Nick Milton

The two questions in this little conversation are evidence of a broken KM culture or system.It’s the sort of conversation most of us have had at some time on our lives. In this conversation we can see evidence of […]

 There is a real problem with the concept of tacit and explicit knowledge, namely the level of disagreement about what these terms really mean. Until this is fixed, these terms may be unusable.I blogged about […]

 I read this story on Linked-In with real enjoyment, and have the author’s permission to share it with you. This is the image Tabarak used to illustrate her storyIt’s an inspiring story of how anyone in an o […]

 A new study published in Nature shows that hybrid or remote working leads to a loss of collaboration across the organisational siloes, which is likely to inhibit the flow of knowledge.The study is called “The […]

The US Army Training and Doctrine command, who run KM for the US Army, have released the first part of their KM documentary (I shared the introduction here).There is some great stuff here. “All of the […]

If we view the flow of knowledge within an organisation as a Market, then we need to address the issues of supply and demand of knowledge within that market.One way to look at the flow of knowledge within an […]

Middle management can form an almost impenetrable layer to knowledge management in many organisations.Image from wikimedia commonsThe two main stakeholder groupings for KM are the senior managers and the knowledge […]

I have long argued that the human brain is a poor long term store for Knowledge. Here are the three cases where it’s the best store there is.Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve, from wikimedia commonsThe poor human brain […]

Here’s another post from the archives (corrected for some inaccuracy) which makes the case that much of the confusion around Knowledge Management may be due to an uncharacteristic deficiency in the English […]

“Knowledge management is a powerful force multiplier, that creates shared understanding, and informs and enhances the decision making process… It is not a function performed by a few people in HQ; it’s part of […]

What is your organisation’s learning rate?  What could KM increase this to? And what’s the value of the difference?Over time, with any product or process, the costs come down. The rate of decrease is known as the […]

Still the confusion remains between Information Management/Enterprise Content Management and Knowledge Management. Here are 5 points of difference and 1 point of overlap. In fact these pictures only have one […]

 If you wish to introduce blogs as a knowledge management tool, it is tempting to ask senior managers to take the lead and set an example.  Here’s why that may be the wrong thing to do (and some suggestions a […]

We often approach leaders and try to sell KM on the benefits it will deliver to their staff, forgetting that leaders are knowledge workers too.The Manager by MaxTortt on FlickrIf we think of knowledge workers are […]

If Knowledge Management is like a supply chain for knowledge, then the Knowledge Manager is the Supply Chain manager. Image from wikipedia japanI have blogged many times about the analogy between Knowledge […]

There are 5 generic steps to go through when introducing a Knowledge management culture. These are as follows.Define the culture you want to develop. Don’t define it in woolly terms – “we want a knowledge sharing […]

Re-use, review and improve are the three basic components of any Knowledge Management cycleStart a piece of work by re-using knowledge that already exists, in preference to starting from a blank sheet, or […]

This letter to senior management from the KM team represents the deal you need to strike with the leaders in your organisation. This is a post which I reprise very 5 years or so, given its importance. It’s even […]

There are many cultural barriers to Knowledge Management implementation, and all of them can be brokenBreak Through by Joel Bombardier on FlickrThere are several cultural elements that can stand in the way of […]

What’s the most effective delivery structure for KM? We discuss this below.We recommend six components to the knowledge management delivery and reporting structure, shown here.1. In the centre is the Chief […]