Tips and tricks for creating a knowledge management program at KMWorld 2025

While looking to the AI-powered future and dreaming about overcoming productivity lulls of the past, it’s easy to forget about what makes a knowledge management practice a success.

At KMWorld 2025, Stan Garfield, founder, SIKM Leaders Community and Author, 12 Steps to KM Success (and 6 other books), brought things back to basics with his workshop, “KM Tips, Tools & Techniques.” A longtime KM practitioner and writer, Garfield shared 30 lessons learned over 30 years during the workshop.

He offered 10 tips for starting a KM program. This includes:

1. Don’t start by rolling out a KM system
2. Avoid the top 40 pitfalls
3. Follow the Top 10 priorities
4. Understand why people don’t share
5. Show people why they should share
6. Set KM Goals for employees
7. Establish promotion requirements
8. Recognize and reward desired behaviors
9. Collect content and connect people
10. Lead by example, practice what you preach, and model desired behaviors

“You have to figure out why you’re doing it,” Garfield. “Put a good person in place and have a team.”

There are 10 priorities that should be set in place for a KM program, comprising of:

1. Putting a strong leader and team in place
2. Balancing, people process and technology
3. Establishing a governance and collaboration process
4. Holding annual face-to-face meetings
5. Communicating regularly
6. Getting senior executives to actively support the program
7. Engaging with other KM programs
8. Focusing on delivering tangible business benefits
9. Delivering regular improvements
10. Setting three basic goals for employees and sticking to them for at least a year

“Overtime those goals might change,” Garfield said. “I recommend picking few goals and ones that you can communicate effectively. If you can’t measure it, it’s probably not a good goal.”

A partnership with the IT department is crucial to getting tech systems implemented, improved, or acquired, he stressed.

“Add a member to the KM team so they’re a fundamental part of it,” Garfield said.

Software should be easy, intuitive to use, flexible, simple, provide rich functionality, and stays consistent.

Taxonomy is another part of knowledge management that should involve a team. It’s a standard classification system as to how content is defined and how it can be found throughout the organization. Taxonomy can be used for metadata, navigation, and searching to find information that is needed, he explained.

“This is something AI can help with so it may not need to be done as manually as in the past,” Garfield said.

He recommended forming communities of practice, which enables knowledge sharing to occur more naturally. Community is a group of people who share a specialty or passion for a specific topic. The community needs a subject, members, interaction, a leader, and the enthusiasm of the members to spend time with the community.

“This is important for when people need help and when they want to share, they have a place to do so,” Garfield said.

Within these communities of practice, discussions should be threaded on a forum or community board. Microsoft Engage is an example of a tool for group communication. A knowledge help desk is also helpful for providing support. Team spaces are important for sharing documents, libraries, schedules, and files. Those tools can also conduct meetings and surveys, as well as store this information.

There are a variety of techniques to implement a thriving community that fosters a knowledge management practice. One of the most important things is to subscribe to notifications from the community so you’re informed about what’s going on.

People should be encouraged and motivated to participate in the KM initiative. An incentive program works well to keep people engaged, Garfield noted.

The real value of KM is when lessons learned, and proven practices are reused to avoid reinventing the wheel or making the same mistakes twice.  

“We are fascinated by what is new, but tried and true approaches can be more effective,” Garfield said. “We need good use cases for AI and be able take the time to learn how to use it effectively. Keep track of what’s new but don’t get obsessed with it.”  

KMWorld returned to the J.W. Marriott in Washington D.C. on November 17-20, with pre-conference workshops held on November 17.

KMWorld 2025 is a part of a unique program of five co-located conferences, which also includes Enterprise Search & Discovery, Enterprise AI World, Taxonomy Boot Camp, and Text Analytics Forum.