Demystifying Knowledge Management through Storytelling

Demystifying Knowledge
Management through Storytelling
KM Lunch & Learn

ENTERPRISE KNOWLEDGE
10
AREAS OF
EXPERTISE
● KM STRATEGY & DESIGN
● TAXONOMY & ONTOLOGY DESIGN
● AGILE, DESIGN THINKING & FACILITATION
● CONTENT & DATA STRATEGY
● KNOWLEDGE GRAPHS, DATA MODELING,
& AI
● ENTERPRISE LEARNING
● INTEGRATED CHANGE MANAGEMENT
● ENTERPRISE SEARCH
● CONTENT AND DATA MANAGEMENT
● ENTERPRISE AI
Clients in 25+ Countries Across Multiple Industries
HEADQUARTERED IN
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, USA
GLOBAL OFFICE IN BRUSSELS,
BELGIUM
70+
EXPERT
CONSULTANTS
AWARD-WINNING
CONSULTANCY
KMWORLD
● 100 COMPANIES THAT MATTER IN KM (2015-2024)
● TOP 50 TRAILBLAZERS IN AI (2020-2023)
INC MAGAZINE
● THE 5000 FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES (2018-2023)
● BEST WORKPLACES (2018-2019, 2021-2023)
WASHINGTONIAN MAGAZINE
● TOP 50 GREAT PLACES TO WORK (2017)
WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL
● BEST PLACES TO WORK (2017-2020)
ARLINGTON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
● FAST FOUR AWARD – FASTEST GROWING COMPANY (2016)
VIRGINIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
● FANTASTIC 50 AWARD – FASTEST GROWING COMPANY (2019, 2020)
Top Implementer of
Leading Knowledge and
Data Management Tools
500+ Thought Leadership
Pieces Published

Taylor Paschal
Senior Knowledge and Information
Management Consultant
Experience & Background
● Specializes in the implementation and scaling of
cutting-edge knowledge management
programs.
● Current Project Manager for a Federal Agency’s
5-Year Modernization and Maturity KM Strategy.
● Experience as a KM advisor for a variety of
nonprofit, private and government
organizations/agencies.
● KM expertise on the implementation of KM
Roadmaps, Content Optimization, and Operating
models.
● Led a Sharepoint Online Information Architecture
and Design engagement with a
government-partnering engineering firm.
● Established knowledge management at a
lifestyle management company over five years as
the company scaled from Schedule B start-up to
Schedule E IPO track.
Certifications
● Certified Knowledge Manager (CKM)
● KCS v6 Fundamentals
3

1. Review what KM ‘Is’ and
‘Isn’t’
2. Understand the Value of KM
and the Benefits of
Engaging
3. Define and Reflect on
YOUR “What’s in it for me?”
4. Share actionable ways you
can participate in
Knowledge Capture &
Transfer
Objectives

Knowledge Management involves the People,
Processes, Content, Culture, and enabling
Technologies necessary to capture, manage,
share, and ﬁnd information.

A New Perspective on KM
People Process Content Culture Technology
• Flow of
knowledge
through the
organization.
• Knowledge
holders and
knowledge
consumers.
• Understanding of
state and
disposition of
experts.
• Existence and
consistency of
processes.
• Awareness of and
adherence to
processes.
• Quality of
processes.
• State and location
of content.
• Consistency of
structure and
architecture.
• Dynamism of
content.
• Understanding of
usage (analytics).
• Senior support
and
comprehension.
• Willingness to
share, collaborate,
and support.
• Maturity of “KM
Suite.”
• Integration with
and between
systems.
• Usability and
user-centricity.

