This website covers knowledge management, personal effectiveness, theory of constraints, amongst other topics. Opinions expressed here are strictly those of the owner, Jack Vinson, and those of the commenters.

Fioritto on PKM (plus Lilia)

I've been attempting to catchup on my aggregated backlog and came across a recent post by Michael Fioritto on where he would like to go with personal knowledge management.

In broad terms here's what I am trying to accomplish:

  • Store information both locally and online
  • Share information with others
  • Annotate information
  • Discover information
  • Collaborate with others
  • Find all of the stuff I have collected

And Lilia continues her thinking about PKM, saying that it is not about methods and tools, but about attitude change.

Coming down to personal KM:

  • Taking responsibility for one's own life (or work :) is a main challenge for personal KM: it's both rewarding and risky (more).
  • It's not about methods and tools, but about attitude change. Attitude change is difficult and there are many ethical issues around (more).

Note that Fioritto doesn't talk specifically about tools, but what he wants to be able to do. Of course, many of these things are tied up in the tools that let you do this. Lilia extends this to get at the heart of personal KM (personal effectiveness), which is all about how I operate in the world.

There are many ways to be effective, but each person must find their own way. For organizations that might be interested in promoting PKM or "time management," this may mean allowing more flexibility than the traditional organization is ready to do.

One of the important aspects of this area is the need to continually reflect on how I am doing. This can be anything from Covey's "Sharpening the Saw" to the 12-step world's "continued to take personal inventory." This isn't advocating constant change, but rather constant checks that my behavior is in line with my personal goals and direction.

When your goals are different than your leader's

Props to Judith at Weblogs, Inc