SMR Knowledge

Building the Knowledge Culture

  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About Us
  • The SMR Team
  • SMR’s Knowledge Services Blog
  • SMRShare

Our Most Popular Request from Clients and Potential Clients

May 13, 2013 By Guy St. Clair

Anyone working with KM, knowledge services, and knowledge strategy development isn’t surprised to learn that the most popular request from potential clients and colleagues comes early in the discussion.

No, it is not (surprising you here!): “How much will this cost?”

Discussing cost comes later.

The first request is simple and straightforward: “OK: KM. Knowledge Services. Knowledge Strategy. How do we get started?”

First off, Guy is going to invite the questioner to take a look at something published a while back. It was an SMR Special Report (based on a series of posts originally published here). The report lists ten “considerations” (we might call them) for strategic knowledge workers as they move into a knowledge-related activity. The report is SMR Special Report (January 2012) – Starting KM in Your Organization: Here’s Your Strategic Road Map.

Hold on, Guy. Everyone doesn’t want to sit down and read through a document, even one that’s only about eight pages long and broken up into a group of specific actions.

I can handle that.

So I continue the conversation with a few questions.

  1. What’s the why? Why are you thinking about the larger subject of knowledge development and knowledge sharing (KD/KS) at this point? What’s driving your interest? (“Our department has a knowledge bank that isn’t being used.” “The research team doesn’t connect with the records coordinators to identify when a situation has already been dealt with.” “My boss has heard colleagues speaking about KM and she wants me to do something with KM.”)
  2. Is it a big deal? Is the concern serious or is it just something someone’s curious about? Judge the seriousness level by continuing with your exploration of the why. Is it financial (“The company is losing money and wasting resources because we have x systems for information/knowledge capture in a wide variety of platforms – we lose too much time gathering information.”)? Is it ignorance or lack of awareness (“Our knowledge-sharing system was rolled out in 2004 and we find what we need, so everything’s fine with us.”)? Is it competitive-based (“XYZ Inc. is selling the same services we sell and appears to be making more profit. What are they doing differently?”).
  3. Is the situation (solving a problem or embarking on a proposed innovation) relevant? Will implementing the change – solving the problem or undertaking the innovation – provide direct benefit to company? Is it connected to the achievement of the larger enterprise-wide mission (“We’re in this business because the company expects to…. We develop and share information and knowledge because by doing so the company can….”).
  4. Who’s concerned? Who’s involved (note the last example in Item 1 above)? Sponsorship, leadership concern/interest, and management support are all critical to the success of any KD/KS effort (“If we standardize this process in every division, management will have a single framework for decision-making relating to this topic.” “We will see corporate-wide usage when the CEO and his team are using this new knowledge product.”). Good news travels, especially when a knowledge-focused activity is successful and senior management says so.

To summarize:

  • why do it?
  • is it important?
  • is it relevant?
  • is there a sponsor?

Answer those question and you’re ready to go forward with your KM, knowledge services, and knowledge strategy project.

Good luck.

About Guy St. Clair

Guy St. Clair is the Series Editor for Knowledge Services, from Verlag Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin, the scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. The series subject is knowledge services, the approach to managing intellectual capital that merges information management, knowledge management (KM), and strategic learning, presenting and discussing new and innovative approaches to knowledge sharing in all fields of work.

With Barrie Levy, Guy  is the author of The Knowledge Services Handbook: A Guide for the Knowledge Strategist (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020). He is also the author of Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century Organization (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016). [Note: Go here for the free PDF version of this book: https://bit.ly/3msI27V. ]

Guy is also the author of Knowledge Services: Five Free Webinars from Guy St. Clair, available to anyone who wants to learn more about knowledge services. The webinars are offered at no charge.

Guy’s other professional writings are listed in SMR International’s corporate website, at SMRShare. 

Comments

  1. Guy St. Clair says

    May 16, 2013 at 9:29 pm

    Mary Talley Garcia at LinkedIn’s KM/Knowledge Services group writes:

    These are excellent questions for starting any strategic initiative. Two questions I like to ask – similar to your “why” and “who’s concerned” – are What’s not working now? and Who cares? (who is it important to)

    Guy responds:

    Very well said, Mary. And how about one or two more? Something like: What’s the pay-off? And: What’s going to be different (e.g., better).

    Thanks for that good response.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SMR’s Knowledge Services Blog Archives (since 2009)

Tags

archives management Conversational Leadership corporate archives corporate records COVID – 19 Healthcare Hovell (John) IAO ICT ICT training Information Africa Organization information and communications technology information management information technology KD/KS KM KM KM/Knowledge Services KM training knowledge asset management knowledge development/knowledge sharing knowledge development and knowledge sharing knowledge networking knowledge services knowledge sharing Knowledge Strategy Knowledge Thought Leaders Manion (Kevin) organizational archives organizational behavior organizational effectiveness organizational management organizational records Peter F. Drucker records management social networking Special Libraries Association strategic knowledge strategic knowledge management strategic knowledge services Strategic Learning strategic planning strategy development The Knowledge Culture ” management

Contact Information

SMR International
10 Park Avenue, Suite # 4-F
New York, NY 10016 USA

+1 917 797 1500
info@smr-knowledge.com
www.smr-knowledge.com

Follow Us

  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Recent Blog Posts

  • Five Free Knowledge Services Webinars August 1, 2022
  • KM/Knowledge Services Community: Humanist Management and Knowledge Services (Part 2) January 24, 2022
  • KM/Knowledge Services Community: Guy St. Clair on Humanist Management and Knowledge Services ( Part 1) December 28, 2021

Copyright © 2025 · SMR International · All Rights Reserved