Knowledge Management Lifecycle
CREATE
The point at which knowledge or
information is ﬁrst exposed, either
in written or verbal form.
CAPTURE
The collection of information in a
tool or repository (from tacit to
explicit) so that it can be
managed.
MANAGE
Tools, technologies, and processes
required to secure, organize, control,
and expose the right information to the
right people.
ENHANCE
Processes to evolve and
prime the information.
FIND
Tools and technologies to
help people ﬁnd the
content they need, when
they need it.
CONNECT
Creating links between knowledge
and information, between the
holders of knowledge (experts),
and between repositories.
Decisions, activities
or processes where
information could
be streamlined to
ensure success.
CONNECT CREATE
CAPTURE
MANAGE
ENHANCE
FIND
ACT

What Can KM Look Like?
Employee Center
Projects
Human Resources
Business
Development
Purchasing
Project X
Project Y
Project X Close-Out
Project X Meeting
Notes
ᐩ
ᐩ
ᐩ
Photo Credit: Jive Software

What Can KM Look Like?
Initiative Launch Online
Learning Communities
Knowledge and
Information
Management Strategy
Content Management
Strategy
Real-time Collaborative
Editing and
Multi-Channel
Publishing
Semantic Search and
Recommender System
New
capability
Enable new knowledge
flows by connecting
learners asynchronously.
Faster, more efficient
upscaling. Increased staff
engagement.
The Department of the
Navy sought to enhance its
Knowledge Management
capabilities in order to
optimize overall existing
system usability, content
management processes,
and search efficiency to
improve productivity for
1,000 of their staff, legal
counselors, and
representatives.
The U.S. General Services
Administration (GSA)
needed a centralized
solution for managing
documents across the
agency to improve their
document management
capabilities and meet
mandates.
The State Department
needed to create and
distribute event
summaries rapidly.
Multiple team members
needed to build the
summaries simultaneously,
to provide decision-makers
with information at the
time of need. The existing
process required using
several tools, lots of manual
steps, and delivery was slow
and unreliable.
Receive not only search
results, but direct answers
to queries. Sign-up for a
‘briefing’ service that
delivers relevant reading
material prior to meetings.
Enabling KM
practices and
technologies
● Communities of
Practice
● Content Strategy and
Publishing Workflows
● Gamification and
knowledge-sharing
incentives
● Search
● Knowledge
Management Strategy
● Content Management
● Knowledge-Sharing
Techniques
● Document
Management
● KM Strategy
● Knowledge Transfer
● Information
Management
● Search Strategy
● Ontologies
● Knowledge Graphs

Business Outcomes
▪ Improved content ﬁndability,
discoverability and accessibility.
▪ Increased use and reuse of
information.
▪ Decreased knowledge loss.
▪ Improved organizational awareness
and alignment.
▪ Enhanced quality, availability, and
speed of learning.
▪ Improved productivity.
▪ Decreased costs (and cost
avoidance).
▪ Improved employee satisfaction
▪ Faster and efﬁcient up-scaling of
employees.
▪ Improved customer experience.
▪ Improved delivery and sales.
▪ Increased collaboration and
innovation.
▪ Modernization of capabilities.
KM Outcomes

Forms of Knowledge
Tacit Explicit
Structured
Unstructured
Knowledge
Capture & Transfer
Highly
internalized
knowledge has
not yet been
recorded or
captured.
Knowledge that has been
made visible by capturing,
recording, or embedding it
in databases, documents
and processes.
Organized and categorized in a consistent way that
makes it easy for systems and machines to read
and process. More difﬁcult for human users to
understand without underlying context.
Inconsistent organization and categorization.
Generally easy for human users to read and
understand, but more difﬁcult for machines to use
and process.

⬢ Communities of
Practice (CoPs)
⬢ Knowledge
Transfer
Workshop
⬢ Knowledge
Council
⬢ Knowledge Cafés
⬢ SME Interviews
⬢ Expert-Led
Cohorts
⬢ Expert-Led
Training
⬢ Job Shadowing
⬢ Mentoring &
Coaching
⬢ Pair
Programming
No Tech
⬢ Videos /
Recordings
⬢ Social Networking
⬢ Social Chat Tools
⬢ Knowledge
Articles
⬢ Newsletters
⬢ Discussion
Forums (AMA)
⬢ E-mail (w/ Log)
⬢ Meetings (w/
Notes)
⬢ Onboarding /
Offboarding
Surveys
Low Tech
⬢ Knowledge Base
⬢ Gamiﬁcation
⬢ Digital
Community
Groups
⬢ Expertise Finder
⬢ Augmented/
Virtual Reality
(XR)
⬢ Lessons Learned
Repository
⬢ AI Bot Training
⬢ AI-Powered
Decision Making
⬢ Electronic
Performance
Support Systems
(EPSS)
High Tech*
KM Capture & Transfer
Matrix
⬢ Through years of experience
with selecting, tailoring, and
implementing knowledge
capture and transfer
frameworks within a variety of
organizations, EK has
developed a matrix of
knowledge capture, transfer,
and sharing methods and
techniques.
⬡ X-Axis:
technology/complexity
(no-tech, low-tech, high-tech)
⬡ Y-Axis: type of interaction
(one- to-one, one-to-many,
many-to-many)
⬢ Start with a pilot in the top
left square (no-tech,
many-to-many).

