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 →
Knowledge Management’s Secret Sauce: Trust
Fortunes have been made in the food industry through the development and use of "secret" sauces. These are the seemingly-magic ingredients that chefs use to elevate a simple food item into a must have (or must eat).Knowledge management has a secret sauce -- it's trust. Trust is the magic ingredient that reliably increases user participation.... Continue Reading →
A Knowledge Management Feel Good Story
In case the summer doldrums have hit you and you aren't about to leave on vacation, here's a story that will give you a mental break and, hopefully, encouragement about knowledge management. Stan Garfield's Weekly Knowledge Management Blog featured a post by Chuck Hollis regarding KM at General Electric. In his blog, A Journey in... Continue Reading →
The Right Stuff
A sidebar e-mail conversation with some thoughtful readers of my earlier post, Is Your Knowledge Management Strategic, raised the following interesting question: How do you find out if you have the necessary content and processes without doing a full-blown knowledge audit, yet how do you avoid the dangers of the knowledge audit?Dangers, you ask? In... Continue Reading →
Honesty in Advertising
There's precious little honesty in advertising. And, if you think your small corner of the corporate world is immune from this truth, take a look at how people are described on your org chart. Title inflation is rampant. In my view, it is the bane of the corporate world. There was a time when we... Continue Reading →
Knowledge Management Made Mandatory?
In my earlier post, Knowledge Management Made Easier, I reported on Tim Leberecht's proposal that we use widespread blogging within organizations to make tacit knowledge explicit. I was very taken with the idea of providing everyone with an easy way to capture and share their learning, and even imagined, for a moment, what it would... Continue Reading →
Investing in Knowledge
Today is a national holiday in the United States. And, since it seemed downright unpatriotic to go to the office on Independence Day, I've just spent the afternoon with two remarkable men named Benjamin: Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Disreali.While it's never entirely wise to quote out of context, I do think these two have something... Continue Reading →
Above and Beyond KM 