is is an old white paper I published while working at Triad years ago...I will try to repost all of my writings here in time...

Driving Performance Through Knowledge Management

If you don’t have a knowledge management system, researchers estimate that less than 20% of your corporate knowledge gets captured. Furthermore, less than 20% of that which is captured will ever be re-used in new situations—that is, leveraged. 

If you do have a knowledge management system, chances are, it isn’t the success you hoped it would be—researchers estimate 80% of knowledge management systems fail to have any real impact on business results. In fact, you may be reading this white paper with skepticism seeping through your veins.

Capturing knowledge that people use at the right time and in the right situations will result in your organization working cheaper, faster, and better than before. This impact on business results will only occur if the knowledge management system (KMS) supports employee performance on the job. That is, the KMS must directly prompt and guide daily behavior and be helpful in the completion of work—that is, work products. 

Unfortunately, too many companies eager to get on the knowledge-management bandwagon have mistaken it as only technology and have failed to implement knowledge management systems that actually impact business results. Now, the tendency is for corporate leadership to meet knowledge management (KM) endeavors with low expectations, mistrust, and cynicism.

What can you do to ensure that your KMS delivers real business impact to your organization? 

This white paper answers that critical question by clarifying common concepts in KM, briefly describing traditional knowledge management systems, and introducing five principles that can be applied to any KMS that will drive the performance of its users, which will create measurable impact on business results.

What is Knowledge Management?  

The diversity of ideas about KM makes it difficult for the average person to understand what it means. Let me first clarify how I define knowledge. While there is little agreement in the field, I suggest a fair operational definition of knowledge is the application of information evidenced in what people say and do. Knowledge management refers to the guidelines, policies, and practices that an organization uses to create and transfer information (such as documents and copyrights, and intangible processes, models and methods) to people who then use it in the context of their work. Knowledge management encompasses acquiring knowledge resources, organizing, storing, maintaining, distributing, using and re-using them (See Figure 1). In short, it ensures the right information is available to, and used by, the right people at the right time.

A KMS (knowledge management system) is the integration of elements, such as technology, process, leadership, and incentives, which are managed together in order to accomplish KM.

Figure 1: Functions of a KMS

Traditional Knowledge Management Systems

Most knowledge management systems focus on acquiring and storing information—though, often without any direct connection to performance. In this sense, they may be good at capturing knowledge but are not good at leveraging knowledge. Leveraging does not just happen by chance. To achieve leveraging, you have to be good at capturing knowledge resources that will support performance, and organizing, maintaining, distributing, using, and re-using them (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: A Performance-Driving KMS

There will be little impact on business results such as productivity and efficiency without both capturing and leveraging information in a way that directly supports everyday work performance—thus, managing knowledge. If an organization’s KMS is largely a repository of information that is not directly linked to work performance and neither the KMS nor the environment was engineered to leverage the captured information, it will result in a system that is inefficient and ineffective—a quagmire of “stuff”. Although this kind of KMS is common, it has little impact on business results.

Innovations in computer applications and technology have led to an assortment of enterprise-wide applications that greatly improve the ability of organizations to capture their knowledge. For this reason, executive leaders in the organization often appoint someone from either information systems (IS) or other groups with IS skill sets and backgrounds to be accountable for their KM initiative. While IS should be accountable for the performance of the technology, who should be accountable for the impact on business results? 

Capturing corporate information in electronic repositories or databases is important, but the goal is not just to make information available but to make sure it is also leveraged. Focusing only on capturing does not drive performance. The result is a KMS that acts like the Internet; it is full of “stuff”—even great stuff—yet most of it is not leveraged.

Every day, executive leaders miss opportunities to use their KMS to drive performance by not appointing the right person to be accountable for the business impact of their KMS.

Who should be accountable for the business impact?

Learning, Business Process, or Performance groups within an organization probably have the skill sets and resources necessary to be held accountable for leveraging—thus, creating the impact on business results. 

However, many times these groups don’t educate themselves on what KM is and how it can be used to support performance in the workplace so they don’t try to get involved and the result is a KMS that doesn’t impact business results.

Driving Performance

A KMS drives performance when: 1) captured knowledge resources (such as knowledge items and archived on-line discussions) are clearly linked to employees’ behaviors that are crucial to the business (that is, key behaviors) and 2) those captured resources are leveraged throughout the organization. Applying the following five principles will result in a KMS that drives the performance of the users, thus, impacting business results.

