NPS concludes int’l seminar on Knowledge Management and Innovations for Organisational Development

By Harsha Udayakantha Peiris

Knowledge is the most important resource in most organisations today. Organisations are hiring minds, not hands, and knowledge is seen as creating value for organisations. Consequently organisations are seeking to create systematic ways to identify and convert individual expertise, skills and experience into organisational knowledge.

Employees today are working in an information rich environment. What they need to know is just a click away. This has equipped them with the ability to work efficiently, more effectively, and to make the most of their time. No longer are they about what they know, but what they share.

Leveraging on knowledge is possible only when employees value acquiring and sharing knowledge. Individual and organisational capability is enhanced when employees value building on each other’s ideas and sharing their own insights. Much of this is shaped by the culture of the organisation. The culture of an organisation is the environment that influences behaviour, decision making, and the organisation’s approach to markets, customers, and suppliers.

National Productivity Secretariat Director J.M. Thilaka Jayasundara addressing the gathering at the seminar. At the Head Table (from left): NPS Additional Director Suranga Gunarathna, APO Country Director for Sri Lanka and Ministry of Public Administration and Management Secretary J. Dadallage, Singapore based KMI expert Prabar Nair and NPS Asst. Director (Innovation Division) Ishani Kollure

In view to fine focus on the need to reinvent organisations and the work culture resulting from these new ways of working in order to find out how to better facilitate meaningful connections and sharing of knowledge and how to leverage on knowledge to create value for organisations, an international seminar on Knowledge Management and Innovations for Organisational Development organised by 

the National Productivity Secretariat in collaboration with the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) headquartered in Tokyo, Japan was held on 6 May at the Galle Face Hotel Colombo. The seminar was held with the initiative of APO Country Director for Sri Lanka and Ministry of Public Administration and Management Secretary J. Dadallage. 

The seminar that attracted the participation of more than 200 top management personnel from both public and private organisations also focused on learning from an international expert to develop an organisational culture of sharing and creating knowledge. It included segments on learning to stimulate innovation, reduce costs, faster problem solving, streamline operations, improve decision making and boost revenue.

Singapore based KMI expert Prabar Nair who conducted this international seminar is a Principal Consultant and trainer of KDI, and international consulting and training service firm. With more than 20 years of experience in the consulting and training industry, he has served as a practitioner and consultant in Knowledge Management, Human Resource Management, Talent Management and Change Management. He has also been a keynote speaker in several international conferences and was the chief architect in the development of the Asian Productivity Organization KM framework. Praba is also an adjunct lecturer in the Singapore Institute of Management.

National Productivity Secretariat Director J.M. Thilaka Jayasundara, Additional Director Suranga Gunarathna and Asst. Director (Innovation Division) Ishani Kollure were also present at the occasion.