Branding and Reputation, Competitiveness and Innovation, Knowledge Strategy, Organization and Management, Security and Privacy
Knowledge governance in the age of AI
Governance: what is it good for? I’ve recently had the good fortune to observe a lot of the enlightening programming by Paul Washington and his team at The Conference Board’s ESG Center. It’s clear to me that, while “E” environmental and “S” social goals are ones that most of us can understand and relate to, […]
War of the Words
That title’s not a typo — it’s an homage to the 19th century inventor of a wildly successful new form of story — science fiction. H.G. Wells authored many stories and non-fiction books, but is best-remembered now for his mind-bending tales The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and War of the Worlds. Wells attributed his […]
Knowledge Strategy, Metrics and Measurement
Managing the Unmeasurable
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” We’ve all heard that. Metrics makes things real; they are the language of management, just as they are the language of science and technology. As the diagram shows, there’s a rinse-and-repeat relationship between measurement and management. But knowledge, especially as it applies to the enterprise, cannot […]
Knowledge Strategy, Organization and Management
Zombie Knowledge
Whenever I teach or lecture, I count it a success when I also discover something new. My knowledge dynamics workshop with a roomful of enthusiastic knowledge practitioners at KMWorld 2022 provided me with a huge insight on the nature of change in knowledge. What is knowledge dynamics? Two related constructs formed the core of our […]
Knowledge Strategy, Organization and Management
Knowledge Erosion: How to Avoid It
I encourage knowledge professionals to continually engage — as directly as possible — with the most pressing strategic challenges facing their client organizations. And I rarely give advice I don’t follow myself. So when I was recently invited by Fisher Yu and his team at MentoringCo to address the issue of the erosion of tacit […]
Your Business: It’s PEOPLE!
Throughout my long and fascinating business career, it’s become a shop-worn organizational truism that “people are our most important asset.” Sure, that makes those of us hearing it — who (needless to say) are ourselves people — feel good. But most companies have never fully acted as if they took this cliché too seriously. Who […]
The Power of Purpose
In my recent study of corporate purpose for The Conference Board (TCB), I conclude that, “Purpose is a key element in the corporate narrative—the story a company continually tells to its various constituencies [i.e., stakeholders]. It is, in short, why the company exists. While different organizations have varying ideas of what constitutes Purpose, The Conference […]
Introducing Knowledge Resources Management (KRM)
In November 2021 I had the honor and pleasure of addressing the annual KM World conference — a group I had not spoken with in more than two decades. The first part of my talk focused on the ROI of knowledge, which I explore at great length in my latest book The Value of Knowledge […]
The Hierarchy of Intention
I’ve been working with a client on the issue of increasing engagement and motivation among knowledge workers. In so doing, I’ve been reconsidering intention — what motivates us, as individuals, to do things — and how does that translate to how we behave in groups and organizations? The masons and the cathedral I love the parable of […]
Knowledge: To Have and Have Not
The value of knowledge was in the news again this week. Not my book by that name — but (even better) the thing itself. The world’s knowledge haves and have-nots A heroic and near-miraculous push has been made to get Covid vaccines designed, produced, and delivered within one year of the realization that we were in […]
The Speed of Knowledge
When I speak with student groups, which I do as often as possible, I count it as an extra-successful engagement when I’m asked a question I haven’t thought of — and even more so if it’s one for which I need to really think through my answer. The other evening I Zoomed with the students […]
The Year the Earth Stood Still
“Citizens of earth, we come in peace” Any fan of 1950s sci-fi movies will recognize these immortal words as coming from the alien invader in the pioneering 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still. Spoken in perfect English by a well-mannered, handsome alien, these words have become used to the point of cliché in […]