STEP 2: Show and Tell
How executives introduce a KM project to their company - and how those executives help the employees adjust to changes in their work routine - can make or break the project. "It's not a system solution, it's a people solution," says KTP's Nir. "It's about sharing as a whole organisation, not just about the knowledge itself."
In spring 2000, when Paul McKeon, a former partner and chief e-business officer at Ketchum, a New York City-based public relations company, planned the rollout of his company's new knowledge management system, he knew changing the staff's work routine and culture to incorporate the sharing of relevant knowledge would be a challenge.
At the time, Ketchum was experiencing a high rate of turnover. McKeon and other executives realised that incalculable amounts of expertise and knowledge were walking out the door every time an employee moved on. "In a professional services business, all your investment is in your people," says McKeon (now president of Chamber Edit, a company that provides portal software to chambers of commerce).
Ketchum's system has three parts, which all require the participation of every employee: a document management system catalogues documents that previously existed on servers and hard drives at the company's 29 offices; an expertise database contains an employee directory that lists staff biographies and photographs, areas of expertise, and client experience; and the client database lists past and present clients, and the work the firm has done for them.
Instead of gradually introducing the staff to the process of contributing information, McKeon worked with Ketchum's workplace practices group to create a campaign similar to what the firm does to gear up for a new client. During what Ketchum dubbed Reboot Week, McKeon taught the staff how to use the new system through Webcasts and conference calls. Employees spent the week going through files, documents and e-mails, and entering all relevant information into the document database, as well as creating and updating their personal pages in the employee directory.
Reboot Week helped staff members overcome their hesitancy about sharing client information. To reinforce that message, McKeon made sharing mandatory; each employee's contribution to the KM system has become part of their performance review.
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