Galaxy Consulting
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Process
    • Meet Us at Industry Events
  • Services
    • Business Analysis and Usability
    • Content and Knowledge Management
    • Records Management
    • Information Architecture
    • Enterprise Search
    • Taxonomy and Metadata Development and Management
    • Document Control
    • Information Governance
  • Solutions
    • Information Overload
    • Compliance
    • E-Discovery
    • Internal and External Websites
    • Enterprise Search
    • Collaboration and New Employees’ Onboarding
    • Customer Service
    • Manual Processes
    • Vulnerability of Sensitive Information
  • Portfolio
    • Our Brochure
    • Our Clients
    • Case Studies
    • Presentations
    • Press Releases >
      • Galaxy Consulting Receives 2016 Best of Redwood City Award
      • Galaxy Consulting Receives 2015 Best of Redwood City Award
    • Videos
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Free Consultation
  • Contact Us
  • Terms of Use/Privacy Policy

Tips to Ensure Knowledge Management Success

12/28/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
It is very important for long term success of knowledge management initiative to align it with organizational strategy, especially in times of change. KM initiative can "drift" over time if measures are not taken to align it with organizational mission, new turns in direction, management changes, and different product/service offerings.

Here are useful, actionable tips to ensure that an organization's knowledge management initiative succeeds not just at launch stage but also over the years.

1. Bring knowledge management into mission critical activities. Knowledge management is a great enabler of many business processes, but it can be very relevant to ensure success and continuity of mission critical activities in areas ranging from banking to security. For example, you can leverage knowledge management to acquire, retain, and spread mission critical knowledge in IT global services.

2. Focus on knowledge retention during times of down-size or reorganization. Globalization, aging work forces and economic downturns are leading to loss of valuable knowledge. KM can help to eliminate that gap in the near term and especially in the long term.

3. Use KM to improve understanding and execution of business reorganization. KM sometimes gets put aside during complex organizational restructuring, but can actually be useful in determining how to reorganize effectively. Some companies seem to spend almost half of their time on restructuring, but are not using KM to be more effective or innovative in restructuring.

4. Go beyond connecting to networking. KM at the people level sometimes gets stuck at the stage of people profiles and a bewildering range of discussion forums. It is important to add collaborative tasks on top of such connections, so that actual networking takes place and collective intelligence emerges.

5. Conduct more research on knowledge work. With all the commotion about social media in the enterprise, people tend to forget that knowledge work is essentially built on effective communication. More research is needed about the changing workplace to understand how KM is becoming even more critical to 21st century organizations, and how knowledge seeking/collaboration behaviors of knowledge workers are changing.

6. Pay more attention to design and visualization. In a workplace of increasing information overload and multitasking, it is important to design knowledge interactions and interfaces in a compelling yet effective manner. Effective design can help in sense-making in fast changing and information-intensive environments. 

7. Pay attention to the requirements of mobile knowledge workers. BYOD (bring your own mobile device to the office) is now accustomed feature. More and more employees and managers are using mobile devices not just for accessing information but also for full workflow. Knowledge processes should be optimized for mobile devices, and not just in terms of device interface but also in speed of delivery, e.g. fast loading dashboards for sales teams.

8. Blend informal and formal activities in knowledge sharing sessions. For example, a knowledge fair format with each project team presenting its achievements and learning enforces the KM message stronger for all participants. The very act of presenting a KM case study can help employees develop a deeper appreciation of the strengths and opportunities for KM at work in the long term, and instills a sense of pride.

9. Use KM initiative in many different audiences and don't restrict it to only select managers or project managers. The more people who engage with KM in full-time or part-time roles, the more buy-in KM will gain and the more value it will contribute. 

10. Highlight KM practitioners across the organization. Don't just showcase the usual super-achievers; also feature the employees who are coming up with their first, unique work insights or first reuse of existing knowledge assets.

11. Don't pitch KM as an extra activity to be done after usual work hours; it should be embedded in regular workflow. Even additional activities such as conferencing and industry meetings should be seen as a way of learning, brainstorming and bench-marking.

12. Avoid too much theory. While the core team certainly needs to be abreast of developments in KM models and research, its recommendations and implementations must be demystified and simplified so that employees are not distracted or confused with more buzzwords.

13. Don't get hung up on the name KM. Some people seem to have a problem with the words knowledge management and even KM. Other terms such as collaborative work or knowledge sharing seem to be in use as well. 

14. Use metrics and analytics effectively, and conduct KM course corrections as appropriate. Many KM initiatives stop their outcome studies at the level of activity metrics, but fail to connect them to deeper processes, knowledge insights, people attitudes and overall impacts on productivity and innovation. One company reported that only 40% of its knowledge assets were being used, and some were being viewed only by the creator. At the same time, metrics are not the only assessment.

15. Help ensure long term success of KM by evangelizing it to employees. This helps create awareness in employees about the importance of KM and strengthens the KM initiative.

0 Comments

    Archives

    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011

    Categories

    All
    Alfresco
    Arena
    Automatic Classification
    Autonomy
    Big Data
    Business Analysis
    Case Studies
    Change Control
    Change Management
    Cloud Content Management
    Cloud Ecm
    Cloud Enterprise Content Management
    Cms
    Collaboration
    Compliance
    Concept Searching
    Confluence
    Content Analysis
    Content Localization
    Content Management
    Content Management Systems
    Content Strategy
    Controlled Vocabulary
    Coveo
    Crisis Management
    Dams
    Data Integrity
    Data Security
    Digital Asset Management
    Digital Asset Management System
    Digital Transformation
    Dita
    Document Control
    Document Control Systems
    Documents Management
    Documentum
    Drupal
    Dublin Core Metadata
    Ecm
    E Discovery
    Engineering Change Process
    Enterprise Content Management
    Enterprise Search
    ERoom
    E-Signature
    Exalead
    Fatwire
    Gamification
    Gmp
    Gxp
    Hadoop
    Information Architecture
    Information Governance
    Information Overload
    Information Technology
    Iso 9001
    IT Systems Validation
    Joomla
    Knowledge Management
    Knowledge Management Applications
    Metadata
    Mobile Devices
    Naming Conventions
    Ontology
    Open Source Cms
    Open Text
    Oracle
    OWL
    Personalization
    RDF
    Records Management
    Risk
    Search Applications
    Self Service
    SEO
    Sharepoint
    Social Media
    Structured Content
    Taxonomy
    Teamsite
    Thesaurus
    Tridion
    Twiki
    Unified Data
    Usability
    User Adoption
    User Centered Design
    Vasont
    Vivisimo
    Web Site Content
    Web Site Design
    Wiki

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.