Comments for Organizational Knowledge Design

Comment on How a Memory Palace Fuels the Elevator Speech by James Smith

James Smith — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:52:56 +0000

MEMORY PALACE DEFINITIVE by James Smith on Amazon

JB edit: Adding link http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Palace-Definitive-James-Smith/dp/1469949121

Thanks, James! Great to make your acquaintance.

Comment on IM v KM by Grappling with Knowledge | Harold Jarche

Grappling with Knowledge | Harold Jarche — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:06:13 +0000

[...] IM vs KM by @JBordeaux The difference between IM [information management] and KM [knowledge management] is the difference between a recipe and a chef, a map of London and a London cabbie, a book and its author. Information is in technology domain, and I include books (themselves a technology) in that description. Digitizing, subjecting to semantic analysis, etc., are things we do to information. It is folly to ever call it knowledge, because that is the domain of the brain. And knowledge is an emergent property of a decision maker – experiential, emotional framing of our mental patterns applied to circumstance and events. It propels us through decision and action, and is utterly individual, intimate and impossible to decompose because of the nature of cognitive processing. Of course, I speak here of individual knowledge. [...]

Comment on IM v KM by John Tropea

John Tropea — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 02:56:15 +0000

“knowledge is an emergent property of a decision maker”…that phrase right there is gold.

I’ve always talked about his point in my blog, here’s the latest post I mentioned it in
http://libraryclips.blogsome.com/2011/12/08/oh-is-that-km-is-it/

“you face a situation you may have never faced before and the nuggets in your head assemble into a new formation where you solve the problem; and now this solution is filed in your head (you never have to work it out again).

If we can get people in organisations to connect as often as they can with each other (eg. CoPs, etc…) then overtime we become more competent people…we become chefs as much as we can, rather than recipe followers.

The key point is don’t try and do KM, because you can’t, as KM is emergent…stimulate the conditions for behaviours, motivations, desires…enable an environment where people can sense-make (do their work by connecting with others), and the competencies that people develop as a result and what they leave behind for everyone else is KM.”

I also mentioned this in the KM Aus linkedin forum where they are prepping for the debate at KM Aus between Shawn Callahan and James Dellow:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Quick-KM-Poll-Making-tacit-77236.S.99467602?qid=f579cafc-e79e-47f2-b9a0-864a59009974&trk=group_most_popular-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Egmp_77236

” Hmmm…a given context will trigger something I know based on my experience that is valuable to someone eg. informal stuff like tips, characteristics of a client, advise on what I have done in similar situations, etc…all this dialogue can happen online as a record for others to come across.

Is this what we mean by tacit? ie. know-what

Or does tacit mean…know-how

…people being able to think like I do, approach situations and troubleshoot like I do………that’s something that takes time via observation, apprenticeship, communities of practice.

To me we have skills/capabilities/knowledge and when we approach a situation similar to a past one, previous personal knowledge comes to the foreground.

But what if the situation is not exact, but only similar to the past, or is a new situation
…then personal knowlege nuggets assemble in a formation to best approach the problem…and if successful we create a new knowledge.

The second part to me is important…the recipe follower can not deal with the deviation, whereas the person with skill and experience can tackle the situation “

Comment on Raising the Dial Tone by More Friday Link Love with Strawberries

More Friday Link Love with Strawberries — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:32:26 +0000

[...] John Bordeaux continues to wow me with his writing and ‘Raising the Dial Tone‘ definitely fits the bill. Yes, you’ve read blog posts talking about social media [...]

Comment on Breaking Down Love’s Checklist by Tammy Bearden

Tammy Bearden — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:35:29 +0000

Thank you, John, for the reminders on nurturing the most personal partnership we’ll have on earth. At 16 years (and counting) we focus a lot on the balance of adapting self and helping the other to grow. Your post here beats anything readers will find in Vogue, GQ, or the other “authoritative sources of truth” seekers go to for marital bliss advice. And to think I came here on a Monday morning in March to read about Knowledge Management. So blessed!

Comment on IM v KM by admin

admin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:33:25 +0000

I agree somewhat – and will (defensively, I admit) point out that the blog above was in response to a direct question. I continue to insist on providing the context so clients can begin by asking the right questions.

This is in tension with a preference to ‘hear the answer’ for their circumstance. Trust me, I’ve fallen on that sword so often it’s almost a comfortable position. So I take your point, the distinctions do not provide the answer for getting the work done. But the failures in this area, I fear, stem from a lack of appreciation for context. If we fail to understand the basis for how decisions are made, we will mis-apply success metrics for our initiatives.

Comment on IM v KM by Paula Thornton (@rotkapchen)

Paula Thornton (@rotkapchen) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:23:24 +0000

While we continue to put words to these distinctions http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2009/07/10/knowledge-must-be-applied/, I’ve found that it only helps us talk about it, not apply it.

In the end, all the people participating in it all really don’t care about the terms — they need to get their work done. And too often initiatives fail to start there.

Comment on Breaking Down Love’s Checklist by Queen Aleta

Queen Aleta — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:27:24 +0000

As usual… I always enjoy your pespective… especially the part about holding hands while paying bills… Happy Valentines Day to you and your lovely bride.

Comment on Avoiding the Hook by BT

BT — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 02:00:37 +0000

Another issue with the standardized project brief format is it is based on the assumption a consistent situation being briefed. This may work for financial reviews, but for more complex discussions a standard slide deck is nothing more than a burden. I can’t count the number of times I spend hours trying to figure out how to fit a message into a standard deck. Furthermore, from my perspective, a standard deck assumes limited value add from the presenter. Who wants to sit through a discussion where the presenter adds little value?

The best approach is to provide clear objectives for the presentation, clearly identifying any critical discussion points, and leave it up to the presenter to execute.

Comment on The Day DoD KM Died by William (Mark) Jones

William (Mark) Jones — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:26:05 +0000

This was an enlightening article. While I appreciate and applaud the efforts of grass roots movements to make things better, there is a place for knowledge managers.

I have been working as the KMO for Regional Command Southwest in Afghanistan. Since I have been here, I have heard a hundred competing definitions for knowledge management. I have also seen several distinct approaches to it. I view most of them as doomed to failure because they are not attempting to provide value added to the warfighter.

Operationalizing knowledge management gives it relevance. I will provide an example. At RC (SW), I began by reading all of the documents which provided direction and Commander’s intent. These included OPORDs, CONOPs, FRAGOs, etc. It was a long list and took a couple of weeks just to read. I also went to the various Battle Rhythm events to better understand how what was being discussed and in what forums. With that information, I was able to create a comprehensive evaluation of RC (SW)’s Battle Rhythm. The report highlighted discrepancies between our stated goals and our curent efforts. It was used by the Chief of Staff to help refocus the meetings toward our stated objectives.

This is one example of many I could provide on the issue. Operationalized knowledge management can be a force for good within DoD.