How to Capture KM Champions in Your Organization (Video)

Video produced by Steve Nathans-Kelly

Engagement is critical to learning, collaboration, value, and business outcomes, but how do you crack the engagement code? At KMWorld 2019, Elisabeth Brackman, associate manager, knowledge & training, Accenture Federal Services, explained how to identify supporters for your KM program within your organization and how to enlist them to ensure your longterm success in a session titled, "Crafting Culture With Communities & Engagement"

"Things to think about when we're looking to capture these champions: How do I identify them? Where do we want to go?" said Brackman. "The first thing is to target two different audiences. I found that know who your folks are that are in the know. They kind of get it. They don't voice any negativity about knowledge management. Some of them are really already onboard, very excited to be partnering with you. But then you also have your reluctant folks, the people that may speak up and say, 'Hold up, I don't get it. I'm not for this. I don't have time.' Those are the folks that you really want to spend a lot of time trying to reel in."

Once those people are identified and you start targeting them, there are a few ways to start engaging them, said Brackman. "The first is if you bring them onto your project team, you really need to enable them with tasks that are of value. You don't want to assign them something that you yourself wouldn't really want to take pride in doing because it's just a menial task. You want to give them something that's really going to add to your program, something that really makes them feel empowered to be part of the effort. You can also look to charge them with leading specific components, so you could break your project down by work streams and have one of your champions lead one of those work streams."

It is also important to associate them with the effort, said Brackman. "So instead of putting yourself as the face of KM, you can put your knowledge champions as the face of KM. Recognize them for the work that they're putting in. And then also make sure that you do reward them and do it in fun ways. It doesn't have to be some formal recognition program at the top level of the company, but it can be fun little medals. You can go to the dollar store and just buy some fun little medals and each month at a staff meeting give it out to someone who has really gone above and beyond, who has championed what you're trying to impose with knowledge management."

And then most importantly, said Brackman, these people have been engaged, it is important to keep them engaged. "And most importantly, by keeping them engaged, we really need to listen to them and truly consider their perspective. We want them to contribute as much as they can to the knowledge management effort and they're often bringing about a perspective that we don't have, whether it's from doing the day to day in the business or being a little bit removed from the day to day of knowledge management."

So by giving their perspective, we're able to reshape some of our programs in ways that become more effective for the audience we're targeting.

Videos of KMWorld 2019 awards presentations, keynotes, and many sessions can be found here.

Many speakers at KMWorld 2019 have also made their presentations available at www.kmworld.com/Conference/2019/Presentations.aspx.

SAVE THE DATE FOR KMWORLD 2020: NOVEMBER 16-19, 2020!