What is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge management (KM) is the application of a structured process to help information and knowledge flow to the right people at the right time. This helps employees efficiently and effectively find, understand, share, and use knowledge to create value. KM programs support a range of approaches—that is, tools and techniques to get knowledge where it needs to go— depending on the needs of the organization and its knowledge strategy. Most KM approaches are designed to:
- Bring employees together (in person or virtually) to collaborate and share knowledge
- Identify and transfer critical knowledge and expertise
- Manage and provide access to knowledge and information (including information about experts and colleagues)
Frequently Asked Questions in Knowledge Management
- Why do organizations invest in knowledge management?
- Do I need a formal knowledge strategy to be successful?
- What is the best way to transfer and retain critical knowledge?
- Do I need to invest in technology to launch a KM effort?
- How do I build a KM team?
- What are the most common skillsets KM professionals need to be successful?
- What partnerships are necessary to ensure a successful KM strategy?
- How can I create a knowledge sharing culture inside my organization?
- What is the next big thing in KM?
- Is knowledge management here to stay?
Introduction To Knowledge Management
APQC offers a self-paced training course introducing the concepts of knowledge management. Gain an in-depth understanding of knowledge management and learn the benefits of proven knowledge management approaches across the organization.
1. Why do organizations invest in knowledge management?
There are many reasons why organizations invest in KM. lot of senior experts are about to retire and the organization wants a way to document their know-how and experience, or a lot of new people get hired and KM is seen as a way to get them up to speed more quickly.
Other organizations turn to KM in response to change or crisis. A merger, acquisition, or restructuring can make an organization recognize the need to break down siloes between groups and improve cross-boundary knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Regardless of what motivated their launch, successful KM programs ultimately move beyond their original business case to address a range of knowledge needs and add value to the business in a variety of ways.
Additional APQC Resources
2. Do I need a formal knowledge strategy to be successful?
Yes, organizations without a documented KM strategy and roadmap will struggle to achieve their goals. So why is this important? We find that too many organizations decide they’re going to “do KM” without a clear idea of why or the specific goals they want to achieve. If you start by defining a strategy, it forces you to figure out what your organization needs in relation to knowledge and KM. What is it that KM can help the business do better?
The next step is to create a formal strategy and roadmap around the goals you identify. A clear strategy—one that articulates where you want to go and how you’ll get there—helps you align what you’re doing with the broader business strategy and build credibility for the tools and approaches you put in place. It also helps the KM group stay focused and jumpstarts conversations with internal business partners whose buy-in and support you’ll need along the way.
Additional APQC Resources
3. What is the best way to transfer knowledge?
There is no one “right way” to transfer knowledge, but we recommend asking four questions to help you decide on the right approach for each situation. Knowledge transfer can be as simple as dropping a pre-existing document into a content repository, or it can involve time-intensive activities such as facilitated meetings to capture lessons learned from a project or interviews with experts to document how they apply their knowledge to make crucial on-the-job decisions.
- How easily can the knowledge be put into documents or other explicit formats?
- To what extent do you know who will need the knowledge in the future?
- How quickly is the knowledge evolving or changing?
- At what speed do people need the knowledge being shared?
Additional APQC Resources
4. Do I need to invest in technology to launch a KM program?
If you’re developing a comprehensive KM effort, you’re probably going to need to invest in technology and partner with IT somewhere along the way. However, overemphasizing the role of technology is the most common mistake when it comes knowledge management. Many organizations turn to a software “solution” to fix their KM problems. But in APQC’s experience, expecting new technology to change employee behavior is like expecting a new car to make you a better driver.
Start by figuring out the problems you want to solve through KM and the specific goals you want to achieve. Armed with these details, think through the specific capabilities you need, and find out whether your corporate IT group has platforms in place that you can leverage or build on. You should also talk to stakeholder groups in the business to understand their needs, any systems they’re already using, and what they expect in terms of functionality and integration. Whatever tools you select, they should support your knowledge strategy.
Additional APQC Resources
5. How do I build a KM team?
When building a KM team, determine how and where your KM team will reside and how it will be structured. APQC finds that around half of surveyed KM programs are operating as a centralized team, meaning that oversight and implementation are consolidated within a single group. These groups are more likely to have defined KM strategies and manage a portfolio of common, consistent tools and approaches such as communities of practice, search and discovery (including AI/generative AI), lessons learned/after action reviews and expertise location to name a few.
