KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN 2019

KM leaders double down on strategy and fundamentals

in the shadow of digital transformation

©2019 APQC All Rights Reserved ©2019 APQC All Rights Reserved 1
 INTRODUCTION
It’s 2019, and digital transformation has fully arrived.
Organizations large and small, across industries and around the
world, are making significant investments in new technology.

The distinguishing feature of digital transformation is its scale. True

enterprise transformation touches nearly every system, process, and
function in the organization. As such, these efforts can improve operational
efficiency, customer satisfaction, and the employee experience to a degree
that would not be possible otherwise. And yet, digital initiatives can also kick
off a host of unanticipated consequences, from massive data cleanups to
reshuffled strategic priorities to a surge in anxiety from workers afraid they
will be replaced by bots and algorithms.

Knowledge management (KM) teams have a lot of work to do in this fast-

paced and high-risk environment. Digital transformation threatens the
stability of organizational knowledge flows. Rifts may emerge as companies
shift to new technologies and ways of working, and critical knowledge is
often lost when systems, roles, and corporate structures change.

And yet, digital transformation also presents exciting opportunities for KM

to serve an even more strategic and vital role. To learn how the discipline is
faring and preparing, APQC surveyed more than 400 KM professionals in
December 2018 and January 2019 about their priorities and expectations
for the year ahead. We found that most KM teams are using the moment
to refocus on the building blocks of KM—strategic planning, employee
engagement, and the identification of critical knowledge—while rapidly
adapting to new technologies and ways of working.

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OUTLOOK: THE VIEW FROM 30,000 FEET
According to today’s KM professionals, the overall state of the discipline is strong. Most survey respondents have a
positive outlook on KM’s status in their organizations, and with good reason: A vast majority of KM budgets are stable or
increasing. This is welcome news, especially in this time of digital transformation. Organizations are not abandoning KM
fundamentals in favor of the latest shiny object. We see this as a positive indicator that KM has evolved into an essential
function that is firmly embedded in enterprise structures and processes.

POSITIVITY PREVAILS
Almost half of responding KM professionals feel positive or very positive about the strategy and direction of KM in
their organizations. By contrast, only a small minority (6 percent) are not at all positive (Figure 1). APQC asked KM
professionals this same question in its 2015 Knowledge Management Priorities research. Although there is a slight dip in
sentiment (63 percent of respondents felt positive or very positive in 2015) compared to four years ago, the overall results
are relatively consistent. This reflects the growing stability of the discipline.

How Positive Do You Feel About the Strategy and Direction of KM in Your Organization?

(Figure 1 | N=401)

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DESPITE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, KM REMAINS STABLE
Some KM professionals fear that digital transformation will divert resources away from classic KM activities like taxonomy
management, content curation, and end-user engagement. Perhaps in the future, organizations will be able to replace
their human KM teams with AI tools that automatically capture, organize, and distribute knowledge. But APQC’s data
shows that such fears are generally unfounded—at least for now. A majority of KM professionals expect their budgets to
grow or remain stable in 2019 (Figure 2). And according APQC’s KM Benchmarks and Metrics research, staff and contract
personnel costs continue to make up 70 percent of total KM costs.

How Do You Expect Your 2019 KM Budget

KM MUST CONTINUE TO PROVE ITS WORTH
to Compare to That of the Previous Year?
Despite the discipline’s stability, KM professionals should not become
complacent. KM still needs to measure and demonstrate its value to the
business to maintain its funding and strategic role. Measurement is an
ongoing challenge for KM because so much of its impact on the business
is hard to quantify. Outcomes such as “increased collaboration” are
notoriously difficult to translate into tangible ROI. The KM team can point
to individual success stories that show bottom-line impact (e.g., time saved
and costs avoided through knowledge reuse), but it’s harder to calculate
the extent to which KM benefits the business on an ongoing basis.

Digital transformation may help KM teams move past these long-standing

roadblocks. New technology and an increasingly interconnected enterprise
should improve KM’s ability to track collaborative interactions and
knowledge exchanges among employees, aggregate these metrics into
dashboards, and communicate the results to leadership. As KM programs
upgrade and expand technologies in 2019, they should think about how
they will define success, collect data, and proactively distribute it back to
the business.

