An overview of case studies and practical tips for public sector knowledge management practitioners. Carla Sapsford Newman discusses the unique challenges public sector KM teams face as well as proven strategies in both the private and public sectors.

1. CARLA SAPSFORD NEWMAN
SHARING CRITICAL KNOWLEDGE
Practical, Proven Case Studies and Examples that
Can Make a Difference to Public Sector KM Practitioners

2. AGENDA
The KM Problem in the Public Sector
Case Studies on KM in Other Public Sector Offices
The Challenges You Will Face: Metrics,
Training, Targets and Incentives
Q&A
Wrap-Up

3. PEOPLE OFTEN DON’T WANT TO
CONTRIBUTE TO KM INITIATIVES…
(they think it isn’t their problem!)
THE BAD NEWS
•
Knowledge sharing is often not incentivised in
public sector organisations
•
Changing a public sector knowledge management
culture can be painful and take a long time
•
You often have to prove why it’s in their best
interests to contribute to your KM programme
•
Organisations often want a silver bullet: something
cheap, easy and fast yet ultimately somehow a
game-changer. But human nature and cultural
barriers to communication and sharing are often
tricky to navigate

4. YOU’RE LIKELY TO BE WORKING
ALONE IN A WILDERNESS OF PEOPLE
(Who Don’t Understand What You Do…)
•
Almost all KM practitioners fall into it by accident
•
Once an initial godfather or mother shifts roles,
interest in KM often withers and dies
•
Most people don’t even know what KM is, until you
tell them… and often times, in the beginning you
don’t know either!
•
The way you begin to execute KM will make or
break your success – if you don’t gain some shortterm wins, you aren’t likely to maintain your
success
•
Here are some basic survival skills to help you
through.

5. YOU’RE THE KM PROFESSIONALS,
RIGHT?
•
•
So people come to you for
answers. And complaints.
And you might not
always know how to
solve their problems…
•
The temptation is to look to an
IT solution. Technology
interventions, which should
support KM, are not an end in
themselves.
•
Yet in most organisations,
KM ‘professionals’ or
contacts, seldom have any
background in KM. That was
the case with me in the
beginning!
But you’ve got several things
going for you. A committed
leader, a comprehensive KM
plan, an IT system in
development and a dedicated
KM team. That’s a great start!

6. PERCEIVED BENEFITS
• ‘What’s in it for me?’
• You need to answer this
question effectively if staff are
to engage and see it as
supporting what they do rather
than as an extra obligation.

7. TIME TO AUTONOMY…???
•
Time to autonomy is a key
indicator organisations
seek to reduce.
•
In other words, the shorter the time
it takes to get someone new up to
speed, the less money the
company will have to invest in
them before they’re actually
productive. Quantify that, and
you’ve succeeded in one of the key
KM survival skills!

8. TIME TO AUTONOMY –
MEASURING PRODUCTIVITY
•
For instance, at my former employer,
we had managers assess how long it
took to get a new employee up to
speed with a proper knowledge
management plan versus without. And
how much time we had saved that
manager and his/her team. Then we
multiplied that by the wage of the new
hire. Voila! A dollar amount,
quantifiable and real.

9. SOME RELEVANT CASE STUDIES
I will discuss these more this
afternoon, but here are some
examples of KM in the public sector,
and metrics and incentives in
particular.
I hope some of these might be
relevant to your work…

10. CASE STUDY:
KM @ McKinsey
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Spend 10% of annual revenues on KM
Reports enjoy a high reuse rate
Subject matter experts determine metadata,
including shelf life
Shared via a bespoke intranet
At the start of each new project: 50% of time is
spent on prior project research and 50% calling
other people in their networks
Personal details are kept up to date, key for next
assignments
Staff appraisals: 20% of final score linked to KM
So bottom line, it is a requirement for those
consultants to undertake a search of their database
to see who has gone before them, to contact them,
and to learn from the experience of their colleagues.

