Measuring the state of KM: Part III

In the past two issues of Inside Knowledge, Robert Hoss and Art Schlussel have demonstrated how to set in place a strategy for measuring knowledge management maturity, plus provided some common metrics that can enable organisations to get started. In this final instalment, they discuss how to act on the outcomes of those metrics – including some of the activities in place at the US Army.

People/culture

Knowledge management programme (overall)

If your organisation needs help getting an indication of its health in terms of knowledge flow, creation and transfer – and ultimately knowledge management (KM) processes, strategies, and approaches – contact the Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS) to request a knowledge assessment (visit https://www.us.army.mil/suite/doc/12505065). The knowledge assessment will most often identify performance gaps between what we are doing and want we should be doing, and highlight the difference between what we know and what we should know, to perform at the desired level. In turn, this will lead to a knowledge strategy that enables organisations to develop KM approaches and methods to close the gaps;
BCKS personnel, who are trained in KM, will come to your organisation and conduct a KM assessment; and,
For a practical KM ‘how-to’ guide, see the BCKS Companion Site to FM 6-01.1 Knowledge Management Section Proponent Validated KM ‘How To’ Handbook at https://www.us.army.mil/suite/kc/11032288.

Culture of collaboration

Changing the culture of an organisation will not happen overnight. One way to encourage sharing is to create an incentive programme that rewards it. Monetary rewards are not always possible for military, Army and DoD civilians. Instead, for example, we can highlight a knowledge-sharing team on the organisation’s intranet, portal or public website (as long as no sensitive information is shared). A picture of that team and an article or case study about its work works well; and,
We recognise outstanding individual, group or organisational efforts in implementing the Army knowledge management (AKM) principles in support of mission goals and objectives, by nominating them for the CIO/G6’s AKM Awards (AKMA). These awards recognise innovation in knowledge sharing work and activities that implement any of the 12 AKM principles to support mission objectives. The awards are annual, with one winner selected within each of the AKM measurement dimensions – people/culture, process, and technology.

Communities of practice

When we need to form a community of practice (CoP), we utilise the BCKS KM Section Handbook (a virtual resource), chapter 6, ‘KM Processes Section 4, How to Start a Professional Forum’. This is an excellent reference and can be viewed at https://www.us.army.mil/suite/collaboration/GetDocument.do?doid=12013219;
Need better facilitation? See the Army Professional Forum Facilitator Guide at https://forums.bcks.army.mil/secure/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=689255 for assistance; and,
We also browse the 50+ BCKS professional forums to see how successful communities operate, at https://forums.bcks.army.mil/secure/communitybrowser.aspx?

Face-to-face or ‘brown bag’ meetings

Encourage departments to conduct regularly scheduled brown bag lunches, where topics are discussed to acquire and share knowledge.

Online suggestion box

Implement a programme to enable the capture of good ideas from the workforce, who are always placed well to come up with ways of improving efficiency. They see inefficient processes everyday and will have clear views on how to improve such areas. For example, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has instituted a programme it calls ‘Cross Boundaries’ (for more information visit http://www.toffler.com/shownews.asp?newsid=46). This actively encourages the workforce to submit their ideas to solve problems, improve operations and make the organisation better. The DIA director chairs monthly meetings, to which employees can bring any ideas they may have on how to enable the organisation to function more effectively, or areas they think need some improvement. They present their idea and become the primary advocate and owner of that idea. The DIA also provides a ‘cross boundaries coach’ and resources to enable people to collaborate and implement their idea; and
Ensure that leadership chair the meetings once a quarter. All ideas need to be looked at and an incentive programme developed. A committee needs to be established to review the ideas and those that are deemed worthwhile should have the appropriate resource allocated to them. You could perhaps have an ‘innovator of the quarter’ award ceremony for the best idea presented – the goal could be four good ideas per year.

Capture knowledge of key retiring or departing employees

You don’t need to capture all the knowledge of key retiring or departing employees, just the critical know-how that they possess. Ideally, someone ‘right seat’ rides with outgoing personnel, but when that is not possible, utilise these methods –
Capture key intellectual property from the employees during their daily activities; and,
Have employees create continuity/smart books – basically notes on how they do their job. Establish a short questionnaire that quickly captures some of their critical knowledge before employees depart. This could be a standard operating procedure (SOP) for creating a continuity/smart book for departing employees, or could be part of out-processing. At a minimum, each departing employee should leave behind the following –
Duty description;
Contact list;
Goals and objectives;
Key projects/deadlines of ongoing projects;
Lessons learned and best business practices for making the job easier – for example, tips and trick learned;
Key documents that are located on the organisation’s portal;
Useful websites – also, check favourites and bookmarks; and,
Interview the expert, video the session and make those videos available online.