(Figure 2 | N=342)

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PRIORITIES: WHAT ARE KM PROGRAMS
FOCUSED ON THIS YEAR?
APQC asked KM professionals about the most important priorities for their KM teams and programs in 2019 (Figure 3).
We suspected that technology adoption might top this list, but a majority of KM programs continue to emphasize a mix
of strategy, process, and engagement.

Top Five Priorities for KM Teams and Programs in 2019

(Figure 3 | N=400)

We are delighted to see that organizations are increasingly focused on KM strategy development. When APQC asked this
question in years past, enabling collaboration and increasing engagement were the top priorities. These remain important
goals, but organizations are starting to recognize that these outcomes depend on focused strategic planning. After all,
you can’t just tell people to “go collaborate.” You need to identify a problem that users are experiencing in their work and
then give them a set of tools and approaches to help them solve that problem.
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ORGANIZATIONS EMPHASIZE THE “WHY” AND “HOW” OF KM
Respondents’ top two priorities for 2019—improving the KM strategy and identifying critical knowledge—suggest an
increased focus on purposeful solution design. KM teams are shifting away from the random acts of improvement and
back-office activities of the past. Instead, they are developing targeted KM plans in line with business goals.

Identifying, mapping, and prioritizing critical knowledge are necessary ingredients for a strong KM strategy. Knowledge
mapping allows the KM team to separate the organization’s most business-critical knowledge from all the other “stuff
people know” and pinpoint specific places where gaps or bottlenecks in knowledge flow are creating downstream pain. In
so doing, the KM team can focus on the most important knowledge-related challenges and opportunities.

Strategic Planning and Knowledge Mapping Resources

Whether your organization is starting a new KM effort or evaluating an existing program, it’s crucial to have a documented
KM strategy that defines what your KM goals are and what approaches you will use to achieve them. Through more than
two decades of research, APQC has identified proven processes and templates for creating your KM strategy, assessing
your portfolio of KM approaches, and mapping your organization’s critical knowledge.

If KM strategy is one of your 2019 priorities, please see the following resources:
• Strategic Planning for Knowledge Management
• APQC’s Knowledge Management Portfolio Assessment Process
• KM Essentials: Introduction to Knowledge Mapping
• Knowledge Mapping Concepts and Tools

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 Case in Point:
Knowledge Mapping
Drives KM Strategy
Trianz, an IT and management consulting firm, used knowledge mapping
to develop a strategy for its new KM program. Trianz CKO Ved Prakash
started by mapping knowledge with 50 leaders across the organization.
This helped him identify high-level themes and important stakeholders
before digging deeper into the organization’s knowledge-related
challenges and opportunities. Prakash then used a standard template
to capture knowledge from leaders, subject matter experts, and project
managers in key business areas.

Through knowledge mapping, Prakash identified all the relevant

stakeholders, knowledge assets, knowledge flows, and knowledge needs
at Trianz. In short, he gathered the essential ingredients to develop a KM
strategy and tweak it as needed.

“The overall KM design is scalable in nature for growth and for the ever-
changing environment. That’s what I wanted to ensure,” said Prakash.

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COLLABORATION AND ENGAGEMENT REMAIN IMPORTANT
Enabling collaboration and increasing engagement remain priorities for KM professionals. With increased attention to
strategy and critical knowledge, we expect that many KM teams will be able to apply a more targeted approach to
collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Engagement, however, is likely to remain a challenge for KM teams—especially during digital transformation. As
organizations roll out new tools and systems, employees may experience change fatigue. Fortunately, even as KM
technology continues to evolve, the keys to increasing awareness and promoting participation remain evergreen.

5 Keys to KM Engagement

1. Ensure KM approaches 2. Make KM tools easily
are tailored to employees’ accessible and, when
needs and challenges. possible, integrated into
employees’ workflows.
3. Identify key user 4. Provide meaningful 5. Actively seek out
segments and provide rewards and recognition employee feedback to
relevant communications, for good KM behaviors. further improve KM tools
training, and change and approaches.
management across
multiple channels.

To learn how best-practice organizations increase engagement, see APQC’s Promoting KM and Making it Stick research.

