outside an organisation?

4. Moving from single-level towards multilevel learning about KM within healthcare organisations

• How do the capabilities developed by individual and teams link with organisational priorities?

• What are the intra-organisational boundaries to sharing knowledge and skills and how are these boundaries going to be addressed?

• How is sharing knowledge and skills within the project team and between the teams going to be supported?

• What mechanisms are in place to ensure the unlearning of irrelevant knowledge?

• What arrangements are in place to ensure that the whereabouts of relevant knowledge and skills in an organisation are known to its members?