Posted by Reilly Atkinson on August 08, 2002 at 15:30:34:

In Reply to: KM in an small VC-funded R&D nano tech company posted by Karen Jacke on August 04, 2002 at 19:59:36:

Karen -- The most pragmatic suggestion, IMO, is to be able to answer: Why are you doing this KM stuff? Who benefits, what improves, what are the material and psychic and organizational costs? Who, if any, will try to take you or the project down? If you understand these basic issues, you will be well ahead of the game -- the answers will have many clues as to how to proceed. One reason that is true, is that to get the basic answers you must talk to people. In fact, you will be doing the often undervalued task of requirements analysis. (Most everyone agrees with this approach -- it's just a metter of degree, and emphasis, and, these days, language.)

Although it might sound odd, at least, I suggest that PhD scientists know a great deal about KM, more than most non-scientist practioners of KM. Why? Because we are trained in KM from beginning physics or chemistry or ....; science is nothing more than KM in practice. We create, share, maintain, and update scientific knowledge, and we typically do so in what are now called communities of practice -- like physics departments, may R&D groups, and so forth.

So, it seems to me, that the best approach is to work with the scientists, on their terms and with their language, to understand what your version of KM can do for them. Do you need to go past traditional seminars, informal lunch talks, and other standard forms of keeping everyone on the same page? As I know only too well, PhDs can be quite snobby, and scientists often distrust non-scientists. We are talking very different cultures here, hence some possibly serious political problems.

Your KM venture can also be looked at as a Marketing and Sales one. The key is: know your market, and tailor your products/services to your market. Do lots of followup "calls", do handholding as needed.

Do not try to "teach" them about knowledge, nor about how to work with knowledge and with each other. Knowledge is their job, and has been throughout their prior scientific training and experience. Rather, get their take, and learn their language so that you can translate "business-KM-speak" into "scientific-KM-speak" and vica versa. If you can define problems together you will be virtually home free. (If you formulate the problems "correctly" then the answers will tend to be self-evident.)

(I apologize if I am restating the obvious)

Good luck,
Reilly Atkinson

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