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 Case in Point:
Engaging Employees in
a Challenging Industry
In the construction and engineering industry, it can be especially
challenging to secure buy-in for KM. Employees are out at job sites, and
they don’t always want to step away from their work to share or search
for knowledge. Leaders worry about keeping intellectual property secure,
so many are fearful of expanding access to knowledge. The KM team at
Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) overcame these barriers and
secured strong employee engagement in KM through user-focused tools
and approaches, branding and awareness campaigns, and success stories.

CCC’s KM team built on early successes to convince leadership to

broaden accessibility to KM resources and eventually developed a KM
app that allows employees to access content and answer questions on-
the-go. The team further increased engagement through a recognizable
KM brand and logo, KM champions in the business, and a multi-channel
communications strategy. Now, CCC sustains participation by integrating
KM with project work and presenting KM as a way to be recognized—and
potentially promoted—within the company.

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NEW AND IMPROVED: WHAT APPROACHES
ARE ORGANIZATIONS INVESTING IN?
APQC asked KM professionals about the approaches they plan to implement or significantly upgrade in 2019 (Figure 4).
The biggest areas of investment are capturing and transferring expert knowledge and best practices, followed by
communities of practice, lessons learned, and knowledge-sharing events.

Top 10 KM Approaches to Implement or Upgrade in 2019

(Figure 4 | N=393)

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 KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
Whenever APQC asks organizations about the KM approaches they plan to implement or improve, knowledge capture
and transfer are near the top of the list. The need to pass on expertise and best practices has been core to the KM mission
for 25 years, and the urgency just seems to grow as organizations become more complex and geographically dispersed.

What Drives the Need

for Knowledge Transfer?

1. Retirement and Demographic Shifts 2. The Rapid Pace of Change 3. Globalization

Baby boomers continue to retire, and younger
workers are not following the same linear career
paths as their predecessors. Organizations can
no longer rely on their veteran experts to serve
as long-term storage banks for institutional
knowledge, nor can they rely on one-on-one
expert/novice mentoring relationships as the sole
means of growing expertise. Instead, organizations
need a structured way to pinpoint experts’ most
business-critical knowledge and then document
and disseminate it to the employees who need it.
The pace of change—in organizations, products,
processes, technology, and markets—is accelerating.
Organizations need better and faster ways to
upskill people and transfer expertise between
individuals and teams. They can’t count on formal
training or degree programs to supply expertise in
fast-moving fields like cybersecurity. Fortunately,
though, many large organizations have official or
unofficial experts in emerging technologies and
disciplines. They just need efficient ways to find
those experts and disseminate their knowledge.
Continued growth and globalization increase the
need to transfer best practices among teams,
locations, and business units. As supply chains
and business relationships become ever-more
complex, organizations need ways to effectively
share practices and lessons with contractors,
partners, and suppliers as well as across
traditional business silos.

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Digging deeper into the data, a majority of organizations pursuing knowledge transfer this year are improving existing
programs—not launching new ones. Their top priority is to identify, map, and prioritize critical knowledge for transfer.
This, again, speaks to the growing emphasis on setting strategic direction for KM approaches before implementing or
“improving” them. Additional focus areas include improving knowledge capture/transfer policies and processes, adopting
new technologies to aid capture, and aligning transfer efforts to business needs (Figure 5).
Top Priorities for Organizations Pursuing Knowledge Capture and Transfer

(Figure 5 | N=393)

Knowledge transfer is an area of constant investment, stagnation, breakdown, and reinvestment. Organizations have
been trying to get it right for years. When transfer initiatives fail, it’s often due to a lack of clear purpose, executive
sponsorship, resource allocations, and resolve to sustain engagement. Effective knowledge transfer requires prework (like
knowledge mapping and analysis), as well as dedicated time for in-demand people (e.g., leaders and experts) to share
their knowledge. It’s hard, but also necessary. A lot of firms attempt knowledge transfer, but comparatively few are willing
to put the necessary resources in place to stay the course.
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 Case in Point:
Knowledge Transfer Takes
Time, but It Also Saves Time
Knowledge capture and transfer require a significant investment in time
and resources—but the results are often well worth the effort. One example
of this comes from The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

Goodyear’s knowledge transfer process begins when the business requests

that a particular expert’s knowledge be mapped and documented. The
KM team evaluates the request and then creates a project charter to
define goals, expectations, and timing. During the mapping process, the
expert meets with a facilitator for a total of 10 hours (broken up into
shorter sessions) to document his or her roles, tasks, key stakeholders,
and competencies. The expert and his or her manager then review the
completed maps before they are uploaded to Goodyear’s KM portal.

