Knowledge Nuggets

Notes from the KMA-DC meeting on 1/29/2016. Last page includes a capture of our discussion and identifies gaps for future talks and investigation.

Sources cited and feedback welcomed!

Contact: Victor Jimenez, Email: vjime2728@gmail.com

Please reference: KMA-DC Meeting 1/29/2016 on your inquiry

From the article...

"[I]n the Social Age, the gap between formal and social spaces is blurred, and highly transparent, so what we do in all contexts counts."

An excellently phrased quote from Mr. Julian Stodd on the reality of social leadership.

The blurred gap between formal and social spaces is a challenge that all leaders will have to monitor and manage.

What do your social spaces say about you? (hopefully what you want them to since you have been incrementally building them) What do your formal spaces say about you?

Now, if you consider that one affects the other, are you still on message?

From the article...

"Business leaders need to manage information, rather than just maintain it. 

"The discipline of exploiting the various types of information created and managed inside and outside organizations is called enterprise information management (EIM). It enables people across an organization to share, manage and reuse information that was created in different applications and stored in different databases and repositories."

"IT leaders must design EIM initiatives so that sharing and reusing information creates business value, and the value created must contribute to enterprise goals."

Question...

Is your organization just doing enough to make sense of all the information they are collecting and obtain new insights into how to perform better? Or are all those potential lessons going into the mysterious big data treasure chest to be placed on a shelf to gather dust?

Managing knowledge is an act which demonstrates what it means to be innovative. Innovation is Knowledge Management.

Early adopters to the belief that we are moving into a Knowledge-Based Economy will have an advantage. Their challenge will always be to identify ROI for managing knowledge to those who doubt it's value. What evidence must be gathered? What must be measured? Are our current indicators appropriate for assessing the value of innovation (and Knowledge Management)? For a Knowledge Manager, these questions must be continually asked and revised as they apply to an organization.

Being in different levels of leadership roles among the collection of communities I am engaged in at the moment, I found these Myths on Project Sponsorship intriguing. There always seems to be a challenge in finding the proper balance for leadership on a project. Should the leader communicate more to ensure we stay on track? Or should they stay out of the way and let the team execute and learn? There is no one-size fits all answer, but situational awareness is of course always needed.

So I am left with concluding that clear communication about scope and objectives up front is of utmost importance. But here is the next question I get to....As a sponsor, if I am satisfied that I have laid out the objectives clearly and the team is informed, then I can leave them to execute their plan. I only interrupt flow or work to perform whatever level of monitoring we (the sponsor and the project manager) have agreed to beforehand. Ok, no problem there. But inevitably the time comes when something changes one of the objectives we started with. Perhaps an external influence out of our control. What are my priorities as the sponsor at this time? How much do I now need to get involved? I obviously have to inform the team of the change and how it may now impact the objectives we previously discussed. But how do I decide how much I need to get involved to ensure the team has addressed the change? Or do I just identify the change, identify the adjusted objective, and let the team get back to planning?

What are some tips on how to make this decision? Thoughts?

Good tips on the value of KM from David Griffiths, PhD. I especially see #12 as critical to KM success in any organization. The realization that sharing of information is a business need among all areas of the organization is not something that comes naturally to most. Yet those who can step outside their domain and see the greater context have a better chance of making the best decisions for their mission the first time around.

Knowledge Managers will appreciate and benefit from this read.

As we all know, embracing KM can increase productivity and should be approached from a system-wide view as a strategy for the entire organization. The author touches on a number of topics which influence KM but are not always labeled as such. Good coverage of a complex topic.

What is your answer? Why does KM exist?