Defining knowledge management processes: simplify the way we do things

In our workshop "Kickstart knowledge management" we explore four building blocks of knowledge management: content, processes, technology and people. Processes is all about capturing, managing and sharing knowledge efficiently. The essence of a session on processes is captured in this visual.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

► The entire knowledge management process can be automated. Hooray! The biggest challenge: keeping your documents up to date.

► Make the most use of document and contract automation tools to create documents. These tools are not going to replace you, not even in the near future, they just make your life much easier and reduce business risks. The quality and consistency of your work will improve if you use pre-formatted templates that allow fast customising. Your templates are always up to date in terms of house style. The time required to draft documents and contracts reduces substantially. In the end, you can offer better services at lower cost.

► Capturing knowledge is all about making knowledge "explicit". Make sure that all your documents are saved in one place. Although there are powerful search engines that can search in different sources such as shared drives, SharePoint sites, websites, etc. saving your documents in one document or knowlegde management system is a must. This doesn't prohibit smart integration with other (social) collaboration tools or intranets.

► Manual classification is a burden so try to avoid it. There is no doubt it is less accurate and complete than automatic classification. Today's systems are already really user-friendly and offer you the possibility to just drag & drop your documents with automatic upload. Systems will automatically add contextual meta-data that you can validate optionally.

► Get the most out of your knowledge by managing it effectively. Extract key data to learn from the past. Most law firms and legal departments have not yet discovered the added value of analysing data to improve legal services delivery. Make sure that people who use other people's documents understand the "what" en "why" behind clauses. Add explanatory text to speed up learning.

► We don't want to waste time reinventing the wheel, but at the same time billable hour culture encourages working inefficiently. Changing law firm culture is not easy. Therefore, the use of existing knowledge should be rewarded e.g. by granting bonus billabe hours each time you (re-)use standard documents and contracts. After all, in the end, it is not about billable hours, but about speeding up legal services delivery. Avoid losing hours searching for the right documents with smart search. A full-text search for all information types with dynamic context filters is a must have.

► Sharing knowledge in person remains as important as sharing knowledge within a digital platform. Knowledge sharing is a great driver to speed up learning and development for which context (remember the "what" en "why" behind clauses) and face-to-face contact are important. Interact to improve! Turn your intranet into a knowledge portal that operates as a self-service. Notifications and feeds will inform you about new documents.

► Enhance your documents with comments, discuss shared documents, etc to gain new insights. Cultivate collaboration across your law firm or legal department. Interact to improve, remember!

►"Content is king" when you want to promote your knowledge. Content marketing is still one of the most important ways to attract potential clients. Be social! It's not about being present on social media, it's about starting conversations to create conversions. At least go for multi-channel presence, but start small. Multi-channel means leveraging more than one marketing channel to reach (potential) clients. Think email and LinkedIn to start with in the legal sector.

► Knowledge management is also a great driver for digital transformation. In today's world clients consider knowledge sharing as the new normal. Make use of online platforms to promote and sell your knowledge. This is quite easy for standardized work. For more complex work co-creation comes in. Consider "design thinking" to co-create client solutions.

Have a great day,
Dominique from 2KnowHow2

#knowledgemanagement #processimprovement #legalinnovation #2knowhow2

Subscribe to my blog