Overcoming resistance to a KM culture

Successful knowledge management is a firm-wide phenomenon. It is characterised by a sharing and learning environment reinforced by the active involvement of management, fee-earners and support departments. Heather Robinson, head of information services at Bevan Ashford, assesses how far the firm has achieved its KM goal and how professional support lawyers in particular have helped in developing a knowledge culture that wins and retains clients.

Despite all the rhetoric, the basic tenet of knowledge management is simple: it is about learning to use what you know to your advantage. The critical success factors for most firms will include efficient access to relevant information, more time for fee earning, improved risk management and the ability to provide a faster, quality service to clients.

There are also key stages of know-how development, these are to:

Support daily work of department;
Develop a sharing and learning culture;
Use KM products in client work;
Develop stand-alone products;
Two-way interaction or collaboration with clients and business partners.

Following this route map, from internal know-how development to client collaboration, gives the firm time to review successes and build on experience when moving on to the next phase.

Vision and communication

KM is linked to business objectives at both the strategic and operational level. It is important to identify the knowledge management opportunities and the assets available to the firm. Clear dissemination and understanding of the firm’s strategic objectives is required to ensure that the right initiatives are identified and supported. Those responsible for knowledge-management initiatives must also have the skills and opportunities for promoting and disseminating their work. There is no point having a perfect system if only three people use it.

At Bevan Ashford, the development of our management structure along corporate lines with divisional heads liasing closely with the client, gives us the structure and opportunity to re-think and refine our knowledge-management objectives and our know-how product.

Developing the infrastructure

IT, so the knowledge management mantra goes, is merely the enabler. True, it is possible and sometimes advisable to develop know-how systems focused on hard-copy documents and people networks. On the other hand, IT providers would promote the idea that a firm’s know-how problems can be solved with their product. Somewhere between the two lies the truth.

In 1999, when Bevan Ashford began to develop its knowledge-management strategy, we identified the need to provide hassle-free access to know how through the IT network. Bevan Ashford already had an established and innovative IT infrastructure. The firm was an early adopter of network products such as “Books on Screen” and had developed one collaborative database, which is still used by a large number of clients. As in many organisations, however, IT solutions needed to be well thought out. Busy professionals do not have the time or patience to learn how to use multiple or complex systems. It was apparent that if IT were to be an effective enabler we would need to develop a simple and friendly solution.

Web technology was already well developed and the internet was widely used and liked by our staff. The development of an intranet was a logical next step. With multiple offices and a mobile workforce travelling between office and client, this offered the most efficient and equitable solution to know-how access.

Given the priorities and resources we had, it was decided that the main focus of the intranet would be to deliver legal information and know-how. The system contains best practice procedural guides, advice, precedent collections, catalogues, databases and interactive forms. Community areas were kept simple with a skill index, directories and “how to do” guides for support services such as finance and human resources.

The intranet is the responsibility of the information services department, made up of professional support lawyers (PSLs) and information professionals who provide technical support and advice and develop knowledge sharing among all staff in order to efficiently and effectively meet clients’ needs. To encourage ownership and involvement we enlisted intranet developers from each department. Their role is to help collate and co-ordinate knowledge gathering from each team and ensure that know-how is published onto the intranet in a timely way. Working with the intranet developers, we looked for ways to make regular tasks easier and more efficient for each team. Through the intranet, client-facing lawyers have access to a wide network of information resources, both internally and externally.

One of the early successes was the introduction of an alphabetical index, linked to our precedent collection. Prior to its introduction, precedents were located by cross-referencing keywords and document reference numbers on a large table, several pages long. Keeping the table up to date was time consuming as was searching for the required document. Associated risks were that staff would save templates locally, to make them easier to find, and so not be aware of updates or changes. The documents remain within our filing system, but the HTML index enables staff to access them quickly. Even the cynics were impressed.

Risk management and content development

Maintaining the accuracy and reliability of your know how is critical if staff are to buy into knowledge management. In the early stages of web development

it is easy for the content owner to recall where information is held, which pages need updating and check for broken links or obsolete information. As new pages are introduced and new websites are developed, this becomes increasingly difficult to manage. The task of monitoring and maintaining each area of the web becomes more time consuming and there is less time available for creating and developing new information. There is also an increased danger that information will not get updated and mistakes will be made. Technology in the form of search engines, content-management systems and taxonomy can help manage this, but they cannot audit or authorise the content.

