A Lifecycle Approach to Knowledge Excellence in the Biopharmaceutical Industry by Calnan Nuala Lipa Martin J. Kane Paige E. Menezes Jose C

Author:Calnan, Nuala,Lipa, Martin J.,Kane, Paige E.,Menezes, Jose C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CRC Press LLC

The Pillars of Knowledge Management in Merck & Co., Inc. Manufacturing Division

In MMD there are four pillars of knowledge management: people, process, content, and technology—in that order of criticality to success.

People

People comprise about 70% of the success factor for KM. There are two key contributors: (1) behaviors and mindsets and (2) KM roles.

Behaviors and mindsets: MMD recognized that their knowledge management implementation was first and foremost a large, complex transformational change project that required robust change management. That is, at the end of the day, KM is about people having the information and knowledge when and where they need it to do their work. For this to happen, workers need to seek knowledge on a routine basis. This desire to seek knowledge must be a combination of (a) desired behaviors and mindsets (e.g., learning what worked or did not on the last project instead of planning to go it alone because I am smarter than the last person) and (b) clear expectations (e.g., the business process codifies knowledge seeking, perhaps through reviewing past lessons during project initiation).

Similarly, people must share knowledge, and the same two conditions must exist—the desired behaviors and mindsets to share (e.g., this is what I learned) and the clear expectations (e.g., set milestones for capturing lessons). There were many cultural barriers to address in order for KM to gain momentum in the organization. It was recognized that change management methodologies could help address cultural barriers. MMD had previously subscribed to Conner Partners Change Execution Methodology (Conner Partners, 2007) and leveraged this framework for guiding the organization through the change. Not recognizing KM as requiring a focused change management effort is short-sighted, given that it is people at the center of knowledge management who must want to seek and share. This is perhaps why many KM efforts that focus solely on IT does not deliver on intended outcomes as they overlook the behavioral element. A key success for the team was their ability to link the KM change plan to a broader behavioral change occurring in MMD that enabled a new way of working for many (Guernard, Katz, Bruno, and Lipa, 2013).

KM roles: The KM team also began by defining the knowledge management roles, both those as dedicated KM persons, and those in the business who are stewards, responsible in some way for sustaining a KM approach. In addition to the dedicated KM team, MMD has approximately 150 stewards across the various capabilities. Stewards have a role to help knowledge flow within their area of capability, for example, through following up with SMEs to answer requests for help and ensuring documents are checked in and properly tagged. In certain areas, gaining stewardship required some negotiation, but logic prevailed. For example, historically any given product may have up to 50 SharePoint sites where product knowledge was stored. Each of these had an owner, who was the de facto steward. The starting point was therefore 50 people spending perhaps 1% of their time with exceptionally poor results in enabling knowledge flow.

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