How to Build Momentum for KM in AEC Start Small and Solve Real Problems

So what. What would you say to firms who are just starting to understand that there's this whole world of knowledge management and how it can be leveraged and. And that there's huge returns on the investment, but again, you have to do the investment. Like, what would you say to them?

I would say you're really lucky to have all the technology that we didn't have back then.

So true. Oh, my gosh.

You waited long enough and it's great, great timing.

But really, it's still, I think the same message is there is something you want to make better. It may not be broken completely, but there's something you want to solve. And maybe it's not having the project data. Maybe it's what happens when all of these people retire and, you know, how's the firm going to function? We need the knowledge in their heads. It can be anything. But just starting small and understanding that, I still think you have to look at, this is where I want to go. And what are the really small steps that I can take to get here? I think a lot of the times we try to perfect something before we launch it, and especially something like knowledge management program in your firm is never going to be perfect because it should continue to evolve and grow. And if you wait for perfection, you're never going to launch it. So what are even just the three smallest things that you feel like you can wrap your hands around? And then the most important thing is it takes everybody in leadership believing in that thing. So if it's project data, you need the CEO to be talking about how important it is to have project data. Every single person in leadership has to talk about how important it is to have project data. And that might take a complete internal rebranding because like most firms, when people thought about our database, it was like, oh, my God, that's where I have to go do my timesheets. And everybody hates doing timesheet. So it took some change management of, no, this is actually a really cool source that could do other things besides just timesheets. But I think if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change the fact that you started with, this is my end goal. And this is how I know I need to get to this end goal. And I'm okay if I can just do these three steps right now, knowing that it's going to keep building, and then it's just easier to. It's easier to sell that way. And it's also not so overwhelming.

Evan, I think I would. I would kind of point out some things in Katie's story just to, to answer your question, but on if I were thinking about like what did I, what would I advise somebody based on what I've watched Katie do? I think one thing would be that Katie acts as what we call an executive sponsor in knowledge management. So Katie knows she's in the group writing a strategic plan. She's involved with the principals. She is a C level person, wasn't always right, but understands what's important to the leadership and tries to solve those problems versus doing something cool with technology or doing a knowledge management science experiment. Like I think that's really important for building credibility. And I think to your point Katie, find something that the CEO and the leadership will get behind. You don't always have to. It's even easier if there's something that they already have said this is important, go help them solve that problem. You know, that's, that's a really easy thing. And the other thing I really noticed the two big things we talked about at LSTP today from a like a program perspective were the data managers and expert hours. Those are very light technology touch knowledge management projects. Like I always talk about KM being people process technology and culture. Like that's processy culture, people, heavy stuff, light on technology. And I think the really impactful stuff in KM does that as well.