Far Wise in Knowledge Management

Snow fun

Last Friday, a lot of snow fell in our part of the country (over 20 centimeters in one day). I was happy to have a day off, but I heard enough stories of people stranded on the highway and household without electricity (not far from our house! - everytime we saw the light flickering we thought it would go down here as well). The next morning everyone in the street helped to make a path through the snow and after that the men built a sort of iglo . Some people had fun this weekend!

Google guide

I didn't realise that Google had so many services. Frankwatching gives an overview (originally created by TipMonkies "The ultimate guide to Google services"); a very impressive list. And, maybe the list is outdated by the time you read it (no guarantees)!

Weblog started on our French adventure

I decided to start another weblog, this time in Dutch, to keep all our friends and family informed on what we do and experience in our new home country of France. I hope to post there regularly (more often than this weblog). You can see pictures of the house we will rent in Rambouillet. Yep, a house, with a large garden and a forest within 5 minutes walk. I think I will be in top running condition next year!

Masterclass David Snowden at KCC Europe

KM Europe has a new set up and a new name, KCC Europe. I didn't hear much of it from my colleagues (at least one, next to Lilia must have been there), but one colleague said that he didn't like it this way. Not much audience and he even had to pay for the coffee (the confernce was about 800 Euros). There was a extended summary of the Fringe on KnowledgeBoard.

I went to Dave Snowdens Masterclas, which was titled "The aging workforce and other vital but difficult knowledge capture and use problems". Mainly the first part of the title attracted me (aging workforce), the rest sounded vague. I came to hear more on the aging workforce for one of the projects we are involved in.

Now, afterwards, I realise I should have known better. I've been to more presentations of David Snowden, so I know what he likes to talk about, what his hobbyhorses are. Then I should have known that the presentation was about sense making, applied to people leaving the company. The good thing for me (and the project) is that what David told was a confirmation of what we were already doing for a certain company. There we use story telling (I know, Dave would never call it story telling but narrative) as one of the techniques and one of the problems we encountered (management saying "this is not what we want") was recognised by David.

I could write down a summary of the masterclass here. However, Anjo showed me (with his famous Sigmund tool) that when you look for David Snowden in other weblogs, you sort of have the summary of the afternoon session. Saves me a lot of work ;-)  Maybe it's a bit unfair, I enjoyed listening to David and to his nice stories, but I think one of my colleagues, who have never seen a presenatation nor read his papers, would have learned more from David. For me it was not worth the money.

Selling your knowledge

On my way to ECKM'05 I read the Dutch book of Willem Verbeke, titled "Verkopen van kennis" (Selling knowledge). I was asked to review it for the Managementboek.nl site, the review now is online (in Dutch).

What struck me is that many of the topics discussed in the book, were topics at the conference as well. Knowledge management seems to move to the interest of sales and accounting. Questions like "How do I better sell the knowledge of my employees to clients" or "What is the value of the intellectual capital of the organisation" are often heard now.

In Verbeke's book, the knowledge worker (or consultant) has a central role. He (or she) has to make sure that knowledge is transfered to the client, so his questions are answered. It is important that the consultant enjoys the customer's trust and becomes the "trusted advisor".  A consultant who doesn't have (enough) knowledge will soon fall short; he will only use tricks or try to convince the client instead of teaching. Knowledge transfer works in two directions, according to Verbeke: the client learns from the consultant and the consultant learns from the client.

In the final chapter Verbeke works out an example of how he sees this "trusted advisor". Over the years, a lawyer has built up a lot of trust with a key account, a CEO of a company. For the CEO, the lawyer is a wise man in the background, with a lot of knowledge and insight. When the CEO has to make a difficult decision, the lawyer shows him the consequences of his choices.

Though the book is relatively thin (100 pages), the density of the content is high. What I liked is that Verbeke puts effort in explaining (new) concepts, he translates theory to practice and gives a lot of examples. This makes the book easily accessible to people who are new in this area. For more experienced readers (experienced in the area of knowledge management or consultants) will not read much new, but it not a waste of time to be reminded on important aspects of contact with clients.

Some changes are going to happen

Most people who know me a bit better already know this: my boyfriend and I will move to France beginning of next year (or rather, before the end of this year - as soon as we find a place to live). My boyfriend is relocated by his employer to Elancourt/Trappe, south-west of Paris. For the first time in my life I wrote a letter of resignation to the (new) director of the institute I work for, because - of course! - I'll join my boyfriend to Paris.

I'm preparing now to say goodbye to my family, friends and collegues here. Paris is not far from Holland, it will be different though. But challenging as well!

First, I'll have to improve my command of the French language. And look for a new job. Oh no, first we need some shelter. I'm not looking forward to sharing a bench with a clochard.

Addicted to work?

In a local newspaper I found a short questionnaire to check wether you are a workaholic. With more than three times a "yes" answer, you are in a danger zone. Here are the questions:

• Do you work more than 40 hours per week?
• Do you fret about work in bed, in the weekend or on holidays?
• At parties, do you talk mostly about work?
• Do friends no longer take effort to plan a date with you?
• Do you consistently underestimate the work that needs to be done?
• Are your hobbies useful as well?
• Are you afraid to lose your job when you don't work hard enough?
• Do you work more overtime than you colleagues?
• Do you always feel most responsible?
• Do friends and family suffer from your work enthousiasm?
• Do you always want to win games?
• Do you get irritated when colleagues have other priorities than work?
• Do you work or read during diner?

Hmmm... maybe I'm more addicted than I thought