Knowledge Jolt with Jack

continuous improvement, knowledge management, personal effectiveness, theory of constraints

A lot of people struggle to identify the “real” problem they have. Some thoughts about the typical challenges with problem statements and ways around them.

Feb 10
Feb 10 Insight - Seeing What Others Don't

book review, continuous improvement, knowledge management, innovation

Gary Klein’s 2013 book “Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights” is a good read, as I’ve found with his his other books. He likes to explore a topic from stories and search for corroborating links to draw together new conclusions. And as this book is about insight, the overall story of this book describes his journey of discovery as he delved into the topic. I particularly liked his discussion of the challenges that organizations face in gaining and using insights.

Jul 12
Jul 12 Carving instead of Imposing

business, culture, knowledge management

“When Your Team’s Path Forward Isn’t Clear, Carve It” by Adam Kahane takes the idea of “carving” a solution through its paces. I like this way of framing the approach, even if the blog post doesn’t provide specifics (leave that for his book).

Mar 14
Mar 14 RIP Stephen Hawking

knowledge management, personal effectiveness

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Stephen Hawking, who died 14 March 2018.

Feb 5
Feb 5 Are best practices still applicable

knowledge management, theory of constraints

Best practices often get a bad name. But if they ossify into "the way we do things around here" then it becomes very difficult to install new ways of thinking operating and working. Even with all the cool tehcnology we have at our fingertips, the way we work can block many things.

Dec 6
Dec 6 Wirearchy - from John Husband

culture, personal effectiveness, knowledge management

Oct 5
Oct 5 More about trust and collaboration

community, culture, knowledge management

Trust has always come up for me in knowledge management conversations, but as this blog from Social in silico post discusses, it is really the center of being able to work together successfully.

Mar 29
Mar 29 KM only works if we are looking

So, on top of all the other challenges with developing cool technologies and getting people interested, we must consider whether people believe that they have problem you think you are solving.

Nov 23
Nov 23 Search or Find or Recall?

Another tool to help knowledge workers get to what they need quickly. I've been trying Atlas Recall over the last month. The general idea is that it sits on your computer (Mac currently, Windows soon) and keeps track of everything you see. And then if you are trying to recall "where did I see X", you can ask Atlas Recall for help. It does exactly that: will show you what you have seen, whether it was on the web or in a chat session or in documents you've been writing / reading.

Nov 21
Nov 21 Working according to Boston Globe

business, knowledge management

Sunday's Boston Globe Magazine section had a feature on "best places to work" and many smaller articles on the modern workplace. I thought a few of these had bearing on knowledge workers.

Nov 7
Nov 7 Do we really waste 20% of our time searching for stuff?

I've been involved in knowledge management for nearly 20 years. And over most of that time, one of the most familiar ideas is that we spend 20% of their time searching for stuff. I wonder. Is this 20% of time truly wasted?

May 5
May 5 Clarity over Coffee, what?

personal effectiveness, knowledge management

If you find yourself dragging, and the coffee is merely a delicious distraction, maybe the problem is a little more interesting: lack of clarity!

Oct 7
Oct 7 Can you use goals and objectives to reach greatness?

business, culture, knowledge management

An interesting talk from AI researcher Kenneth Stanley on his counter-intuitive discovery/realization that formal goals/objectives can block creativity.

Oct 2
Oct 2 Collaboration and remote teams

Mike Gilronan, a Boston local knowledge management friend, has a nice piece on collaboration in the Boston Business Journal, "Five ways to improve collaboration among remote teams."

Sep 23
Sep 23 Reimagining Lean's Waste into Knowledge Work

project management, theory of constraints, knowledge management

In 7 Wastes That Impact Business Growth Jon Terry, one of the founders of LeanKit, presents a nice way of thinking through the Lean / Toyota Production System idea of waste and how one my think about it in the context of business growth in any type of organization.

May 19
May 19 Knowledge doesn't equal Understanding

The interesting comment that just because you know something, it doesn't mean you understand it.

Jan 19
Jan 19 12 Principles of Knowledge Leadership from Arthur Shelley

Arthur Shelley posted his 12 Principles of Knowledge Leadership to a KM mailing list - turns out he wrote this a year and a half ago. Good reference material! He even channels Gandhi.

Sep 29
Sep 29 KM Challenge: Capturing Institutional Memory and Knowledge

There is an InnoCentive challenge to describe a KM approach to "Capturing Institutional Memory and Knowledge." Open through 14 October 2014.

Sep 25
Sep 25 Business Exposed