At the outset of the session at the 2010 ABA TECHSHOW, “Advances in Knowledge Management,” Toby Brown defined KM as “being able to quickly find and access the knowledge you need.”
Brown, who works at Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston, Tex., in Business Development & Alternative Fee Arrangements, was joined for the TECHSHOW session by Kingsley Martin, owner of KIIAC in Minneapolis, Minn., and previously held positions in The Thomson Corporation and within West km.
Martin told the TECHSHOW attendees that his definition of KM is more along the lines of “practice support,” that is, getting the right tools to the attorneys to help them do their jobs and get the information they need.
Brown and Martin delved into some common mistakes that law firms make when starting out on the path toward building a KM environment that works best, including “doing KM for the sake of doing KM.”
“If you want to succeed at KM, I would say you flip things on their head and you don’t start with ‘What KM system are we going to buy?,’” said Brown. “You start with ‘What problem are we going to solve?’”
Martin and Brown summed up their session with four points of advice for firms implementing a KM system:
-Set clear business goals
-Align KM with those goals
-Align KM to profitability
-Don’t expect lawyers to change
Though, on that last point, Brown thinks there is now a stronger motivation for lawyers to change their point of view toward KM, and they are beginning to welcome opportunities to “nudge the culture” of a firm.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice tips |
