On the 22nd June I attended a presentation by Professor Constantin Bratianu at the Polytechnic University on Knowledge Dynamics, a metaphor of energy as managing knowledge. The main thing that struck me was this slide (photo by Prof. Eric Tsui)!

I was challenged recently by someome who said that KM is all theoretical and academic, and not very practical. I had to admit that this, unfortunately, is quite true . . .  if you hold a traditional view of how organisations work. To understand the importance of KM, we have to break down our understanding and learn to see things in a different way.

I spend some time volunteering at Crossroads Foundations which is housed in the old Perowne Barracks near Gold Coast in Tuen Mun, former home to the Brigade of Gurkhas. One of my recent tasks was to repaint the guard house at the entrance of the barracks. It is a round structure with the armoury in the middle. The picture shows the entrance to the armoury which opens to the office and the front gate. I wondered  why the only way to get access to the weapons is facing the outside world and not the soldiers within to access it quickly in case of attack? One possible answer I could think of is . . .

After the introduction to KMP by KF Cheng, the event moved to the discussion panel section. The panel discussions were held, The first with panelist who have held, or are holding jobs with a KM title. This panel concentrated on KM jobs, their requirements and what was being looked for.

One of the most important things I have learned when I did my MSc in KM was the Cynefin Framwork (It's pronounced "knevin", by the way, like Kevin with an "n" stuck in it) developed by David Snowden and first presented in an HBR article. In it's simplest form, it stated that a system can be in one of 5 domains: Obvious (previously called simple), Complicated, Complex, Chaotic, or Disordered. Identifying which domain a system or situation is located can help to understand how to deal with that system. Obvious systems have a predictable effect of a give cause. Complicated systems have a longer chain, or even a black box bteween the cause and effect. For Complex system, however, the effect may be determined after it has occurred and thus is not predictable. Chaotic systems are where the effects cannot be linked to a specific cause. The final domain, which is often overlooked, is Disorder, where one cannot determine which domain a system is in.

A potential client contacted me for offering “an appreciation workshop” to their staff at all levels.

My recent sharing with a group of experienced trainers about the concept of 

The first blog I created I called "No Ledge" (geddit, know - ledge). It was an internal company blog to promote KM and share some of the things I was working on. It was called "No Ledge" since I had been contemplating (read hesitating) to start blogging but didn't quite know what to write about. I read a numbers of blogs and newsfeeds, so I know what a blog should "look like", but I was not ready to take the leap and blog myself.