Goodyear’s knowledge maps are used to create training materials called

learning journals. Managers and mentors use the learning journals to coach
employees and guide and assess their professional development. Although
the knowledge mapping process takes time, it also produces tangible
results for the business. For example, it has:

/// reduced new hires’ time to competency by an average of three months;

/// helped standardize processes, best practices, and training globally; and

/// uncovered gaps in process ownership and process improvement

opportunities.

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COMMUNITIES AND COLLABORATION
Like knowledge transfer, communities and collaboration are central to the KM mission. Large and geographically
dispersed organizations have always needed structured ways to help employees come together to innovate, collaborate,
and share what they know. But as more firms embrace remote work and flexible schedules, even small and mid-size
companies can no longer expect conversations and creative abrasion to happen organically, without a strategy and
enabling structure.

Within the communities and collaboration space, engagement remains KM professionals’ biggest challenge and top
priority (Figure 6). One-third of survey respondents are focused on increasing engagement in collaboration platforms and
tools, and an additional 24 percent are trying to boost participation in communities and networks.

Top Priorities for Organizations Pursuing Communities and Collaboration

(Figure 6 | N=394)

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There are many reasons why it’s hard to boost cross-boundary collaboration. Organizations whose cultures gravitate
toward the tight control of information, or where people see knowledge as a source of power and job security, have
always struggled to get people to share. Time is another huge barrier, and it’s one that seems to grow more daunting each
year. Many firms learned to operate with leaner staffs during the economic downturn a decade ago, and even as their
work grows, staffing levels have never returned to pre-recession levels. People feel overwhelmed and overworked, so it’s
easy for collaboration to feel like one more thing their bosses expect them to squeeze in.

There are no shortcuts when it comes to building buy-in and engagement for communities and collaboration tools. But,
as previously mentioned, the best practices for increasing KM participation are well-established. Collaboration can’t be an
end in itself, and it can’t feel hard or overly burdensome. Collaboration must be driven by employees’ work and learning
needs, embedded in their workflows, and reinforced through meaningful rewards and recognition. And importantly,
you need to seek out employee feedback—the good, the bad, and the ugly—to understand the barriers that impede
participation and tweak your approach.

Case in Point: Increasing Engagement

by Adapting to Employee Needs
World Vision International, a global relief and development organization, needed to increase knowledge sharing and help
employees identify and use best practices globally. But with 39,000 busy workers dispersed across nearly 100 countries,
World Vision needed to build a KM strategy that encompassed its global goals and employees’ local needs.

World Vision employees come from a range of cultural backgrounds and have varying technology skillsets, so some find it
challenging to participate in KM through online tools alone. To bridge the gap, World Vision has a network of embedded
knowledge managers who provide KM services and expertise to the business. This allows project teams, business areas,
and even individual employees to easily connect with a KM resource who can help with their unique challenges.

Another unique aspect of World Vision’s workforce is how closely they work with external experts. Employees wanted
to be able to collaborate with external partners in their communities of practice, so World Vision’s global KM team
figured out a way to make it happen. The team set clear ground rules about how to identify external participants and
which systems and resources they can access. Opening communities to external experts further increased engagement in
communities: It showed that the KM team takes communities’ requests seriously, and it helped position KM as a way for
people to interact with national and international experts in their fields.

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CONTENT MANAGEMENT
Content management platforms are evolving quickly, and tools like chatbots and predictive algorithms have the potential
to rewrite the search and discovery rulebook. But despite the constant churn of new capabilities, KM professionals
are continuing to prioritize the core components of good content management such as policy, process, strategy, and
taxonomy (Figure 7).

Top Priorities for Organizations Pursuing Content Management

(Figure 7 | N=394)

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Technology is an important consideration, of course, and 23 percent of those surveyed cite implementing platforms
such as Microsoft Office 365 among their top content management priorities for 2019. But we suspect that the
introduction of such platforms has forced many organizations back to the drawing board to rethink how they
develop, tag, and manage content throughout its lifecycle.