Chief knowledge officer (CKO)

Understand your organisation’s strategic goals and develop a KM strategy for your organisation – for example, based on the AKM Strategy Plan Template at https://www.us.army.mil/suite/doc/15242630 (on the Army Knowledge Strong (AKS) website at https://www.us.army.mil/suite/grouppage/107678);
Look for quick wins where KM initiatives will provide real results for your organisation – for example, concentrate on inefficient processes and aim to position KM as indispensible to your organisation;
Request Basic KM training;
We encourage people to become a member of our online resource, KMNet, where they can search a wealth of KM expertise and share ideas with other KM practitioners (https://forums.bcks.army.mil/secure/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=341623&lang=en-US);
Develop a KM training programme to be implemented across the organisation;
Establish a KM working group and charter. The group should meet quarterly and it useful to include key individuals across the organisation as members;
A wealth of information on KM is contained on BCKS’s AKO site at https://www.us.army.mil/suite/grouppage/35717

Process

Efficient processes

Conduct a knowledge assessment of your organisation – determine inefficient processes that can be improved (and whether or not they require IT solutions), then work on streamlining those that can be performed manually. Then work with your IT development in developing solutions to automate inefficient technological processes. Some of the processes that the Army is looking to implement are –
Staffing of documents through workflow;
Tracking of tasking (automation);
Significant event reporting (automation);
Establishing a trip report document library;
Creating web-based enterprise calendaring; and,
Enterprise conference room scheduling

Technology

Repository/content management system

We advise our teams to select a system that is Army approved (for example, Joint Interoperability Test Command (JTIC) approved), which has a NETCOM Networthiness certificate and is supported by the IT department. For example, SharePoint Portal Server or IBM Lotus Domino;
For AKO training, see the BCKS AKO administrator training section at https://www.us.army.mil/suite/portal.do?$p=557156;
For SharePoint training, see Microsoft’s SharePoint Server 2007 training courses at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102358581033.aspx;
For additional SharePoint training go to BCKS’s SharePoint training section at: https://www.us.army.mil/suite/collaboration/GetDocument.do?doid=13962175.

Search

Collaborate with your IT department to work towards implementing one search engine to locate information across all sources of data.

Expertise location system

Work with your IT department to develop an expertise location system. The application should provide a free text search and a ‘subject matter categories’ drop down. Many organisations have an online phonebook system that lacks an expertise field. Rather than invest in a new system, modify your existing one to display user’s expertise. Enable the user to easily input their expertise. Every six months, users’ expertise should be updated and a simple e-mail to update your profile or area of expertise should be sent out.

Lessons learned management system

Work with your IT department to create a lessons learned management system. Create a process for capturing and approving lessons learned;
The Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) is an example of such a system. CALL collects and analyses data from a variety of current and historical sources, including Army operations and training events, and produces lessons for military commanders, staff, and students. The system disseminates these lessons and other related research materials through a variety of print and electronic media, including the website;
The format for a ‘lesson learned’ is as follows –
Title;
Observation;
Discussion;
Lesson Learned/TTP;
Recommendations; and,
References;

Best practices management system

Work with your IT department to develop a best practices management system, including a process for approving best practices to be posted. Here is a potential format for such a system –
Best practices title;
Proof of concept;
Categories of practice;
People;
Process;
Technology;
Organisational categories;
Summary;
Situation before initiative began;
Process;
Results achieved;
Lessons learned;
Transferability;
References;

Virtual collaboration for meetings

Get familiar with Defense Connect Online (DCO) at https://www.dco.dod.mil/ Adobe Connect/ Button 2;
Encourage your people to attend DCO live training at https://www.dco.dod.mil/public/dsp/liveTraining.cfm;
Take the DCO On-Demand Training at https://www.dco.dod.mil/public/dsp/tutorials.cfm;
Find a classroom in your organisation and demonstrate to capabilities of DCO. Train users how to use DCO or IBM Sametime; and,
Conduct a pilot with organisations that conducts a lot of TDY. Record metrics to see if the organisation saves time and money by utilising virtual meeting tools.

In summary
The collection of metrics is vital to improving KM in your organisation, enabling you to measure what matters and whether that metric confirms that knowledge is being shared effecitvely.

This series has covered practical ways to measure the KM maturity of an organisation and demonstrated that, by reviewing accepted KM initiatives used throughout the KM community and adding additional metrics based on your strategic objectives, an organisation can determine useful metrics for those KM initiatives.

The measurement of KM initiatives, just like KM itself, is both an art and a science. The metrics in the paper are merely a guide and KM leaders will need to apply their best judgment to determine which initiatives and metrics make sense for their organisation. Using common metrics used in the KM community and the AKM Maturity Indicator, your organisation should be able get a better measure of its KM maturity.

Robert Hoss is a KM senior project analyst at the US Army War College. He can be contacted at robert-hoss@usarmy.mil

Art Schlussel is a KM senior project analyst at the US Army War College. He can be contacted at art.schlussel@usarmy.mil

Research for this series was funded by US Army HQDA CIO/G6, Dr. Robert Neilson, KM advisor to the CIO/G6.