What comes next when your KM Strategy has run its course?

A strategy does not last forever. 

Think of the Allied strategy for the invasion of Germany at the end of World War 2 - once the war was over, the strategy had run its course.  The strategy had to be replaced by something else; a governance system for the conquered country. 

The same is true for Knowledge Management. 

Your Knowledge Management strategy is a strategy for change - a strategy for introducing the culture, behaviours and management framework for Knowledge Management. Once the change is complete, what replaces the strategy?

The answer is a Knowledge Management Policy. 

The policy defines for the organisation:

• What Knowledge Management means in practice
• The expected level of Knowledge Management activity
• Where accountability for KM will lie
• The requirement for KM in projects
• The requirement for the Knowledge Owners
• The principles that will be applied to KM

Once the implementation team has tested and piloted the components of Knowledge Management, you need to sit down with senior management and decide what the internal corporate KM policy is going to be.

For example, in one company, every project over a threshold value is required, as the KM component of operating standards,

• to develop a Knowledge Management plan
• to capture lessons during operations through After Action Reviews, and 
• to hold a learning review to finalise lessons capture at the end of the project.

These expectations are written out clearly, and have been rolled out to all staff. They represent a governance element of the Knowledge Management framework.

This level of governance is important once the strategy has been delivered, in order to embed, institutionalise and internalise Knowledge Management in the organisation. Plan to follow your KM strategy with a KM policy.