13 KM Insights for Successful Knowledge Managers

Stan Garfield
In my latest book, Proven Practices for Promoting a Knowledge Management Program, I share a number of keys to success (Chapter 12) for KM practitioners implementing knowledge management initiatives within the corporate world.
Here is my baker’s dozen, in no particular order:
1. Collect content; connect people
- Link to repositories within discussions
- Collect basic details in repositories; connect for more
- Enable search for content, discussions, and people; use formal taxonomy, social tags, and best bets
2. Try things out; improve and iterate
- Implement sooner, not later
- Solicit feedback
- Make improvements; repeat the cycle
3. Lead by example; model behaviors
- Practice what you preach
- Post, reply, like and praise in the ESN
- Use a KM Community to show how to lead a community
4. Set goals; recognize and reward
- Set 3 goals; make them simple, fundamental, measurable
- Consistently communicate and leverage the 3 goals
- Recognize and reward those who achieve the 3 goals
5. Tell your stories; get others to tell theirs
- Engage listeners
- Provide real examples
- Demonstrate value
6. Use the right tool for the job; build good examples
- Recommend uses for each tool
- Enable use of tools
- Create prototypes, mockups, and initial examples
7. Enable innovation; support integration
- Don’t require a single platform
- Encourage innovation, not redundancy
- Use APIs, RSS, search, and web parts to integrate tools
8. Stay inclusive; span boundaries
- Set the tone for a community
- The wider and more open, the better
- Don’t exclude people (except spammers, trolls)
9. Prime the pump; ask and answer questions
- Post questions on behalf of others
- Redirect one-to-one messages to one-to-many
- Pose questions to stimulate discussion
10. Network; pay it forward
- Meet in person whenever possible
- Share relentlessly
- Ask others to reciprocate
11. Let go of control; encourage and monitor
- Set guidelines, rely on existing codes of conduct
- Communicate, encourage, trust
- Monitor, garden, allow network to police itself
12. Just say yes; be responsive
- Ask users what they want
- Don’t argue
- Deliver quickly
13. Meet less; deliver more
- Smaller teams are more effective
- Spend time doing, not meeting
- Communicate concisely and meaningfully in flexible formats

Stan Garfield
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