When hiring we sometimes focus too much on the individual, and not enough on how they will fit in with the existing staff. An extreme version of this is to hunt and low for a "star." Each us of may define "star" slightly differently depending on the context. For example, in the law firm context,... Continue Reading →
Failing by Default
J.K. Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, is a great proponent of failure. In fact, she entitled her recent commencement address at Harvard "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination." Her experience has taught her that it is through failure that we strip away the inessential, discover what we truly value in life,... Continue Reading →
Envious of ROI
A newly-published article on knowledge management began with the following example to illustrate why organizations should even bother with a KM program:Siemens, the global telecommunications giant, recently won a $460,000 contract in Switzerland to build a telecommunications network for two hospitals in spite of the fact that its bid was 30% higher than the competition.... Continue Reading →
Have You Contributed Enough to Retire?
My last post talked about the dangers of letting baby boomers slip out the door without first ensuring that they had left in their firm's KM system "knowledge nuggets" containing their accumulated experience and learning. That post was intended to be a warning to knowledge managers. But perhaps we should launch a parallel appeal to... Continue Reading →
Forget Gen Y! Focus on the Disappearing Boomers.
While we've been whipping ourselves into a frenzy over the possible (but as of yet undefined) impact of Generation Y on our comfortable ways of doing things, we've been disregarding the real crisis occurring right under our noses. Valuable knowledge is walking out the door with every retiring baby boomer. Dr. Jay Liebowitz has been... Continue Reading →
Working with the Smartest Lawyers in the World
Where do the smartest lawyers in the world work? If Seth Godin is to be believed, each law firm knowledge manager could say "the smartest lawyers in the world work at my firm." In his post, All customers are smarter than average, he reports that people regularly rate themselves as "less racist than average, smarter... Continue Reading →
Enterprise 2.0 Meets Reality
Doug Cornelius is one of the lucky ones who is attending the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. Luckily for the rest of us, Doug has been liveblogging from the conference. Yesterday Doug reported on a panel focused on how and why the grand vision of Enterprise 2.0 hasn't taken hold in corporate America. In his... Continue Reading →
Innovators Must be Omnivores and Thieves
When I say that innovators must be omnivores, what I really mean is that they must be both omnivorous readers (not eaters) and people who seek out a wide-range of experience. This is one of the several things I learned at a fascinating lecture by Columbia University Business School professor, William Duggan. Duggan has written... Continue Reading →
Error + Flexibility = Innovation
Error + Flexibility = Innovation is a formula few of us were taught in school. Even fewer of us were told about this during our orientation at our law firms. Law firms, like most businesses, spend time thinking about the right way of doing things. This results in business processes that are hardwired into the... Continue Reading →
Finding Effective Incentives for Collaboration and Contribution of Content
What can law firm knowledge management learn from the war on terror?Fred Burton, former deputy chief of the counterterrorism division of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and author of Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, told Leonard Lopate in a recent public radio interview that counterterrorism experts have a proven set of tools... Continue Reading →
Above and Beyond KM 