Goodbye to the noughties

9/11; 24/7; bling; blog; credit crunch; chav; Facebooking; fair-trade; footprint; i-; lol; meh; Obamamania; pandemic; Slumdog; sustainability; truthiness; tweet; WAG; war on terror. I realise that, out of context, this probably sounds like the random ramblings of a very over-worked editor, but there is method to my madness. The Magazine section of the BBC news website recently asked its readers to tell the story of the past ten years, based on five themes: words, people, news, objects and culture. And the 20 words listed above are those that the panel of judges decided best summed up the decade.

Feature
KM measurement Part III
In the past two issues of Inside Knowledge, Robert Hoss and Art Schlussel have demonstrated how to set in place a strategy for measuring knowledge management maturity, plus provided some common metrics that can enable organisations to get started. In this final instalment, they discuss how to act on the outcomes of those metrics – including some of the activities in place at the US Army.

Feature
Coffee and conversations
As organisations have responded to the tough times imposed by the global recession it would not be unrealistic to suggest that conversation has been firmly at the bottom of the business agenda. Times of financial instability, where management seeks to streamline operating processes and tighten purse strings, do not create the optimal atmosphere for a quick chin wag at the water cooler, or some relaxed yet insightful discussion at a colleague’s desk.

Feature
Cover feature: Challenging preconceptions
The current recession has highlighted the importance of good knowledge practices and a corporate culture that actively supports those practices. It would be too much to argue that an absence of those things would threaten the viability of businesses as risk of failure is more likely to be a function of business model and trading activities. However, a sound approach to knowledge should mark out those businesses that emerge strongly from the current economic situation.

Feature
Q&A: Social networking habits
Following on from recent research – and a subsequent roundtable discussion – into social networking habits within the workplace, Craig Carpenter discusses where businesses are going wrong when it comes to implementing the appropriate guidelines and usage policies.

Regular
Book review: No More Consultants
The foreword of the latest offering from Learning to Fly authors Geoff Parcell and Chris Collison, No More Consultants, begins with a reference to cult classic film The Matrix, with an excerpt of dialogue between Morpheus and Neo: “… You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland. And I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes”. It then suggests that the book itself is the “perfect red pill… showing you all the secrets of consulting’s wonderland and rabbit holes, with no bad side-effects.” I have high expectations.

Feature
Technology the enabler
There is no doubt that technology and knowledge management (KM) have long been bedfellows. While it has often been easy to criticise KM practice as too technology driven, the need to manage information flow has generally ensured a place for KM practice, with technology not far behind. That need to get a handle on information has also only grown as e-communication and the internet have given employees access to often unmanageable quantities of information.