Knowledge management: creating a sustainable yellow pages system
How can I “know who knows”? None of us can personally know more than 250 people, but we want our companies to be smart, learning organizations where it’s easy to find the right person to talk to. This is why many organizations create “yellow pages” applications, which allow employees to find and connect with other staff with particular knowledge and skills. However, these systems can be fraught with implementation difficulties and often end up as out-of-date, glorified intranet phone directories. This article, excerpted from a best-selling knowledge management field book by its author, identifies ten key steps involved in creating and maintaining a successful employee-owned yellow pages system.
The guidelines below are taken from the book “Learning to Fly – Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organizations” (Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell), and lay out ten key steps to creating a yellow pages system that really works and has the positive effect. acceptance of its user community, that is, its customers.
1 Maintain a clear and distinctive vision. Be clear about what you are trying to accomplish and avoid compromise. Beware of becoming “everything to every man,” particularly those in HR and IT departments! Everyone will want to get in on the action – don’t lose sight of the overall goal of your system: to make it easy to find the people you want. whose they already know.
2 Fight for personal property and maintenance. Create a process where only interested people can create and update their tickets. This will drive a much deeper sense of ownership throughout the population.
3 Strike a balance between formal and informal content. Encourage people to share non-work-related information about themselves, as well as valuable business information. Consider prompting this with “fun” questions like “what was the first single you bought?”, “what’s your favorite movie?”, or even “what makes you happy?”.
4 Support photographs whenever possible. Nothing is more powerful and personal than a photograph. It says a lot about the person, raises the interest levels of others, and builds personal ownership of the content. If possible, encourage people to include an informal photograph. Safety-run-rabbit-in-the-headlights shots rarely show people in their best light! It is better to have a photograph that says more about the person and what motivates them.
5 Make sure your product design is flexible and inclusive. Recognize that different people relate to templates, prompts, and structures in different ways. Use focus groups to test opinions.
6 Start with a customer-facing pilot. Critical mass is very important, so start with a group of people who have a natural need to be visible to internal customers. This could include support functions, existing networks or communities, or even business areas with new leadership.
7 Deliver through local enthusiasts. Centrally driven push isn’t always the best way to engage the workforce. Take advantage of local fans and champions if possible? they will know how best to “sell” the concept locally.
8 Use success stories as a marketing tool. Reinforce the usefulness of the knowledge directory at every opportunity. Publish any examples or successes widely and early to reinforce your project. This is a culture change project, and culture change happens one story at a time!
9 Encourage usage, but lead by example rather than by edict. Avoid forcing the population and the use of the knowledge directory. People will provide better quality content if they feel they are volunteering the information. At the end of the day, you can never recruit knowledge, you can only volunteer it.
And let’s face it, there’s little point in finding the person with the knowledge or experience you need if when you call them on the phone, they’re not willing to talk!
10 Integrate people into processes. Look for process and intranet “hooks” that can initiate and sustain use of your knowledge directory (for example, recruiting or onboarding new staff, launching new networks, any reference on an intranet site that mentions the name of a person can become a link to your personal page
conclusion
Building and marketing a Yellow Pages system within an organization is a very rewarding project – seize the opportunity with both hands. You’ll need a network of champions, the cooperation of IT and HR functions, tenacity, and some marketing flair. The steps outlined above should help you on your way. Have a good trip!