David Gurteen has said
We need to stop moaning about the fact that so many people “do not get KM” and start having conversations with them and communicating with them what it is really about!
My experiences on this are varied. Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend. We haven’t been in contact for many years and so this was just our second meeting. At the end Andrew said “I’m finally starting to understand what you’re about”. He couldn’t understand “knowledge management is …” because our experiences are so different. As Andrew spoke about his work situation I put forward little pieces here and there on how knowledge management and personal coaching could help. My view on the situation helped him understand what was going on and what I can offer.
But as I said, my experiences are varied. It was once suggested to me that the people who need knowledge management are either The enlightened or the desperate. In neither of these cases do you really have to explain what knowledge management is about. The enlightened already know and the desperate don’t care.
Everybody else is the challenge. My experience has been a lot of “Yes but…”. I’ve even heard “That’s common sense. Everybody should be doing it”, followed immediately by a list of reasons why not to. It’s hard to play a different game when others stick to the old rules.
These are the challenging situations where we must bring all our communication skills to the fore. I still struggle with them and so can’t offer any great pearls of wisdom other than this. Treat your listener with respect, otherwise they won’t listen and you won’t have a chance to explain knowledge management.
Listening with respect also means acknowledging that knowledge management may not be the right thing for them at that time.
I went searching for something that may help me in the future. A simple definition of knowledge management. Now, before another war breaks out over terminology and the right-or-wrong definition, I went looking because I realised that I had a strong definition of knowledge but had never questioned the definition of management. Mirriam Webster says managing is firstly “to handle or direct with a degree of skill”.
That works for me because it doesn’t have a strict business focus. And maybe I can add it to my conversations about knowledge management.
One final point. Do you ever find yourself starting an explanation of knowledge management with the phrase, “Knowledge management means many things to many people. It’s difficult to explain but here goes…”. If you don’t have the confidence, neither will your listeners — if they are still listening.