Knowledge Transfer Techniques
13
KNOWLEDGE SHARING TECHNIQUES DESCRIPTION
Peer Mentoring, Job Shadowing Enables the core knowledge transfer team and/or a designated learning group to observe experts and “human search engines” performing
their day-to-day activities on the job, culminating in debriefing discussions in which crucial information, points of contact, and resources can
be teased out.
Mentoring, Coaching A dynamic, reciprocal relationship in an organization between a tenured employee and a newer employee designed to promote the career
development of both.
Subject Matter Expert Interviews Works to elicit strategies, theories, techniques, best practices, workflows, common mistakes, and crucial pieces of content utilized by
high-performing individuals within an organization.
Subject Matter Expert Profiles An online profile, typically found on a company intranet, where individuals provide technical and/or detailed information about their expertise.
Simulation, Role Playing Replicates a similar environment and/or experience(s) where the knowledge was originally created.
Diagrams Visual representations of systems, including main actors, actions, roles, etc. in order to better understand, alter, or maintain information about
a system.
Videos/Recordings A digital recording of a program, such as a radio broadcast or “How-To,” which is then downloadable from the internet to personal audio
players.
Frequently Asked Questions Provides information on frequent questions or challenges.
Implicit Knowledge Capture Processes to mine email text and/or perform social network analysis of employee’s emails in order to capture critical knowledge and identify
knowledge connections.

Knowledge Transfer Techniques
KNOWLEDGE SHARING TECHNIQUES DESCRIPTION
Hack-a-thon/Knowledge Fair An event that showcases information about an organization or topic.
Gamification The use of design and insights from games to help develop knowledge and foster the ability of KM behaviors and processes.
Knowledge Transfer Workshop Most often facilitated by a third party, a workshop is a low-risk, low-cost way for key stakeholders to understand what it takes to reach their
knowledge transfer goals and enables business leaders to create an actionable set of next steps to continue on their knowledge transfer
journey.
Knowledge Base Repository Captures learning in an accessible repository before, during, and/or after a project. This knowledge can be reused by multiple teams for a
subsequent project.
Knowledge Handover Checklist Identifies important information that employees and successors would need in order to do their job effectively and efficiently, such as success
stories, key contacts, common work processes, best practices, past projects, lessons learned, performance assessments, etc.
Peer Assists A facilitated, face-to-face working session where colleagues from different teams can share their experiences and knowledge in preparation
for an upcoming project with a similar objective and/or challenge.
After Action Reviews Provides a framework for teams to “learn in the moment” and transfer knowledge immediately into the work at hand, as opposed to learning
after a project or activity is complete.
Retrospectives A meeting held after a task, project, or major project milestone. These meetings can take many forms and ask probing questions aimed at
identifying valuable lessons for future work.
Communities of Practice Consists of members who voluntarily interact with each other for their pursuit of a common practice, topic, or passion. (See also “Communities
of Practice” under the Glossary of Terms).
14

Storytelling
Conveys the essential details of an event, experience, or
emotion through a narrative structure that engages and
connects the storyteller and the listener.
Beneﬁts
● Shares the organizational knowledge, wisdom,
and insight often missed during more formalized
knowledge sharing processes
● Offers opportunity for real-time dialogue (Q&A)
● May be facilitated or occur organically
● Nurtures existing and budding expertise
● Builds trust and interconnectivity between
participants

Let’s Find Out
Go to
www.menti.com
Enter or Scan the code
[QR Code Redacted]

