Top 7 Tips for Knowledge Management Success

7/30/2019 Top 7 Tips for Knowledge Management Success

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Top 7 tips for knowledgemanagement success

I know I have made all these points before, so some may be a bitdeja vu for regular readers, but here in one place areKnoco's top 7tips for makingKnowledge Management implementation work. Youprobably have more tips to share - please contribute these via thecomments section.

1. KM needs to be business-driven. It is vital that KM effortsare clearly linked to business outcome, with a clear businessobjective. I have a quote from a survey from the early 00s, thatreads as followsMostsuccessful knowledge management applications addressed alife or death business situation. Successful cases answered twoquestions at the outset - What business objective am I trying toachieve? How can Iapplyexisting knowledge?

Here'sanother quote- "We have been looking at the key processesof the business, testing them for their "knowledge intensity" to seeif we would create some significant new change in the performanceof that particular process if we managed knowledge in a moreprofound way. The concept has not been difficult to sell to the topexecutive team." See how this approach starts with the key

business processes?

Similarly Tom Davenport and co-authors, in the paper "Buildingsuccessful Knowledge Management projects", conclude that "Link toeconomic performance or industry value" is the number one successfactor for successful KM. Mars, for example, is implementing KM ata rate oftwo business issues per year. Work out yourbusinessfocus areas, and work on delivering value in those areas.

2. KM needs to be introduced as a management framework. A

Framework is a a small defined set of technologies and processes,embedded into business activity, and a small defined set of rolesembedded into the organisational structure, all under an umbrellaofGovernance. Like other management systems, effective KM isa framework of roles, processes, technologies and governancewhich has been embedded into the business. Just as FinancialManagement is not a single tool - budgets for example, or invoicing- and is not a toolbox ("you can try writing budgets if you like -here's a guide"), but is a complete framework embedded into thebusiness process, so Knowledge Management needs a framework. If

there areholes in the framework, it will not deliver value.
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A common mistake is to introduce one element of the Framework -a technology for example - and expect knowledge to start to flow. Itwon't. It might trickle, but it won't flow.

3. KM needs to addressPull as well as Push. I have blogged

about this many times - Push creates supply, Pull creates demandand the two need to be in balance. Too many organisations focus onknowledge sharing, not onknowledge seekingand re-use. Pull, inthe early stages, is more powerful than push. Creating demandcreates a market.

4. KM is a change process.It is not a gradual change either - it isa step-change. It is a remodelling of the organisation; a make-over,anew way of thinking. It needs to betreated as a changeprocessandmeasured as a change process. Don't go into KM

thinking that it is about a new IT tool, or just "trying outcommunities" - you won't get far if you don't start to addressthehearts and minds. This also means that KM implementationmust be structured like a change program (including apilotingcomponent), and must have astrong teamofchange agents toimplement the change.

5. KM Must be embedded in the business. If its not embedded,you risk"tipping back"to a pre-KM state. Many of the high profilefailures of KM are due to afailure to embed. You can;t rely on KM

being driven by the efforts of a central team. A central team areneeded, but their role is an assurance and support role. The drivemust come from the business.

6. KM needs not just high level support, but high levelexpectation. People do what they believe is expected of them.People are generally good workers, they want to do a good job, andif something is expected of them as part of the job, they generallydo it. Expectation can be explicit or implicit - written or unwritten.Expectation comes from leadership, and from peers, and these two

sources of expectation need to be aligned to be effective (there isno point in the boss saying "I expect you to have a work lifebalance" if all your peers are working to 10pm and expect you to bepart of the team). So knowledge management needs to become anexpectation, from management as well as from peers. Seniormanagement in the organisation needs to make KM expectationsclear by explicitly stating what needs to be done in KnowledgeManagement, and by whom. They need to write these expectationsdown, and keep reinforcing them by what they say. They also needto make sure these expectations do not get weakened by, orconflict with, other company structures and expectations.
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7. KM needs to be delivered where the high value decisionsare made. This might be at operator level (the operator of a plant,the driller of a deepwater well, the pilot of a passenger aircraft) or itmight be at senior management level. Knowledge supportsdecisions, and decisions are made at all levels. In fact the most

valuable and risky decisions are made at senior level. The defaultapproach to supporting these senior management decisions is tohire a big-5 consultant firm to supply the knowledge, but there is noreason why KM can't help as well. Delivering a high level KMpilot at senior level has three benefits.

It delivers massive value to the business It engages senior managers in KM, and helps them

understand the value KM can bring It gets senior managers on-side, by solving their problems for

them (seethe thorn in the lions paw).

KM is something that is needed at all levels, and the sooneryouinvolve the senior managers, the faster and smoother yourimplementation will become.

Read more:Knoco stories: Top 7 tips for knowledge

management

successhttp://www.nickmilton.com/2011/09/top-7-tips-for-

knowledge-management.html#ixzz2HNhpTRt7
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Top 7 Tips for Knowledge Management Success