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Knowledge vs. Insight
Sometimes we're still surprised that Knowledge Management hasn't led to the kind of performance improvements that were
predicted back in the day. Maybe we expected too much, put too much faith in technology or underestimated the ability of individuals to resist change. Or maybe we started with a fundamental
misunderstanding. In the early days, we tended to think of knowledge as an underutilized asset -- something a company already had that wasn't being used to its full potential. This is the view expressed
by that old KM chestnut, "if only we knew what we knew."
This is the contention of Jack Springman, writing in CIO magazine. He suggests that instead of trying to capture existing knowledge, companies should focus on the knowledge they need. What is the company trying to do, and what choices does it need to make? Once this strategic requirement is established, that’s the time to develop processes and systems to acquire, store and share it.
He further suggests that this “insight management” activity involves three stages. First, companies should measure what's going on. Most firms do this to one degree or another as a form of basic
accounting, but the point is to measure things that will support the next stage, at which they can work to understand what might be done differently. Finally, companies can select among possible options,
by aggregating the insights of staff, suppliers and partners. You can't have an insightful strategy if you don't have a strategy for establishing insights.
Flash Mobs
Flash mobs aren't new, but they're newly interesting to us. That may be because they've been in the local news
recently, or because they seem to be taking a darker turn.
If you're not familiar with the term, the Wikipedia defines a flash mob as a large group that assembles suddenly in a public place, performs an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperses. It credits the idea (and the term) to Harper's editor Bill Wasik, who assembled the first such mob in the summer of 2003. Originally, they were intended to surprise and amuse those not in the know.
But on March 20, a flash mob in Philadelphia deteriorated into a near riot, with roving bands of teenagers brawling in the streets. Some onlookers were hurt and people were arrested. On the same day, the local police called for reinforcements to control a mob in South Orange, New Jersey. And on April 4, a flash mob in Times Square featured gangbangers and pellet guns.
There's a general
assumption that technology which increases mobility and improves collaboration is a universally good thing. But when you put together social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook with remote
communication via cell, text and smart phone, just about anyone can summon a mob with very little effort. People being people, this is often a really bad idea.
The Attic of the Mind
The reading public was introduced to Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet. That was in 1887,
when the world was a very different place. But while some things change, some things stay the same.
Watson is astonished by Holmes' remarkable ignorance of common knowledge. He was unaware, for
example, that the earth traveled around the sun. And upon being told that it did, he vowed to do his best to forget it. In Holmes' view, only a fool would take in every idea he came across. The brain was
not elastic in his opinion, and he only intended to remember those things that would be useful to him in his chosen profession. "There comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget
something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."
As relatively recent owners of iPhones, we can see this
principle in action. Just remembering everything the phone can do is mind numbing. Voice Command, which at first seemed one of its most interesting features, was completely forgotten for several months.
It's not hard to remember what a given app does, but it is hard to remember all the apps you have installed. It underscores the old KM adage, that you can only know a thing when you need to know it.
Counting Noses in the US
The 2010 census is currently underway and it's turning into a cautionary tale for Knowledge
Management. It'd be hard to imagine a more routine form of data collection -- we've only been doing it every ten years since 1790. And the form this year is hardly invasive, with only ten questions. But we're only a few days away from the end of the census period and participation is strangely low. As of this writing, the national rate is 66%. Alaska is at the bottom, with
56%, and Illinois is on top with 77%.
It seems to us that the Census Bureau is doing all the right things. They have a friendly, straightforward website, with an interesting interactive map that lets you see how your town compares to others. Census Bureau personnel are talking to local groups and relentlessly pitching the cost-saving benefit of not having to send census takers into the field. They've got blog and videos and can tell the story in dozens of languages, including ASL. It makes one wonder. All these people who haven't returned their forms... are they too busy? disorganized? Or is it symptomatic of a population that has zero trust in government? Is it a form of dysfunction or a form of political protest?
When it's this hard to get people to participate in something that's obviously in their own self-interest, imagine the challenge faced by the humble Knowledge Manager.
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