Steering Committee
- Naama Berkovitz
- Aug 1, 2007
- 4 min read
The term "steering committee" is a well-known and recognized concept, implemented to varying degrees in many organizations. The steering committee's power and position within an organization allow it to steer important issues that the organization wishes to promote on the right track. If the committee's activities are performed well, its contribution is invaluable; however, such activity is not always trivial, and we have often encountered steering committees suffering from image problems.
Below are some common perceptions regarding steering committees:
The committee is disconnected from field needs and lacks a good understanding of the real requirements
The committee serves as a mouthpiece for management decisions and does not care about the interests of all employees
The committee is merely a rubber stamp; all important decisions have been made in advance
The committee is a body without teeth, lacking the ability to mandate substantial changes
Most steering committees dissolve over time.
When establishing a steering committee for knowledge management in an organization, we face the challenge of overcoming these perceptions and transforming the committee into a body that significantly contributes to and actively advances knowledge management within the organization. In our assessment, the proposed role profile will enable better and more focused handling of the challenges mentioned above.
Committee Composition
It's no secret that a good steering committee should include adequate representation from all organizational units. However, in knowledge management, creating a "winning composition" that will support and advance the field operationally is important. Such a composition includes, in our assessment, beyond the obvious user representatives and management, three key people who are particularly relevant to our field:
Technological representative: This representative can help with the informed selection of the working platform, highlight prominent advantages and disadvantages of each tool following the knowledge needs raised in the committee, anticipate systemic changes that might affect the project, ensure a good interface between operational systems and the chosen tool, and even verify that there is no duplication in establishing an additional system that has already been addressed organizationally through the knowledge management project.
Human resources representative: An HR representative can connect the project to the prevailing organizational culture, consider cultural emphases in the implementation and assimilation of the project, and provide feedback on informal responses received from the field.
Financial representative: Enlisting a representative from the department responsible for project budgeting holds rather clear advantages. Such a representative can provide ongoing reviews of budget utilization, negotiate with suppliers so that a minimum budget will enable the unit to perform maximum activities, and, in times of constraint, even find creative solutions to budgetary difficulties.
Committee Responsibilities
So, after selecting a winning composition, the question arises: what are the committee's responsibilities? The answer lies in the definition itself. A steering committee's role is to navigate the project in its various aspects:
Responsible for establishing knowledge management policy
Responsible for setting priorities
Responsible for monitoring progress according to the outlined policy
Responsible for handling important/substantial decision points in the process
In summary, The steering committee's elevated position and its overview of the organization's various aspects allow it to make fundamental decisions regarding the knowledge management process.
So, How Do We Make the Steering Committee Work for Us?
Since a steering committee, by its nature, is a body that should chart the course rather than implement it in practice (this role is reserved for the task force; see our review from June 2007), we hope the following tips will help you move committee members from passive involvement to more active participation:
Regular reminders about project progress: Although most managers' time is limited and they may not necessarily find time to attend meetings, experience teaches us that most like to know what's happening and would be happy to receive email reminders about project progress. These reminders are a way to keep committee members informed and reduce the surprise element when they attend the next meeting, where they won't need to "digest" all the material at once.
Regular meetings: It's advisable to set the frequency of meetings and send invitations beforehand. Creating a regular meeting pattern gives added validity to the committee's importance and allows it to become a permanent factor that doesn't dissolve over time.
Meeting template: It's advisable to maintain a fixed structure that includes the following elements: what has been done so far, what the future planning is, and what the main questions are. It's preferable to send preliminary materials as a thought-provoking tool so that committee members can process the information and form their opinions on the subject. Remember that the time devoted to steering committees is short, so it must be maximized and focused on the significant/central questions.
Communicating committee decisions: The committee's decisions should be communicated to all managers in the organization. In these cases, it's recommended to state the final decision reached and the system of considerations that led to it, as the committee deals with fundamental issues that we might want to revisit in the future when encountering difficulties, similar cases, etc.
In conclusion, the steering committee can be a wonderful tool and a central supporter of knowledge management activities in the organization—we just need to help it help us!
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