E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

The Essence of Knowledge Management

I am not sure if you folks would be subscribed to the mailing list from the superb Knowledge Management community over at actKM but just in case you may not be I strongly suggest you sign up and join that community because for the last few months there have been some incredible discussions taking place around the world of KM. One of the latest ones, and one that also comes very close home, is the recent discussion thread on The Essence of Knowledge Management where folks are actually venturing into putting together what Knowledge Management is in just a (short) sentence.

Yes, I know what you are going to say. No way you could do that ! Well, there are plenty of folks who have ventured into providing a good, short definition of what Knowledge Management is. I know for myself that I wouldn’t be able to come up with one just like that since every time that I have ventured to do so I end up adding much more than what was required in the first place, thus in the end I give up. If people ask me what I do for a living I have got a tendency to take a couple of minutes to try to explain what it is and as soon as I get to see people’s faces looking strange that is when I know I need to stop.

Either way, since I, too, have always had some difficulty in coming up with a short definition of what KM is all about I thought I would create this particular weblog post and share with you some of the definitions that people have been sharing so far. And as time goes by, if more of them come up I will be adding them up into this weblog post. One thing though the attached quotes are actually definitions that I would feel comfortable with because they related to the same concept that I have myself about KM, thus if you are part of the mailing list and do not see a particular quote that is because it didn’t strike me as good enough for me, which is what we should all be doing at the end of the day, look for a definition of KM that would work for you so that you can then convince others about it. Thus without any further delay here you have got some of my favourite definitions so far:

“We always know more than we can tell, we can always tell more than we can write down. Knowledge Management is not just about the things we can write down, its also about the stories we tell and the stuff we know but can never articulate in any way.” by Dave Snowden. Does it ring a bell ?

“KM is a systematic process of connecting people to people and people to the knowledge and information they need to act effectively and create new knowledge” by Mark Schenk (From Anecdote), taken from Carla O’Dell, The Executive’s Role in Knowledge Management

“Knowledge management is a business process that connects people to people and people to information for competitive advantage and better decision making.” by Kaye Vivian (A slight variation from Carla’s quote mentioned above that I particularly like)

“Knowledge management helps people learn, to use the new knowledge they acquire through learning, to share what they know when appropriate, and to help create knowledgeable communities of work mates, colleagues, and friends. It is concerned with innovation, managing complexity and ambiguity, forming and using knowledge networks and connections, sharing behaviours, and utilising people-centric technologies” by Ron Robinson (I like the learning aspect put together by Ron on this one, since I have always believed that KM and Learning walk hand in hand all along)

And, finally, perhaps the one definition of them all that I feel the most comfortable with thus far. It is coming from Denham Grey and you can find it as well over at the KMBloggers community wiki space KMWiki:

“A practice concerned with increasing awareness, fostering learning, speeding collaboration & innovation and exchanging insights. There is a delicate balance to be maintained between explicit and tacit, between personal and community, between collecting assets and enabling flows, between looking inward and externally, between mining and capturing insights and building on shared experiences.”

That one indeed I feel that it captures the true nature of KM as being related to learning, collaboration, innovation, knowledge sharing and confirming that there should be a balance between explicit and tacit knowledge, between personal and communities, amongst other things. But instead of me telling you all about it let me suggest you take a look into Denham’s recent weblog post on the subject where he actually explains a whole lot more in detail that particular definition: The essence of KM?.

I think that I may have finally found a definition that I would feel comfortable with whenever I would need to describe what I do for work. What do you think ? Have you found yours? Dare to come up with your own ?

Technorati Tags: Knowledge Management, KM, actKM

Who Knows Whom, And Who Knows What?

