Curiouser and Curiouser! on xkm http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic xkm Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Can you help me? Wed, 08 Jan 2003 13:45:42 +0000 <P>Over the last several months I've been striving to develop a message about the problems and opportunities that I perceive for knowledge management.&nbsp; The results of this activity are an evolving philosophy and the outlines of a methodology (which I am calling eXteme Knowledge Management).</P> <P>The journey is far from over, and yet I have already met a lot of great people who have had a profound influence on my thinking and helped me to many valuable insights.&nbsp; The list is too great to mention but many of you are in my blog roll.&nbsp; In many ways what I am doing has been successful, but in other, important, ways it has not.</P> <P>I have failed outright&nbsp;in making sufficient contacts in <EM>the trenches</EM>.&nbsp; I haven't talked to enough people who are buyers, users and ultimately either victims or champions of KM.&nbsp; In short I haven't spoken to the people the message is <STRONG>for</STRONG>...&nbsp;&nbsp; What this means is that to a great extent this message is growing in a vacuum and that's not what I want.</P> <P>And so I turn to you, gentle reader.&nbsp; Can you help me?</P> <P>I would be really grateful if anyone can give me names of contacts within companies that they think would wish to talk about Knowledge Management.&nbsp; Better yet, if you felt confident to introduce me to people who you think might fit the bill.</P> <P>Before I go any further though, let me say that I am <STRONG>absolutely&nbsp;not</STRONG> looking for an opportunity to make a sales pitch.&nbsp; I want the opportunity to listen to people and try and understand their pain a little better.&nbsp; I want to discuss the message and get some feedback.&nbsp; Do the ideas I am promoting make sense?&nbsp; And, if not, can they be made to?&nbsp; How should they be applied?&nbsp; What are the concerns?</P> <P>I'm looking for an opportunity to converse, not to put on the hard sell.</P> <P>My primary focus is on project delivery (management, visibility, collaboration,...) and I would like to aim at:</P> <UL> <LI>Pharmaceuticals</LI> <LI>Research & Development</LI> <LI>Software Houses</LI></UL> <P>So, please, if you can help me, do get in touch.</P> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001050.html Purpose is the No.1 P Fri, 31 Jan 2003 10:41:32 +0000 <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P>Project Management's first P (there are eight): Purpose. </P> <P><A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0107808/2003/01/29.html#a699">C and C</A> forwarded <A href="http://weblog.halmacomber.com/#90168412">this is nice piece</A> on Project Management, structured into eight 'P's: Purpose, Promise, Process, People, Planning, Practice, Performance, and Place. Eight 'p's are a little daunting so&nbsp;I might&nbsp;jot two or&nbsp;three onto an index card&nbsp;for my cubicle. </P> <P>Purpose is a good one to review on a weekly basis (for me at least, as I can wander into tangentia). <EM><STRONG>Why are we doing the project?</STRONG></EM> It would be interesting to track the answer from week to week. As the author says, "Purpose changes or evolves through time. We learn, conditions change, clients' views change."</P> <P>This is something I hadn't considered before:&nbsp;<EM>expect</EM> the first P (Purpose) to change with time. <EM>Allow </EM>it to change. If purpose remains constant, fine. If not, at least you won't be&nbsp;blindsided. Expecting purpose to change&nbsp;also motivates you to consistently&nbsp;revisit the first p. Revisiting p1 naturally reinforces p5: planning,&nbsp;but that's&nbsp;topic for another time.</P> <P>[<A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0111198/">Blogfish</A>]</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Alison picks up on the 8P's and makes a good interwingly point.</P> <P>Purpose is <STRONG>the</STRONG> key aspect of any project.&nbsp; Without a clearly defined purpose what's the point?</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><FONT face="Courier, Monospace">"Hey you guys! We delivered it in time and under budget!"</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Courier, Monospace">"Great.&nbsp;Now what the hell is it and why would I want one?"</FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Most worthwhile projects (and nearly all worthless ones) take quite a while to deliver, during which time change happens.&nbsp; Goals become outdated, or just plain wrong.&nbsp; You have to keep raising the periscope and checking that the vision is still on target.</P> <P>This is quite a discipline.&nbsp; Once people get up a head of steam, they don't want to have to make anything other than minor course corrections.</P> <P>It's one of the reasons why I like the doctrine of eXtreme Programming so much.&nbsp; That huge multi-year project gets turned into hundreds of smaller projects.&nbsp; This creates natural breaks where people can come up for air and check back with the customer that they are still doing something good.</P> <P>eXtreme Knowledge Management should be like this too.&nbsp; Driven by the principle that people ask questions (and not just at the beginning):</P> <UL> <LI>"Is this still&nbsp;valuable knowledge?"</LI> <LI>"How does it all fit together?"</LI> <LI>"When will I use it?"</LI> <LI>"How will I find it?"</LI> <LI>"Are there new pieces to the puzzle?"</LI></UL> <P>For KM though there is something else, since,&nbsp; KM is not an end, but a means to an end.</P> <P>The purposes of a KM project, and this is perhaps a cause of the failure of some KM projects, should be closely aligned with the purposes of the organisation at large.</P> <P>This means that people serving on KM projects really need to be keeping their radar at maximum and checking that the goals of the project still align with, and support,&nbsp;the goals of the organisation.</P> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001121.html