I met Lorenzo Lotto at the Villa Borghese recently. As I heard his sad tale, I found myself thinking about contemporaries of mine who are headed down his path. In case you don't remember Mr. Lotto, let me give you a thumbnail sketch of his story. Born in Renaissance Venice, he became known in some... Continue Reading →
Why People Resist Change
We're two-thirds of the way through the eating marathon composed of Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year's Eve. And, as surely as night follows day, many of us are considering our expanding waistlines and the necessity of a diet in the New Year. Just as predictably, many of us will fail in our quest to change... Continue Reading →
Pay Attention to People
At the heart of every knowledge management effort has to be the people we hope will use and benefit from it. Yet far too often, they are not considered sufficiently in the design or implementation stage. Most of the time we plan based on our "impressions and preconceptions" of how our target audience will behave.... Continue Reading →
Just the Way You Are
For those of my readers who were secretly hoping that I'd lose interest over the weekend in my current fascination with popular music and management, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I was getting ready to stop and then I discovered that Billy Joel is not only a philosopher, but a pragmatic one. His song, Just... Continue Reading →
Hop off the bus, Gus.
I really didn't intend to write a series on management skills and popular songs but, after yesterday's reference to "Love the One You're With" by Crosby, Stills & Nash, here we are today with staffing issues again and Paul Simon's classic "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover."* The impetus for the journey from one song... Continue Reading →
The Mysteries of Human Behavior
Let me introduce you to My Little Pony Scootaloo. According to the manufacturer, "SCOOTALOO pony loves to play games and be outside. She’s always on the go to meet and play outdoors with all her pony friends!" The suggested retail price for this toy is US$4.99.To be honest, My Little Pony is not something I've... Continue Reading →
War Between Social Media and KM?
Connie Crosby pointed me to Ralph Poole's post, Social Media vs. Knowledge Management. In it he discusses Venkatesh Rao's assertion in the Enterprise 2.0 blog that there exists a generational war between the proponents of knowledge management and the proponents of social media. In Ralph's experience, this rings true:I have seen it in the way... Continue Reading →
Putting Blinders on to Enhance Productivity
Do you remember the conversations we had within law firms when we began to consider permitting desktop access to the Internet? Everyone focused on the potential loss of productivity. To be fair, that can be a problem. You don't have to walk far in any office to find someone surfing the net. Equally, you don't... Continue Reading →
The More Things Change
From time to time, this blog discusses various constant elements of human nature. Usually, we focus on the unwillingness of folks to do what they don't want to do and why this affects the adoption of new technology tools or knowledge management systems. The last few days and weeks have reminded us that there are... Continue Reading →
How Leadership Makes a Difference
If you've got a generous budget and an appropriately-sized, energetic, motivated and productive staff, you can stop reading now. Clearly you've got more assets than most knowledge managers and must, as a result, be achieving great things in the world of knowledge management. If, however, you aren't so fortunate, you might want to read further.In... Continue Reading →