3 things I learned about knowledge management from Seattle firms.

Maximus / Minimus  serves spicy pork sandwiches on Pike street. (Photo credit: Denise Parsons)

Two weeks ago I facilitated the first “Knowledge-Driven Architecture” workshop in Seattle.  (Thanks to LMN Architects and Tim Rice for hosting us and AEBL for providing the forum.)

The structure of the workshop was simple — I introduced a framework for knowledge management and then we explored it through a series of interactive exercises. You can review the raw output from the exercises here.

As expected, most firms are using some combination of practice experts, lunch and learns, <insert firm name> universities, intranets and other proven methods to share knowledge. However, three items really jumped out at me during the workshop:

1. Patents on designs are great assets that can be leveraged long beyond their “expiration date.” Furthermore, the firm I’m referencing openly publishes the design, but clients continue to come to them for their implementation expertise instead of using a competitor.
2. Architecture and engineering firms can sell “subscription-based services.”  In fact, the firm I’m describing  refers to these long-term clients as “annuity clients.” Intimate customer knowledge combined with proprietary software designed to enable their client to manage their facilities portfolio…what a killer example of  knowledge management driving the top and bottom lines.
3. More firms are using open-book management to promote financial literacy than I thought. A couple weeks ago I wrote that “… opening the books and teaching basic business literacy might be one of the most powerful, untapped ideas for sharing knowledge that I’ve ever seen.“  Several of the firms in the Seattle workshop have been doing this for years.  Well, it looks like I need to get out more.

All of us have knowledge assets. Market-sector expertise.  Project management procedures. Technical details. A personal collection of space-planning diagrams. We create these knowledge assets through our daily project work. Yet the key to becoming a knowledge-driven firm is capturing your assets and sharing them with your organization. We should always be asking ourselves, “What are my assets and how well am I leveraging myself?”

In our final exercise, “leveraging your assets,” I asked the participants two questions. “What is the number one asset you are sitting on that you are committed to sharing?” “Which leverage technique are you going to use to share it?” I then agreed to follow up with them in a month to check on their progress. Here are three examples:

Participant A

Asset: Relationships with two major public clients in the region who won’t “let go” of me.

Leverage: Communicate the importance and value of others in the firm who know more than me to the client. 

Participant B

Asset: Information from conferences and presentations. (like this one.)

Leverage: Create a subscription-based model to alert people to new assets, recorded presentations being available.

Participant C

Asset: Firm financial management.

 Leverage: Hold sessions for employees to understand the basics of financially managing a firm.

The good news about knowledge management is that you are the key to making it happen. You don’t have to wait for a knowledge management committee, a corporate knowledge-sharing initiative, or a new intranet to get started.

Make a list of your assets and then start leveraging them.

Best,
Chris

I’ll be leading knowledge management workshops with AEBL in San Francisco on November 4th and Orange County on December 10th. Click here to register or learn more about the “Knowledge-driven Architecture”  management roundtable.