Creativity and Innovation for KM Programs

The second in a series of videos about knowledge management, creativity, and innovation. In this episode, Stephanie Barnes (www.realisation-of-potential.com) and John Girard (www.johngirard.net) discuss knowledge management and why collective intelligence is worthy of note.

Law firms, like other professional services, are constantly looking to improve our knowledge-management strategies, i.e., to share and reuse valuable work product and leverage institutional knowledge. When properly executed, these programs translate into efficiency, higher quality work, happier clients, and more engaged employees.

"The Knowledge team took an incredibly complex backend product—one that searches a content-management system, matter-profiling system, client database, HR database and lawyer bios—and made the experience feel simple."

White & Case, a global law firm with 41 offices in 29 countries, set out to do exactly this in 2014 when it decided to invest in its intranet as a key knowledge tool for the firm. It took more than two years of research, design and development but the Knowledge team produced an award-winning product that supports 5,000 lawyers and staff and gives White & Case a platform to continue innovating.

There were several factors critical to success.

Homepage of the new White & Case intranet

Knowledge Reputation

When taking on a high-risk project, it helps to have a reputation as an innovative department. The Knowledge Department was formed in 2008 to help collect, organize and connect people to the firm’s collective knowledge. By the time the intranet project came about, Knowledge had pioneered expanding a successful professional-support-lawyer function and instituted an enterprise search tool for the firm. Through the success of these programs, the department had built strong relationships with lawyer allies and become known for driving change.

Leadership Buy-In

The old intranet was known for being inflexible and difficult to navigate, which created big challenges but also opportunities. The project was not an intranet upgrade but a complete revitalization. Since this was a priority project, Chairman Hugh Verrier created a partner-led Steering Committee at the outset. This team of 10 partners and business leaders helped define a clear mandate: the new Connect had to win its audience back. It had to be trustworthy, reliable and intuitive—built around the user’s needs.

Broad Engagement

Early on, the Knowledge team realized the project also needed a broad group of colleagues to serve as a sounding board and test group for new ideas. The 400-person Sounding Community, a demographically representative group of White & Case colleagues, was established. At its inception, this community represented 10 percent of the firm and throughout the project answered surveys, gave feedback, and tested the product prior to launch. The project team made a point of following up after an outreach to let the full group know the results, which made for a more powerful engagement.

The Sounding Community used interactive software to conduct usability tests like this. 

By the time the new intranet launched, the Knowledge team had ready ambassadors in most local offices. Each member of the Sounding Community was given a branded mug, to visibly note that they were part of the intranet team. Their involvement made a global project resonate on a local level. 

Quality Product

None of the change-management processes would have made a difference if the new intranet did not deliver. With the strong partnership of the Steering Committee, Sounding Community and Knowledge team, the firm were able to produce a new intranet that was fast, easy to navigate, integrated with key firm systems, and mobile-friendly. It delivered on the Steering Committee’s vision. Shortly after launch, a survey of end users found a 97 percent satisfaction rate, as opposed to 53 percent with the old system.

One of the best innovations from the new intranet was an improved search experience.

The Knowledge team took an incredibly complex backend product—one that searches a content-management system, matter-profiling system, client database, HR database and lawyer bios—and made the experience feel simple.

Whereas the enterprise search had been siloed from the old intranet—and built largely for advanced searchers—on the new intranet the Knowledge team simplified the point of entry into a single search bar for both intranet and enterprise search and kept users within the frame of the intranet when viewing results.

In addition, the team knew from interviews that many users preferred to search for intranet content rather than browse for it. In order to accommodate this, the search bar was built to serve as a navigation tool; after three keystrokes, it fills in the names of colleagues, sites and global tools as recommended results. 

Search bar showing predictive typing, and recommended results for sites and people.

Summary

White & Case was able to successfully bring the firm back to a new intranet, and begin using it as a valuable knowledge-management tool, by prioritizing the project at the highest levels and having a plan for broader engagement across the global platform. Now the challenge is to keep growing the product to help move the firm into a truly digital workspace. 

As a small and growing knowledge management team, we are always looking for ways to engage our people. The FIFA World Cup 2018 presented a perfect opportunity for our us to create an internal campaign at our company, Moorhouse Consulting, modelled on the World Cup. It’s not hard to get swept up in the competitive spirit of the World Cup - even if you’re not a die-hard football fan. This enthusiasm was the wave we wanted to surf.

Our aim was to get people to share knowledge and understand the processes and benefits of knowledge management.

So what did we learn? Here are five things:

Keep it snappy, make it sassy

Aligning our campaign with the football World Cup was a good move. It generated excitement and competition. There was already a high level of enthusiasm about the football: all we had to do was harness it.

It could work with any other major event or cultural phenomenon. This could be another sporting event (the Olympics, Rugby World Cup, Wimbledon), a TV series (Game of Thrones, Love Island), or a contemporary craze (Tinder, anyone?). Linking it to something that people are already enthusiastic about will get you half way there.

Get your top dogs barking

It turned out that those teams who did the best overall had leaders who motivated their team to participate. The method of motivation varied: some offered carrots, others beat their sticks. What mattered was that the leaders were enthusiastic, competitive and wanted their team to win.

Buddy up

Our campaign team included two employees who were already working together on the same client project. This turned out to be an advantage: they could meet face to face, had similar working hours, and the same types of client pressures. If your campaign team members are already working closely together, it makes it much more efficient to get organised and move forward.

