Knowledge Management can be expensive. If nobody follows the process, then it is money wasted. While there are a lot of aspects to get people to engage in the knowledge management process, one is key.

Add 5% of everyone’s time to knowledge management. If you are a leader in a science company, you will read this and say “but we make drugs” or “but we develop X” and “our business isn’t knowledge management”. If you are a leader in a retail company, you will read this and say “but we sell widgets” or “but we develop X” and “our business isn’t knowledge management”.

Of course your business isn’t knowledge management. Without KM, however, you will not be able to achieve as much in whatever your business is.

People mostly agree that KM is important, but if it isn’t attached to a paycheck or a bonus, then they will do it ‘later’. Making this change involves management, HR and local department heads, because they all have to know what KM is and what is the impact. it also involves organizational change management. Without someone to teach KM and lead the OCM effort, then it is hard to make that 5% work. However, it is important to get to the point where people understand that sharing knowledge creates company success.

Start with onboarding and move forward to that 5%.

I recently spoke to a friend who had developed a fabulous survey for her company at the request of the C-Suite. The survey had gone out, she had collected the results and organized them into easy-to-digest slides with the underlying detail provided. She recorded the presentation, so the C-Suite could watch it anytime.

No action. Time is precious so she waited.

Still no action. No explanation. Nothing. Not even a sincere thank you.

Eventually her boss told her that the higher-ups were ‘developing strategies’.

Voice of the Customer efforts are good:

• you have engaged customers
• you hear what you are doing well
• more brains are better than one
• you get excellent information for improvement

They can go wrong however, if you do nothing with the results:

• The time of the person who developed the survey has been wasted
• The time of customers who filled out the survey has been wasted
• The company is missing the opportunity for improvement

The worst part, the ugly aspect, is that making no changes that responders can see creates bad feeling. Don’t bother sending another survey or request for comment as people won’t want to waste their time. You also ruin morale in your office. My friend won’t be spending time on any future surveys. She feels her time and efforts were wasted. My friend is putting her resume together and setting up job alerts.

You might think that an automated message thanking responders is enough, but it isn’t. If people take the time, they want to see that their comments were heard.

In terms of knowledge management, VoC can be a powerful tool to iterate and create the next level of your program or product. More brains are better than one.