At its heart, content management remains a process problem. The biggest challenges are establishing ownership
and accountability, getting end-users to contribute and store content in a useful way, and updating and archiving
older items so systems don’t get bogged down with irrelevant and outdated information.

The challenges can feel daunting, but by making well-organized and curated content more easily accessible, new
systems increase the potential return on investment from effective content management. With the right processes in
place, you can improve the user experience in your current systems while ensuring you’re prepared to embrace the
next wave of tools and capabilities.

Six Keys to Effective Content Management

1. Align the type and format of content to the intended audience.

2. Create roles and processes to identify content gaps.
3. Create taxonomies that reflect how users think about content.
4. Establish distinct channels for vetted and unvetted content.
5. Maintain strong accountability for content review and archive outdated, redundant, and trivial content.
6. Train employees how to use search and other tools to find content.

For more tips on implementing a successful content management strategy, see Getting Started with Content Management,
Curation, and Findability.

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Shopify’s customer
support agents use
knowledge base content in
59 %
of all customer
support interactions.
©2019 APQC All Rights Reserved
Case in Point:
Strong Strategy Drives
Content Management
Success
E-commerce company Shopify created a content management approach
that engages the vast majority of its target audience and delivers tangible
results to the business. Shopify’s KM director started by talking to customer
support agents, the initial target audience, and reviewing activity data from
existing systems to understand their needs and challenges.
Shopify established KM roles embedded in the business that are responsible
for creating content. It also created a team that tracks usage metrics to
ensure the content strategy is engaging end-users and meeting business
needs. Shopify integrated its knowledge library with the tools its employees
use every day (Google Chrome and Slack) so people don’t have to step out
of the flow of work to find what they need. The KM team ties its messaging
to Shopify’s organizational values and issues frequent, multi-channel
communications to inform employees about new content and initiatives.
Shopify’s robust content management strategy has achieved striking results.
More than 90 percent of Shopify’s customer support agents log into the
KM system at least once a month, and they view knowledge base content
in 59 percent of all customer support interactions. And best of all, customer
satisfaction ratings are higher when employees use KM content.
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NEW TECHNOLOGIES
When it comes to adopting new enabling technologies for KM, digital transformation is driving most corporate decisions
and investments this year. Two-thirds of the professionals APQC surveyed said their organizations are currently
undergoing digital transformation (Figure 8). Notably, nearly one in 10 indicated that they weren’t sure whether their
firms are engaged in digital transformation. This speaks to how quickly technology is changing—and how confusing these
trends and buzzwords can be.

Is Your Organization Currently Undergoing Digital Transformation?

(Figure 8 | N=401)

One goal of digital transformation is greater integration among systems and across the enterprise. Thus, it isn’t surprising
to see that comprehensive digital productivity and collaboration platforms are the most popular KM technology to add or
upgrade in 2019 (Figure 9).

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 Top 10 KM Technologies to Add or Upgrade in 2019

(Figure 9 | N=369)

Early adopters started moving to Office 365 and similar cloud platforms a few years ago, but the pace of adoption has
accelerated quickly. Vendors such as Microsoft and Google are increasingly pushing organizations toward software as a
service. Enterprise IT groups see potential for cost savings and other benefits. Whereas some KM leaders advocated for
their organizations’ transition to cloud-based software, others are being forced to adapt to technology decisions made
upstream from them. In most cases, the migration of content and collaboration to the cloud is happening whether KM
leaders are ready for it or not.

The good news is that many KM programs realize significant benefits when they transition to a cloud platform. With built-
in integrations, it’s easier to push relevant content to employees based on their personas and behaviors across platforms.
Better integration also helps anchor knowledge in workflows and business applications. Instead of toggling between
platforms to work on projects, find expertise, and download content, employees have everything they need in one system.
And access from home computers and mobile devices makes cloud-based knowledge more readily available. All of
this puts knowledge at employees’ fingertips—sometimes even before they realize they need it—and as a result, boosts
adoption and reuse.