A KM team’s responsibilities may include:
- Codifying, curating, and providing access to critical knowledge
- Enabling business-relevant collaboration, learning, and innovation
- Integrated people, process, and technology approaches
- A way to empower people by providing more complete and equitable access to information
A KM team’s roles may include both formal (KM leader, KM specialists, change management and/or communications lead, IT/business analyst) and informal roles (sponsors, community leaders, subject matter experts, champions).
Additional APQC Resources
6. What are the skillsets needed to effectively implement KM?
Core skillsets for KM teams today include: 1) project and program management skills, 2) consulting and customer centricity, 3) communication and influence, and 4) digital and data fluency. Most people don’t set out to work in knowledge management. KM professionals come from a variety of backgrounds such as IT, engineering, learning & development, communications and quality. One thing they all have in common is a passion to help organizations preserve their most critical knowledge
Each year, APQC also asks KM leaders and practitioners to identify the top skillsets for KM to develop. Currently, those top skillsets include:
- Change management
- Design thinking/human-centric design
- Critical thinking and problem-solving
- Partnership and collaboration.
Additional APQC Resources
7. What partnerships are necessary to ensure a successful KM strategy?
A typical KM team builds partnerships with organizations such as IT and digital, HR, learning and development, process improvement, and, of course, the business areas that KM serves. APQC recommends that you think outside the box when it comes to partnerships. Sometimes the need to partner is clear and immediate, and sometimes opportunities emerge through discussion or with the onset of new technology, changes in the business, or the changing workforce. To build trusted and effective partnerships, focus on three ingredients:
- Positioning: Position your KM team as a partner by demonstrating alignment with business needs and objectives.
- Relationships: Build relationships with key stakeholders to stay informed of changes in these needs and objectives.
- Time: Even if your KM strategy has strong executive support and is aligned with strategic objectives, your KM team won’t really be considered a trusted partner until you show you can be trusted—and that takes time.
Additional APQC Resources
8. How can I create a knowledge sharing culture inside my organization?
Creating a knowledge sharing culture starts by branding KM, leading by example to show the importance of KM, and keeping employees engaged. We’ve seen many KM programs falter because KM professionals think they must first transform their organizational cultures. However, we encourage you to think differently. Culture change is more often an outcome of knowledge sharing than a precursor to it. Here are some tips to influence the norms and behaviors of employees:
- Understand the current culture. Acknowledge and recognize the aspects of your current culture that are working before trying to change anything.
- Lead by example. Get executives to reinforce the need for KM and engage them as active and visible participants whenever possible.
- Brand KM. Use thoughtful messaging, formal communications pushes, and consistent rewards and recognition.
- Make KM fun. Determine what it takes to keep your target audience engaged, use humor to promote creativity and innovation, and introduce friendly competition.
Additional APQC Resources
9. What is the next big thing in KM?
Artificial intelligence is the biggest game-changer and next big thing in KM right now. Emerging technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming how people find and share knowledge. As a result, many organizations are looking to their KM teams to provide change management and other forms of support for AI adoption and implementation. KM leaders have an opportunity to play a strategic role in AI adoption, but only if they get out ahead of the curve.
Additional APQC Resources
10. Is knowledge management here to stay?
Knowledge management is here to stay as long as organizations recognize the need to connect employees to information, expertise, and one other. Every few months someone posts an article titled, “Is KM in Peril?” or “The Death of KM!” These headlines make for great clickbait, but if you look below the surface, the writer is usually defining KM very narrowly (for example, as a particular category of software). There are more stories of the role KM played in implementing virtual collaboration capabilities and building communities for millions of remote workers during the 2020 pandemic. Add to that the more recent hype of generative AI and the role KM is playing to drive this phenomenon within their organizations and improve productivity, content quality and access to experts for employees.
When defined broadly, knowledge management is a highly robust discipline that is represented in almost every large organization. Admittedly, it is practiced under many names—knowledge sharing, social learning, and virtual collaboration are common variations—and KM duties often get rolled into other functions such as strategy, IT, HR, and organizational learning.
Additional APQC Resources
APQC offers accredited knowledge management training and certification as an efficient and cost-effective way to learn the tools and techniques needed to improve your individual and organizational capabilities and performance.
Get Expert Guidance to Optimize Your KM Initiatives
Contact Our Advisory Services DirectorAPQC Advisory Services
You might be in the early stages of developing your organization’s first ever KM program. Or maybe you already have a KM strategy, but need help evolving your KM capabilities. At any stage of your KM strategy implementation, our expert consultants can provide individualized support and customized on-site training to help you accelerate and optimize your KM initiatives.
To learn more, contact our advisory services director:
