Knowledge Management (Part 6)

Mnemosyne (depicted here in a painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1881); courtesy of the Delaware Art Museum, Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial) is the Greek Goddess of memory. She is also the mother of the nine Muses, implying that memory is the mother of all art. I would contend that memory is also the mother of all business.


Continuing our review from Friday of KM practices:

Wikis- A wiki is a user-editable website designed to promote the accretion of knowledge by individuals contributing content to create a larger whole. At first, I guessed that wikis would be used in the fashion of Wikipedia to create a sort of law encyclopedia, but one other common use of a wiki is as a project management tool, where COP’s can post meeting notes, documents and other content.Wikis have received much public acclaim, but it’s hard to measure what their success metrics are for an internal collaborative website. I would suggest that 100% awareness, 50% usage, with 20% of employees as regular contributors is a good goal.

Law Subscription Service- The concept of a Law Subscription Service is to have a central area on a department’s intranet where attorneys can subscribe to the multitude of free newsletters made available by law firms and other publishers. Each person can tailor their subscription profile to meet their interests. This is an inexpensive and easy way to stay abreast of current developments in a subject area.

Law Calendar- A Law Events Calendar can be used to advertise events of interest to all members of a department, including department meetings, training opportunities, and other events of interest. Again, a simple, yet effective, way to disseminate knowledge assets.

Suggestion Boxes- Suggestion boxes are a common tool, but in my experience are most valuable as a method for changing an organization’s communication structure than for the ideas they generate. Once people know that the ideas submitted to a suggestion box will be treated constructively, then more employees will offer suggestions directly, rather than through the suggestion box. Once employees become comfortable raising their thoughts through other channels, a suggestion box is rendered superfluous.

Publicity- It is important for a KM team to make a concerted effort to publicize its initiatives because (i) good publicity increases team morale, and (ii) good publicity encourages participation in the creation of knowledge management assets.

Collaboration with Outside Vendors- Having attended LegalTech in New York in years past, I was astounded by the plethora of legal technology vendors. What is apparent to me is that the best of these vendors can be important partners in the KM enterprise. Certainly vendors have an economic interest in cultivating relationships with law departments and one should never forget where their ultimate interests lie. That said, a dynamic relationship with a quality vendor can be a win-win situation.

Knowledge management systems have been around since the first stone tablet. What excites me is that today’s technology offers such an impressive extension of the human brain; one that dramatically magnifies human capabilities, just like the invention of the steam engine increased man’s physical abilities. I will continue to build and promote knowledge systems until that magical day when all necessary information is at every person’s fingertips when they want it, how they want it and in the format they want it.