Posted by Peter Wang on November 13, 1998 at 17:46:55:

In Reply to: Tales from a KM consultant posted by Denham on November 12, 1998 at 06:26:02:

Denham,

Thanks for both your rapid as well as informative response. My own theory on the Role of a Consultant is the follwing:

1) I believe a critical aspect of its success, is the strong support of the CEO/Upper Management. Most of the subordinates look for leadership from above, and also to see if leadership even cares about this type of company change.

2) I believe that the project has to be specific, small, and definable. The obvious is that it has to focus on the Business Process or the Value Chain, or why bother having knowledge sharing in the first place. But I feel that projects are doomed to fail, because often times theyr'e too broad.

3) I agree with you is the Culture. I think we have to focus on a reward system, the fear of people contributing to the knowledge system for fear of the "expert" label, and just the desire to share information and not hoard it. I also believe that the success depends on who is contributing this type of information. Information from top down seems quite logical, but sometimes these people aren't very motivated to share the information, or don't have any incentive to do so. But also input from bottom up seems quite attractive, because these are our front line people. They are closest to the customer,and in the trenches, and should have some valuable knowledge to share. However,I believe both of these approaches have their fair share of negatives.

Anyway, as you can tell, my SHARING is based mostly from theory, articles I've read, and just running my own company. Please evaluate my statements and see if I'm that far off. I would highly value you're 5 years worth of experience.

Wang

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