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KM Edge: Where the best in Knowledge Management come together

APQC knowledge management km best practices

Why Knowledge Mapping WorksNovember 25

Lately, I've spent a fair amount of time waxing nostalgic about "past" knowledge management techniques and methods, mentioning what seems to be a resurgence of interest in them. Recent work with a client has caused me to bring an additional old KM standard to the forefront. So here's another "blast from the past" (don't worry, I won't ever go so far back as to break out the polyester suits and platform shoes). What is this technique dusted off from the KM toolkit? It's knowledge mapping.

I presume that, if you're reading this, you're already familiar with the technique. However, if you're not, a quick Internet search will provide you with lots of background on this simple but powerful tool. Recently, a team from APQC assisted a group from the supply chain function of a large manufacturer, one that has both Six Sigma and Lean philosophies in place. In spite of that, we were asked to help the organization--using knowledge mapping--since experience indicated that there was going to be a show-stopping problem in the very near future.

As with most large, complex organizations, this was not a simple problem, and certainly not one with a simple fix. Previous attempt

Tough Economic Times and Your KM BudgetNovember 19

How are your knowledge management efforts affected by the current economic crisis? Are budgets being cut or refocused? What is the impact on your KM strategy and objectives for 2009? Join special guest facilitator APQC President Carla O'Dell for our next KM community conference call tomorrow, November 20, at 10:30 a.m. (central) to discuss how KM fares during tough economic times. The conversation will focus on how KM practitioners are dealing with belt-tightening and how they show value and protect their KM investments. Attendees should be prepared to answer anonymous polling questions.

What's the Deal with Lessons Learned?November 18

Back in July of this year, my colleague and mentor Jim Lee blogged on the topic, "In KM, What's Old Is New Again." In his post, he mentioned lessons learned and the fact that another mutual friend of ours once commented that "lessons learned" are frequently nothing more than "lessons captured." I was reminded of the topic again during a recent episode of "The Amazing Race" on CBS. I admit, I'm a huge fan of the show and watch it regularly every Sunday evening (after football, of course--I am, after all, from Texas). In one of the early episodes this season, one team lost a leg of the race because they hadn't read their instructions ("clues") carefully enough. They vowed that they would read each clue more carefully from then on in order to prevent that mistake from happening again and to improve their odds of winning the race (first prize is $1 million). However, in the very next episode, they repeated their mistake--not reading the clue thoroughly--and lost to another team again. And they continued to repeat that pattern right up until they were eliminated in the episode that aired on November 9.

It is brought home to me every time I take a long flight (which is far more often then anyone would like) how very few people read books and how very, very few read serious books. Without descending too far into anecdotage, I can easily remember taking flights where almost everyone was reading something or other, often serious fiction or a business book, not something about clever animals or eight bullets to change your firm. A few months ago I flew to Malaysia, and one fellow sitting across from me just stared straight ahead almost the whole flight--not even sleeping or meditating. I wanted to ask him what inspired such stupendous lassitude, but I realized I didn't really want to hear his answer.

In any case, I read all the time. I have done so since I was a mere lad, and I don't see how anyone can hope to offer useful help to any organization without doing so. It's one of the best investments in yourself you can make. Not the only one, but one of the most sustaining.

In this mode, let me alert you to three new books that have a real impact on many aspects of working with knowledge and learning. Books like this don't come along too often, and when

What to Ask When Hiring a CKONovember 5

One of our members is about to hire a chief knowledge officer (CKO) and asked APQC to supply some interview questions to put to the candidates. Of course, we have no shortage of suggestions, but we decided to solicit input from our KM Edge group on LinkedIn, as well. Below are just three of APQC's suggestions as well as excerpts from the responses provided by members of our LinkedIn community. If you have additional suggestions, we would love to hear them--please post your thoughts in the comments section at the end of this entry.

APQC's Interview Questions

"What can we tell you about our organization relevant to knowledge?"
"How would you go about discovering where the biggest opportunities lie for KM to make a difference to our organization?"
"What do you anticipate our biggest issues to be and how would you address them?"