Knowledge management is the strategy employed by top companies around the world in order to identify and develop their strategic knowledge. Over time the strategy has adopted new forms of application and recent models have given rise to new forms of technology that are helping companies achieve knowledge management (KM) results faster than before. In this post we will explore how KM is used by diverse companies around the world, provide examples of best practices and how knowledge bases are impacting customer support efforts in a positive manner.
The first step towards building knowledge management is identifying your organization's strategic knowledge. GMD, a leading IT outsourcing firm based in Peru boasts one of the best practices in this regard. Every year, each business unit carries out a workshop in which managers and senior leaders come together in order to analyze the business objectives and the strategic knowledge that will be required in order to support the company's results.
José Carlos Tenorio Favero, head of KM in GMD, explains: “We have designed a tool called the knowledge matrix. This tool is available to senior leaders around the company and they can use it in order to map critical knowledge and assess who knows what This tools gives senior leaders the ability to prioritize knowledge according to a fixed scale which ranks the knowledge according to specific criteria such as priority and business impact. The final outcome is an action plan focused on developing the strategic knowledge as opposed to KM strategies that focus on any type of knowledge so resources are never allocated in order to attend prioritizes and ROI becomes difficult to measure”.
What other best practices can be taken into consideration? let's analyze some examples from a recent CLC report:
The Salt River Project (SRP) also focuses their KM efforts in developing and retaining critical knowledge. They work closely with business managers in order to spot early retirements and areas in which the company feels that they will lose critical knowledge. Following the identification phase, they determine the best methods in order to transfer knowledge and best practices, making sure that the teams that will need it will have access to them.
Cyber company carried out an exercise in which critical knowledge was made available through an expert knowledge bases so that managers could find talent according to knowledge instead of focusing on individual talent.
MITRE also carried out a similar exercise but also developed a knowledge base in order to include diverse collaboration tools such as wikis, virtual libraries and forums in order to promote knowledge transfer company wide. They also included an “expertise finder” in which members can rank their peers knowledge in a similar way to Linkedin (which allows members to validate their contacts skills)
CNA appoints “Knowledge advocates” which are specific people that have the duty of fostering knowledge transfer and spotting best practices company wide. They participate actively in various digital platforms which allow the company to build a knowledge culture since physical barriers were prohibiting knowledge from flowing naturally and lessons learned ended up in personal emails or dropbox like accounts.
From the above best practices we can conclude that centralizing and transferring knowledge is essential in order to boast results and achieve greater level of competitiveness. Indian tech giant WIPRO went one step up and integrated their KM strategy with a fully equipped knowledge management system in which employees can access strategic knowledge and become part of a learning environment.
This is important as an enterprise employing 1,000 knowledge workers wastes $48,000 per week, or nearly $2.5 million per year, due to an inability to locate and retrieve information (IDC). Wipro´s best practices also include developing a QA process so that knowledge which is registered in the base is cross-checked so that teams that need it will find value information for decision making:
Knowledge base teams include peers that revise content in order to provide feedback before approving contributions made to the knowledge base
Gamifications methods are put in place in order to reward contributions based on the usability of knowledge. Also every year a special event is organized where a judge panel is called upon every in order to reward the best content.
knowledge base helps monitor usage, keep track of which teams are using and generating content.
Subject matter experts are identified so that they can help promote content and become available to new hires who may require expert feedback.
The knowledge base, or K-net as it is called, offers various tools such as Wikis, forums, chat and a virtual library so that employees are offered a true learning experience.
As knowledge bases help drive forward KM efforts, special dedication needs to be taken in order to promote a learning environment as opposed to having a knowledge base in which content ends up being stored and never used. Also, Wipro's best practices are focused on delivering quality content by rewarding employees and making their knowledge base part of everyday processes. Usually knowledge bases are deployed but little attention is paid to the way they need to interact with existing processes and teams. This aspect only assures that users are driven away as they don't feel that it is part of their daily functions.
The point is clear: KM needs help from technology in order to cut losses associated with information decentralization and knowledge loss when critical talent walks out the door. Identifying critical knowledge is a good place to start so that the knowledge base can focus on value content linked to the company's strategy.