One technique that has worked for Bevan Ashford is to produce “packs” of specialist information. The PSL will involve knowledgeable fee earners with the project and credit their authorship. It is important to select a fee earner who is recognised and respected as an expert in their area. We all try to impress the people we admire and this has a positive effect on knowledge contributions and know how use. This expert can then work with the PSL to maintain and update the information and identify opportunities for new initiatives. There is both a pride and responsibility associated with a well-used know-how pack.

Leadership

Selecting the right people and deploying them at the right time is critical to the success of any knowledge-management programme. Bevan Ashford has a team dedicated to developing and promoting know-how, but they cannot work in isolation. Sponsors, or champions, are vital to the success of any project. These individuals need to be both enthusiastic and powerful and they need to have stamina; there is nothing more detrimental to the success of a project than the disinterest of its sponsor.

Good leaders develop a collaborative leadership style to build understanding and expertise across the organisation. The firm benefits from encouraging partners and managers to lead by example and demonstrate commitment to our business plans and the individual initiatives needed to achieve them. Knowledge management supports this by providing scope for learning and coaching and by helping to support critical projects.

Networks and communities

Professional service organisations, including law firms, are inclined towards the developing of knowledge cultures. Our product is expertise and this know-how exists in relationships, who knows who and who knows what. If a successful knowledge culture depends on good networks, then the knowledge-management team needs to be at the centre of the organisation. It is their responsibility to identify whether we have the information to support business development and if not, to source it or develop it.

The introduction of professional support lawyers has been an important step forward in developing networks and communities of practice. The team encourages and supports ongoing collaboration, coaching and communication between staff in all departments and at all levels.

The communities of practice that form are not static; they develop and reform in response to a particular need or opportunity. Developing communities is important to link experts to share ideas and resolve problems. Members of the group are able to coach and train one another, which in turn enables them to manage change effectively. Given the changeable nature of these communities, good communication and documentation are essential if procedures and ideas are to be captured and used. Regular meetings between professional support and information staff cement these connections to help ensure that all staff have the information and the skills they need.

Roles and responsibilities

The most important step in promoting our knowledge-management initiatives has been assembling the right team. The professional support and library staff come from a variety of backgrounds including business, investment and finance and bio-sciences. This is important as it gives us a broad spread of knowledge and skills. All members of our professional support team are senior lawyers, technically competent and experienced in their field. As well as having the aptitude for the role, they also need the right attitude. They must get busy and pressured fee-earning staff to give their precious time and share their experience, in projects that may not directly or immediately benefit them personally. A good PSL needs to be personable, pushy and approachable to break down barriers and make knowledge management work.

Valuing information

Benchmarking and performance measures are important to evaluate success and to gain credibility. Knowledge management is difficult to measure as, by its nature, it is often an intangible asset, resident in personal contacts and understanding. It is therefore important to understand how the firm works and where knowledge management can add value. Bevan Ashford focuses on client service and it uses its knowledge to provide this service. We are so experienced in using knowledge in this way that we do not acknowledge its value – as an asset it is “invisible”.

Knowledge management develops the frameworks and procedures to make valuation possible. The library team does this by benchmarking and evaluating the products we buy in. Professional support lawyers apply the same criteria to the know-how projects we undertake internally. Measures include:

How much of what is available is used;
Cost of service provision versus value to the client;
Improved efficiency and time saving.

Performance can be periodically measured through audits, interviews or surveys and ongoing monitoring can be achieved on the internet by using products such as Webtrends.

Conclusions

Bevan Ashford was and is a knowledge-management culture. The challenge has been to change internal behaviour to enable the firm to take advantage of the knowledge it has and to recognise that knowledge management is an intrinsic part of the firm’s work rather than a discrete project. By building the teams and infrastructure and by keeping staff informed and involved, the knowledge-management programme continues to grow and benefit the firm. Four years ago, Bevan Ashford did not employ any professional support lawyers. Today, they play important part in the firm, helping to win, service and retain our clients.

Heather Robinson is head of information services at Bevan Ashford. She can be contacted at: heather.robinson@bevanashford.co.uk.