• Target knowledge workers
•  Support performance
•  Make “rules of use” explicit
•  Make it part of the way you do business
•  Check the health of your KMS annually

Principle One: Target Knowledge Workers

A KMS that provides maximum support to knowledge workers can actually drive their performance to new levels of consistency, accuracy, timeliness, and quality. 

Certainly, a KMS should include information that will be accessed by everyone in the organization that does not necessarily support performance. Simple examples include: organizational charts, phone lists, policies, and position announcements. However, designing a KMS to provide maximum performance support to knowledge workers will result in greater business impact. 

What are knowledge workers? Every organization has them—some organizations have more of them than others. The trick is figuring out which roles in the organization fall into that category. Knowledge workers are a subset of employees whose work primarily involves accessing information, exchanging information, and/or creating information. Examples include telephone support specialists, training developers, software programmers, engineers, inventors, project managers, strategists, senior managers, researchers, and consultants. 

The following are activities typically performed by knowledge workers:

• Making strategic decisions
•  Planning business strategies
• Researching and developing innovations in products or services
• Communicating with external customers or suppliers
• Communicating a consistent messages throughout an organization
• Creating training and professional development materials
•  Analyzing various data and organizational metrics
•  Forming recommendations
•  Providing answers or support either internally to employees or externally to customers

If you are unsure of what roles in the organization fall into the knowledge worker category, meet with department managers or middle managers and senior managers. Ask questions that will help you determine which roles heavily rely on accessing, exchanging, or creating information. 

Principle Two: Support Performance

Once you have a good understanding of who the knowledge workers are, identify what they are responsible for accomplishing—that is, their critical work products. It is often helpful to use business processes as a framework for specifying key behaviors and associated work products—which is what performance is (the combination of behavior and its accomplishment), that can be supported through the provision of data or information. Once these key behaviors and work products have been identified, organize group design sessions to identify opportunities to support those key behaviors and work products through various knowledge resources (see Figure 3). 

Figure 3: Linking Knowledge Resources to Performance to Business Results

There are many types of knowledge resources that need to be considered (see Table 1). Begin by identifying discrete knowledge items that currently exist or that could be created to support performance. For example, there may be common documents that could be written more efficiently if there were templates containing the redundant formatting and content. There may be status logs or forms that might be completed more consistently if people had an exemplary sample to reference. Maybe there is a task that would be completed more accurately with a job aid or a checklist. 

Next, consider knowledge resources other than discrete knowledge items. For example, would certain data support decision making? Is there a need to archive email discussions, create on-line communities or institute a mentoring program? 

Table 1: Types of Knowledge Resources

Data	Reports  Databases White papers or research findings
Archives	Email or on-line discussions  Past work products
Collaboration	Teams  On the job coaching or mentoring programs  Communities of practice People profiles

Figure 4 is a very simple decision tree that can be used to ensure knowledge items with the highest probability of adding value to the organization are included in the KMS. In doing this exercise, you are likely to identify knowledge resources that could be re-used in many different situations. Especially concerning discrete knowledge items, the more you capture that can be re-used across many people and situations, the greater the impact will be on business results. This is because you are reducing costs and increasing profitability by achieving economies of scale.

Figure 4: Should It Be Included in the KMS?

There are many elements of a KMS that, if designed and implemented correctly, will result in capturing knowledge resources that support performance. A good KM strategy should identify these elements and how they will contribute to leveraging.

Principle Three: Make “Rules of Use” Explicit

Once the KMS contains a given knowledge resource, what prompts are in place for users to know when to use it? Are you relying on the user to know? If so, chances are, they won’t know. The KMS needs to be designed to prompt and guide the behavior of the users in order for the resources it contains to be used as often as possible. The following are several ideas for making these rules explicit.

• Incorporate business processes into the organizing structure of the KM application so that for any given process, users can see what knowledge resources are available to support their performance.
• Develop a knowledge map or index for users to reference that lists all of the knowledge resources available, to what business processes they are connected, and how they are related to each other.
• Coach managers to clearly and consistently communicate that they expect users to use knowledge resources whenever possible rather than re-inventing the wheel. They should continually give both positive and negative feedback appropriately. Turn “building on what already exists” into a goal for everyone.
• Integrate expectations for using and contributing to the KMS into everyday work practices so that users receive a consistent, pervasive message to share and re-use knowledge. I elaborate on this in the next principle.

