''A Knowledge Management Case Study in

Developing, Documenting, and Distributing

Learning'' Brigette McGregor-MacDonald, Marsh
Inc., UK

Hugo Bernier, Olivia Li, Saiyan Islam, and Septian Sugara

GLIS 662, McGill University, 2021
Marsh Inc, Insurance Services
400 offices and 42 000 employees serving clients in 100 countries.
KM Platforms for learning and sharing
● 2000: Replaced local performance tools, processes and procedures with one
unified approach to aligning goals and consistently measuring performance with
the Balanced Scorecard.
● 2001: Implemented a global learning management system which included e-
learning, tutor-led learning and online lending library with books, CD, tapes,
videos and computer based training.
● 2002: Aimed to replace country-specific intranet portal. Implementation of a
community-wide portal, interactive client and colleague platform to source
information about the company to both external and internal requestors.
Focus of the Case Study: the KM Strategy (GLDC)
Global Leadership Development Curriculum (GLDC): “Managing Essentials”
program
● Three day off-site event
● Reunite high performance, high potential employees which holds managerial
responsibilities
● Delivered through experienced facilitators
● Design to be hosted around the globe: consistency rather than specificity
● Overall goal of the strategy: that learning will cascade across the organization
The Problem
Since 2000, in order to provide consistency of message, delivery language and experience and
break silos across geographies, changes have been made to implement a common approach across
the organization through the use of new KM tools and developing KM strategy – the GLDC initiative
– to be delivered across the globe through learning and sharing.

Marsh Inc. wants to become a centralized learning organization.

However:

These implementations are not consistently and easily adopted (change management)

Two major challenges:

● Employees are coming from different backgrounds

● Sharing of learning materials and experiences is a relatively new concept to the organizations
Initiative: the Ultimate Goal
Through the “Managing Essentials” program help and support participants(the
“delegates”) to improve their learning and its transfer(cascade) across the
organization.
Initiative: Secondary Goals
Solving the problem will improve the organization capability to:
● Sustain learning and best-practice management tools and techniques
● Support the pan-European colleague network
● Share learning and lessons learned from implementation
● Demonstrate a measurable return on investment against the learning
intervention
Stakeholders to be considered
● Marsh employees
● Top managers
● Executive
● Business partners
● Global Leadership Development Organizers
● Clients
Activities that should be carried out

● Workshops
● Storytelling
● Brainstorm
● Transcribing minutes of meeting into various media
● Social networking
● Developing knowledge repository
Intended outcomes

● Construct information more accessible and understandable

● Create a culture of storytelling
● Develop the system
● Accommodate audiences with diverse learning style
● Build up social networking among the employees
● Provide integrated knowledge center and ease retrieval
Desired Loop or Feedback
● Introduced an interactive, company-wide portal for client and colleague.
● Make use of the portal as a means of feedback and learning loops.
● Populate the communication tools in order to provide effective feedback.
● Engage with best practice management tools which were taught at the
global leadership program.
● Further extend the existing learning management system into decision
support systems to promote continuous learning through feedback.
● Deploy the leadership portal to provide expert feedback to managers.
Time Needed to Achieve Success

● The case suggested that Marsh’s learning management system (LMS) has
achieved success globally three years after its implementation in sustaining
its learning.
● Marsh has set a timeline for their learning program of 1 year.
● The LMS is yet to be further improved as employees are being forced to
register to events themselves and not making use of all the resources.
● The learning and development programme is being continuously “polished” so
may need further three to five years to reach an ideal structure.
How Success of the Initiative Should be Defined
Overall, at its current position, Marsh Inc has experienced success in its
learning management system.
Success should be measured in terms of achieving the desired goals and
objectives for having the learning management system.

● Sustain the learning- Employees are motivated to turn their learning

process into a habit.
● Transfer the learning- Possess the right set of tools and technology for
communication and also maintain the tradition of storytelling.
● Demonstrate their ROI- Efficient management information reporting;
Business Challenge, networking.
● Sustainably improve the program based on the feedbacks received.
Quantitative KPI
● Managers can produce policies more effectively. 10% more effective (in term
of time consumed to produce policy) within a year of the initiative.
● Capture 200 lessons annually.
● Annually save up to 120 hours* of time spent on information gathering, by
developing a knowledge repository.

*
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/employees-spend-more-than-25-of-their-time-searching-for-the-information-they-need-to-d
o-their-jobs-citrix/articleshow/69839496.cms?from=mdr
Qualitative KPI

Increase the organizational culture to boost productivity.

- Reuse of knowledge (leverage)
- Willingness to share
- Knowledge retention
- Quick access to knowledge (findability, usability)
- Develop organizational learning
- Consensus-building
Evaluation Framework Wishlist

To measure the performance, the framework should possess these

elements :
● Data-driven
● Scalability
● Adaptability
● Versatility
● Inclusiveness
● Sustainability