Lil Jackie's Elements of a KM Audit

Okay, April just totally flew by!  I'd feel bad about not blogging so much last month except that the weather picked up and, social butterfly that I am, I was more focused on playing tennis and getting my "swerve" on (that is, when I wasn't watching Glee, Project Runway, or catching up on General Hospital on YouTube).

Hey, I won't apologize for having a life (or succumbing to the boob tube).

Although, I do think that Dublin owes me a HUGE friggin' apology for coming in 7th at the Kentucky Derby. I could've used my winnings from the derby party I went to on Saturday to finance my drunken disorderly conduct during "Cinco de Drinko" tomorrow. Ah well, c'est la vie. At least I had KFC's Double Down to help fill the void loss brings - in my arteries! Actually, it tasted great, despite the fact that they really should consider swapping the Pepperjack (too spicy) for Monterey or Swiss and add lettuce and tomato to make it taste "fresher".

Anywho, I've been giving my KM Audit a bit of a spring cleaning to spruce it up for 2010. For those not in the know, a KM Audit is a type of action research aimed at understanding the ways in which an organization shares knowledge and information. Subsequently, the data collected from the KM Audit is used to develop and inform the KM strategy. While some folks use the auditing process solely to kick-off their KM efforts, I subscribe to the belief that a KM Audit should be an annual experience. Not only does it provide a regular status update/reality check of KM activity, it helps to illustrate the impact of a long-term, strategic KM initiative to organizational stakeholders. It also doubles as a great marketing tool for KM.

An effective KM Audit should be designed to identify and evaluate:

• Formal (‘how things should be shared’) and informal (‘how things are actually being shared’) knowledge sharing practices and behaviors.
• The variety of knowledge, information, and content management systems (and their usage) across the organization.
• Perceptions and expectations of knowledge management
• Organizational needs and challenges related to sharing knowledge and information

As illustrated in the graphic below, the KM Audit utilizes a mix of research methods to achieve these results.

The Policy Review can be conducted before, during, or after the survey, but I think that doing it before (particularly when it's the inaugural audit) might help to inform survey construction. Likewise with the 1-on-1 Interviews; Focus groups, however, should be put off until after the survey, since it's those results which will determine discussion topics. As far as the Survey, standard rules of survey design apply - keep it simple, keep it brief, make sure questions are clear and concise, and, resist the temptation to ask EVERYTHING. Your questions should help you to paint a picture, not the Sistine Chapel. Lastly,since you'll be wanting to make comparisons from year-to-year, be sure that your survey will stand the test of time.

Two important points to consider about the KM Auditing process:

1. It's okay if you only pursue 1 or 2 elements instead of all 3.
2. Having a documented, well thought out Implentation/Execution Plan of Action (PoA) is essential

Take your pick
I'm a talker so I'm fond of saying many things over and over again. One of my personal faves is the "Right Way vs the Best Way": We don't always have the opportunity to do things the "right" way; sometimes we simply do things the best way we can, but when we can do things the "right" way, we should make every effort to do so. As a KM practitioner, I know that this is a daily reality in our work. If you have the time and the buy-in to undertake a full KM Audit, then do it to it! But, if you're only able to pursue 1 or 2 elements, it's okay, just be mindful of the data that you're not capturing (and be sure that your data reporting reflects this).

Action planning
A successful KM Audit isn't one that just gives you the results you were hoping for. A successful KM Audit is one that is rolled out on time and yields a great participation/response rate. And, if experience has taught me anything, it's that the key to a successful KM Audit is planning the hell out of things. Don't make assumptions, make a plan of action! Some of the highlights of my audit action plans include:

• Prior to its launch, conduct a review of the survey (for content and language) by KM team members and key organizational stakeholders, particularly those involved in Operations, Communications, Marketing, and IT (if that department manages any KM tools/applications)
• Following it's review, the survey should be set-up using the pre-determined administration vehicle (e.g., SurveyMonkey) and user tested for clarity, language, level of difficulty, and length of time to completion and modified accordingly.
• Organize a full-fledged marketing campaign for the KM Audit. Depending on your budget, the audit can be supported using the following marketing channels: common area posters, table toppers, and digital displays; email alerts; intranet announcements; department leads; senior management; and knowledge management system (KMS) “power users”. It's also a good idea to set an official launch date for your KM Audit with an email from senior leadership describing the purpose and importance of the auditing process. Subsequent email reminders can be distributed by the KM team.
• Detail the process for how data will be compiled, analyzed and reported (including to and by whom)

And I think that does it for this post...at least, I hope I've covered all of my bases here. Between the overwhelming smell of Caribou's coffee and my Dan Fogelberg playlist I'm now sleepy, nauseous, and hungry which means it's time to hop in the car, crank up Spose and take a little ride over to KFC before my tennis match this afternoon.

