Category Archives: knowledge management

Don’t worry if it’s “not KM”

How many times have I heard the retort that something “isn’t KM”? It’s almost as if there was a desire to put KM into a box of it’s own, detached from anything else – something more abstract, offline and infrastructural. The fact is that KM has to be applied, and being applied means being involvedContinueContinue reading “Don’t worry if it’s “not KM””

Joiners and leavers

The joiners and leavers ‘people’ processes are good areas to embed some KM. When people are new to the organisation, still keen and not yet bogged down by today’s work can be a good time to set them up with the understanding that they need to have about KM, and also to get input andContinueContinue reading “Joiners and leavers”

Tapping the corporate memory

In one employer I worked at for over a decade I witnessed five generations of marketing department: five different heads. I just missed the sixth, which came in shortly after I left. There was some carry-over from the first to the second, and some between the fourth, fifth and sixth; but a pretty deep changeContinueContinue reading “Tapping the corporate memory”

Saving wasted time

For as long as I’ve been ‘doing KM’ – at least 26 years – I’ve frequently seen reports and stats like this one (you might have seen it): You can find it here. The fact that this has been virtually the same story for at least a quarter of a century provokes many thoughts. One isContinueContinue reading “Saving wasted time”

Making KM groups responsible for Information Management risks there being no KM at all

We are a literate society, and so we do pass on knowledge in written documents and information products. There is also much to be learned from the study of work product documents that can generate knowledge and insight. Often in organisations Information Management (IM) has fallen to KM groups to perform, but the sheer volumeContinueContinue reading “Making KM groups responsible for Information Management risks there being no KM at all”

We talk about ‘capturing’ knowledge … I prefer ‘liberating’ knowledge

It’s not that I don’t care for ‘capture’ … I prefer ‘liberate’. And it’s not just that it’s a nicer idea … although it is that as well. Really, it’s that ‘liberate’ is more about value creation than ‘capture’: In KM we care about both the stock and the flow of knowledge, and both haveContinueContinue reading “We talk about ‘capturing’ knowledge … I prefer ‘liberating’ knowledge”

Lisa is my inspiration for knowledge management

Since I first found her many years ago now I haven’t let Lisa out of my sight – she’s my inspiration for knowledge management. Okay, I have to confess Lisa isn’t a person, she’s the personification of an idea and a mnemonic that easily reminds me of what I need to act on. She standsContinueContinue reading “Lisa is my inspiration for knowledge management”

The corporate off site (stop making sense)

I’m a tail-end baby boomer so I wuz brung up on these corporate off site meetings. But I’d say that for more than a decade they’ve been bothering me more and more. And because they are sort of ingrained in me this is really against type for me – but irresistible now.There’s quite a formulaContinueContinue reading “The corporate off site (stop making sense)”

So what, then, is “knowledge”?

And so back to the eternal question. It still seems, as it always has these 25 past years, to many people, to be the place to start. “What is knowledge?” I’ve been asked this many times at an early meeting with a new client. And I have many answers and many evasions because I don’tContinueContinue reading “So what, then, is “knowledge”?”