KM Edge

The relationship between knowledge management and innovation is complex and shifting, spanning reuse ("Is reuse in a new context innovation?"), collaboration ("Does collaboration necessarily produce innovative outcomes, or just group think?"), the impact of mobile devices such as phones and PDAs on...

Market intelligence is a commodity critical to corporate strategy planning...

In a recent conversation with Darlene Shaw, chief knowledge officer of SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command), the topic turned to sports. Well, sort of...

Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are likely to be smiling today.  Not because of the GM bankruptcy.  It would definitely be un-Japanese to gloat. They're smiling because the U.S...

At APQC's KM conference earlier this month, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Susan Leandri, PricewaterhouseCoopers' managing director of knowledge development services...

The Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) study recognizes organizations that are outperforming their peers in eight dimensions of knowledge management. Each year, the study seeks nominations of organizations that fit this description...

Lauren Trees beat me to the punch (not surprising) and was the first to post some short impressions from Day...

It's taken me a while to gather my thoughts about day two of last week's knowledge management conference, but here are some notes on the final four keynotes: Rob Cross, associate professor at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce and research director of The Network...

As most of you know, APQC kicked off its 14th annual knowledge management conference in Houston this morning...

If you are really going to take knowledge management seriously--invest time and resources, engage with senior leadership, and expect to see results--then you need to consider the roles and resources required to support your organization's KM activities...

Much has happened since APQC's last knowledge management conference in May 2008: We are well into the Big Recession and may bounce along the bottom for months; Barack Obama is president of the United States and, in addition to his many other attributes, has rock star status on YouTube; Twitter is...

It is no secret that, for many organizations, training is one of the first and easiest cuts to make when money is tight.  The need for training doesn't go away, just the budget.  Tough economic times cause companies to reduce headcount, reorganize, merge, outsource, retool, add products, chase...

The globally competitive business market has driven Fluor's need for knowledge sharing and collaboration across organizational and geographic boundaries...

We reached the tipping point! After years of defining the knowledge transfer and learning (KT&L) program at Catholic Health Initiatives, documenting successes, and proving impact, KT&L has become recognized as a strategic capability and is now directly applied to organizational priorities...

According to the cliché, it's not what you know, but who you know, that matters. Like all clichés, this one overstates the case while also containing a measure of truth...

What is it we want out of knowledge management implementations? We want organic growth of information, but we also want an "official version." We want to promote innovation and open usage, but we cannot risk exposing proprietary intellectual property...

The first wave of baby boomers is beginning to retire, leaving a leadership void that many organizations are not prepared for...

In a 2 March 2006 post on 43 folders (a site focused on personal productivity that was dormant for a while and has only recently picked up activity), Merlin Mann (site owner) made the observation that "Focus is cash in the economics of attention."   He was commenting on an post by Annalee Newitz...

Organizations are facing ever-increasing challenges brought on by marketplace pressures and other factors.  Many organizations are now looking to knowledge management to address these challenges. Such initiatives often begin with the development of a KM strategy...

I subscribe to Harvard Business Review (no, I don't have time to read all the articles). I have found some articles particularly useful and insightful, recommending them to protégés repeatedly, thus this list. The articles are available from the HBR Web site for about $7 each...

If you have long-time, successful employees, at some point along the way you will need them to train coworkers on the job.  Experienced workers transfer knowledge to ramp up new employees, to cross-train existing employees who are changing roles, and to prepare for their own departures when they...

I want to remind everyone that the early-bird registration deadline for APQC's upcoming knowledge management conference is tomorrow, April 1. If you're planning to attend, I encourage you to take advantage of the $200 discount by registering today or tomorrow...

BLUF:  The more incompetent someone is in a particular area, the less qualified that person is to assess anyone's skill in that space, including their own...

At IBM, leveraging knowledge has always been an important part of our business...

Just as managers make sure that we do things right, leaders are responsible for ensuring that we do the right thing. Similarly, knowledge management helps us do things better, but strategic knowledge management (SKM) makes sure we invest in doing the right things for the right reasons...

An old guy takes a young guy to a local bar to meet some of the old guy's friends. After the usual introductions, everyone sits around the table to enjoy an evening of socializing...

At APQC, we often hear from organizations that are struggling to incorporate wikis, blogs, expertise location, and social networking applications into their existing collaboration infrastructures...

We in knowledge management place such a premium on tacit knowledge that explicit knowledge would get its feelings hurt, if it had any. ...

During APQC's December 2008 knowledge management community call, an audience poll showed that 22 percent of call participants expected a small increase in their 2009 knowledge management budgets and 35 percent expected no change, whereas 44 percent were anticipating some kind of decrease in their...

Savvy companies have been engaged in the management of knowledge for 20 years. More recently, communities of practice have become the platform for knowledge sharing. Many have been successful, but others have not generated the kind of enthusiasm needed...

But not for the reasons posited by Edward Tufte. In his article "PowerPoint is Evil," Tufte's principal concern relates to the use of slideware for data reduction. His preference is for voluminous tables of statistical data, allowing the reader to interpret the entire set for himself...

As a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that APQC has been looking at the issue of lessons learned more closely over the past few months...