Peace!

Lil Jackie’s Elements of a KM Service Portfolio

Well, I was going to start off whining about how tired I was following my mad crazy Valentine's Day weekend, but after a 60 second re-introduction to Shear Genius' beautiful but vacuous hostess, Camila Alves, I am reminded of what tired looks like. (Heidi Klum she ain't! Whoever made the decision to let Jaclyn Smith go should be fired.)

Plus, I just spent an hour researching dim sum recipes (which makes me wish Canton House still stayed open 'til 2am) and 45 minutes rummaging through a box of old school papers (which affirmed for me how great it is to be doing exactly what I'd hoped to be doing when I was in college). So, I'm actually 5x5 right now.

'Aboot' two years ago (sorry, I've been watching the Winter Olympics), I read this strategy+business 'Launch and Learn' article on the integration of innovation portfolios as a means of consistently turning out profitable new offerings. I am forever looking for new ways to enhance the awareness of KM and demonstrate its value and this article had me considering the role KM could play in developing strategic solutions that focused on integrating the various corporate activities to which it refers. And, not just those related to product creation (although, clearly, activities that impact cost savings and revenue generation provide KM with the best visibility, recognition and subsequent latitude to explore more people-centric activities).

It also had me thinking ‘aboot’ (still funny) the value in developing KM portfolios.

Among my (many) peeves are organizations that have a titled KM function (meaning, someone is walking around with the title of Knowledge Manager) and yet few, if any, within that organization have a clue 'aboot' what KM is or what the KM function (and the Knowledge Manager) actually does. Even worse is when folks working in KM (titled or not) are incapable of providing user-friendly, on-the-spot explanations of what KM is and examples of how it benefits their specific organizations. (Just like an aspiring singer, you never know who you're going to meet and when and you should always be ready to demo exactly what makes you a star.) I get that some job titles (and their respective responsibilities) are more familiar than others, but if you can’t succinctly sum up what you do and be prepared to shine on a dime, then you’re a moron. Really.

Last year, I began the process of fleshing out a list of KM service offerings and a few months later I was in a meeting where one of my process-oriented KM colleagues suggested the development of a KM Service Catalog to organize and promote current and future offerings (shout out to Roger!).

You can check out the wiki page for the full deets, but the quick and dirty on service catalogs is that they provide a listing of services offered by a particular program, department, function, etc. While the primary value is self-evident (or should be), service catalogs also support the development of an overall value proposition for KM. And, if you don't have one, 2010 should be all 'aboot' building your KM value proposition.

Anywho, as is clearly my burden in life, after my colleague suggested the idea, I set out to research how one actually creates a service catalog. It took a few months (what with all of my other duties) and despite the more "academic" literature giving the illusion that the process is a complicated pain in the ass, it turned out to be a lot less confusing to just see what other folks out there are doing and employ a little "reverse engineering".

As you'll see (by clicking on the following link) I was particularly fond of the online service catalogue created and maintained by Australia's Griffith University. (And a quick nod to Dublin City University's less pretty, though equally effective offering.

A few points to consider:

1. It's important to note that each service offering should provide only summative information and avoid lots of heavy, process-oriented detail. Depending on the offering, you might want to have those processes detailed somewhere (so as to be able to provide that information when enquiries are made) but for your portfolio (or catalog), a concise, informative description is sufficient.
2. Keep information current! The cool thing 'aboot' a service portfolio is that you can add or remove offerings depending upon the availability of resources (human, financial, or technological). You can also modify the terms of offerings as necessary, for example, passing off the cost of a service offering to the requestor when budge restrictions arise. Just be sure that if an offering is included in your portfolio that you honor the terms as described, otherwise you risk damaging your respect and credibility
3. Enquiries and requests into service offerings are a great metric to capture. They also provide insight into areas of opportunity for KM.
4. It's not enough just to have a portfolio, you need to be proactive about promoting it!  Support the awareness of service offerings with plenty of marketing and education on what each offers and involves. Don't assume that just because you whip up a portfolio and slap it online that your audience will hunt you down, you still need to seek them out, but now you'll be ready to meet them.

