Posted by Rob on December 17, 2001 at 10:49:54:

In Reply to: Is knowledge management coming down kind of crisis? Some numbers to think (and talk) over... posted by Riva Gianluca on December 17, 2001 at 09:23:06:

I agree that commercial KM would probably be fading into reality by now. Persons such as myself have been maintaining, for a number of years already, and in this forum, that KM is not a software program one implement in an organization. To have effect, it requires a lifestyle change. It is reconstructive surgery at worst.

Technology tends to go through S-curves within 5-6 years, as you have very accurately noted. If commercial KM is regarded as mere computer technology, then what will happen will happen. It is not so special, in that regard, to outlive other, better technologies.

We have to ask the question why so many organizations were prepared to spend billions of dollars on so-called KM solutions, but yet were unable to change their lifestyles?

KM is also about thinking, and organizations who outsource their thinking, as in not being able to learn for themselves what KM could and should be to them, will probably end up with another person's thinking and agenda.

Most of us are aware that if we were given half a million dollars our lives, and lifestyles, would probably be different. Why can people in organizations, with millions of dollars of resources, not get it right? Where does the root cause of said flu really lie? Is it in the technology? Perhaps the mental technology, but not the computer technology. There is no substitute for thinking. Thinking is hard work, but many prefer being busy with the next wave of technology for whatever good reasons, instead of applying their organizational mind to alter their lifestyles and their joint futures.

If all one is trying to do is to make the symptoms of a flu disappear, then it makes perfect sense to start meddling in chemical (technological and process) cocktails.

In conclusion, I think KM is about adapting to change, and thus far most organizations who have flocked to the KM lighthouse have landed on heavy-duty rocks of reality. Why? Why did they flock? Why did they crash? Why do they need to assert blame?

IT and business alignment (integration management) will never go away. Organizations need to be able to leverage costly infrastructures within a holistic strategic architecture in order to benefit into the future, and perhaps give themselves strategic options in the process, for when the going gets tough.

Acquiring a costly KM architecture (hardware, software, and business processes), without integrating it into the moral fiber of an organization merely adds to the infrastructure-management overheads.

If managers, who were interviewed in these articles, wanted to blame anyone or any technology, they should blame their own lack of knowledge and foresight regarding organizational life and technologies.

Let's ask the right questions, and perhaps we'll start receiving the correct answers. It does not matter if an organization is happy/unhappy with their KM investment. One of the questions to answer is why they acquired said "solution" and what did they DESIGN to get out of it over time. Why did the design fail?

Five years is not long enough within a large organization to decide whether or not an investment has paid off. Future, in organizational terms, refers to 10 years plus.

Although I am tempted to elucidate on this matter, the point refers to the realtionship between organizations and KM, and I would thus end off here for now.

Regards,

Rob

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Follow Ups:

• You're perfectly right... Riva Gianluca 09:23:09 12/18/01 (4)
  • Re: You're perfectly right... Rob 12:33:15 12/18/01 (3)
    • That's exciting! Riva Gianluca 11:03:27 12/20/01 (2)
      • Re: That's exciting! Rob 15:31:56 12/20/01 (1)
        • Good luck Riva Gianluca 13:11:11 12/22/01 (0)
• You're perfectly right... Riva Gianluca 09:22:18 12/18/01 (0)

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