March 9th Meeting: Stan Garfield on Identifying Objectives and Obtaining Executive Commitment for a KM Program

Tues, March 9th: 5:30pm

The presentation will combine content from two Masterclasses previously published in Inside Knowledge Magazine.

Identifying KM objectives: Identifying the top-three objectives of a knowledge management program is a crucial prerequisite.

The objectives of any organization are normally abundantly clear – to make money or to fulfill a particular purpose. The same is true for many organizational activities. But knowledge management, by its very nature, is different. It is multi-faceted and, in many respects, conceptual so that practitioners need to have a clear picture of the results they wish to achieve first before starting a KM program.

The ten commitments: The importance of securing high-level support for knowledge management is widely acknowledged, but little discussed.

The importance of obtaining high-level commitment is referenced in all the best knowledge management guides, but few detail how it should be done. Yet such support is a vital part of KM. It will ensure that your organization thoroughly supports the KM program to be implemented – and a lack of support can defeat a KM initiative before it has even really started.

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Stan Garfield
- Community Evangelist in the Global Consulting Knowledge Management Group, Deloitte, 2008-present
- Retail & Consumer Knowledge Domain Manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2008
- Manager at HP, Compaq, and Digital Equipment Corp., 1983-2008
* Launched Digital's first knowledge management program in 1996
* Helped develop the corporate KM strategy for Compaq in 2000
* Led the Worldwide Consulting & Integration Knowledge Management Program for Hewlett-Packard, 2004-2008
- Published the book “Implementing a Successful KM Programme” in 2007
- Lead the SIKM Leaders Community with 400 members globally
- Invited to present at numerous conferences, most recently at KMWorld 2009, and next at KM & Collaboration Australia 2010

Survey related to 2010 Midwest KM Symposium

Last September KM Chicago co-hosted the full day Midwest KM Symposium learning event downtown. The year before we held it in Detroit.

Please respond to this quick survey related to when, where and the stucture of the event to help us plan for this year's event.

Thanks!

Presentation: Practicing Communities of Practice with Ernst & Young

Thanks again to Darrin Brogan and Brad Kenney for speaking with us last week. The presentation they discussed, Practicing Communities of Practice with Ernst & Young, can be found below.

Practicing Communities of Practice with Ernst & Young

View more presentations from KM Chicago.

February 9th Meeting Reminder: Practicing Communities of Practice with Ernst & Young

Even though the Chicagoland area is expecting a heavy snowfall tomorrow, we will still be meeting downtown at the Dow Jones site at 5:30pm as normal. For those planning on meeting in-person, please note that the presenters for tomorrow's call, Darrin Brogan and Brad Kenney, will be joining us virtually. If you wish to do so as well, the web conference details can be found below. We hope you can join us, either way!

Meeting Information:

http://kmchicago.blogspot.com/2010/01/practicing-communities-of-practice-with.html

Meeting Location:

Dow Jones Company-Factiva, One South Wacker Drive, 22 floor, Chicago IL 60606

Web Conference Details:

a. To join Livemeeting: http://tinyurl.com/4v2prf

b. You will be prompted to enter your name and email address

(If you have never used LiveMeeting, you will also be asked to download a plug-in)

c. For audio: 877-659-4152, PIN 8667037

February 9th: Practicing Communities of Practice with Ernst & Young

Please join us for our February meeting at 5:30pm when Darrin Brogan and Brad Kenney will discuss "Practicing Communities of Practice with Ernst & Young." Meeting location details can be found on the sidebar to the right.

It's one of the more interesting, and often exasperating, aspects of managing enterprise communities of practice that each -- by necessity -- has its own character and culture, sponsors and managers. Building and maintaining long-term, healthy communities of practice take practice.

Ernst & Young recently sponsored an APQC report entitled Sustaining Effective Communities of Practice . In this study, we partnered with leading KM research organization APQC to study companies that have successfully leveraged Communities of Practice (CoPs) to identify, share and create valuable knowledge. In the research, APQC identified 18 best practices that enable organizations to sustain thriving, impactful CoPs. These best practices are organized around 5 themes:

1. Create a sustainable community strategy
2. Practices and approaches for sustaining communities
3. Tools and resources for community managers
4. Promote awareness and communicate value
5. Measures

The best practices identified in the report address the organizational challenges that often prevent the launch of successful CoPs and offer a guide for how they can be woven deeply within the fabric of an organization. Talking about the report will be Darrin Brogan, an associate director within the EY Center for Business Knowledge, and Brad Kenney, a senior consultant within the EY Advisory practice.