Contacted by a student seeking informational interview #metrics #call-for
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Hi all, "I came across your profile because I see that you have expertise in Knowledge Management. I work for the Department of State and I’m working on a KM project for my Harvard Business School leadership program. My team is tasked with developing ideas to modernize reporting systems and institutionalize KM both domestically and overseas. Would you be willing to speak with me about your experience in implementing KM practices? Thanks for considering this request!" I've agreed to speak with her about my areas of expertise, which include knowledge strategy, content development, resource description, employee experience and change management. I have less experiencing managing reporting systems and dashboards, so I agreed to reach out to this group to see if someone with expertise in implementing and managing reporting systems within the context of a KM program might be willing to speak with this student. |
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While I don't consider myself to be a religious person, I do like the old trope, "God helps those who help themselves." In this case, I have to wonder what work this student has done to educate themselves via the myriad freely available resources on the web. Also, it seems like they're trying to force-fit an odd nexus between modernizing reporting systems and institutionalizing KM "both domestically and overseas." Maybe I'm just growing weary of feeling like people want the short answer before they've done any background work on their own to find out what they can before asking for help from experts. Or maybe this student has in fact already done that work? If it was me, I'd be inclined to point them to this forum - which is freely accessible to anyone - and suggest that they do some surfing around the thousands of threads that are here - it's a real treasure trove of information on pretty much every conceiveable KM topic. Also, to Stan's website, which is another freely accessible trove of information on all things KM. -- Tom Short Consulting All of my previous SIKM Posts |
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Hamish Tacey
Hey Tom Maybe the issue is that finding a consolidated "final" list of all KM industry standards/documents/books/research etc. isn't easily found? I know myself it took me a while to connect to groups like this and even in these emails we often get linked to resources that are on various websites. The only reason I found these groups is paying for and attending conferences on KM, and I found those through linkedin and networking on linkedin and doing some google searched etc. Ironically, shouldn't we advocate for a centralised KM database/directory of all industry standardised and accepted resources? And if it exists, I also would like to know :) Like one website to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them? I understand this is the purpose of the SIKM group, but it's not for general non-industry professionals in my personal opinion. Just some thoughts... On Fri, 11 Nov 2022 at 18:59, Tom Short <tshortconsulting@...> wrote:
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Hamish - I do love the "one ring to rule them all" reference. Indexing a list like that sounds like a lot of work, tho - kind of a Kwikipedia-sized task.
Laura, the part of the request that you were asking for more input on:
Seems like an embedded function of an off the shelf enterprise KM system should provide canned and ad hoc reporting. In my organization, we're building our KBs now exclusively in ServiceNow, and it has some good reporting. I think the questions your Dept of
State / Harvard guy needs to ask is, "what and why are you needing reporting?" How does reporting tie to the enterprises' KPIs or OKRs (or whatever the State Dept is calling it these days)? Reporting can be so many things! Turning whatever reporting is available
into actionable information is another important element. How can that data be visualized and packaged for decision making.
Tom
From: main@SIKM.groups.io <main@SIKM.groups.io> on behalf of Hamish Tacey <hamish.tacey@...>
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2022 12:12 PM To: main@sikm.groups.io <main@sikm.groups.io> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [SIKM] Contacted by a student seeking informational interview #metrics #call-for Hey Tom
Maybe the issue is that finding a consolidated "final" list of all KM industry standards/documents/books/research etc. isn't easily found? I know myself it took me a while to connect to groups like this and even in these emails we often get linked to resources
that are on various websites. The only reason I found these groups is paying for and attending conferences on KM, and I found those through linkedin and networking on linkedin and doing some google searched etc.
Ironically, shouldn't we advocate for a centralised KM database/directory of all industry standardised and accepted resources? And if it exists, I also would like to know :)
Like one website to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them? I understand this is the purpose of the SIKM group, but it's not for general non-industry professionals in my personal opinion.
Just some thoughts...
On Fri, 11 Nov 2022 at 18:59, Tom Short <tshortconsulting@...> wrote:
CAUTION: This email originated outside of PSCU. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. If in doubt, use the Phish Alert button at the top of your Outlook toolbar to report suspicious emails. |
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Thanks Tom. I can see where you are coming from. I have pointed the student to this forum and believe that she will come to our discussion with educated questions.
Ultimately, I see these types of requests as bids for human connection and engagement rather than attempts to bypass the hard work of researching a topic. I generally enjoy talking to young people about the field and about my career; maybe it's the parent and librarian in me. In addition, I always learn something new about how KM is being positioned in broader contexts, and tend to learn as much as I share. That said, I have no doubt that many others are weary of the 101 questions. For those that aren't, the offer stands! |
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Murray Jennex
I agree with you Tom! I'm currently evaluating a KM dissertation where it was claimed a exhaustive literature was done but yet a couple of KM journals weren't included. So much for an exhaustive and systematic review! My concern is that many of the current young researchers expect the Internet to provide them everything they need and that if they can't easily get a file then it must not be important.....murray jennex -----Original Message-----
From: Tom Short <tshortconsulting@...> To: main@SIKM.groups.io Sent: Fri, Nov 11, 2022 7:59 am Subject: Re: [SIKM] Contacted by a student seeking informational interview #metrics #call-for I'm don't consider myself to be a religious person, but I do like the old trope, "God helps those who help themselves." In this case, I have to wonder what work this student has done to educate themselves via the myriad freely available resources on the web. Also, it seems like they're trying to force-fit an odd nexus between modernizing reporting systems and institutionalizing KM "both domestically and overseas."
Maybe I'm just growing weary of feeling like people want the short answer before they've done any background work on their own to find out what they can before asking for help from experts. Or maybe this student has in fact already done that work?
If it was me, I'd be inclined to point them to this forum - which is freely accessible to anyone - and suggest that they do some surfing around the thousands of threads that are here - it's a real treasure trove of information on pretty much every conceiveable KM topic. Also, to Stan's website, which is another freely accessible trove of information on all things KM.
--
-Tom -- Tom Short Consulting
TSC +1 415 300 7457 All of my previous SIKM Posts
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