Implementing Knowledge Management Projects

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March 16, 1998

Implementing Knowledge Management Projects

By Frank Kowalkowski and Jeff Angus

nowledge management is both simple and complicated. There are many things that have to go "right" to succeed: The knowledge must be useful, organized, available, and able to contribute to the enterprise's performance. Based on past projects, we suggest the following:

Understand the difference between corporate knowledge management and local knowledge management and choose an appropriate mix. Local knowledge is what employees need to get their jobs done well. Corporate knowledge is what the top executives view as strategic.
Perform a brief assessment of knowledge opportunities. This usually requires expert help and is a short time-frame effort. Expect an investment yield of 10-to-1 from the first opportunity.
Start small --focus on one department or group and build on that success to advance the system through other groups. A typical group size for a first project should be about 15 people.
Keep design teams small --two to three people for a small project and five to seven for a large project. Also, make sure there's one full-time project leader accountable for success.
Set a short time frame for the completion of the first project. People lose interest and momentum if the project is too long.
Revamp your incentive system to give rewards for information-sharing behavior (publishers of knowledge) and disincentives for information-hoarding.
Resist the urge to create a top-down definition for the kinds of k nowledge to manage and the forms it may take. Encourage anyone who might have critical knowledge to help design contents, form and delivery mechanisms.
Avoid large projects that depend on extensive technology. Large projects require the knowledge to be already structured and the content readily available (like that in most large consulting firms).
The use of simple technology has high rewards. Consider inexpensive tools for desktop knowledge management to help identify knowledge use patterns useful for the whole company.