Steve Barth | Reflexions

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

From Technologies to Tools

Think about the relationships we have to our communication and information tools, not just through our tools.

Have we gone too far distinguishing knowledge work from manual labor, so that we disconnect knowledge workers from the tools of their trade—and in doing so disrupt their sense of identity?

There is an affective connection between individuals and their tools that is vital to maintain both the productivity and the passion of knowledge work. But there is also a distinction between "tools" and "technologies" that is often missed in the modern workplace.

"Technologies" are systems imposed by the organization that often constrain, disempower and depersonalize knowledge work. "Tools" are extensions of our hands, as much as the hammers or knives of traditional work. They reinforce ownership, craftsmanship, stewardship and professional identity.

Read the article: The Difference between Tools and Technologies

NOTE: Preparing to relaunch my website, I'm designing a reprint template for my old articles. I believe if you want people to learn from any document longer than a few paragraphs, there should be a version that can be printed, read and annotated away from the computer (and recycled later). So I'm creating a template based on my article "Maintaining the integrity of design in a digital world: What is the role of real typographic design in knowledge work?" (still online only).

Please download the attached PDF and let me know what you think about both form and content. Thx.

Generation Diva… and Proud?

A new book, The Narcissism Epidemic, claims this emerging generation of American adults has the most disproportionate sense of self-worth in the history of civilization. Not healthy self-esteem, but the absurd expectations of attention, privilege and amnesty when people star in their own reality shows—or just in their own realities.

Almost 10% of 20-year-olds exhibit "narcissistic personality disorder" compared to 3% of Americans over 65. (OK, some of that is doubtlessly maturation.) One-third of university students believe, "If I show up to every class, I deserve at least a B."

"The flip side of all that confidence isn't prodigious success but antisocial behavior," notes Raina Kelley in a Newsweek review of the book by Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell. "I shudder to think what a monster I would have become in the modern child-rearing era. Gorged on a diet of grade inflation, constant praise and materialistic entitlement, I probably would have succumbed to a life of heedless self-indulgence."

The Folly of Rational KM

"In the past decades, knowledge management has made life easy for knowledge managers, having rationalized and idealized human behavior."

That's my favorite quote from Janine Swaak's 2005 paper, "Survival in the Knowledge Economy" in VINE: The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems.

Universal Remote

"We are inevitably moving towards the Mobile Society, where our mobile devices become the remote control of our daily lives." — Alan Moore, The Glittering Allure of the Mobile Society2008

Peggy Anne Salz uses this quote in her April eContent column about mobile handsets becoming ever more useful as our ubiquitous computing and communications companions. Then she explains the title concept from Mizuko Ito's 2005 Personal, Portable, Pedestrian. In Salz' words:

Ito and her colleagues outline the pivotal importance of the mobile phone based on the fact that it is

• personal (we customize and personalize mobile devices and consider them an extension of our personal identities),
• portable (even the Japanese name for mobile, keitai, which roughly translates to "something you carry with you," stresses the relation between the user and the device and not between the technology and its function), and
• pedestrian (because it is portable it's a perfect fit with life as it happens and with activities that require partial or sporadic attention).

Characters Welcome

"To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It's a way of life." Henri Cartier-Bresson

I want to see the natural trail the way Helen Levitt or Henri Cartier-Bresson saw the urban avenues of New York and Paris. I never look for a landscape or still-life. To me, every photo is a portrait trying to capture the character and characters of the neighborhood. When I am traveling, buildings and statues get this treatment. Last summer I shot Yosemite's Half Dome in the same last-light as I once took wedding portraits.

As a post-professional photographer, I don't want to be an elitist, especially while hiking. A leaf or lizard has as much nobility as an endangered pitcher plant or a bull elephant. And a backyard trail has as much wonder as Mt. Kenya or Machu Picchu. An 8oz river stone is as solid as a 5000ft massif.

Two Paths to Value Creation through KM

The Thai words for efficiency and effectiveness are sometimes used interchangeably. While working with a government bank, focusing on the difference was a useful way to explore complementary paths to value creation by pursuing both the mechanical and the organic approaches at the same time.

An entire workshop was designed around the two words, while the goal of “value creation” was set instead of “knowledge creation.” Using these concepts avoided direct mention of “knowledge management” and kept the terms of dialogue in the existing language of the client culture.

 Morning discussions were reinforced with afternoon field visits to village microfinance organizations supported by the bank, so that staff could address problems and opportunities in a new light.

Download Two Paths to Value Creation

Improving your Podcasts

I'm collecting tools, thoughts and resources on audio and video 'casting as a KM channel. Carson McComas at WorkHappy republished his "20 Ideas for an Excellent Podcast" because "the number of podcasts has gone up dramatically, unfortunately the quality has not."

Here is a condensation of his best tips (Carson's post discusses each):

• Podcasts should be short, but packed with value for your audience
• Chunk your material into marked segments
• Be organized and concise, but have fun and be real
• Maintain quality with best interviewing and production practices
• Post show notes on your blog
• Don't be scared to throw away an unsuccessful show