Whether you are starting a new knowledge management (KM) program in 2025 or continuing to evolve and expand an existing program, it’s important to be able to show value now and into the future. A clearly articulated strategy and roadmap ensures the KM team remains focused on goals that support the business, helps secure stakeholder buy-in and engagement, and provides alignment and credibility to the work of the KM team.
Organizations with mature KM programs typically have a clearly defined strategic direction for their KM capabilities. Showing strategic alignment will improve the value of each KM capability you implement and enhance the intended benefit to your business. This has never been more important for your organization considering the large number of retirements happening due to baby boomers leaving the workforce and knowledge loss this creates. Or organizations who are hyper focused on operational efficiency gains and anxious to implement artificial intelligence (AI) to stay competitive.
Over decades of research, APQC has found mature KM organizations focus on five important practices to make sure KM is aligned with what matters most to their business:
- START SMALL: Begin with experiments focused on a specific business need or challenge. Knowledge management is a journey, not a project or a tool. Leading organizations begin by selecting a specific business need and designing KM solutions that address that need.
- STAY ALIGNED: Keep KM’s mission, vision, and work aligned with business goals and strategies. Aligning a proven KM capability, like a community of practice or robust content management, to an immediate business need is a great starting point for setting a strategic direction for KM. Then, build on this by continuing to scale and support business objectives.
- REGULARLY ASSESS AND BENCHMARK: KM strategy is not a “one and done” endeavor. Leading organizations assess their KM maturity (Figure 1) regularly by using APQC’s Knowledge Management Capability Assessment Tool. Organizations that regularly assess and benchmark their KM programs not only improve their level of KM maturity but also outperform their peers when it comes to aligning KM to business strategy and expanding KM to new domains over time.
- REMAIN FLEXIBLE: Learn to adapt to changes and disruptions in your organization. APQC has found that mature KM programs reevaluate and refresh their priorities regularly so that the KM strategy evolves in line with the business. This ability to adjust enables KM to continue providing value in moments of disruption, whether it comes in the form of new technology, rapid growth, supply chain outages, environmental factors, or something else.
- EVOLVE AND SCALE. Leading organizations expand their KM efforts as opportunities arise by leveraging partnerships and buy-in from early successes and continuing to respond to new business needs. For most mature KM programs, the ultimate goal is a consistent enterprise program that promotes standardization and takes advantage of scale. Leverage APQC’s Knowledge Management Framework (Figure 2) to get started and track progress as KM expands to an enterprise level.
Knowledge Management is a journey—not a project or a technology—and people remain at the heart of it. Whether your organization is starting a new KM program or continuing to evolve and expand an existing program, it is critical to have a documented strategy and focus on ALL the essentials.
Remember that leading organizations remind us to:
- focus on what matters—business issues and tangible value;
- always communicate KM’s role in helping knowledge flow throughout the organization;
- reuse KM best practices rather than reinventing the wheel;
- recognize that people hoard their time and energy, not their knowledge;
- break down the barriers for people to participate in KM activities;
- remain aware that people don’t know what they know until a specific question is asked; and
- measure success! We all need to continuously show value.
Additional resources available:
APQC's Levels of Knowledge Management Maturity