Thoughts on the LEXICON Framework Part 7 – Nurture feedback loops

This is my 7th (and final post) in a seven-part series based on the LEXICON Knowledge Management (KM) framework created by Clare Bilobrk. LEXICON is an acronym for Link, Empower, eXplain, Integrate, Cultivate, Optimize, and Nurture.

Clare’s seventh point is:

Nurture feedback loops – Implement and act on feedback mechanisms – such as “Was this helpful?” buttons – to signal responsiveness and continual improvement.

Soliciting, reviewing, acknowledging, and acting on feedback is a powerful way to ensure that a KM program is meeting the needs of its users. Ways to do this include:

1. Agile Approach
2. Surveys
3. Feedback Channels
4. User Tags and Buttons
5. Working Out Loud

1. Agile Approach

The penultimate of the 12 Steps to KM Success (the subject of my book from Lucidea Press) is Integrate, Innovate, and Iterate. Part of this step is to regularly solicit user input and use it to continuously improve.

Instead of massive, infrequent updates to the KM technology environment, a more useful approach involves rapidly developing a prototype, letting users try it out, capturing their feedback, and then improving it accordingly. For example, instead of a lengthy site design process, quickly launch a simple site serving up the most important content (as defined by the users) and then continue to improve it and add more content on an ongoing basis. This results in a site that is both immediately useful and perceived as being continuously improved.

As soon as you have a potentially good idea for a people, process, or technology innovation, try it out. Start by discussing it with a group of trusted colleagues, fellow members of a community of practice, or insightful friends and family. Mock up a simple picture, screenshot, or process flow. Encourage candid comments and suggestions – then incorporate as much of this feedback as possible in your initial design.

Implement your idea directly, through a colleague, or through a team good at development. Do this sooner, rather than later. Publicize your initial implementation through a relevant community of practice and your KM team. Solicit user input for improving functionality, usability, and effectiveness. Then quickly make improvements and repeat the cycle. Continue this process indefinitely, with longer cycle times as functionality better aligns with user requirements. The Agile development methodology described in Part 6 of this series is an excellent approach to use for this.

2. Surveys

Formally surveying your stakeholders can be an effective way to understand their awareness, attitudes, and needs. Here are two surveys to consider using.

Resource Survey

Before acquiring or developing new tools, find out what software is already installed and available. Conduct a resource survey to evaluate existing knowledge resources and to determine which ones to add. This allows you to learn which resources are worthwhile, which ones are not, which ones you should learn more about, and which ones should be added. This should be conducted once when starting a KM initiative to help select the KM components to use, and every one to three years thereafter to make adjustments to the ones selected.

Here is an example of a survey you can use.

1. Multiple Choice Questions: For each of the following knowledge resources, please answer the first question. If the answer is “Yes,” please also answer the second question. Provide a complete list of knowledge resources currently available in your organization. Use the 50 KM Components to help identify and categorize the resources.

1. In the last 30 days, have you used this resource?
   • Yes
   • No
   • Don’t Know
2. If you have used the resource in the last 30 days, how useful is it to you in your work?
   • Very useful
   • Moderately useful
   • Not useful
   • Don’t Know

2. Open-ended Questions

1. Are there other valuable knowledge resources you use frequently? If so, what are they?
2. When you want to share your knowledge, where do you go first?
3. When you need to find knowledge to help you innovate, where do you go first?
4. When you need to find knowledge to reuse, where do you go first?
5. When you want to collaborate with colleagues, where do you go first?
6. When you need to find knowledge to help you learn, where do you go first?
7. Do you have comments about any of the knowledge resources mentioned in the survey?
8. What knowledge resources would you like to see added or created?
9. Are there knowledge resources you would like to see improved? If so, how?
10. What knowledge resources do you need to access but don’t know if or where they exist?

Employee Satisfaction Survey

Use this survey on an ongoing basis to set a baseline and measure progress. It allows you to learn how your users view your program, what is perceived as working well, and what you need to improve. This should be conducted with a representative sample of the population on a monthly basis after the start of a KM initiative. If the results reach a fairly stable level, then the frequency can be reduced to once a year. Include the results in your regular program metrics reporting.

Here is an example of questions you can use. You can adapt these as necessary to your situation.

