Gene Taurman said:
>A few months ago I had a request to summarize the characteristics of an
>organization that learned. The presentation took half hour the
>questions lasted for about 12 hours.
>But honestly I am sure I do not know what knowledge management is. But
>organizations that learn are clearly managing information which can be
>turned into knowledge or opinions or hysteria.
Methinks we are all in that same boat. Terms get bandied about that mean
lots of things and are used in lots of different ways. "Knowldege
Management" in some ways seems like an oxymoron (new, short list):
Health Care
Exact estimate
Political science
Airline Food
Acting naturally
Country Music
Athletic Scholarship
(note: much longer list available on request!)
...and in some ways a hypothetical construct - an interesting idea with
little basis in reality.
"Clearly managing Information" is one of these things. I'll warrant that
there are 100's of different "information management styles" among list
members. So here's a very valuable database of ideas stored on the site
and cross-referenced to the search engines. But the beauty of the
database is that we can all have a bit of ownership of it through our
contributions and thus an intensity about its content (and even control -
see other thread "Ranking.. Even here.. LO17291" - cross-referenced herein
and everafter).
Learning is such an individual thing, motivated by past history as well
as current situation and need. Trying to "control" learning is silly,
yet that is a common behavior of some leaders or departments like IS /
IT. Making information available to people is certainly a high-impact
and valuable concept.
Too many organizations hide information. In The Search for The Lost
Dutchman's Gold Mine, we find that teams will not share information
because they perceive or believe that it will reduce their chance of
Ranking Number One.
Yet the simulation parallels reality in that sharing ideas and
information helps the group AS A WHOLE to accomplish more.
This is a most common outcome in our simulation and a most common
observation about "knowledge management" and perceived "ranking systems"
in most organizations.
Knowledge is power and it should be shared and moderated, not
controlled.
-- For the Fun of It!Scott J. Simmerman SquareWheels@compuserve.com Performance Management Company -- We support consultants and trainers worldwide with products like -- -- The Search for the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine -- http://www.squarewheels.com
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>