It's a natural human tendency to run from failure. In our understandable need to avoid pain, we try to put it behind us and move on. (The more cynical would say, we sweep it under the carpet, shrug, and move on.) While I'd be the last one to recommend that we should wallow in misery,... Continue Reading →
You Haven’t Missed the Train — Yet
With all the flurry in the blogosphere and blawgosphere about web 2.0 and social media tools, it's easy to believe that you are the last Luddite left standing without a Facebook friend, LinkedIn connection or personal blog. Fear not -- you have lots of company. According to a recent global survey by Synovate, 58% of... Continue Reading →
Lipstick
We learned last night on prime time TV that the only difference between a "hockey mom" and a pit bull is ... lipstick.Tenacity. Perseverance. Toughness. Fighting spirit. These are some of the characteristics typically associated with pit bulls. Of course, there's also meanness and deadliness, but since this blog is NOT about politics, we won't... Continue Reading →
Why Worry About Law Firm KM ROI?
From time to time, law firm knowledge management junkies twist themselves into knots trying to determine the best way of calculating the return on investment (ROI) of knowledge management efforts. I'm as guilty as the rest for engaging in this exercise. A few have suggested that thinking about ROI is not helpful to KM since... Continue Reading →
Dancing and Knowledge Management
In a recent conversation with Patrick Lambe and Dave Snowden, Larry Prusak described the three stages of knowledge management:- content collecting, organizing and searching- collaboration- ad hoc development tailored to the needs of a specific organizationBut how do you move systematically from one stage to the next?For people new to Knowledge Management, there are any... Continue Reading →
Use Gender Advantage: Recruit Women
In an earlier post, Building a Great Knowledge Management Team, I discussed key factors in recruiting and retaining a KM team that consistently outperforms the competition. One of the cautions emerging from the study I cited was that it wasn't enough to simply recruit "stars" since many stars are incapable of reproducing their success in... Continue Reading →
The Problem with Low-Hanging Fruit
When I first started in the knowledge management business, I asked a group of senior New York law firm knowledge management experts what advice they would give me. One extremely pragmatic colleague said: "Collect the Low-Hanging Fruit."Nearly a decade later, I still find I keep an eye out for low-hanging fruit. However, now I have... Continue Reading →
KM 2.0: Working Smarter
Dave Pollard has published a thought-provoking post on what's next in knowledge management entitled Working Smarter. In it he describes the core competencies (requiring Skills, Tools and Processes) that knowledge workers are going to need in the 21st century:1. Personal Content Management (in lieu of large, centralized repositories)2. Simple Virtual Presence and Enabling Conversations (to... Continue Reading →
Walk on the Wild Side
How do you get a conservative Baby Boomer manager or a conservative law firm to take a walk on the wild side? That's the challenge for law firm knowledge managers looking for ways to introduce social media tools into their array of knowledge management offerings. The first question most conservatives will ask is: what are... Continue Reading →
Managing Social Media
One of my favorite 40-somethings told me yesterday that he had created a Facebook page for himself. Upon further questioning, I learned that the page actually had been created by the teenage summer intern working in his office. (Nonetheless, I gave the 40-something full credit for finding a low tech way of dealing with what... Continue Reading →
Above and Beyond KM 