Nick Milton

Do you pass knowledge forward, as in a relay race, or do you pass it backward, as in a rugby match?  The metaphor of a relay race is often used in Knowledge Management. Knowledge is seen as a baton that is p […]

Here are ten things a KM Champion needs to understand in order to do their job well.Image from wikimedia commonsThe role of KM Champion within a business unit or department can be an important one. The KM Champion […]

 There are 4 main stakeholder groupings for internal-facing Knowledge Management, and you need to create value propositions for each of the 4.  Implementing Knowledge Management is a change process; changing hea […]

You need a strategy if your KM introduction and deployment is to be successful. Here are 10 reasons why.Implementing (or Introducing) Knowledge Management without a strategy is a risky endeavour. As Sun Tzu is […]

What would it be like if organisations treated their money the way they treat their knowledge?Hands counting $100 bills, by Hloom Templates on Flickr This is a simple thought experiment, which you can use with […]

Sir Winston Churchill, the famous politician, used a 4-question Knowledge Audit to analyse the knowledge flow when things went wrong.Image from wikimedia commonsSir Winston Churchill hated being surprised, […]

If it is true that 85% of KM initiatives have no stated objective, then its no surprise they so often fail. Image from wikimedia commons In an unpublished 2011 presentation, now unfortunately no longer on the […]

Is the best approach to setting up and selecting Communities of Practice a managed one, or an unmanaged one?There has always been a polarity of views between those who see Communities of Practice as something that […]

Best Practices are part of Knowledge Management, but sometimes misused. Here (from the archives) is an example of how they work in practice. Picture originally from hereThere is a lot of pushback in the KM world […]

The demographics of your organisation determine the distribution of knowledge, and therefore the details of the Knowledge Management Framework you need to deployHere’s another factor that can affect the way you […]

You need a strategy if your KM implementation is to be successful. Here are 8 reasons why.Implementing Knowledge Management without a strategy is a risky endeavour. As Sun Tzu is reputed to have said said, in […]

Most of us are familiar with the SECI model from Nonaka and Takeuchi, but sometimes forget that C stands for Combination, not Collection.Image from wikimedia commonsThe Nonaka and Takeuchi SECI model for knowledge […]

 It is possible for the members of a Community of Practice to lose trust in the community as an effective support mechanism. Here’s one story of how that happened.Knowledge sharing requires trust, and this is as […]

Where is the best place for Knowledge Management in an organisation?This is a common question in the early stages of a Knowledge Management implementation program.It also sometimes arises later on in the journey, […]

Described in a Harvard Business School article from 2016, here is the pledge that WD40 staff take to commit to organisational-wide sharing and learning. This is the Learning Manic Pledge; part of WD40’s “tribal […]

Don’t just run your community meetings as presentations; instead engage in real multi-way dialogue around important questions.Brown bag lunch, by Gloria, on Flickr I have blogged several times about Push and […]

How can communities of practice add value? Let me count the ways.Image from wikimedia commonsHere’s a list we made of 30 different mechanisms by which a community of practice can add value to an organisation.No […]

“My knowledge is unique” is another challenge you meet on your KM journey. How do you respond?image from wikimedia commonsThis observation was shared with me by a knowledge manager in the UK health service, who […]

There are three dangerous words you hear a lot when introducing KM. Here’s how to respond to them.Image from publicdomainpictures.net”We are different”Those are the three words, and they usually appear in this […]

As long as Knowledge Management involves face-to-face or virtual interactions between teams and individuals, Facilitation has a key role to play.Good facilitation is essential to effective face-to-face KM […]