All change

Welcome to the March issue of Inside Knowledge. First and foremost I would like to extend my thanks to Jerry Ash, who served a great 14 months as editor, bringing with him a wealth of experience and insightful opinion on ‘where knowledge management is at’. A cliché it might be, but as I remove my size-6 heels and step into his somewhat roomy shoes, I’d like to wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.

Taking over the editorship of IK is something of a homecoming for me. Back in 2004, when I joined Ark Group as a bushy-tailed editorial assistant, I had never heard of knowledge management. That is to say that while I understood all of the core concepts and values associated with it, I had no idea that organisations had managers – even departments – in place to actively ‘manage knowledge’. Dare I say that it sounded a bit obvious to me, one of the uninitiated.

A few months in (and having written several news sections for the magazine) I was beginning to see what all the fuss was about and, having worked with IK in various capacities over the past four years, it’s an absolute pleasure to find myself returning – this time, at the helm.

KM has had its fair share of doubters in recent years – some who have gone so far as to argue that it is completely ‘dead’. But in this era of social networking and expertise-driven business processes, I have to disagree. Rather it is experiencing something of an epiphany, which has got the entire team chomping at the bit and looking very much to the future.

For that reason we want to introduce some change of our own over the coming months. You may already have noticed that the magazine has received some minor cosmetic surgery and we’re not stopping there. While we’re not seeking to turn the ethos of IK on its head, we think it’s ready for a boost. So, we’ll gradually be introducing some exciting new ‘regulars’ issue-by-issue, as well as bringing back a few old favourites. There are some fantastic, usability-enhancing developments in the pipeline for ikmagazine.com, too. Watch this space.

In the meantime, the main priority for me is to get reacquainted with you, the readers, as soon as possible. I’m extremely keen to find out what you love about the magazine, what you dislike, areas that you feel are lacking or those have been done to death. What do you want to read about – and what do you not? Similarly, if you have any experiences that you would like to share in the form of a case study or an article, I can be contacted at kclifton@ark-group.com.

Keep in touch!

Kate Clifton
Head of Editorial

Features

Masterclass Part III: Strengthening the collaborative culture This article is for subscribers only
In parts one and two of this series, we described the three contexts of collaboration and talked about the role of leadership and culture in collaborative processes. In this final article we offer some specific tactics for strengthening a collaborative culture. By Shawn Callahan, Mark Schenk and Nancy White.

Case study: Cadbury This article is for subscribers only
Arthur Shelley describes how Cadbury's development of a succession plan for its knowledge leader enabled the knowledge programme to survive a global demerger and a major organisational restructure.

The business case This article is for subscribers only
Agreement around the core concepts of ‘social software’ has been quite elusive, yet certainly the underlying phenomenon is quite real. Technologies for social computing have emerged across a panoply of different types, including collaboration suites, pure-play blog, wiki and forum products, hosted community solutions, and revamped Web 2.0 modules from major software vendors.

Cover feature: The perfect partnership This article is for subscribers only
While many organisations have successfully introduced process improvement (PI) methodologies, a number of these struggle to integrate enterprise-wide business process management (BPM) as they continue to focus on initiatives for current and future financial years. These organisations often find that after a period of time they are having difficulty even sustaining their improvement programmes – most of the ‘low-hanging fruit’ has been picked, and the current ways of doing business have still not changed markedly.

The profile: Arthur Shelley This article is for subscribers only
The man behind The Organizational Zoo and Intelligent Answers is well-known for his innovative workshops on capability development and people management. Arthur Shelley chats to IK about his globe-trotting career and personal drivers.

Regulars

Book review: Seamless Network: Using Microsoft SharePoint Technologies to Collaborate, Innovate and Drive Business in New Ways Free
New Zealander Michael Sampson wants people to collaborate better. The tagline of his website is “Working with people you can’t be with”. So, while Sampson’s first book is published by Microsoft and discusses SharePoint, it is not only for those proud owners of a SharePoint license. It aims to provide a practical framework for any distributed teams using equivalent collaboration software.

Mixing business with pleasure This article is for subscribers only
People often ask me how I earn a living as I do much for free and it is not obvious how I market my services and earn money.
My goal is not to build a business but to do what I love; to make a difference in the world and earn a living while doing it.
What do I do for free? I maintain my website, I publish my monthly knowledge letter, run open knowledge cafés, write articles and more besides. What do I do for money? I give keynote talks, facilitate workshops, and consult and run knowledge cafes. But how do I find my work? Let me explain by way of a story.

Thought leader This article is for subscribers only
Every firm has huge untapped potential in the form of hidden knowledge about clients, relationships, experience and technical issues. If unearthed and shared, this could create a step-change improvement in business performance.
Generally it is not a paucity of systems that prevent firms from capitalising on knowledge. This is not to say that systems aren’t important, but rather that what really matters is attitude. Systems drive speed and efficiency. Attitude drives effectiveness. Without significant attitudinal shifts, many firms will leave their knowledge potential unfulfilled.