002 This month’s tip:

You only know a thing when you need to know it.

A common mistake in running a KM program is to picture the whole thing as an exercise in cathedral-building. Especially if you're focused on knowledge systems or repositories, the accumulation of artifacts seems like an end in itself.

Let's assume that in addition to a terrific collection of material, you have a great communication program. You're telling people what's new all the time. But are you also telling them why they need to know it? Are you giving them the context that will help them remember it's there when they need it?

It's only within the context of need that a thing is really known. Telling people about all your stuff is a good thing. But be sure you also tell them what it means to them.

Don't tell them about your fertilizer -- tell them about their lawn.

October 2003 - Volume 1, Issue 2

Lessons Learned?

Today’s lesson is about the human response to email. Through a completely unscientific survey, we've concluded that 38.7% of people either ignore or fail to recognize email that doesn't originate from a known source.

A lot of time passed between the formation of Knowledge Street and the first issue of Directions. Enough for people to forget who (or what) Knowledge Street was. So sometimes our first newsletter (which came from info@knowledgestreet.com) went right in the old trash bin, if it got past the SPAM filters in the first place.

If seeing "Chris Riemer" in the FROM field prompted you to open this message, you are not alone!

With a little help from our friends...

Since the beginning of Knowledge Street, we've had a small but enthusiastic group of mentors, advisors and friends. They've been willing to listen to our ideas, and help us separate the wheat from the chaff (in a non-threatening way). This month, we're bringing them a little closer to the light: meet the Knowledge Street Associates.

All the associates are at least peripherally involved in KM or Communications. They are well spoken and customer oriented. They add value to the conversation, and play well with others. They get the jokes.

The associates are the core of our expanded brain trust, and the foundation of the Knowledge Street community. In exchange for their advice and support, we provide small bio pages at Knowledge Street, as well as membership in an email discussion forum, addressable through associates@knowledgestreet.com - small gestures of thanks to some of the people who have helped make the whole thing fly.

The Silver Bullet Syndrome

Knowledge Management first appeared as a concept in the mid-'90s. In April '97, Gartner said it was a "nascent megatrend.”

By 1999, a lot of people were ready to write it off as a fad. The opposition said KM would go the way of Total Quality Management (TQM), or Business Process Re-engineering (BPR),  or the other acronymic buzz phrases that had taken their turn as The Next Big Thing.

But KM is now approaching its tenth birthday, so it seems to have had some staying power. Thomas A. Stewart said in November 2002 that KM was emerging from the "backwash" of faddishness and entering a period in which it could be a means to effect real change in the way organizations work. The truth is that all those business fads had potential -- that's what made them fads in the first place. They all clicked with people who saw in them a means for fundamental change. They all had support at (some) executive levels and (some) grass roots levels. They all had something else in common too. They're not easy.

People who are looking for an organizational silver bullet are likely to be as disappointed with KM as they were with BPR. KM really can drive more dollars to the bottom line, and improve employee retention and speed the pace of innovation and all that other stuff. But only if you get it right - therein lies the rub.

KM is more about changing/creating a corporate culture than it is about deploying technologies or defining standards. We've seen a lot of enthusiasm among those who grasped the vision of an empowered work force of capable, autonomous individuals. But we've also met people who saw "best practice" as a way to make everyone do things the way they wanted them done at HQ.

If you're one of the believers, sometimes the best thing to do is consider KM initiatives as islands in a cultural sea. Large KM programs will fail if the culture isn't ready for them, but small, non-threatening projects, connected by a kind of KM underground, may very well succeed. If you want value over the long term, don't try to use KM as the lever of change. Instead, exploit the element of surprise. Sneak up on 'em.

This Month’s Special

A website today is as important to your business as a sign was 100 years ago. Even if you don't do business through the web, you need to have a presence on the web. It's a way for people to find you and get a sense of what you're all about. If you're not there, or if you don't make a positive impression, customers will go elsewhere.

It doesn't take armies of specialists to build a good site, but it's not as easy as some think. For every powerful, compelling destination on the web, there are dozens that make you want to run the other way. This week, we got a call at K Street from a company that offered to design, build and and host our site for only dollars a month. They were going to ask us a few questions on the phone and have the site up and running in an hour. How good could that be, do you think?

The websites we build at Knowledge Street work for our customers because we've taken the time to talk to them, and learn what they stand for. If you’re not on the web, we can help you get there. If you're not happy with the site you have, we can help you fix it. Drop us a note, and we'll talk.
 

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