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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Transforming Tacit Knowledge: Making the Most of What You Know
Part of the problem is the need to navigate to these spaces, while
most lawyers already spend the bulk of their day in email. Email lends
itself to spontaneous interaction because we know everyone has it and
knows how to use it, and we feel fairly confident our messages will be
seen and read.
Investigating and Experimenting with Tools: With new
technology coming out continuously, KM professionals are on the
lookout for tools that not only move spontaneous discussion out of
email and into an open forum, but also seem to fit in with your lawyers'
behaviors. Because of email's tight link to our document management
system (DMS) –– the other system in which our lawyers spend a
majority of their time –– we are trying a new tool called Thread KM
(the subject of an ILTACON 2015 workshop). The tool looks promising
for firms with a maer-centric DMS. It creates a virtual space for
threaded conversations about a maer linked to its workspace in the
DMS, where the entire digital file resides. Conversations that start in
email can be promoted to Thread KM, documents and links can be
embedded in the conversation threads, and threads can be moved into
the maer workspace at the end of a file to become part of the record
for the maer. We are hopeful these threads will succeed with lawyers
where other tools have failed.
Creating Knowledge Opportunities
We have looked at transforming already shared knowledge from tacit
to explicit by recording or capturing it and making it available to more
people. How do you unlock tacit knowledge tucked away in people's
heads and create new knowledge by generating conversation? Here are
some suggestions.
Communities of Practice: Many industries have success with
online communities of practice for sharing tacit knowledge. ILTA's
online communities are an excellent example of the rich exchange
of knowledge that is possible when people with common interests
pull together to consider challenging, novel questions and problems.
Although most law firms come with built-in communities of practice in
the form of practice and client-industry groups, online practice forums
on law firm intranets oen have tepid success.
Many practice groups hold regularly scheduled meetings, and
a segment of each should be reserved for tacit knowledge sharing
(although I recommend calling it something catchier).
Have you heard about real-time
team chat applications like Slack
or Hipchat? Have you wondered
what a "kanban" board is and how
it makes project management
simple for lawyers? Learn how these
technologies found in ThreadKM
can transform the way you and your
attorneys work: get more done with
much less email, better document
management system utilization
and happier users.
Listen to the 2015 ILTACON session
recording for "Hands-On, Real-Time
Legal Knowledge Collaboration
with ThreadKM."
Find More KM
Resources Online at
iltanet.org