11. CASE STUDY IN KM METRICS AT THE
ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE IN IRELAND
THREE MAIN METRICS:
1
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•
•
2
•
•
3
•
•
Know-how application
Ranking the contribution of know-how by section
Ranking of contributions by individual
Number of times know-how was accessed
Intranet
Resources most often downloaded or accessed
Total number of unique users per time period
Knowledge/Information Sharing
Number of section meetings held on KM per time period
Number of KM presentations attended by staff, and how
many staff

12. SEVEN RELEVANT KM PLANS UNDERTAKEN
AT THE IRISH AG OFFICE - 2003
1
Development of a taxonomy for AG Office business applications.
A key tool in search engines and for content management, where consistent
inputting and retrieval of search terms is essential.
2
A shared Intranet for the AGO.
This acts as a central point of access and storage of key up-to-date knowledge
and information.
3
Implementation of a staff specialisation and skills locator.
This ensures that staff are aware of the subject specialisations and skills of their
colleagues.
4
The development of an intranet-based shared
know-how application.
To ensure reduced duplication of effort and promote
consistency and quality in the generation of legal advice.
The application will facilitate the indexing, abstracting,
updating and retrieval of legal know-how.

13. THE IRISH EXAMPLE
5
6
7
Develop a joint legal bulletin.
A monthly legal bulletin to inform staff of legal
developments.
This could include details of new legislation, pending
legislation, judgements received, books received and
recent additions to the
know-how application.
Incorporation of KM in induction
and training programmes.
New and existing staff are instructed on knowledge-sharing
applications and more generally on the principles and
benefits of KM.
Generation of legal reference guides
for key legal topics.
These will act as an authoritative reference tool on key and
emerging legal topics (e.g. group actions or asylum law).
OWNERS HAVE OWNERSHIP.
IN ALL THESE
CASES, COSTS,
RESPONSIBILITY FOR
OUTCOME AND TIME-LINES
ARE CLEARLY IDENTIFIED.

14. SO WHAT’S IT TO YOU?
•
As the KM professionals, your senior
management will be looking to you to
model the right behaviours, and to lead
the way.
•
Yet the hard truth from this and other
studies is:
•
KM strategies have often not been well
disseminated in the
past (incomplete/ineffective/untimely
communications).
•
Rewards for knowledge sharing remained
informal and limited..

15. SO WHAT’S IT TO YOU?
•
Many public sector organisations have
struggled with these same issues, including:
> Decreased competitiveness over time in
knowledge-intensive work;
> Increasing silo-isation of departments when
workloads increase
> Employees can face information overload;
> Employees struggle to justify the time
needed to participate in knowledge-sharing
activities; and
> Internal governance structures need to be
in place from the beginning.

16. OECD STUDY ON KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR:
2003
INCENTIVE PROBLEM
•
Government organisations have
different incentives, strengths
and weaknesses compared to
private companies in relation to
the management of knowledge.
•
Competitiveness looks different,
but is no less important.
•
Incentives to improve efficiency,
reduce time spent on work and
lowering overall costs are still
crucial.

17. OECD STUDY
INCENTIVE PROBLEM
• Outcomes, however, can be
less clear and more difficult
to measure (in a private
company, profits are always
the bottom line).
• Management structures
tend to be hierarchical,
which can provide fewer
incentives for innovation and
teamwork.

18. OECD STUDY
•
Despite the increasing difficulties in
measuring results, the activities of
governments are knowledge intensive,
with the need to maintain a whole-ofgovernment perspective an important
consideration.
•
For reasons of public interest, access to
knowledge and transparency is critical.
•
Increased staff turnover, particularly in
knowledge-intensive departments such as
civil, creates new challenges for the
preservation of institutional memory
and the training of new staff.

19. OECD STUDY CONCLUSIONS
After a major survey of KM practices in 2002 in the central
governments of member states, the OECD concluded:
•
KM is a core feature of the
management agenda of a majority of
central government organisations
across member countries – and
organisations were making concrete
efforts to improve their KM practices.
•
Cultural change was taking place, for
example that sharing knowledge was
less being equated with loss of power.
•
Despite these changes, the most
difficult challenge facing knowledge
sharing was that these organisations
underestimated the ‘human factor’ in
their efforts.
•
KM strategies have often not been well
disseminated and rewards for
knowledge-sharing remained informal
and limited. Silo structures remained a
problem to enhanced organisation
learning.

20. OECD STUDY AND YOU
SO…
Without KM
professionals like
you leading the
way in knowledge
sharing, no KM
strategy will have
a chance to
succeed.