While going through my daily catch up of RSS newsfeeds I have bumped into one particular article over at CIO that I am sure plenty of folks over here would be very much interested in, specially if you are into Social Network Analysis. The article is titled Who Knows Whom, and Who Knows What? and you will be able to find it over here. The reason why I mentioned above that it is an interesting read is because of the fact that it will provide you with some very good examples of how SNA, when used and applied correctly and in a wise manner, can bring some incredible value to the overall Knowledge Management strategy that whatever company may have. I think I am going to leave it up to you to read further on how several companies have used SNA to their own advantage to become better with handling its knowledge and the different networks of knowledge workers, but I thought I would highlight in the mean time some interesting quotes that clearly state how there are folks out there who do get it, as far as Social Network Analysis is concerned:

“Social network analysis provides a clear picture of the ways that far-flung employees and divisions are working together, and can help companies identify key experts in the organization. ”

Indeed, who would have thought, making use of SNA in order to be able to locate key subject matter experts within the organisation? Isn’t this one of the main issues that traditional KM has been struggling with for quite some time. Locating your experts is not an easy task and it looks like SNA could certainly help out here. Amongst many other areas.

“SNA isn’t a replacement for traditional KM tools such as knowledge databases or portals, but it can provide companies with a starting point or blueprint for how best to proceed with KM initiatives.”

This is certainly one of my favourite quotes from the entire article. Not only from the point of view where it just places SNA, quite nicely, in the overall KM strategy but also from the point of view to reply to all those folks who have been saying for quite some time how SNA could stand on its own, when we all know that it is actually not the case. SNA will provide you with the data, but you still need to figure out what you would want to do with it in the larger picture, which is the overall KM strategy that you may have in place.

“As a component to a larger KM strategy, however, SNA can help companies identify key leaders and then set up mechanisms—such as “communities of practice” or other groups—so that those leaders can pass on their knowledge to colleagues”

One of the many great advantages of conducting an SNA is the fact that as a result of it you would be able to help businesses identify those key subject matter experts who would eventually may venture into creating different communities of practice, for instance, about the topic(s) they are passionate about and as such you would be creating instantly a pool of expertise that would help you drive whatever your KM strategy may be. We all know that with all this buzz about social software there is an increasing interest in knowledge sharing and collaborating with other knowledge workers and as such those same communities would become the main engines that could help businesses transition from a labour-based model to an asset / knowledge based one. And all that thanks to a single SNA.

“SNA can be defined as “the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers, or other information- or knowledge-processing entities.“” by Valdis Krebs.

And, finally, here is perhaps one of the most effective definitions about SNA that you would find out there provided by Valdis Krebs. Simpler than that I doubt you would be able to state it.

As I have said, a very interesting article worth while reading and which will clearly open up people’s eyes about how SNA can be used in a wise manner to help improve the different connections between knowledge workers within whatever the company, like many of the examples state quite clearly throughout the article itself, in order to allow them to boost their knowledge sharing and collaboration with other knowledge workers.

Technorati Tags: Social Network Analysis, SNA, Knowledge Management, KM, Communities of Practice, Social Software, CIO

The Biggest I Have Seen So Far – Not Any More!

If you would remember, last year, when I was moving from one Internet weblog to elsua, I actually migrated a number of different weblog posts in order not to lose the information. Well, one of those weblog posts was this one: The Biggest I Have Ever Seen So Far, where I was actually detailing the largest paella party I have ever been to and where I shared some pictures about the event itself. What can I say, folks? If I was flabbergasted back then when I attended the event for the first time, this year it has been more of the same. But this time around I was well prepared. I thought.

Yes, the traditional paella party or festival, whatever you would want to call it, took place this year as well as the ending event from the local festivities of El Tablero de Maspalomas. There were perhaps a little bit less people than in previous years but it is also true that there wasn’t much paella left at the end of the event (About two and a half hours later) thus it looks like it was a bit more scaled than in previous occasions. This time around I did my homework and I arrived a little bit earlier than usual so that I could take some pictures before hand of a paella that was going to feed several thousand people! I cannot describe it with many more words, other than saying that it is an art to be able to cook such a tasty giant paella for such a large crowd and still make it worth while eating! A big thumbs up for all of the cooks and rest of personnel who helped making it possible year after year! Just brilliant! Congrats, guys!

I doubt that I would be able to say something more than just show you a few of the pictures that I took during the event. There are many more that I will be sharing later on in my Flickr account but here you have got some of the most representative ones:

Next year, I will be ready for some more. No doubt ! Thus if you happen to be around here on holidays, or whatever, you know where you will find me! Yummy!

Technorati Tags: ElTableroDeMaspalomas, ElTablero, Paella, Flickr