Posted by Jeffery Bridges on February 02, 2003 at 03:56:57:

After reading up the hype about Stephen (Steve) Denning's book, I read his book about the pitch for using stories for doing knowledge management. He equates knowledge management to knowledge sharing and suggests story-telling as the be all and end all for both.

I found his book somewhat interesting, but found nothing new or informative in it that can help me do anything about knowledge management in our organization. For ages, managers have used stories, myths, and legends as tools for various purposes. The informative and manipulative role of such stories is well documented in literatures in the areas of business, management, and, communications. Why would someone pitch story telling as either new or as 'innovative' seems mind-boggling to say the least. Why would someone equate it with knowledge management suggests one's complete and absolute ignorance about both strategy as well as technology for organizations of the modern economy.

It seems like Denning had been sleeping under a rock while the Internet and Web happened, while the fundamental models of business as well as strategy were shaken. Apparently, his book was the staple read for the story-spinners at companies like Enron, World-Com, and Global Crossing, and their wheeling dealing stock analysts. Their stories did seem interesting for a while, but led their believers to bankruptcy courts and to the cleaners. Beware the storytellers who spin stories without having a clue about sophistication or substance of strategy or technology. They should be the last persons on this earth, if at all, to be believed on anything about knowledge or about management as they apply to technology or strategy.

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Follow Ups:

• Re: Beware the "Story Teller" About Knowledge Management Keith Patrick 05:28:12 02/05/03 (2)
  • Re: Beware the Story Tellers Jeffery Bridges 10:12:17 02/05/03 (1)
    • Re: Beware the Story Tellers Simon Tye 08:45:15 06/27/03 (0)
• Re: Beware the "Story Teller" About Knowledge Management Jack Vinson 10:19:14 02/03/03 (1)
  • Re: Beware the "Story Teller" About Knowledge Management Barry 10:08:29 02/08/03 (0)
• Re: Beware the "Story Teller" About Knowledge Management Josefine 07:25:25 02/03/03 (0)

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