21. THE IMPORTANCE OF METRICS
IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT,
YOU CAN’T MANAGE IT.

22. KM SURVIVAL SKILLS:
The Basics
1
Assign value to KM
2
Find champions and create committed
stakeholders
3
Undertake a knowledge audit – you
MUST prioritise knowledge
4
Paint a negative future – the more dire
the better
5
Develop and evangelise a long-term
sustainable plan

23. SURVIVAL SKILL #1:
Assigning Real Value to KM
•
You have to learn how to speak the language of your management
– value, time not lost, successful searches, reduced time on research,
increased quality of decisions and judgments
•
What is the cost of knowledge loss – use a consistent and relevant
set of metrics. Try to quantify how much time your legal officers are
wasting in fruitless searches or reproducing past legal research.
•
What is the price of hiring in new talent/knowledge to replace outgoing
•
Calculating time to autonomy for new recruits (months, weeks) and
assigning value
•
Calculating what doesn’t happen – conflicting legal
decisions etc.

24. MEASURING USAGE OF SEARCH
ENGINES/ INTERNET
•
One basic measurement that comms and IT professionals use is, how
does usage change once you implement a new system.
•
Does the percentage of searches go up or down? By how much? For
instance, over a three-month period you might set a target of 20%
increase in searches. Then look at why you do or don’t hit that target.
•
Usually upon a launch, everybody tries immediately and search numbers
surge. But then they get disillusioned, or hit a bug, or don’t find what
they’re looking for. Then the numbers plummet.
•
The advantage of IT is, you can also measure how long people are
spending on searches. Where they start, and where they jump off.
And how many clicks. These are all useful tracking mechanisms
for how well your system is working. needs.

25. METRICS ON USER HABITS
•
You need a strategy, and targets, for
how much you want your search
numbers to be and over what time
frame.
•
You need a strategy when the new
engine or intranet stops becoming the
flavour of the month, and usage falls off.
•
That’s where one-on-one training comes
in, and focus groups, and fine-tuning.
People need to know that you’re
responding to their concerns, and realworld needs.

26. SURVIVAL SKILL #2:
Creating Internal Stakeholders
•
It’s like a survival movie: you can’t go it alone
•
Capture the critical knowledge of key people who
can be crusaders for the cause
•
Enlist the help of HR and IT who can help you create
the tools and incentives to institutionalise KM
•
Spend one day a week generating ‘new business’ or
demand for KM – evangelise
•
Spend at least 10% of your time generating your
own lessons learnt
•
Find people you respect to bounce ideas off
•
Train up your KM partners
•
Have a mission others can buy into, by describing
KM in practical terms

27. KM SURVIVAL SKILL #3:
THOU SHALT SET PRIORITIES
•
Undertake a knowledge audit of what you absolutely
must tag and store in your KM database – you MUST
prioritise knowledge
•
Start small and select key KM targets
•
You must be clear on how KM fits into the overall
mission and vision If YOU don’t believe in what you
are doing and it’s value, who will?

28. KM SURVIVAL SKILL #4:
PAINT A NEGATIVE FUTURE
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Fear is a motivator –fear of looking bad, fear of slipping in the rankings, fear
of losing out on the best cases, etc.
Never let a crisis go to waste – learn from what goes wrong
Find relevant examples of what happens when KM or critical knowledge
capture DOES NOT happen
Illustrate what the stakes are - graphically, anecdotally and
numerically
Know what your key stakeholders are most afraid of and
use this knowledge to make your case

29. KM SURVIVAL SKILL #5:
KEEP THE LONG-TERM IN MIND
•
Develop a long-term and sustainable KM plan, but build in quick wins in
the short and medium terms
•
Benchmark your results against similar organisations doing top quartile
work – a selling point and a reality check
•
Figure out where the leadership sees the organisation
in five to ten years and steer KM towards that goal
•
Stay the course and slowly build up your core group
of KM evangelists

30. PERCEPTION PROBLEM
•
If you don’t define what KM is early and
often, and tie it in to the strategic goals of
the organisation, someone else will
•
Without champions in the organisation, the
best portals in the world will not be used
•
Word of mouth is still the best
advertisement
•
With social media, and informal networks,
people will share their often negative view
of KM quickly and turn off potential
champions from ‘getting it’

31. AWARENESS WITHOUT ACTION
IS POISONOUS
•
When you start to capture people’s critical knowledge, in
whatever way you do it, you set up expectations
•
You are also setting up a trust relationship – and
expectations that something positive and meaningful will
be done with the information
•
Once that trust is damaged through mismanaging
information or senior management inertia to act upon it,
trust is destroyed
•
Without buy-in from both the top and bottom, KM is likely
to fizzle
•
I liken it to a neighbourhood beat cop: people have to see
the cops walking the streets many times and see they
aren’t going away, before they start to come to them with
the useful insider information (consultants come and go)

32. KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL KM STRATEGY
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Organisational priorities for KM
KM vision and mission
KM operational plan
Communications plan for
internal stakeholders
KM budget
Plan for KM technical
infrastructure
Proposed KM organisational
structure
Proposed KM metrics

33. KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL KM STRATEGY
• Proposed knowledge sharing
incentives and rewards
• Plans for KM training
• Plan for integrating KM and
organisation strategy
• Plan for pilot projects to
ensure early wins and
measurable gains
• Identifying responsibilities
with respect to
implementation
• Plan for monitoring progress

34. FIVE GOLDEN RULES FOR LONG-TERM
CHANGE
1
Be crystal clear on the expected benefits.
What’s the business case? You need to be
able to detail the agreed benefits that you must
deliver. Progress must be managed and
measured.
2
People’s behaviour must change for
the long term.
People must believe in the benefits for them
and for the organisation. You have to do more
than just ‘build an IT system.’

35. MORE GOLDEN RULES…
3
4
5
Nothing happens without leadership.
You have the advantage of an AG who believes in KM.
But all divisions heads must encourage and inspire staff
to adopt the new behaviours if the changes are to be
lasting.
Process change leads to improved performance.
Organisations need to buildin new processes and
routines through job redesign, to ensure knowledge
capture and reuse, and to reinforce desired behaviours.
Organisational learning leads to organisational
success.
Responding to what works and doesn’t will be the key to
success. The key to this organisational learning is what
distinguishes ultimately successful organisations.

36. CHALLENGES TO KNOWLEDGE
TRANSFERS
People are motivated by self-interest. (Shocking, but true!)
You have to build in incentives for them to share.

37. INCENTIVES… TRICKY BUT HELPFUL
Think of it this way.
If you didn’t get paid,
would you show
up for work?
It’s similar for encouraging ‘right’
behaviours with KM – incentivising
workers works better than
punishing or shaming them
(usually).

38. INCENTIVES… TRICKY BUT HELPFUL
•
However, in most organisations it
pays to integrate good KM practice
with HR best practice. In other
words, building in the right
behaviours into KPIs, contracts,
and roles & responsibilities.
Because if it’s not in someone’s job
description, chances are they aren’t
going to be assessed on it. Which
means your chances of success
are somewhat less.
•
Strong performers can help lead
the way for the weaker performers.
Public recognition of good work can
be a powerful motivator.

39. HOW CAN YOU REWARD YOUR
OFFICERS?
•
So what treats can you offer employees?
Recognition? Awards? Mentions in the
organisation newsletter? Kudos from the
boss?
•
Get creative! Sometimes the organisations
which have the least money to spend on
incentives have the most creative ways to
empower and reward employees for doing
the right thing.
•
Managers might also be asked at their
appraisals what they are doing to support
KM activities in their divisions. And, if their
staff are seen not to be participating, why
this is the case. The organisation needs
their support, and needs to learn what does
and doesn’t work.

40. REWARDS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
•
The civil service common grade
and salary scales don’t make
rewards easy. Examples
elsewhere include: a merit pay
scheme (e.g. designating one
award annually for knowledge
sharing), the input scheme
(making awards to staff who
make helpful suggestions in
relation to KM) or through raising
it as a question in promotion
interviews.

41. THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING
An IBM study has shown that training for all
staff in relation to KM practices and
applications is crucial to overcome any
anxiety that employees may feel towards a
new initiative and is beneficial as a means
of communicating the benefits of KM.
IBM’s experience suggests that one-on-one
or small group trainings for senior managers
to learn about the resources available
(including a ‘buddy’ system) is particularly
useful in gaining their support and
commitment.

42. MILESTONES
It is useful to benchmark what the organisation wishes to achieve from its KM
strategy. These milestones should be set in relation to specific projects or initiatives.
Examples might include:
•
Demonstrable time-savings and
improvements in the way people fulfill their
tasks and responsibilities.
•
Use of KM systems (as measured by
resources most often accessed or
downloaded).
•
A shared sense that the project is a
success and represents value for money
(as measured by surveys of management,
staff and key stakeholders).

43. IF IT WERE EASY …
…Everyone would be doing it already!
You are the knowledge catalyst.
Knowledge management or sharing
isn’t going to happen on its own.
But with your help, you can make
KM a success here at the AGC.

44. Q&A

45. THANK YOU!
CARLA SAPSFORD NEWMAN
Carla.Y.Newman@gmail.com
carla@strategicknowledge.org