Stepping Higher - Reflections on the Knowledge Age

As my organization is currently in the process of formulating a new Knowledge Management Strategy (replacing its past Knowledge Strategy 2009-2011 ), I recently found myself discussing a lot with colleagues within and outside the organization on what should be key principles or guiding points for knowledge management. I was particularly inspired by colleagues from IFAD which is currently also writing a KM framework, and I found lot of elements that seem to be quite universal across organizations. It seems that regardless of the strategic direction a specific organization might take, and regardless of how KM might relate to their organizational goals, there are a number of principles that ring true to KM practitioners all around. I am listing them here, looking forward to hear whether others can relate: Most of an organization's knowledge is tacit, stored in the minds of its employees and consultants. Only a part of this tacit knowledge can be documented and made available in in...

This month, I was asked how organizations could introduce a standard process by which all colleagues leaving their job will be requested to document their knowledge, including tools and documents they developed, in a database, so it can be accessed and researched by all colleagues for further reference. I feel the notion of “capturing knowledge in databases” keeps coming up from time to time like a haunting ghost that you never really get rid of. It important to take it seriously, because it is often a reflection of a deeper misconception in organizations of how knowledge sharing dynamics work, and therefore what knowledge management can (and cannot) achieve. The truth is that exit interviews and so-called “knowledge databases” are probably among the worst tools one can turn to when choosing a knowledge management approach. To me they are akin to the attempt of trapping sun rays in a glass jar. Let’s look a bit closer at the dynamics that are at play: While exit interviews ...

Very happy to find my name as #75 on the list of the world's top 100 global influencers in knowledge management ! Even nicer to see that I am joined (and in most cases precluded) by a lot of dear fellow colleagues from the international development sector, in particular from the KM4Dev network (the Twitter account of which is itself at position #27). Waving in particular to my UN colleagues  @ithorpe (#12),  @gaurisalokhe (#15),  @rsamii (#40) and  @johanlammers (#45), as well as other friends in the development community who feature prominently on the list and from the professional insights and colleagueship of which I benefit tremendously. The list has been compiled and published by the Mindtouch Blog , which frequently features lists of top influencers of different business areas based on a particular Twitter hashtag (in this case #KM). You can access the full list of the top 100 influencers for #KM here .