November is one of my favorite months of the year as we usher in cooler weather, fall decor, and the opportunity for APQC to speak at “KNOWvember” events. While I love researching and talking about the value of KM all year, I will be talking to members about KM’s increasing value to organizations, how KM can enhance sustainability efforts, artificial intelligence (AI) and as always, how KM can improve the everyday lives of knowledge workers (a person whose primary job involves managing and using information to solve complex problems, create new ideas, and generate value for the organization) every day!
Two years ago, an APQC blog talked about how KM makes knowledge workers more productive and less stressed out. While that is ALWAYS the goal of KM, today I want to discuss three additional areas that may contribute to knowledge worker stress and how KM can help.
1. Organizations are focused on operational efficiency and continuous improvement.
According to APQC’s 2024 priorities and trends research, a large number of organizations (42%) are prioritizing operational efficiency and continuous improvement as a key objective. Basically, learning how to do more with less. But employees often perceive this negatively and assume leaders only care about the bottom line and aren’t thinking about the impact to them.
You can likely blame the onset of emerging technologies, like generative AI, for the higher levels of focus on automation and efficiency. And while KM teams have ALWAYS been focused on improving productivity (both operational efficiency and effectiveness), I worry organizations in their rush to be competitive will forget the effectiveness part of the equation. Afterall, achieving greater efficiency means you are “doing things right,” such as eliminating manual steps in a process through automation. But achieving effectiveness means you are “doing the right things,” such as prioritizing the most critical work first or surfacing appropriate content in the flow of work.
In 2024, APQC research identified the biggest area of opportunity for KM is to help employees who feel overworked and frustrated with chaotic and disorganized information repositories, along with ensuring critical knowledge capture and transfer and embracing new technologies.
So, how can KM support the needs of knowledge workers and align with their organization’s priorities? Consider these proven practices:
- Identify Critical Knowledge: Leverage tools such as knowledge maps to pinpoint the most critical knowledge within the organization and focus continuous improvement efforts there.
- Collaborate with Process Teams: Ensure KM teams partner with process teams to effectively engage the right knowledge workers in continuous improvement opportunities.
- Engage Business Leaders: Partner with business leaders to leverage relevant KM approaches, such as knowledge transfer, communities of practice, cognitive computing, and collaboration tools to support priority business objectives and drive organizational success.
2. The race to implement AI is on.
If you have been involved with KM for a while, you know that AI has been part of the conversation long before 2022 when generative AI first emerged. Over the past two years, generative AI has seemed to take over the world. And while the hype has slowed for some, the impact and influence over how KM teams conceptualize knowledge sharing, search functionality, and content creation is changed forever. Not to mention, increased focus on data privacy and security issues.
Traditional AI already impacts the way people use, search for, and share knowledge with AI-driven technology like enterprise search that can quickly deliver the most relevant content to employees and reduce the time they spend searching for information. But with generative AI, you get suggested written content or other resources in response to a search. Very cool indeed! And organizations are now piloting tools focused on some common use cases (see below).
While you might think of AI as only an emerging technology, most experts and APQC research tell us it is primarily a cultural transformation. Ashu Roy, CEO at eGain, says that “generative AI is now automating and accelerating the manual process of creating and curating knowhow. That’s the impact. It completely changes the game.”
So, how can KM support the needs of knowledge workers and align to their organization’s obsession with AI? Consider these proven practices:
- Focus on structured content management. While it can be enhanced with AI itself, it is still necessary for KM to develop and manage the content lifecycle, quality of content and governance structure for their organization’s knowledge assets.
- Provide traditional KM approaches and tools (e.g., learning events, structured knowledge transfer, communities of practice, etc.) to ensure knowledge workers understand the everyday impact to their roles, the skills they need to be successful in the future and how to embrace a new world with AI in it. The best user experience happens when KM is streamlined, simplified, and integrated into the flow of work.
- Envision what your culture will look like once AI is in the picture. Will employees work with the fear that their jobs are at risk, or will AI function as an indispensable ally?
3. Knowledge workers are tired of constant change.
Organizational transformations are the norm now, with a focus on reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, digital shifts and social and global issues that consume our news channels and everyday lives. Economic uncertainty can lead to layoffs and unexpected retirements that require rapid response to capture knowledge and as a result, many KM professionals must carefully balance “putting out fires” with more strategic efforts. All the while addressing the additional stress this puts on a knowledge worker’s engagement.
I am certain this is why for four years running, APQC research identified the number one skillset for KM teams to develop as change management, along with other human-centric skills such as design thinking, critical thinking, partnership, and collaboration. And as we are preparing to survey our members on 2025 KM priorities soon, I predict change management will continue as a top priority.
So, how can KM support the needs of knowledge workers in ever-changing and uncertain times? Consider these proven practices:
- Make KM a business priority. Ensure you have a holistic strategy that supports business priorities and implement foundational KM approaches, such as communities of practice, lessons learned, and structured knowledge transfer in addition to technology solutions.
- Upskill KM teams with change management. Change management includes more than communication and training, it is also about engaging with executive sponsors, coaching leaders, rewarding and recognizing knowledge workers and mastering the art of appreciative inquiry (the “other AI”).
- Keep people at the heart of your KM strategy. KM is a structured system to help people find information, knowledge and experts when they need it so they can become more efficient and effective, ultimately create value for the organization.
For more information, consider these additional resources:
- Interview with Ashu Roy, CEO at eGain: Work at the Speed of Knowledge: Generative AI and the Future of Knowledge Management
- 2024 Knowledge Management Priorities and Predictions
- Emerging Technologies for Knowledge Management Survey Report