Master These Five KM Practices for Success

Identify key roles and skills essential to KM

KM teams are responsible for a collection of approaches to help both explicit and tacit knowledge flow to the right people at the right time so everyone can be more efficient and effective. The critical work carried out by KM teams means that it is essential to understand the key roles, responsibilities, and skill sets necessary to effectively execute a KM strategy.

Understanding and continuing to develop critical skills within the KM team or building partnerships with internal functions to help augment these skill sets will further the KM value proposition. (Note: Values in the graph displayed do not add up to 100% due to a “select up to three” question N=219.)

Through its KM Benchmarking research, APQC found that a typical KM team’s responsibilities include the following:

♦ Codifying, curating, and providing access to critical knowledge

♦ Enabling business-relevant collaboration, learning, and innovation

♦ Integrating people, process, and technology approaches

♦ Finding ways to empower people by providing more complete and equitable access to information

APQC also found that business partnerships and embedded KM roles within the business (both formal and informal) help connect central KM teams to subject matter experts and end-user groups, which in turn ensures that knowledge sharing, access, and reuse occur as part of day-to-day operations.

Almost two-thirds of KM programs have business representatives who support KM awareness and training and representatives who identify opportunities to apply KM in their parts of the business. It is also a good practice to gain buy-in from other groups by emphasizing how these knowledge-sharing activities can help individuals and their teams get their work done more efficiently and effectively.

Through its 2024 KM priorities and challenges survey, APQC found that change management and design thinking are among the most highly demanded skills for KM teams to develop. Almost one-third of respondents also reported critical thinking and problem solving along with partnership and collaboration as top skill sets. Most organizations will likely see continued value in partnering with KM teams to enhance their ability to leverage AI for business value as well. Understanding and continuing to develop these critical skills within the KM team or building partnerships with internal functions to help augment these skill sets will further the KM value proposition.

According to APQC research, change management has been the top skill set to focus on not just this year but also for the previous 4 years. Managing change effectively has become a challenge as the workforce faces an ever-increasing rate of change and corresponding “change fatigue.” Through its change management research, APQC has found at least five practices that help to drive new behaviors and support employees through change:

1. Building trust is an essential strategy for driving engagement. Upper and middle managers should seek out opportunities for interactive, two-way exchanges of information rather than solely pushing information out to employees.

2. Role modeling and coaching are the two critical areas senior leaders and managers can focus on to support change and ensure desired behaviors.

3. Training plays a vital role in improving the likelihood that changes will stick. There has been a shift away from formal, classroom-based training to on-the-job training, as well as distance learning, rich media tools such video, and contextual help that imparts information when needed.

4. Rewards and recognition can look different for employees depending on the circumstances and their own preferences, so it is important to diversify the types of rewards and recognition offered.

5. Ongoing monitoring and incorporating desired behaviors into performance reviews are key to motivating employees to adopt new skills and activities, as well as ensuring that the changes stick.

Purposefully thinking about knowledge flow begins with leveraging APQC’ s Knowledge Flow Process Framework.