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Ranking the effectiveness of 14 knowledge management techniques

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A recent study of knowledge management during new product development identified 14 techniques [46 MIT Sloan Mgt. Rev., Spring 2005, pg 5].  Each technique has something to contribute when law departments want to learn and share the learning more effectively.

The 10 highest-rated methods for sharing knowledge were, in order:

  1. “informal events,
  2. experience workshops [team reviews of completed projects, aka post mortems],
  3. communities of practice,
  4. project briefings (knowledge transfer prior to beginning new projects),
  5. expert interviews,
  6. best-practice cases,
  7. knowledge brokering (third parties connecting knowledge seekers to knowledge sources),
  8. experience reports (documenting positive and negative experiences on projects),
  9. databases, and
  10. professional research services.”

Practices with lower satisfaction rankings, as determined by the survey of 356 engineers and others involved in 94 projects as well as a workshop attended by representatives from 33 companies, included electronic discussion forums, storytelling, and knowledge maps.

For much more on legal knowledge management, see Joy London’s excellent blog, Excited Utterances.