Beyond knowledge management to better management
Yesterday's post, Just Tell Me What Works, discussed some of the weaknesses arising from a blind obsession with best practices. The chief weakness is the false belief that someone else's solution will work perfectly for you. But what if you avoid that weakness and actually do the hard work of thinking for yourself in order... Continue Reading →
Don't get me wrong. I love hanging out with my social media buddies. They keep me informed and they are a ton of fun. Their enthusiasm and generosity has facilitated viral growth in the leisure time use of social media. Unfortunately, their enthusiasm is not quite as infectious as one might hope. It appears that... Continue Reading →
Have you noticed the breathless, starry-eyed approach of some Enterprise 2.0 advocates? To be honest, I've been guilty of it myself on occasion. In part, it comes from the excitement experienced when you first glimpse the transformative powers of social media tools and let your mind race ahead to the day when organizations operate differently... Continue Reading →
Be grateful for your insightful friends. Their wisdom can speed your path to learning. Accordingly, I'd like to thank Mark Gould and Jack Vinson, both of whom were kind enough to comment on my earlier post, The Four Chickens Problem. In that post I discussed the challenges to adoption that organizations distributing bed nets face... Continue Reading →
The most effective way to prevent death by malaria is by using long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets. Yet organizations that distribute these nets have discovered that the folks who receive the nets sometimes choose to trade them for four chickens rather than use the nets. Why? The four chickens solve an immediate, obvious and painful problem... Continue Reading →
"Take this Enterprise 2.0 pill, it's good for you." These words seem to encapsulate how many organizations are encouraging the adoption of social media tools behind the firewall. Unfortunately, the list of things that are good for us but we don't try is longer than any blog post I've ever written. And yet we persist... Continue Reading →
"The floggings will continue until morale improves" is a famous pirate saying that could well be the motto of some old school knowledge managers who are trying to join the cool folks at the social media party. At least twice in as many weeks I've heard reports of misguided flogging within organizations in New York.... Continue Reading →
Given the state of the economy, it's wise to ask yourself from time to time if you are closer to obsolete than mission critical. As you think about your answer to that question, I'd recommend that you take a look at Rick Mans' post, Should Knowledge Managers Look for a New Job, and the accompanying... Continue Reading →
Cynics sneer at what they characterize as the Kumbaya tone of some social media advocates. As far as these cynics (or as they prefer to say, realists) are concerned, only Pollyanna would make such rosy projections of network effects and community building. Exhortations to share and share alike, or to just give your personal intellectual... Continue Reading →
At the Enterprise 2.0 workshop I attended yesterday, someone asked Livio Hughes of Headshift the following question: What's the worst mistake we can make with respect to law firm technology? His answer was interesting: Don't fall into the habit of thinking that problems can be solved only by launching a massive multi-year IT infrastructure project. ... Continue Reading →
Above and Beyond KM 