Category: KCS

  • Hanging Up Your Strategic Framework: Sage Does it Right

    Hanging Up Your Strategic Framework: Sage Does it Right

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    In our KCS workshops, we say that the Strategic Framework is the deliverable that’s easiest to push aside…and yet one of the most valuable if done right. The Strategic Framework is a simple way of showing the value of KCS to the company, customers, and employees.  Executives set high-level objectives for the organization: “scale the…

  • Leadership in Action: The KCS Commitment

    Leadership in Action: The KCS Commitment

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    We wrapped up a KCS design workshop at Carestream Health yesterday.  We closed with an exercise I love: the participants spent the last hour presenting what they’d learned, done, and planned to executives.  This solidifies the learning, and it’s far more meaningful for executives to hear from the people who will be doing the work…

  • KCS is a Whiteboard

    KCS is a Whiteboard

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    At a recent Consortium for Service Innovation team meeting, Adam Strong of Red Hat said something that really resonated with me:  “KCS is a whiteboard.”  I knew at once what he meant—and it’s a really powerful way of thinking and talking about KCS. I don’t know about you, but there are few things in life…

  • Communicating the What and the Why: Intuit Does it Right

    Communicating the What and the Why: Intuit Does it Right

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     Effective, persistent communication is the cornerstone of KCS.  Team members need to be engaged emotionally—to feel like they’re part of a big, important quest—and practically—knowing exactly what they need to do. Rather than saying anything more about this, I’m going get out of the way and let one of our customers show you.  Having participated…

  • Hack Your Knowledgebase

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    We all hate our knowledgebase tools sometimes.  We might like the people we work with at the vendor, and there are those really cool features, but…seriously?  I can’t just get a list of all the articles Joe has written?  I can’t use bullets without ruining the formatting?  I have to hit “publish” three times after…

  • 2012 Kickoff: What's Happening in KM and KCS

    2012 Kickoff: What's Happening in KM and KCS

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    I was going to do a “New Year’s Resolutions for Knowledge Program Managers” blog post, but really, it’s the Tuesday after New Years.  Who wants to be nagged?  So I decided to highlight some of the things that we think are new and notable in the world of KCS and KM. What are you seeing? …

  • Writing? Or Communicating in Words?

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    “KCS seems like a good idea…unfortunately, our people don’t have the writing skills to create knowledgebase content.” “You know, English isn’t the first language for many of our people.” “Maybe in the future, we’ll hire people who know how to write.  As of now, we’re stuck with the people we have.” We hear variations on…

  • Is Knowledge Really an Asset?

    Is Knowledge Really an Asset?

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    “Knowledge is the key asset of the support organization.”The KCS Practices Guide, v5.1The Consortium for Service Innovation If I had a nickel for every time I quoted the KCS practices guide and asserted that knowledge is an asset…I’d have a lot of nickels.  I say it because it’s important to remind people that knowledge work…

  • The Big Ideas Behind KCS

    The Big Ideas Behind KCS

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    Back when I was first exposed to KCS, in 1998 or so, it was very principles-focused.  Perhaps this is a polite way of saying, we hadn’t yet figured out very specific guidance to give support organizations, so we talked in generalities:  “align to demand,” “migrate content towards the users,” and the like.  It’s all good…