Principle Four: Make it Part of the Way You Do Business

There are a number of ways to make using the KMS (which includes contributing to it) a part of the way business is done. Embedding these knowledge-sharing expectations into everyday work practices will not only help make the rules for using the KMS more explicit, it will result in better alignment between the KMS and the rest of the organization. In addition, users will be more likely to infer rules about the consequences of using or not using the KMS. The following are some ideas for making knowledge sharing the part of the way you do business:

• Involve managers and executive leaders in various aspects of the design and prepare them to be your front-line implementers. Without a strong implementation, with on-going, visible, and consistent endorsement by leaders, users will think using knowledge resources is optional. Accomplishing this requires a thorough change management strategy.
• Link the KMS goal (and annual system improvements) to the organizational mission statement, business and strategic plans, and business goals and objectives. This keeps KM a strategic concern and ensures it will continue to be aligned with the goals of the organization.
• Incorporate desired knowledge sharing behaviors (such as making suggestions, contributing knowledge items, and using existing knowledge resources) into job descriptions, reward systems, and evaluation or feedback systems. This lays the foundation for peers and leaders to deliver effective consequences.
• Use terms related to the KMS and to the business consistently¾develop a shared vocabulary in the organization. It may be helpful to create a corporate glossary or have a section of the KMS reserved for definitions of common terms.
• Roles with KM responsibility should be dispersed throughout the organization. If you want knowledge sharing to become a part of the way you do business, you need many change agents throughout the organization who can deliver a consistent message and effective consequences, continue to look for problems with the KMS and opportunities to improve it, and role model desired knowledge sharing behaviors.

Helping users identify when and how to use various parts of the KMS, such as particular knowledge items or when to contribute to the KMS, should be one of the most important goals of the KMS. This helps the KMS become ingrained in everyday work practices, which helps leverage corporate knowledge.

Principle Five: Check the Health of Your KMS Annually

Once your organization has implemented its KMS, what comes next? Remember the old adage, “all living systems must continue to adapt and evolve, or they will die.” The same is true for knowledge management systems. Try one or all of the following ideas once a year to ensure the KMS does not deteriorate from neglect after implementation.

1. Conduct a Knowledge Audit

Review content in the KM repository for accuracy and relevance. Look for duplicates and outdated versions of knowledge resources. There is usually a list of need-to-have and nice-to-have knowledge resources when organizations launch their KMS, take this opportunity to review the nice-to-have list that never made it into the KMS and determine if they can and should be added now. 

2. Organize KM-SWOT Sessions

A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis involves a mix of brainstorming and research conducted by small groups throughout a company. This exercise paints a detailed picture of the company's overall health. So, why not use this exercise to check the overall health of your KMS? When conducting this exercise for strategic planning purposes, the strengths and weaknesses are internally focused and opportunities and threats are externally focused; however, in this application, the focus is entirely internally focused. Organize an annual KM-SWOT session to critically assess the system:

•  Strengths: the characteristics of the KMS that help employees on the job and promote knowledge sharing
•  Weaknesses: the characteristics of the KMS that are less than ideal
• Opportunities: improvements that could be made as well as new knowledge needs
• Threats: those things that are not just a weakness but actually an obstacle to knowledge sharing

3. Conduct a User Satisfaction Survey

The simplest way to check the health of your KMS is to ask your users what they think of the system. A survey can give you a chance to gather quantitative data on the frequency of use, estimates of successful or unsuccessful key-word searching, the depth of buy-in and support from leaders across the company, and the intuitiveness of the organizing structure.

In Conclusion...

A KMS that drives the performance of its users will impact business results. The primary goal of any KMS should be to guide and prompt employee behavior and help them do their work.

• In order to have a KMS that drives performance, it has to capture knowledge resources that support performance, and leverage them.
• There will be certain roles within your organization that will benefit more from knowledge resources than will other roles in your organization. Strategically designing the KMS to provide maximum support to your knowledge workers will result in maximum impact on business results.
• No matter what resources the KMS contains, if users do not have a clear understanding of when and how to use those resources—they won’t use them.
• On-going management of the KMS cannot be neglected or left to chance. A KMS will continue to drive performance only if it continues to evolve and adapt to the changing business environment.