Frequency of Storytelling in the
Workplace
When asked “How frequently do you
engage in storytelling (and listening) at
work?,” my network on Linkedin shared:
● The majority (62%)
engage at least
once a week
● 23% engage less than
once a month
Based on Taylor Paschal’s
LinkedIn Poll: 31 Votes, 706 Impressions, 1 Repost

Storytelling Best Practices
To harness the power of storytelling for the beneﬁt of knowledge sharing
in the workplace,
1. Know Your Audience
2. Set Your Intention
3. Show, Don’t Just Tell
4. Keep it Simple and Concise
5. Be Authentic
6. Invite Engagement

Listening Best Practices
To harness the power of storytelling for the beneﬁt of knowledge sharing
in the workplace,
1. Be Present
2. Demonstrate Interest
3. Empathize
4. Listen for Meaning (Notetake)
5. Ask Clarifying Questions
6. Express Appreciation

Individual
Outcomes
Strengthen Your
Network to Advance
Your Career
Contribute to Innovation
in Support of Veterans
Tap Into the Collective for
Support
Develop personal connections in a
blend of formal and informal
methods.
Contribute to positive change with
your teammates.
Discuss ideas and improvements
connected to programs and
initiatives happening in your own
work.

THE RESULTS
Employees at a United Nations fund focused on helping nations adapt to
climate change experienced:
● Barriers with understanding how to translate organizational
decisions into the day-to-day workflow;
● Siloed departmental work.
● Difficulty establishing networks and allocation of onboarding
resources.
Which lead to: limited learning & collaboration opportunities; prolonged
onboarding process; degraded employee experience
● Capability to develop organic, meaningful, and supportive
relationships that span across traditional team boundaries.
● Collaborative work environment with open dialogue and learning.
● Strengthened operational efficiency by facilitating the flow of
institutional knowledge.
● A structured opportunity to promote and evolve industry-specific
Thought Leadership.
THE CHALLENGE
Org-Wide Series of
Knowledge Cafes
THE SOLUTION

THE RESULTS
A Construction Company based in the U.S. struggled with:
● Inconsistent project delivery;
● Lack of adherence to content-related procedures and system
purposes;
● Inability to solidify a ﬁt-for-purpose site design and technical
infrastructure.
Which lead to: Over-Reliance on Subject Matter Experts, Change Fatigue,
Undersupported On-Site Learning, System Redundancies, Repeat Errors
Project Delivery
Communities of Practice
⬢ A strengthened alignment across all business entities on project
delivery priorities.
⬢ A structured Knowledge Sharing opportunity for members to
share expertise, experiences, and best practices.
⬢ A facilitated, continuous learning and skill development process.
⬢ A formal opportunity to network, collaborate, and innovate.
⬢ A dedicated group available for problem-solving and more
effective decision-making.
THE CHALLENGE THE SOLUTION

THE RESULTS
A federal agency is faced with:
● Uncertainty due to current events and political climate;
● Workforce approaching retirement with a lack of succession
management;
● Structural silos between D.C. and Field Ofﬁces;
● Lack of knowledge-sharing culture.
Which leads to: Over-Reliance on Subject Matter Experts, Change Fatigue,
Knowledge Loss, Delayed Processes, Duplicate Efforts, Lack of Trust
Senior Leadership
Offboarding
Knowledge Capture
⬢ A systematic transfer of knowledge, skills, and experience from
ensuring continuity in leadership.
⬢ Retention of institutional knowledge, including effective
practices, organizational culture, and historical insights.
⬢ Reduced risks associated with leadership turnover, such as loss of
strategic direction, decreased employee morale, and negative
impacts on performance and productivity.
THE CHALLENGE THE SOLUTION

Q&A
Thank you!
Taylor Paschal
tpaschal@enterprise-knowledge.com

1. Reviewed what KM ‘Is’ and ‘Isn’t’
2. Understand the Value of KM and
the Benefits of Engaging
3. Defined and Reflected on YOUR
“What’s in it for me?”
4. Shared Actionable Ways you can
Participate in Knowledge
Capture & Transfer
Outcomes
Tell Your Stories
Learn from Each Other

Demystifying Knowledge Management through Storytelling

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