Benefits of Change Management Service
- Naama Halevy
- Apr 1, 2007
- 3 min read
We have often noted in the past that knowledge management is a means to achieve business benefits and certainly not an end in itself. In this tip, I will translate the concept of business benefits and the tools that will help us use them in the knowledge management process.
Benefits - Initial Definition
If you take the "business" seriously, you should begin by collecting information about the unit’s annual plan and goals. Then, you should start defining the benefits that the site will promote to achieve those goals.
We are already at the stage of meeting with key users to define knowledge needs and gaps. We will ask them what would indicate success in their eyes and what benefits they would like the knowledge management solution to bring.
The rationale: When designing the solution, focus on achieving goals to bring added value to the unit and end users.
Translation into Explicit Metrics
At an advanced stage in characterizing the solution, we will define precise metrics for business benefits and milestones for measuring these metrics.
These metrics will be quantitative and qualitative and presented to the site leader as part of the steering committee.
Examples:
Measurement Tools | Desired Value | Metric |
Survey Distributed on the Site One Quarter After Launch | Increasing professionalism | |
Reducing email volume | Business focus |
We will send the measurement findings at each milestone to a wide distribution - each population with its emphasis:
Regional change leaders - will receive emphasis on user usage from their region
Content experts and their direct managers - will receive emphasis on usability data in each content area for comparison to create constructive competition.
Site leaders - will receive a complete picture with recommendations for action.
The rationale: Routine measurement will allow focus and resource investment primarily where we have deviated, where the benefit is in doubt.
Using Benefits to Create Commitment
Even after we've defined them, we need to hear from the content area role holders (knowledge leaders, content experts)
During their training, we will ask each one to define what knowledge challenges they face:
Confidentiality
Knowledge as power
Reinventing the wheel
Lack of uniformity
Recurring mistakes
After they've defined the challenges, we'll ask them to explain how the content areas under their responsibility will help address them.
The rationale: When experts deal with these questions, it helps them focus on their business goals, but more powerfully, when they define the benefit, it instills in them that the solution will indeed help them and that there is benefit in it. It's amazing to see how each time I've activated this mechanism, I've achieved engagement and commitment even from the biggest opponents – suddenly, they move to the other side, to the side that benefits and is committed.
Close to the site launch date, we will hold a "Kick Off" meeting with the goals of:
Raising motivation among those "involved in the work" through an opening speech by a senior manager, distribution of a modest gift, presenting the product in a way that creates pride
"Tightening belts" before the launch, including a review of work processes we defined (stopping information distribution through traditional channels, refreshing content, responding to feedback, etc.)
Usually, we make the mistake of letting the site manager present it, but in doing so, we miss a golden opportunity to create commitment among the partners. Instead, we will ask each of the role holders to present their work themselves (limiting to X minutes, thereby creating an understanding that the invitation to "take the stage" is something worth embracing with both hands)
During the presentation of the content areas, we will ask each one to address the way the need was characterized, the business benefits (distributing to them the documentation of the benefits they defined during the training stage), and the presentation of the product.
Speaking of benefits, I'll conclude by saying that I hope this tip will benefit all of you in your blessed work.
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