As usual, Lil Jackie and I are open to praise, criticisms and feedback on how these elements can be improved.

Lil Jackie's 2010 KM Roadmap

I've never been a starfucker.

Forgive the indelicacy, I'm still waking up.

I was reminded of this (in a roundabout way) during a brief conversation with my mom this morning. I mean, I still care enough about being "in the know" to pay attention to pop culture, but I'm just not one of those people who look to celebrities to give meaning to my life or provide me with non-stop entertainment...well, maybe Sarah Palin, I manage to get a chuckle out of everything that involves her (to the dismay of my mother who LOVES her). But, I don't get gaga when I pass famous people on the street (not even Lady Gaga), I'm not impressed to find out someone has more money than the combined GDP of every Latin American country, you'll never see me breakin' down cryin' 'cause some singer waves at me or says "hello", and even if you could ruin my life with a snap of your fingers, I still ain't studdin' you.

And why should I?

For one thing, my life is good - warts and all. For another, it's incredibly interesting (to me) and so unbelievably entertaining (to everyone around me) with equal parts high comedy and salacious drama (truly stuff that only seems to happen on daytime TV) that it's a crime I haven't written my own little "Peyton Place" to share with the rest of the world. (When I'm past the point of caring about what my friends and family will do to me - or simply out of their reach - I just might do it, lol.)

No, I'm not impressed with celebrity or status. What impresses me is realness and authenticity; having values and relationships that are more about being true to oneself (even if they clash with mine) than trying to fit in, be "better than" (whatever the hell that means), and/or impress others. And this is the same mindset I bring to my KM work. I'm not trying to win popularity contests, suck up to anybody, or get embroiled in bullshit office politics. Like hairstylist/salon "guru" Tabatha, I'm there to help organizations address the problems that are preventing them from being successful (though with slightly less colorful language than she uses on her show or I use in my blog). With KM that means improving how critical knowledge is identified, shared, and leveraged across an organization.

Obviously, it helps to develop positive, collaborative, constructive relationships in the workplace and if you're able to do your job well AND have fun, more power to you. But, sometimes, I think we tend to treat the workplace like an elementary school playground or, ugh, high school. Guess what? It's not. It's a place of business. You're paid to be there to do a job - it's not therapy (unless it is) or a dating service (unless it is). And from where I stand, often it's that high school/playground mentality that contributes to a sloppy knowledge sharing ethic and a poor KM environment.

(Note: If this is the first time you're reading one of my posts you should know that one of my biggest pet peeves are organizations that equate themselves to being "one big family". Families don't fire Uncle Earl, even if he does act kinda pervy around the ladies or layoff Nana 'cause she's gettin' up there in age. And when there's a crisis or money gets tight families (are supposed to) close ranks and tighten the belt to come through on the other side together, not distribute pink slips and have security escort you out of the building...I'm just sayin').

Anywaaaaay, that's my soapbox rant for the day.

The real goal of this post is to introduce y'all to Lil Jackie! I'm forever exploring ways of simplifying my KM message to my various audiences and Lil Jackie is going to be my muse and assistant in 2010 ("Lil Jack-ehhh, wants to be-e a staaar...).

About six months ago I challenged myself with the task of re-modeling my KM Roadmap to reflect the intersection of people, process and technology. And then my harddrive crashed (which, honestly, sucked more than getting heart failure from a bronchial virus). Luckily, I'm brilliant enough to be able to re-create my work from scratch and old notes/documents. I really think this roadmap is even better than the last one and Lil Jackie and I would like to share it with the masses!


The graphic displays my six major mile posts. Previously, I had these as five phases (Knowledge Audit, KM Strategy Blueprint, Development, Deployment, and Evaluation) but after plotting things out and looking at the relationships between each phase, I realized it was better to flesh out the design work from development activity. It was also important to represent both the cyclical nature of each mile post as well as the fact that education and/or buy-in should be occuring between each transition. Sometimes you'll be doing one or the other and sometimes both. And, to clarify, although learning is inherent (and effort should be made to document lessons learned) during every mile post, the LEARN mile post is concerned with the formal process of synthesizing all of the information and knowledge acquired throughout the project lifecycle in preparation for the next cycle.

To the left of the cyclical graphic, I've presented examples of the roles that people, process, and technology might play as well examples of possible output or yield. These examples are by no means exhaustive and should serve purely as a starting point for anyone looking to build their KM strategy.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or criticisms (I'm always looking to improve this thing), please post your feedback, otherwise enjoy!