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 →
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 →
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 →
The Credible Alternative to Work
Sitting on my desk is a mug with the inscription: "Meetings -- The Credible Alternative to Work."We've all had the experience of being trapped in a never-ending meeting that doesn't appear to be accomplishing anything useful. Meetings can be hijacked by poor preparation, inadequate leadership, reluctant participants and bad conference room food, among other things.... Continue Reading →
Good Fences and Good Neighbors
Good fences make good neighbors. That's what Boomers were taught as children. But does that still hold true in a Web 2.0/Gen Y world where the public and the private seem to be constantly converging?For example, at a recent meeting of law firm knowledge managers in New York City I asked how people were handling... Continue Reading →
Unsociable Uses of Social Media
There's been lots of negative reaction here and elsewhere in the blogosphere to the notion of mandatory blogging. (See the comments from Patrick Lambe and Doug Cornelius to my earlier posts, Knowledge Management Made Easier and Knowledge Management Made Mandatory. Also see Doug's post, Making Blogging Mandatory for Knowledge Management.) And, I'm not without sympathy.... 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 →
Building a Great Knowledge Management Team
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 →
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 →
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 