My apologies for the mixed metaphor in the title, but I’m pressed for time these days. I certainly need to improve my blogging frequency, monthly just does not cut it with me.
We recently began to settle on a strategy story line at our little shop, to capture our approach to improving life options for children [...]
Category Archives: KM History
How a Memory Palace Fuels the Elevator Speech
Standing on the Toes of Giants
Regarding my reference above, Gary Klein defines the Recognition-Primed Decision model thus : “[it] fuses two processes: the way decision makers size up the situation to decide which course of action makes sense, and the way they evaluate to evaluation that course of action by imagining it.” (p.24) Klein, in a his ground-breaking work regarding decision-making, shares the findings from a decade doing field research: decisions are not made according to classic methods of rational choice theory, but closer to Simon’s satisficing model . … Some excellent points are made by Bill Kaplan in comments to my original pos t, and by some justifiably emotional voices on the email chain I referenced earlier: Grassroots efforts do exist and thrive, but they have failed to scale across the Department or to effect the lasting change for which we all hope.
The Day DoD KM Died
Yesterday, I was most privileged to sit in on a session with some of the senior folk in DoD Knowledge Management (KM). The setup encouraged an intimate conversation among these government leaders, with twice more their number sitting and observing (a well-placed gag rule limited conversation to the table people only). Each Service was represented, [...]
Also posted in National Security 20 Comments
PNSR: Knowledge Management and the Market Dynamics of U.S. National Security
The following is a “revised and extended” version of my remarks at the PNSR Futures Conference this week in Washington D.C. (PNSR = Project on National Security Reform.)
FINDING: The national security system is not organization, nor even a system of shared purpose. My observations lead me to believe it is better described as an ad [...]
Also posted in National Security 4 Comments
Back to First Principles for Knowledge Management
The title for this post is taken from a 1993 RAND report written by two friends and former colleagues. It is occasionally useful to revisit the first principles when discussing weighty matters such as KM. Or, as was the case for my friends, U.S. Strategic Forces.
A recent conversation on Twitter involved a fairly innocuous blog [...]
Posted in KM History 16 Comments
On “Lessons Learned” Programs
Chain of events: Acquaintance writes email, referencing this blog from APQC. I respond with a rant, augmented by a couple of acidic twitter messages to release steam. These rants are posted to my Facebook status line, and results in a brief conversation there with a FB friend – who initially believes I’ve lost my mind.
And [...]
Posted in KM History 2 Comments
So What Is Knowledge Management, Anyway
As part of this reform legislation, I’ve been asked to provide a definition for KM. I’ve managed to avoid this for, oh, 11 years. But no longer. There are at least 47 definitions of KM, as compiled by one blogger. Many good, many not. I can’t choose one, I need to craft one that I [...]
Posted in KM History 1 Comment
KM Mentoring, Episode 1
My brother-in-law is an economist by training, and imparted the following wisdom to me last week: Every bottle of wine costs no more than $2.50 to produce, the rest is just a lot of hands picking your pocket. Which got me to thinking: how do you account for the delta between $2.50 and $40, [...]
Is Knowledge a Product or Process?
A debate is underway, or should I say continues, regarding the nature of knowledge. If this sounds like an obscure debate regarding philosophy, cognitive science, and complexity, well, it is. But it also drives management behaviors if you are to tackle KM.
Either knowledge is inherently personal, inextricably connected to experience, unarticulated brain functions, culture – [...]
Posted in KM History 1 Comment
