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Welcome to 2006!
An old friend of Knowledge Street, when asked if he were making any New Year's resolutions, had a very straightforward answer.
"Just one," he said. "I'm going figure out what I liked, and didn't like, about last year. Then I'm going to do more of the one and less of the other." That's a pretty effective
program for the pursuit of happiness, which in overall simplicity makes up for a certain lack of long-term vision.
We also think January is the best month to re-connect with your own network, so
we're repeating some advice we offered this time last year. Open up that address book, physical or electronic,
and look for people you haven't touched in a while. Drop them a note, or even better, place a phone call. This is a month when people are more receptive than usual to that kind of thing. The pace of work
won't pick up for a few weeks, and people are still returning from holidays or otherwise thinking similar thoughts. It's a time when not only are you more likely to get through, but when people are more
likely to have a few minutes to chat. If you're wondering about them, there's a chance they'll be wondering about you.
Something interesting is happening as we assimilate Web search tools into our
day-to-day existence. Many things that once seemed important can now be blithely forgotten, since Google can retrieve them faster than you can remember them. In that way, we're developing deeper and less
volatile extended memories, even if we're not getting any smarter. Keeping your network alive can help make you smarter, too. A good network of friends and advisors can let you tap into the
processing power of other brains. That's something that still requires real human interaction.
The Human Dimension of KM
Five years ago this month, Forrester Research published a report suggesting that most Knowledge Management programs would pass through three stages of growth. They'd begin in an "Assisted" stage, in which journalists and librarians would be needed both to help people codify their knowledge and connect with artifacts in a central repository. That would be followed by a "Self Service" stage, in which specialized staff could go away, as people did their own knowledge thing. Finally, Self-Service would give way to an "Organic" stage, in which people became so facile with the techniques of KM that they wouldn't even be aware it was happening.
However, it might not be that simple. Libraries have been around for hundreds of years, after all, but we still need librarians. In fact, some companies have recognized the importance of having a
simple (human) mechanism to connect those in search of knowledge with those who have it.
Bovis Lend Lease is in the international construction services business. After recognizing a fall-off in the use of its traditional, database approach to KM, it refocused on a low-tech human process to connect knowledge "seekers" with knowledge "sharers." Branded as ikonnect, this program has the goal of being a just-in-time, just-enough solution, instead of a just-in-case, capture-all-knowledge approach. It's credited with generating an increase in KM activity, as well as with nurturing the kind of human exchanges that support effective knowledge sharing across the organization. Originally seen as an internal process, ikonnect now has its own external website at which customers and partners can also pose questions.
If you look into the details of how ikonnect works, and how its popularity at
BLL has grown over the years, you're likely to have the same reaction we did: "That makes a lot of sense." If you're interested in learning more about this facilitated approach to knowledge
sharing, we have a long-form report we can send you. Just ask for a copy.
From Collection to Connection
We've written before about Personal Knowledge Management, in various contexts. We've observed that large-scale KM initiatives can sometimes break down because individuals are overwhelmed with their own day-to-day knowledge needs. We've pointed out some tools that can help people manage information more efficiently.
Dave Pollard is a former corporate
Knowledge guy, who now writes and consults on various topics related to KM, innovation, technology and the like. He also has a very impressive blog called How to Save the World, and a few weeks back wrote about this topic. In that post, he described how his former employer recognized a fall-off in the use of central KM systems.
Dave looked into the problem, and came to the conclusion that the company's large, expensive (and award-winning) repositories simply weren't delivering what people needed. He outlined a new approach,
which focused on context and connection. The idea was to provide better support for "connecting to the right people, just-in-time, canvassing them to gain their knowledge and advice in the context
of a particular business problem or pursuit, synthesizing that knowledge and applying it to the issue at hand."
Dave's article on this topic is worth reading, especially if you're a KM practitioner who's starting to have doubts about a repository-based approach.
Stumbling Around the Web
Last month we came across an interesting gizmo for web surfing, a thing that bills itself as an
"intelligent browsing tool." It's called StumbleUpon, and relies on its own community of users to review and recommend websites in various content categories. Here's how it works:
You establish a profile at the StumbleUpon home page, and tag the kind of content you'd like to see (Cooking, Dogs, Movies, etc.) -- there are some 500 topics available. You then download a StumbleUpon toolbar, which lets you rate sites you visit (a simple thumbs up or thumbs down), and add comments if you think appropriate. Your ratings are folded in with those from the rest of the StumbleUpon community, and these ratings help drive their search results. This is a little like the way Google rates websites according to the number of backward links. The idea (obviously) is that sites with better ratings move to the top of the list. (Readers may notice a recurring theme in this month's issue: the value of engaging other minds in problem-solving.)
There are some other cute bits, but that's the basic idea. In just a few weeks of use, it's become one of our favorite tools. Be warned, though, that the Stumble button should be handled with
care. It takes you to a random site, based on your profile preferences, and brother, can that suck the time out of your day!
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