This document provides a practical guide for firms looking to develop or revise their knowledge management (KM) strategies. Key steps include clarifying business objectives, assessing current KM activities, aligning knowledge efforts with business goals, and making the strategy a living document. It encourages firms to periodically review and adapt their strategies to remain effective and relevant.

1. Getting Started in Knowledge Management Strategies – A Practical Guide
If following (previous article/name/page) you have decided that your firm needs its first Knowledge
Management strategy or a new view on Knowledge Management (KM), this article aims to provide
an overview of writing a KM strategy.
Depending on the nature and size of your firm, you may need to establish a representative steering
group to consider the following points, then pass the initial document through a review/approval
group before finalising it. Your finalised KM strategy document may include an implementation plan
and business plan.
Set out the strategy document in whatever way suits you and your firm best, but you will probably
want to consider the following points:-
1. Clarify business objectives
What are your firm’s official objectives? If nothing is published, it may help to
consider your firm’s implicit objectives under the following headings:-
o Financial plan
o Growth plan
o Assets (people, knowledge, technology etc)
o Market sectors
o Demand profile (who is demanding your services and does your capacity
match demand?)
o Brand
o Culture
Gather input in a structured manner from key staff, clients and comparable
organisations, regarding their focus in the coming year.
Use an appropriate analytical technique if it assists understanding and
communication with others, such as SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities
Threats); PEST (Political Economic Social Technological); or heatmap.
2. Assess your current level of knowledge activity and your resources
Review what you currently do in relation to KM, how and why. Don’t spend time on
a detailed knowledge audit at this stage, although this could be an objective for the
coming period.
Understand your current level of activity against comparable organisations and
whether there is a maturity gap. This is for background information: your KM
strategy supports your business’s strategy, not theirs.
3. Ask how your knowledge activity currently supports your business objectives
Evaluate the effectiveness of your current programme of everyday work and
projects.
Realign and refocus your knowledge activity to meet your business objectives.
Where needs are being met, review whether knowledge activity could be
undertaken more effectively and efficiently.

2. Don’t be afraid to sideline activities which are no longer meeting your business’s
objectives.
Identify gaps and then assess the cost against return of options to fill those gaps.
4. Think about where you’d like to be ideally in 1, 3 and 5 years time in relation to knowledge
activity
5. Make your strategy practical
Make your strategy a living document, that you refer to regularly and adjust as
required. If your strategy must be in a particular style for your Executive Board,
consider having an additional short, plain English “roadmap” for everyday use.
Make objectives SMART (Specific Measureable Achievable Realistic with a clear
Timescale) and keep them simple.
Prepare a mini-business case for each change you wish to make, measure current
performance, apply the change then re-measure performance to assess its success.
Avoid rolling out too many changes at the same time or you will lose the source of
the improvements.
When considering changes
o Prioritise any quick wins and leverage any technology you already have.
o Don’t waste precious resources on practice areas/partners that work well
without knowledge support: this can wait for more profitable times.
o Don’t put off an important task looking for the perfect solution: implement
a good “work in progress” for the time being.
Once the strategy is written, try to refer to it whenever you start or complete a project, are asked to
broaden your workload, or review your budget/departmental spend, so that you can keep your
objectives in mind and focus on those tasks which promote your strategy. Establish a KM strategy
review schedule, depending upon your objectives and the changing economic landscape. The KM
strategy can provide the vision, but as the world changes, you will need to adapt your
implementation programme.
Lastly, if you cannot find the time to write your strategy, write a short one-page “roadmap” or a
rough draft. Something will be better than nothing. In its simplest form, your strategy just needs to
say where you are now, where you want to go and how you are going to get there.

3. Author profile
Hélène Russell of The Knowledge Business provides consultancy services in Knowledge Management
to the legal sector and is also Founder of Knowledge Network West, the knowledge-sharing and
networking group for KM professionals in the West.
Contact her on 07548 912 779, visit www.theknowledgebusiness.co.uk, follow her on twitter
@heleneadby, or e-mail her at helenerussell@theknowledgebusiness.co.uk.
For the month of November, Helene is offering a free KM Healthcheck (usual cost £250) to the first
15 firms who apply quoting “SOL-JO-11”1.
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Terms and conditions apply and are available on The Knowledge Business’s website
www.theknowledgebusiness.co.uk