14 Koans of Knowledge Management

1. We arrived at the "Age of Knowledge" at exactly the same moment we reached the end of certainty. This might not be a coincidence.
2. To capture, compress and convey knowledge, why do we waste time writing software? Why aren't we writing poetry?
3. If work is more collaborative than ever, why do I have to work so much harder and learn so many new things myself?
4. We think knowledge workers use their heads more than their hands, but we ''know" by doing more than by thinking.
5. If we share knowledge because of its value, sometimes we need to steward that value by not sharing.
6. We think technology makes it possible, but it's all about tools.
7. Knowledge is personal. Knowledge is social.
8. Knowledge does not accrete in the mind. It is apprehended by the heart.
9. We are drowning in information and knowledge, but starved for meaning and actionable belief.
10. If people really act, not on what they know, but what they believe, why aren't we belief managers?
11. KM relies on trust, but trust is inevitably unreliable.
12. KM relies on leadership, but ultimately leadership has to emerge from everyone.
13. KM doesn't work, but the reasons KM doesn't work have nothing to do with KM.
14. KM doesn't work. But it has to.

Adapted from a talk at the Southern California KM Cluster, 2003