KM Model

KM principles, theories, methodologies, and use

1. Develop formal KM training for both KM practitioners and professionals - a. Mandatory standardized KM courses taught in classroom and available online

2. Develop KM training self-study tools - a. Mandatory standardized KM courses taught in classroom and available online

3. Communicate KM awareness through Enterprise-wide and local events - a. Local targeted KM awareness events and outreach planned by KM champions

4. Practice KM by developing knowledge-enabled work that incorporates KM Practices into everyday activities - a. Embed knowledge and learning processes into basic work processes, standard operating procedures, and project management

KM cultural issues that impact the adoption and use of KM practices

1. Establish KM governance structures and link them to organizational objectives and strategy - a. Creation of KM Executive Councils, and development of knowledge and information management policies

2. Establish a “learning culture” to ensure proper reflection of lessons learned occur at key stages during and activity, project, or work cycle - a. Techniques such as Before Action Reviews, and Retrospects are instilled into the culture

3. Create a structured change management program to monitor KM enablers and detractors - a. establish clear objectives and milestones, gain leadership support, create effective metrics, and provide positive reinforcement

4. Reward and recognize knowledge sharing and collaboration to motivate staff to contribute a. Include KM activity in the performance review process, recognize contributions through communications channels, define KM accountabilities for individuals, teams, and the Enterprise

Role and responsibilities of KM professionals, and how they influence the use of KM practices within an organization

1. Seek out KM champions throughout the organization to support KM activities - a. KM champions act as liaisons between the KM professionals and practitioners, are KM advocates and role models, are facilitators for KM techniques, and are project managers for KM efforts

2. Develop specific KM expertise within the organization - a. Create a CKO and/or KMO position, explore the need to create a KA (Knowledge Architect) position, develop CoP leaders and facilitators

KM approaches to knowledge sharing, transfer, and collaboration

1. Encourage the establishment of Communities of Practice around professional activities - a. Provide the resources to allow CoP activities to emerge and grow throughout the organization and encourage participation; CoPs provide a forum to share expertise and build a body of knowledge

2. Encourage the establishment of Communities of Interest around non-professional activities - a. Provide the resources to allow COI activities to emerge and grow throughout the organization; as people interact and network they will build trust and relationships that cross departmental boundaries

3. Establish policies and practices to best use your Subject Matter Expert resources - a. SME activities could include CoP facilitation, mentoring and coaching, internal consulting, and expertise transfer techniques

4. Leverage the abundant knowledge –sharing, capture, and collaboration opportunities found within team, workgroup, and other small group activities that occur naturally during the work day - a. Capture key points from meetings and make them available to the larger audience; post findings on related forums and solicit feedback and input; push information to others who may benefit from your knowledge work creation

Content-lifecycle management, content library structures, content labeling and tagging, and search as it pertains to KM practices

1. Review current content management procedures to ensure compliance with formal policies and guidance; ensure all content is credible (has authoritative source, has contextual consistency, is actively managed) - a. Assess how documents are created, stored, accessed and archived; audit records to ensure compliance with formal record-keeping requirements; develop plan for addressing discrepancies and poor practices

2. Develop a consistent organizational approach to metadata along with the structure and guidelines to enforce metadata tagging - a. Create metadata elements that will enhance the retrieval of content across the organization; look at both manual and automated methods of metadata creation; explore methods to provide social tagging to content to supplement controlled terms

Monitoring and evaluating performance - measure and use metrics to refine KM strategies

1. Use metrics to assess the accomplishment of organizational strategic goals and objectives a. Measurement against strategic goals and objectives provides insight on how KM efforts are closing the knowledge gap between what your organization knows and what it needs to know to be successful

2. Use metrics to measure efficiency (output – activity based) and effectiveness (outcome – results based) - a. Use a combination of both output and outcome metrics to track both hard (factual) and soft (perceptual) measures

3. Standardize measures across the organization to ensure they are focused on strategic outcomes a. Focus organizational metrics on strategic goals and accomplishing the mission; ensure alignment across all departments

4. Measure only what is necessary to drive the intended results - a. When measuring for outcomes it is best to manage no more than five to seven measurements; the results should drive decisions that refine KM strategy

KM techniques to simplify current processes or make them more efficient or effective

1. Use KM techniques to simplify or increase the efficiency or effectiveness of current business processes - a. Assess current processes that may be streamlined or eliminated; understand why the process steps must be performed as is to achieve the desired result

2. Create process maps and conduct knowledge audits to identify where critical information and knowledge inputs and outputs are - a. Process maps used in conjunction with knowledge maps can drive process redesign projects that help define the most appropriate roles and responsibilities for information and knowledge management, tightly integrated into the operational workflow

3. Integrate KM with Six Sigma efforts to ensure sustainability to process improvement, and help focus KM on outcomes and impact of business processes - a. Use CoPs or other knowledge transfer venues to facilitate initial process redesigns and continuing improvement and lessons learned; from a metrics development perspective, Six Sigma focuses strongly on outcomes and tangible evidence of impact on the business.

Impacts of technology on KM, and the tools to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration

1. Ensure the organization Information Architecture (IA) fits the needs of its primary user groups be it for a single platform such as an Intranet or knowledge portal, or across several platforms a. An IA will make sense of how the different platforms relate to each other, how users will navigate between them, and how expectations for content discovery (search) can be met

2. Assess how the organization currently uses technology to accomplish tasks such as content creation, capture, review, sharing, collaborating, and archiving - a. Develop a list of tools that are used by the organization to connect people to explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge – these include everything from email, phone books, and meetings to Web 2.0 technologies such as Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts; map how these technologies work within the IA and how they help the organization meet its strategic goals and objectives – use this information to guide KM strategy

3. Stay abreast of current and emerging technologies and how they can be (or are being unofficially) used within your organization - a. Leverage the knowledge within the organization by seeking input through a variety of KM methods to gain understanding of the technologies people use within and outside the organisation

Balancing the need to know with the need to share, and how KM coexists with information security policy

1. Accept that KM and information assurance must coexist, and that secure knowledge management takes into account the aspects of confidentiality, trust and privacy management - a. Understand that secure KM is much more than protecting classified information; security strategies, secure operations processes, and security metrics need to be incorporated into KM strategy and plans

2. Balance the need to know with the need to share - a. Organizational assets such as intellectual property, trade secrets and privacy information need to be protected from malicious or unintentional access and use; ensure technology incorporates access controls, credential mechanisms and encryption systems to secure KM practices

3. Develop security strategies, policies, plans and procedures that not only address information management but consider KM strategies, and is tightly integrated with business strategies - a. Review existing information management policies; consider supplemental policies that incorporate security controls into the KM lifecycle while maintaining appropriate access to knowledge