KCS v6 Adoption Guide is now the KCS v6 Adoption & Transformation Guide

Recently a group of Consortium Members came together to discuss ways to make the language in the KCS v6 Adoption Guide more helpful.  There were a number of concerns we addressed:

• There was an opportunity to reframe the Adoption Guide as a tool to set expectations around the ongoing, non-linear transformation that is a KCS implementation.  
• In the move from KCS v5 to KCS v6, the separation between learning how to do KCS, then receiving internal benefits, then receiving external benefits was lost.  In v6, the internal benefits got wrapped into Adopting and Leveraging.  Additionally, the names of the phases stopped reflecting what was really happening in those phases.
• Calling phases by their numbers not only gave the impression that a KCS adoption is a linear project that has an endpoint, but it also allowed us to disregard the intent/name of the phase.

Changes are live!

• The KCS v6 Adoption Guide is now called the KCS v6 Adoption & Transformation Guide
  • Language has been added to reflect that phases of a KCS adoption are cumulative; they are building blocks to success as opposed to steps in a project that has a completion date.
• Phases have new names, and are no longer referred to by number, in order to better reflect the fluidity between phases:
  • 1: Planning & Design has become Plan and Design
  • 2: Adopting has become Adopt in Waves
  • 3: Leveraging has become Build Proficiency
  • 4: Maximizing has become Optimize and Innovate
• Additionally, most exit criteria between phases have been updated to Indicators of Transformation. Indicators are things that require some maintenance and checking up on; once you exit the Plan and Design phase, it’s a lifecycle exploration. 

These changes are reflected in the KCS v6 Adoption & Transformation Guide as well as the Measurement Matters v6 paper (worth revisiting if you haven’t in a while!), the KCS v6 Practices Guide, and Consortium KCS training and certification exams. As always with an update of this scope, reuse is review, so let us know if you find additional places that need updating!

Event Recording

On a recent KCS in Action session, Jennifer Crippen from DB Kay & Associates and additional members of the team who inspired these changes described what’s new and why these changes are important.

Chat Transcript

Sara Feldman, Consortium, Las Vegas: Inspired by “A spark in the Slack” 🤩 (Please let us know if you are a Consortium Member and need access to the Member Slack)

Kelly Murray, Consortium, Seattle: LOOPS! stickers are available on Zazzle 😆

Kelly Murray, Consortium, Seattle: The description of KCS as the Great Enabler!

Kim Tillano | Knowledge Manager | AZ: This is exciting stuff. I love the thought process that has allowed for more flexibility in the process. Question – I have just purchased the self-paced v6 Fundamentals training and cert exam for my team of 6. Has the training been updated to reflect these changes?
Kelly Murray, Consortium, Seattle: Hi Kim! Yes! All of the Consortium’s KCS trainings and certification exams have been reviewed – the v6 Fundamentals training and exam don’t mention the phases of adoption, so it’s good to go!
Kim Tillano | Knowledge Manager | AZ: perfect, thank you!

Brenda Orgel: I just moved to a new area within our company and will be helping them to migrate using the KCS Methodologies. I am excited to review the updates.

Deborah Kennington: I am on the ground floor of moving my organization to KCS and am working on getting them on board. I have completed the KCS Fundamentals certification and am trying to determine what the next level of certification is now.
Arnfinn Austefjord, Consortium, Boulder CO: Hi Deborah! I would recommend next taking the Digital Transformation Fundamentals and the Managing in the Digital Economy, then the next step would be the KCS Practices Certification. Find more information on those trainings here.
Deborah Kennington: Thank you Arnfinn!

Sue van Gelder – Consultant – Charlotte: Have the Intelligent Swarming materials and exam been affected?
Kelly Murray, Consortium, Seattle: Hi Sue! Intelligent Swarming materials and exam are not affected since the adoption guide is specific to KCS…but it makes me wonder how we might leverage the Guide for Intelligent Swarming!
Sue van Gelder – Consultant – Charlotte: Thanks, Kelly!

Vincent Veldkamp (Vanderlande): One of the things management here really is looking for is a summary page/plan of approach one-pager that takes them through the journey in hyperspeed. I’ve had a hard time distilling all that with Fundamentals. I hope the changes made will assist with that going forward. Currently I am basically reading 2 chapters ahead while trying to keep several pilots/plates spinning. Is there something bite-sized available for say a Director meeting to present?
Sue van Gelder – Consultant – Charlotte: I’ve gotten it down to a little over 2 pages, but no longer have access to that document. But it can be done for upper management presos.
Sara Feldman, Consortium, Las Vegas: A Strategic Framework is a great way to distill (for yourself) the organizational benefits for KCS (then you could take that info and turn into comms for other folks)
Vincent Veldkamp (Vanderlande): Thanks for all the awesome suggestions!

Vincent Veldkamp (Vanderlande): Additionally, I get asked how KCS would handle articles for example that do not take part of the Solve Loop and/or adhere to the KCS Article Standard, but are more process descriptions and/or static information pages.
Kelly Murray, Consortium, Seattle: You might find this page of the Knowledge Domain Analysis Guide helpful in that regard

smendez: Thank you. Love the reason to Party!
Vincent Veldkamp (Vanderlande): I can get behind that!
Janine Deegan: We always want to celebrate what we’ve done right! Partay
Adam Hansen | Thermo Fisher Scientific | Tacoma, WA: Reusing articles leaves us more time to party!

Eli D.: How do you easily identify the celebratory stuff that resonates with knowledge workers?
Kelly Murray, Consortium, Seattle: Ooooh Eli, great question! I think you have to ask them! Because you’re right, it’s important to do things that resonate, and that will be different for different teams & parts of the world!

Deborah Kennington: Ooph, that is what I’m dealing with as well. I’m the sole admin of our knowledge through the ServiceNow platform. Very few want to create the articles to support each other or our customers.
Sara Feldman, Consortium, Las Vegas: Capturing knowledge that will benefit peers, and customers, and lead to insights for product improvement is exciting! (and should be framed that way, how is that tedious?)
Ryan Mathews | NetApp: Tedious is solving the same issue over and over. KCS lets you solve new issues over and over.
Janine Deegan: Top reused and top externally viewed articles each month/quarter is a great way to recognize creators and boost engagement by recognizing how these articles have helped many
Sue van Gelder – Consultant – Charlotte: Sometimes they need to “slow down the phone room” during adoption waves to give everyone time to get in step with article creation and updating. But getting a supervisor to feel safe enough to agree to that is really a management issue.
Janine Deegan: But as Kelly said, ask them! They’ll tell you 🙂

Sara Feldman, Consortium, Las Vegas: “If it’s about us, don’t do it without us”
Eli D.: I like that Sara Feldman!

Thanks to David Kay, Ryan Mathews, Sam Goode, Jennifer Crippen, Jacob Watts, Andy Kiendl, Monique Cadena, and Adam Hansen for their experience, thoughts, questions, and insight on these changes.