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
Similar Posts
Knowledge Retention: How to Deal with a Departing Workforce
Knowledge managers can use a number of proven approaches and methods to ensure that knowledge doesn’t walk out the door with departing staff.
Curation: A Key Knowledge Management Activity, Part 2
Examples for Knowledge Managers of curated content and how to curate it, they should curate a wide variety of content as part of a KM program.
Curation: A Key Knowledge Management Activity, Part 1
Knowledge managers need to curate a wide variety of content to make the most important and useful information easy to find and retrieve.
Why You Should Share Your Knowledge
Knowledge sharing provides numerous benefits to both individuals and their organizations; compelling reasons to share from a KM expert