No single players

We found that in most teams, there was a star performer (an ‘MVP’, if you like), who scored the most points for the team. If you can get people to share the enthusiasm and improve the volume of participation, that will make your campaign more successful. One way of doing this could be to award bonus points for team work.

Turn the spark into a flame

If nothing else, we learned that our people are a competitive bunch. It only takes a little stoking to get the competitive flame burning. Make the most of it by gamifying your campaign, and offering incentives. There is a little child in all of us, and the prospect of a reward for doing a Good Thing is, of course, too tempting to resist.

In summary, we learned that there are a few fundamental things that can help you drive a successful internal engagement campaign.  Linking your campaign to a non-work phenomenon that gets people excited is a good idea. You can never go wrong with rewards and incentives. And participation from leadership is a major propeller. Keep it simple. Make it fun.   

In a recent post on Lucidea.com, well-known KM expert, Stan Garfield shared his tips for "Seeking Outside Help" in selling KM to others within your organization.  We at KMI have found that this is a common issue faced by knowledge managers, and hope you find Stan's advice useful. . .   

You don’t have to go it alone to sell KM to others in your organization. Take advantage of outside help by scheduling visits with others who are doing KM well, joining and participating in KM communities, using industry analyst reports, or using an outside consultant.

If you decide to seek outside help (and I believe you should), and you plan to schedule visits with other knowledge managers who are “doing KM well”, it’s important to prepare. First, identify people to visit by attending conferences, listening to webinars, participating in communities, and reading publications, blogs, and books. Good advisor candidates are people who make a major impression, are engaged in similar efforts, or are in the same industry. Of course, as you are seeking out these advisor candidates, you are continually learning!

Once you’ve identified and approached a group of potential advisors, prepare as you would for any informational interview. Below is a list of questions that should lead to a rich conversation about promoting knowledge management to leaders and end users. Be prepared to share your own experiences in these areas; peer mentoring is bidirectional.

• To whom have you had to sell KM within your organization?
• How did you go about it?
• What obstacles did you encounter, and how did you overcome them?
• How do you educate stakeholders and users?
• How do you communicate with stakeholders and users?
• How do you motivate people to demonstrate the desired behaviors?
• How do you work with IT?
• What other functions do you work with, and how do you work with them?
• What are your top three tips for selling KM?

If you’d like to read more on this topic, please consider my latest book, published by Lucidea Press, Proven Practices for Promoting a Knowledge Management Program, which offers a broad range of advice and insights drawn from my career as a KM practitioner.

Can KM be your "Superpower"?  Vanessa DiMauro of Leader Networks thinks so!  She shares a few tips for boosting your career in her recent blog post, which we are passing along to you today.

"Why KM Is Your Superpower"

Remember back in January when I predicted that, in 2018, more and more companies would hire knowledge managers? My crystal ball has served me well. We’re only a few months into the new year and a quick search of Indeed.com shows hundreds of KM jobs at big-name companies like Liberty Mutual, Comcast, Bristol Myers Squibb, Bain, Best Buy, Dana Farber, and Goodwin Proctor.

That’s because companies are increasingly realizing that knowledge managers have super powers. They can codify internal information so it can be tapped to meet customer needs. They can help organizations break silos and jump across organizational boundaries. And they can ensure that the right information—or the right person—gets to the right customer at the right time. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a knowledge manager!

Needless to say, it’s a great time to consider advancing your KM career. Here are three ways you can do just that:

Envision your role differently: You may be a knowledge manager already, but you might not know it. Often, professionals working in corporate communications, HR, or IT play an important KM role although it’s not part of their title. So make a list of the hats you wear and the functions you perform. Are you seeing things like capturing, organizing, and disseminating information? Developing processes that inform decision-making? Sounds like KM to me. Consider rewriting your job description to put KM front and center so that you can be recognized for the valuable work you’re already doing.

Steep yourself in expertise: Because KM capabilities are in demand, you can advance your career by reading everything you can get your hands on and following the thought leaders who have their finger on the industry’s pulse. Stan Garfield fits the bill on both counts. He publishes a treasure trove of articles, presentations, and resources on LinkedIn and on his blog. If you want to get smart or smarter on all things KM, Stan is your man.

Take the plunge: If you’re ready to take your KM career to the next level, consider pursuing a Master of Science Degree in Information and Knowledge Strategy at Columbia University. This program is designed to help business leaders across all sectors align business strategy with knowledge strategy and design and build information and collaboration products that drive growth and enable success. I’m proud to teach the capstone course for this program, in which students execute a consulting project for an organization that needs to improve its information and knowledge processes or expand revenue opportunities from knowledge-enabled products. It’s an incredible way to get in-depth, real-world, hands-on KM experience. And the faculty is certainly follow-worthy – be sure to check out my Capstone cohort Madelyn Blair, Nita Gupta, Tim Powell,  and Chris Samuels to get a feel for the power behind the program.

In an era when technological advances and economic shifts are making many jobs obsolete, investing in a KM career is about as future proof as it gets. My next prediction for folks who follow this path: you will be heavily recruited!

KM Institute would like to add:  If you don't have a bundle of cash or a couple of years to spend on a Master's Degree, consider earning your Certified Knowledge Manager or Specialist certification with KMI.  We hold public classes every few weeks in the Washington, DC area, or we will come to your location to conduct a private classes for groups of 10 or more.  See Events for upcoming classes.