Beyond knowledge management to better management
Given the state of the economy, it's wise to ask yourself from time to time if you are closer to obsolete than mission critical. As you think about your answer to that question, I'd recommend that you take a look at Rick Mans' post, Should Knowledge Managers Look for a New Job, and the accompanying... Continue Reading →
In an interview with National Public Radio, Nigella Lawson provided the following secret for creating new recipes: try one new frightening thing every day. The examples she gave might not appeal to every palate (e.g., lemon risotto morphing into lemon with linguine, and Ham in Cider moving through Ham in Coca-Cola to become Ham in... Continue Reading →
Our firm has several great Canadian partners, counsel and associates. However, our firm's favorite Canadian is more popular than all those wonderful folks combined. What's the name of our favorite Canadian? Blackberry. In a few short years, the Blackberry has become a critical business tool for most law firms as well as businesses in other... Continue Reading →
Cynics sneer at what they characterize as the Kumbaya tone of some social media advocates. As far as these cynics (or as they prefer to say, realists) are concerned, only Pollyanna would make such rosy projections of network effects and community building. Exhortations to share and share alike, or to just give your personal intellectual... Continue Reading →
If you ask users, they might well tell you that in their experience of KM and IT implementations, the old saying sadly holds true: "There's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip." That saying captures what often happens when law firm knowledge management and IT personnel start building systems to "meet user requirements." ... Continue Reading →
When will tech conferences master technology? If recent experience is any guide, it appears that providing adequate WiFi access at tech conferences is as challenging as finding a cure for cancer. Is it just me, or does this strike the rest of you as strange and supremely ironic? At February's LegalTech 2009 NY conference, there... Continue Reading →
There are far too many snake oil salesmen in the social media business. If you believed their marketing claims, you might think that social media tools are the remedy for everything that ails you. Unfortunately, as more companies and individuals are finding out, that's simply not true. Equally, there are far too many uneducated consumers... Continue Reading →
At the Enterprise 2.0 workshop I attended yesterday, someone asked Livio Hughes of Headshift the following question: What's the worst mistake we can make with respect to law firm technology? His answer was interesting: Don't fall into the habit of thinking that problems can be solved only by launching a massive multi-year IT infrastructure project. ... Continue Reading →
What sets your law firm apart from its competitors? Your technology? Doubtful. In an interesting conversation today with Gil Yehuda and Livio Hughes on Enterprise 2.0, we discussed the rate at which companies are jumping on the Enterprise 2.0 bandwagon. Gil mentioned that recent figures indicated that anywhere from 25-40% of companies were either in... Continue Reading →
Pearls of wisdom sometimes turn up in the unlikeliest of places. In this case, I was sitting through yet another vendor presentation when the voice behind the PowerPoint slides said: "Make doing the right thing the easy thing." Brilliant. When we deploy new technology or knowledge management systems, we have enormous influence over the users. ... Continue Reading →
Above and Beyond KM 