Start Your Program

The first step in creating a call to action for KM is to define the specific benefits your organization will realize by enhancing the flow of knowledge (the “value proposition”). Look closely at your organization’s strategic goals and talk to executives to understand current and future knowledge needs.

Here are a couple of popular APQC resources that can help you define your KM value proposition: 

• 20 Questions to Ask Yourself When Developing a KM Business Case
• Defining a Value Proposition and Business Case for Your KM Program

Organizations create and share an enormous amount of knowledge every day, but not all of it is important. To use resources effectively, you must separate business-critical knowledge from the rest of the noise. 

Knowledge mapping is the most effective way to gather input and create consensus on what constitutes critical knowledge. To create a knowledge map, you will need to understand your business strategy and pinpoint knowledge domains aligned with that strategy. 

Your organization’s knowledge strategy should be directly linked to its mission and goals. Alignment often occurs at the level of business units or functional areas, each of which has distinct knowledge needs. When KM activities further strategic priorities, they are more likely to gain the support of senior leaders, who in turn will advocate knowledge sharing and model knowledge-sharing behaviors.

Here is a popular APQC resource that can help you align your KM efforts to business priorities: 

• Finding & Interviewing KM Stakeholders (Article) 

If you want to build a sustainable KM program, support from senior leaders is critical. Executives lend credibility to knowledge-sharing and collaboration approaches and convey their importance to the organization. This, in turn, promotes middle management and workforce buy-in. The best way to secure endorsement from senior leaders is to align KM with business priorities, as described above (“Align KM to Business Priorities & Function”). 

Here is a popular APQC resource that can help you get support from senior leaders in your organization: 

• Developing a Knowledge Strategy That Senior Leaders Can Get Behind