A very good article by Luigi Benetton was posted in the August 5, 2011 issue of The Lawyers Weekly, titled “Knowledge management know-how”. The article, for which Dominic Jaar was interviewed, explains the what and the why of knowledge management (KM) for law firms, which might be common sense to all of us. Are we not always asking ourselves “What do I need to know to be more efficient and profitable?”
The reality is that we are so busy with our day to day business that we are forgetting to stop and take time to analyze how we can capture and leverage the knowledge we all have – individually and within our firm. This article gives us a very good insight of where to begin and what to include in our reflection. Not only does the article give us the what and why but also the how, and provides further examples of leading practices and how to get started with KM:
Make KM part of project management
Creating checklists and lining up document templates for specific services can reduce the cost of providing said services.Combine KM and the firm library
Libraries generally hold externally-sourced information, while KM curates information created inside the firm. Firms can add value by tracing links between the two, especially if they’re kept in what [Ted] Tjaden [McMillan LLP’s national director of knowledge management] calls a “one-stop shop for knowledge.”Adapt systems to how people work
“Find out how people work today and tailor policies, procedures and systems that conform to that workflow as closely as possible,” [Susan] Nickle [co-founder of Wortzman Nickle Professional Corporation] says. “The bigger the change, the less likely it is that people will adapt to it.”Get professional help
If you can’t take one of your lawyers off billable hours, enlist pros to set up the right policies, procedures and technology tools for your needs.If you don’t have the resources internally to address KM or if your resources are better used on other matters, get professional help.
Some people will call it Knowledge Management, and others may call it Business Intelligence - that will be the topic of a future post. And while those two notions are close together, remember that intelligence is closely linked with knowledge…