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AI and Cognitive Computing on the Leading Edge

When we asked KM professionals about their priorities in 2015, only 9 percent said they expected to incorporate AI and
cognitive computing. Four years later, that number has doubled: 18 percent said they will add or further integrate AI
into their suite of KM tools in 2019. Early adopters like Accenture and Microsoft have completed their pilots and started
incorporating automation, machine learning, and natural language processing capabilities into a wider range of KM
applications. Now, a second wave of organizations is exploring the potential of these tools.

However, it’s important to recognize that AI adoption for KM is not yet mainstream. Most organizations remain focused
on putting foundational infrastructure in place and getting employees to share and reuse knowledge, without the help
of intelligent automation. However, we expect adoption to spike as integrated digital platforms like Office 365 build in
cognitive capabilities over the next year or two. Organizations that would never invest in custom development will be
eager to take advantage of off-the-shelf AI capabilities embedded in systems they already use.

Areas Where Investment Is Flagging

A few technologies that KM programs focused on in years past have fallen down the list of priorities in 2019. Many of
these technologies are now par for the course, especially as organizations move to integrated cloud platforms. For
example, blogs, wikis, and video are less likely to require special initiatives since the necessary capabilities are already built
into existing enterprise software. And because these technologies are so pervasive, the KM team doesn’t have to do as
much to convince or teach people to use them.

Expertise location, however, is a different story. Given the trends towards globalization, remote work, and job-hopping,
the impetus to help employees find expertise is greater than ever. But convincing employees to fill out manual profiles
and keep them up to date remains a huge challenge. Most KM teams auto-populate at least some aspects of employee
profiles, but given how quickly employees are changing roles and taking on new projects, it’s hard to keep up.

Some organizations may be delaying investments in expertise location because they hope new, AI-driven tools will
do a better job of curating information about employees and keeping it up to date. Others have stalled because they
have to implement other aspects of integrated platforms first, or because of data privacy issues associated with
mining employees’ digital activities to infer their expertise. But the need for expertise location isn’t going away, so KM
professionals should stay attuned to developments in this space over the next year or two.

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LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: TRENDS
When APQC asked KM professionals about the biggest trends impacting KM in their organizations, we were surprised
to find that the two hottest topics are not tools or technologies, but rather methodologies for designing solutions and
managing work (Figure 10). Nearly one-third of respondents listed Agile project management and design thinking,
respectively, among the top three forces affecting KM in their organizations this year. But given the accelerating pace of
change and the need for organizations to adapt to new technologies, it makes sense that KM teams are looking for ways
to be more efficient, responsive, and customer-centric.

What Are the Biggest Forces Affecting KM in Your Organization in 2019?

(Figure 10 | N=400)
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AGILE
Agile is a project management paradigm that stresses iteration, collaboration, self-organization, and customer-centricity.
The basic concept of Agile is that a small team works in short (typically, two-week) bursts called “sprints,” frequently
demoing features and incorporating customer feedback, to deliver a product or solution. Born in the world of software
development, this approach has taken the business world by storm and is now applied in a variety of disciplines and
industries. At APQC, we’re already starting to see KM programs successfully incorporate Agile, and given the number of
organizations adopting this way of working, we expect many new use cases to emerge over the coming year.

Case in Point:
Integrating Agile with KM
The KM team at BUPA Health Insurance used Agile to rapidly increase its capabilities and the
organization’s KM maturity. The KM team’s first Agile project was improving the user experience for
BUPA’s KM platform. The team prioritized a list of features, defined requirements, identified user stories
(“user story” is an Agile term for the end-user perspective), and worked in sprints. They didn’t get it right
on the first try, but thanks to the flexibility of Agile, the team was able to quickly incorporate feedback
and adapt.

After the successful completion of the first project, the KM team integrated Agile into its content
management approach as well as the way it structures KM roles. Employees are increasingly engaged in
KM, and BUPA’s KM team attributes its success to Agile.

“It’s hard to express just what a difference Agile made to our vision. Three years on from the start of our
transformation, we’re at a tipping point where knowledge is becoming a business enabler, rather than
just a support function,” said Sharon Hayward, knowledge solutions manager at BUPA.

