What Is a KM Strategy?

A KM Strategy is a written document that defines what the agency hopes to accomplish through KM techniques and how. The strategy should support the agency’s overall strategic plan and reflect what is learned in the assessment of risks and opportunities. The strategy need not be lengthy or elaborate – it can fit on a single page.

Why Develop a KM Strategy?

The process of developing the KM strategy allows key players in the organization to get engaged and aligned. It provides an opportunity for the agency leadership to set a clear direction and commit to holding staff accountable for moving forward.

How to Develop an Agency KM Strategy

A KM Strategy can be developed either as a follow-on activity from the agency’s broader strategic planning process, or through a stand-alone effort. A small working group of 3-5 individuals can be designated to develop the strategy. These individuals can be drawn from the following functions: central office business units (e.g., planning, maintenance, design, construction), field offices (e.g., district or regional maintenance, traffic operations, project delivery) and relevant support functions (e.g., human resources or organizational development, information technology, research/ library, public affairs/ communications). Each working group member can be responsible for seeking input from a broader group as part of the process. A single individual should be designated to lead the effort and serve as the liaison to the executive team.

The charge of the working group is to (1) establish KM goals based on the agency’s strategic plan and the priority focus areas identified in the assessment step; (2) identify appropriate KM strategies to pursue; (3) identify resources required for the first 6-12 months; and (4) seek executive team endorsement of the strategy – and commitment of resources.

Linking to Agency Strategic Plans

Many transportation agencies have developed strategic plans and/or business plans that include organizational values or goals related to KM. Here are some examples from current state DOT strategic plans:

• Innovation
• Excellence
• Organizational Strength
• Learning and Growth
• Collaboration
• Partnerships
• Customer Service

The KM strategy can “hook into” these values or goals that have already been articulated. KM strategies can also consider more externally focused agency goals related to safety, mobility, infrastructure preservation, economic development and environmental stewardship. For example, pending loss of key individuals in the agency’s safety function may impact the agency’s ability to select and deliver the most effective set of safety improvements for the available dollars. Lead managers from key functional areas of the department can help to identify situations where KM strategies are needed to mitigate risks of employee departures or to build capabilities in emerging skill areas.

KM Goals

A KM strategy document should begin with a statement of goals for KM, which may include one or more of the following:

• Innovation
• Addressing priority risks of knowledge loss associated with pending retirements of experienced employees;
• Building the institutional memory of the agency before people leave or retire;
• Building bridges across “islands of knowledge” that may exist within functional silos or individual field offices;
• Stimulating innovation through the sharing of ideas and knowledge across disciplines;
• Strengthening the agency’s adaptability and agility;
• Increasing employee efficiency and effectiveness in specific functional areas; and
• Strengthening customer service.

These examples are fairly general, but can be tailored as needed to the agency’s specific areas of concern. For example, one agency may choose to emphasize strengthening knowledge sharing across staff serving in similar roles in different field offices. A second agency may want to focus on fostering innovation in areas such as context-sensitive design, public-private partnerships or traffic management.

KM Strategies

The next step is to identify a set of strategies that will achieve the goals that have been established. For example, if the goal is to address priority risks associated with pending retirements, strategies might include a mix of analyses (to identify unique expertise), training and job shadowing (to bring other employees up to speed), documentation and targeted recruiting.

KM strategies can be considered from each of the categories outlined above in the section on Key Elements of KM:

• KM Leadership & Direction strategies involve strengthening the agency’s understanding of KM, defining roles and responsibilities for KM, collecting information to help identify and diagnose gaps in skills, and tracking results of KM activities.
• Social Learning & Communities strategies involve facilitating person-to-person knowledge sharing and collaboration. Communities of practice are perhaps the most well-known KM technique in this category.
• Knowledge Codification & Dissemination strategies involve documentation of business processes and procedures, and capture of information (e.g., lessons learned) from project teams, individual employees and contractors through structured interviews. Results of these interviews may be produced in various forms – documents, slide presentations, videos, charts, etc., stored in various repositories for convenient retrieval.
• Succession & Talent Management strategies related to KM involve proactive steps to identify and manage risks associated with knowledge loss resulting from employee transitions. These include tracking and sharing information about the available skills within the organization, and activities to address current or emerging skill or experience deficits.

As illustrated in Figure 4, a balanced set of KM strategies will target People, Process, and Information Management/Technology:

• Information Management/Technology elements include provision of electronic platforms for knowledge sharing as well as practices to ensure that relevant data and content are captured, stored and documented for easy retrieval.
• People elements seek to foster knowledge sharing behaviors and build individual employee skills.
• Process elements seek to ensure that work processes are improved based on prior experience, and that lessons learned are distilled to inform future processes.

These three elements combine to provide the motivation, the means, and the opportunity for knowledge sharing in an organization.

Figure 4. KM Strategies

Table 1 below displays elements of agency-wide KM, classified by People, Process and Information Management & Technology. Descriptions of each of these elements are provided in the next section. Note that many elements fall into more than one of the three categories – for example, Communities of Practice fit into all three: they reinforce knowledge sharing behaviors, provide opportunities for problem solving related to ongoing work processes, and may be supported by online collaboration tools.

Moving the Strategy Forward

Once strategies are identified, the working group needs to consider who will be responsible for KM implementation, and which resources will be required. A detailed implementation plan isn’t required at this stage – just enough information to enable the senior leadership of the agency to decide to endorse the strategy and approve moving it forward.

Keep in mind that an agency-wide approach to KM may not require significant new investments, since most organizations are already doing elements of KM. Agencies can start with a modest effort and expand as appropriate once benefits are clearly demonstrated.

Importance of a KM Lead

In addition to strong top management support, an essential element of any agency-wide KM strategy is identifying a single KM lead person. While different elements of KM can be carried out by staff in multiple divisions, the KM lead is responsible and accountable for making sure the entire collection of activities is meeting the established goals. They are in a position to best understand what combination of strategies would work best to address identified gaps – and to adjust priorities as new needs arise or as availability of resources changes. In order to ensure that KM is sustainable in the organization, the KM lead should work closely with 1-2 others who would be in a position to take over KM lead responsibilities in their absence.

It is important to recognize that the success of KM initiatives will depend on the capabilities of the designated KM lead, and the level of upper management support they are given. Ideally, the KM lead will have the necessary knowledge and personality to serve as a champion for KM techniques across the organization. Because KM involves working across organizational silos, the lead should be perceived as neutral and have good communication and negotiation skills.

There is no single best organizational location for a KM lead. Possibilities include: Research, Training, Human Resources, Risk Management, Performance Management or Business Support. Because KM should not be a technology-centric initiative, the Information Technology (IT) unit is not generally the best choice for locating the KM lead. However, the KM lead will need to develop a close working relationship with IT.

Example KM Strategies

An example outline of a “modest KM strategy” for a fictitious DOT is shown below. This strategy allocates 50% of a full-time equivalent (FTE) employee to serve as the KM lead and orchestrate implementation. Figure 5 shows a second example from a real organization. This example illustrates a useful format linking agency strategic goals, KM goals, KM strategies, and implementation steps.

Figure 5. An Example KM Strategy

Source: Adapted from Reference 25