An interesting question asked on the actKM list today:
I am on a bit of a trawl for examples of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) other have used for KM projects - esp. around activities such as lessons learned & communities of practice.
Any pointers to papers or personal examples would be great.
I felt compelled to answer, and did so in this way:
To my mind, measuring KM is largely about getting qualitative analysis from your community around the quantitative aspects of the work done. So, questions like (assuming a 1-year post-implementation review, for example):
- is your ability to find information better than it was with the previous tool/12 months ago/etc.?
- is the information you can find able to answer the questions you have (<50%/50-70%/>70% of the time - numbers just an example)?
- are you more easily able to share knowledge with your immediate co-workers than you could 12 months ago?
- are you more easily able to communicate with co-workers/management/clients than you could 12 months ago?
- do you feel that information is shared better in the organisation now than it was 12 months ago?
Of course, my answer is heavily informed by my passions around both KM and social computing in business (or Enterprise 2.0), but I think it holds water.
What about you? How do you measure KM value?
Most of the questions are relative in terms of willingness to share information. You need to have a different set of mind, to make something like that happen, like 180 degrees leadership. Leonardo