My thoughts on "What is Knowledge Management?"

Just what is KM?

You ask 10 different persons that question & chances are you will get 10 different answers. The irony here, of course, is that all of them are probably right.

In my role as a Masters student (previously), I grappled with this question constantly. I figured if I was aiming to become an expert at KM, I should at the very least understand what is it about. I might as well have asked myself how this world came about. For every person I spoke to had a different interpretation/definition of KM.

Eventually, I realised that sometimes it is not so much how you define it but rather what you hope to achieve from it. I guess it's kind of like what Shakespeare said about a rose by any other name smelling just as sweet.

As a practitioner (now), I've come to realise that whatever you call it (KM, Balanced Score Card, Learning Organisation... yada yada yada), it is all about helping the organisation achieve it's goals. Depending on the organisation - whether it is for profit, not for profit, on the buy side, on the sell side - these goals can vary.

So why Gonzo?

I figured since this topic was so subjective (and might even seem bizzare!)... the "gonzo" descriptor fits what I do nicely. Like Hunter S. Thompson, who had enmashed himself into his articles, I find that it is quite difficult for me to remove myself from the subject on which I am broaching. This is especially so if you consider that KM is ultimately about Culture (i.e. people).

I cannot emphazie this enough. For all the KM projects that I have been involved in, engaging the key stakholders is a crucial & fundamental criterion for success. Neglect this & you risk having them turn on you when you finally roll out your plans.

Still, how should knowledge managers define what we do? It's nice to talk about this in an informal environment away from the pressures (and realities!) of the workplace. Try pitching this to your CEO or Board of Directors & my guess is that you'll probably be hunting for a new job real soon!

Of all the definitions I've come across, I liked the one that was given to me by my previous lecturer, Kan Siew Ning, from my Masters course. He defined it as "Connecting people to people & connecting people to information in order to drive business results".

Being a pragmatic Singaporean, I'll have to say that that works for me.