1. How satisfied are you with your manager’s support for you spending time on knowledge sharing and reuse?
2. How satisfied are you with your ability to access knowledge resources when you are not connected to the network?
3. How satisfied are you with the ability of knowledge reuse activities to save time and/or effort in your work?
4. How satisfied are you with your ability to find the information and knowledge you need to do your job?
5. How satisfied are you with the system availability of the online knowledge resources you use most often?
6. How satisfied are you with the experience of searching repositories to find reusable content?
7. How satisfied are you with the experience of locating an expert?
8. How satisfied are you with the ease of collaborating with internal colleagues?
9. How satisfied are you with the ease of collaborating with customers, partners, and external colleagues?
10. How satisfied are you with your ability to join, participate, and derive value from communities of practice?
11. How satisfied are you with training and documentation for using knowledge resources?
12. How satisfied are you with the services provided by the knowledge help desk?

If the results show room for improvement (as will most likely always be the case), implement an incremental change and monitor future survey results to see if the change results in any improvement. If not, continue implementing incremental changes and looking for improved results.

3. Feedback Channels

There are several ways to provide mechanisms for users to offer feedback, report problems, ask questions, and offer suggestions for improvements.

1. Dedicated email address: Make sure to closely monitor it, respond quickly, and follow up as needed.
2. Anonymous suggestion/complaint box: Provide an online form that does not collect any personal information about the person offering the suggestion or complaint. Monitor submissions regularly and provide a site where they are acknowledged and replied to.
3. Knowledge Help Desk: If you offer this service, use it as a way for users to let you know how they feel, what additional support they need, what is working well, and what is not. If there are recurring issues, take corrective action to resolve them.
4. IT Help Desk: Assuming that this service is offered by the separate IT department, ask them to share any KM-related problems, suggestions, or frustrations with you. If there are recurring issues, work with IT to mitigate them.
5. Enterprise Social Network (ESN) or community online threaded discussion: Provide an ESN group or community for KM, and use it to solicit feedback, receive it, and offer updates in response. Encourage ongoing discussions to flesh out the topics and get multiple perspectives.

There may be a temptation to use chatbots or AI agents, but I suggest avoiding those approaches, which often frustrate users. Instead, provide a human touch with personal replies and timely follow-up communications.

4. User Tags and Buttons

In your knowledge repositories, add a “I reused this” or “I found this useful” button, similar to a “Like” button, but more specific, to all content. Encourage users to click on this button for content they were able to reuse. After a search has been conducted, ask the user, “Were these results helpful?” If not, help them refine their search. After content has been downloaded, ask the user, “Was this content helpful?” If so, add the appropriate tag to the content. If not, suggest related content that may be more relevant. If specific content consistently receives responses of “not helpful,” flag this for the KM staff to review for possible removal.

Allow content to be tagged with “recommended” or “good example” or “proven practice” by designated subject matter experts. Content tagged this way would be displayed with a graphic icon to distinguish it. Search can be enhanced to allow ranking by these fields, or to restrict results to content having any or all of these tags. Saved searches can be used on sites to display only tagged content.

Simple buttons such as “Like” or “This was useful” are good to use but avoid one-to-five star content rating systems like those offered by sites such as Amazon. The number of ratings given to any content in a repository may not be sufficient to yield useful results. And typically, there are only two types of people who actually give a one-to-five-star rating on a document: the person who wrote it will give themselves five stars, and someone else who had some axe to grind will give them one star. You won’t get a useful rating.

5. Working Out Loud

An open culture of transparency provides feedback loops. One of the eight reasons for Working Out Loud (WOL) is providing transparency in thinking, decisions, and processes, which allows you to receive inputs and feedback from anyone willing to contribute. It enables vetting ideas in public by allowing others to weigh in, which helps achieve consensus.

To try out WOL, open your KM team call and meetings to all those interested in KM and use part of the time to solicit feedback and ideas. Regularly post on a KM site open to everyone with status updates and future plans and provide a form for people to offer their thoughts. Follow up on all feedback and provide status updates on how it is being addressed.

Additional Information

• KM Programs: Implement, Improve, and Iterate
• Solicit Feedback
• Capture Input
• Curate Search Results
• Working Out Loud: Benefits for Knowledge Management
• 40 KM Pitfalls to Avoid – Number 27: Trying to be like Google and Amazon