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DESIGN THINKING
Design thinking is another methodology that’s quickly gaining popularity in and beyond KM. Design thinking is a human-
centric, solutions-based approach to problem solving, and it’s particularly useful for addressing complex or ill-defined
challenges. The methodology consists of five phases:

1. Empathize — 2. Define — scope 3. Ideate — brainstorm 4. Prototype — develop 5. Test — conduct a

understand the customer the problem from the potential solutions. minimally feasible models series of assessments on
and their needs. customer perspective. of potential solutions. the applicability of the
prototypes.

Design thinking can provide value in many ways, but there are two big drivers pushing organizations toward this method.
The first driver is customer centricity. The first phase of design thinking is entirely focused on the needs, applications, and
challenges of the customer—and as a result, everything that follows is scoped and developed in the customer’s context.
The second driver is creativity. This methodology gives teams the time, space, and permission to generate multiple
potential solutions to any given problem.

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 Case in Point: Applying
Design Thinking to Internal
and External Challenges
Building materials company CEMEX started applying design thinking as
part of its digitalization strategy but has since applied the methodology
to a variety of internal and external challenges. For example, CEMEX used
design thinking in its efforts to increase gender diversity in leadership
positions.

The organization’s design lab started by researching gender diversity

and women executives in and outside the organization to understand
the goals, needs, and motivations of female leaders. Then, they identified
four “personas” (fictionalized characters based on the demographic traits,
motivations, behaviors, and pain points of real customer segments). The
design lab brought in cross-functional teams to create empathy maps
for each persona, brainstorm ideas to resolve their pain points, and then
translate these ideas into actionable initiatives. Based on the results,
CEMEX implemented a new flex-time policy and established talent
inclusion committee to identify additional ways to boost talent diversity.

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LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: SKILLSETS
APQC also asked KM professionals about the skills their teams need to develop over the next 12 months. Data
management and analytics remain important areas to build and buy skills, but change management is by far the biggest
need (Figure 11).

Top Skills for KM to Develop in 2019

(Figure 11 | N=400)

The demand for change management expertise is unsurprising given the ubiquity of digital transformation initiatives and
the accelerating pace of change overall. And as KM teams experiment with new approaches like Agile and design thinking,
they’ll need to apply change management in their own teams as well.

APQC and others have many time-tested best practices for change management. However, this field is also evolving, and
today’s change management professionals may need to update their competencies and practices in response to new
methodologies and ways of working. APQC’s latest research finds that there are significant opportunities for individuals,
teams, and organizations to improve the maturity of their change management approaches.

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 5 Keys to Increase Change Management Maturity

1. Conduct current state 2. Use a portfolio 3. Include value and 4. Leverage peer-led 5. Include compensation
assessments. approach to manage behavioral measures. training and and promotions in the
change initiatives. communications. rewards and recognition
scheme.

Case in Point: For more on change management trends, see

Delivering Tailored Change Closing the Change Management Gap.

Management to KM Newbies
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer wanted to increase knowledge sharing across global sites and across the product lifecycle. But KM is still a new or unknown concept for
many Pfizer employees, especially those who are in very technical roles or distanced from leadership.

Pfizer is overcoming this challenge with dedicated KM specialists embedded in the business. KM specialists focus on managing change, communicating, and training
employees at local sites. Pfizer recruits KM specialists from a variety of backgrounds across the business. Some have management experience while others do not. KM
specialists come from different departments including supply chain, training, laboratory, and technical services. Specialists draw on their diverse experiences when
collaborating and brainstorming the best ways to connect with different target audiences.

Pfizer’s KM specialists are diverse, but they share a common set of skills. These include:

/// SYSTEMS THINKING—specialists must have a broad view of KM needs across a variety of roles;

/// PASSION—specialists need to believe in the value of KM;

/// COLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION—specialists need to work with each other, Pfizer’s global KM team, and colleagues on site; and

/// STRATEGIC PLANNING—while the global team is generally responsible for strategy, specialists must also use strategic planning to roll out KM tools and
approaches at their sites.

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ABOUT APQC
APQC helps organizations work smarter, faster, and with greater confidence. It is the
world’s foremost authority in benchmarking, best practices, process and performance
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than 500 member organizations worldwide in all industries. With more than 40 years of
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www.apqc.org, and learn how you can make best practices your practices.

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