2017 Award winners KM Promise and Reality
KM Reality

The winners of the KM Promise and KM Reality awards were announced on Wed., Nov. 8, at the KMWorld 2017 Conference in Washington, D.C.

KM REALITY AWARD

TechnipFMC

TechnipFMC is a global leader in oil and gas projects, technologies, systems and services, with over 40,000 employees operating in 48 countries. Created in January 2017 with the merger of Technip and FMC Technologies, the company has decades of expertise managing subsea, onshore/offshore and surface projects.

When the company launched its first KM initiative in 2010, senior management envisioned a workplace in which employees could continuously deliver additional value through global collaboration and experience sharing and transfer critical knowledge from the soon-to-retire baby boomers. The merger between Technip and FMC further increased the demand for the portfolio of KM services and placed a renewed importance on the program’s underlying mission—to connect people and leverage their collective experience. Also, a new focus on social learning helped infuse KM into the work process, increasing business value from knowledge sharing and providing cost-effective, just-in-time learning.

To respond to the market pressures and meet business needs, the KM program grew to encompass five global centers of excellence to serve the enterprise:

• communities of practice and structured collaboration,
• enterprise wiki and surveys,
• multimedia and e-learning,
• facilitated knowledge sharing meetings and events, and
• knowledge architecture (workflow, search, taxonomy, dashboard and SharePoint expertise).

The KM program, for example, is so effective as a social learning and collaboration vehicle that the old “10-20-70” framework of learning—in which 10 percent is formal, structured education; 20 percent is social or informal/learning through exposure to others; and 70 percent is on-the-job experience—has been modified to “5-45-50.” Knowledge management is being used to accelerate learning, accommodate learning styles, improve time to competency and decrease training costs.

The program has been successful in connecting and aligning global teams to reduce costs, improve efficiency, increase employees’ awareness of available resources and ensure employees have the information they need to do their jobs effectively. As one global engineering leader located in the United Kingdom said, “The KM program drives globalization. There are no ‘global guys’ or ‘local guys.’ It’s just one team. It has made a huge difference—it’s a fundamental. It’s how we work.” A U.S. quality manager said, “We were able to build camaraderie and professional relationships. The result is that people are feeling more comfortable with their colleagues.”