James Robertson: Profiles in Knowledge

Originally published May 5, 2022

6 min readMay 6, 2022

This is the 79th article in the Profiles in Knowledge series featuring thought leaders in knowledge management. James Robertson is a thought leader on intranet strategy and design, digital employee experience, digital workplaces, web content management, and technology selection. He is the founder and managing director of Step Two, a vendor-neutral consultancy in Australia that helps organizations select a suitable intranet platform or web content management system.

After following his work online, I first met James at KMWorld 2009, and we became friends. We were also at KMWorld together in 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2017. He presented on the October 2010 SIKM Leaders Community call.

Background

James is the author of three best-selling intranet books. He has written hundreds of articles and produced a variety of resources, including the Intranet Roadmap. As a certified trainer, James regularly runs one and two-day practical workshops on intranet strategy and design, both within Australia and internationally. He was a founding member of the CM Professionals (CM Pros), a non-profit international community of content management professionals that existed from 2004 to 2014.

Education: University of Sydney — BSc (Honors), Science, 1990-1993
Work: Step Two Designs — Founder and Managing Director, 1996-present

Profiles

Content

Articles

Knowledge management isn’t dead, it’s more important than ever!

Knowledge management as a discipline has been around for decades. Over the years it’s waxed and waned in popularity, to a large degree because it’s genuinely hard to do (organizations are complex!).

We think it’s far from dead. In fact, with the emergence of platforms such as Office 365, it’s more important than ever. There are now a multitude of tools and platforms, which combine with ongoing organizational change to make active knowledge management crucial for many businesses.

Developing a knowledge management strategy

Identify the key staff groups within the organization. These groups deliver the greatest business value or are involved in the most important business activities.
Conduct comprehensive and holistic needs analysis activities with selected staff groups, to identify key needs and issues.
Supplement this research with input from senior management and organizational strategy documents, to determine an overall strategic focus.
Based on these findings, develop recommendations for addressing the issues and needs identified.
Implement a series of strategic and tactical initiatives, based on the recommendations. These will select suitable knowledge management techniques and approaches.

There are no “KM systems”

To mitigate risks, and to get the best possible project outcomes, organizations should abandon use of the term ‘KMS’. Instead, organizations should focus on clearly articulating exactly what functionality is required.

At the end of the day, organizations need to let go of the desire for ‘silver bullet’ solutions implied by terms such as KMS. Instead, they should look to build internal information management expertise, alongside the people and process aspects of KM.

10 principles of effective information management

Recognize (and manage) complexity.
Focus on adoption.
Deliver tangible & visible benefits.
Prioritize according to business needs.
Take a journey of a thousand steps.
Provide strong leadership.
Mitigate risks.
Communicate extensively.
Strive for a seamless digital employee experience.
Choose the first project very carefully.

Collaboration isn’t free

Collaboration is hard work: There are many elements and activities needed to get the most out of collaboration and social tools, including:

clear strategy and vision
good alignment with business goals and objectives
unambiguous support from senior leaders
up-front decisions on what functionality to enable (and what to leave turned off)
highly usable tools, making changes from out-of-the-box designs where needed
good integration between the new tools and existing platforms
excellent launch communication
strong change management planning
comprehensive training and support materials for staff
clear guidance for teams requesting new collaboration spaces
hands-on support for key business areas, to help them adopt and use the new tools
strong usage reporting and metrics
an ongoing ‘community manager’ role

Intranets and knowledge sharing

This article challenges the vision of the corporate intranet as a publishing tool, or a static repository for web pages or documents. Instead, it looks at a number of ways in which the intranet can become a dynamic and living environment for knowledge-based activities.

Five key approaches are covered:

communities of practice and intranets
staff directories and expertise finders
collaborative environments
intranet-based knowledge tools
using the intranet to drive cultural change

Share knowledge with communities of practice

Over the last few decades, knowledge management has produced many theories and methodologies. Of these, communities of practice (CoPs) are perhaps the most successful and effective. They connect staff, share knowledge, and help to break silos.

To achieve these benefits, however, communities of practice must be tackled in a structured and well-resourced way; they are much more than just a few discussion spaces in a collaboration or social tool!