Sharing knowledge in a world of change at KMWorld Connect 2021

At KMWorld Connect 2021, Robert Bogue, president, Thor Projects, shared how to successfully share knowledge in a world of change. According to Bogue, new patterns are emerging and reforming at a pace never before seen. Bogue examined the forces that are changing our world to highlight the kinds of techniques that can be used to share information in an organization. He addressed the possible barriers and resistance, as well as the accelerators to help attendees move their organizations forward and offered tools they can use to initiate and manage change in their organizations.

KMWorld Connect 2021 is going on this week, November 15 -18, with workshops on Friday, November 19. On-demand replays of sessions will be available for a limited time to registered attendees and many presenters are also making their slide decks available through the conference portal. For more information, go to www.kmworld.com/conference/2021. Access to session archives will be available on or about November 29, 2021, so be sure to check back for on-demand replays.

Offering a definition for knowledge management, Bogue said, fundamentally, it is knowledge sharing and reuse and noted that creating knowledge is harder to do than sharing or reusing it, which is why knowledge management should be relied upon.

Observing the rapidly accelerating rate of change, Bogue noted today we are transitioning through the social milestones much faster than ever before, and that, with technology, it is even faster. Looking at the milestone of 50 million users, it took 68 years of the airlines to reach that milestone; it took 50 years for the telephone. And it took Pokemon GO 19 days to get to 50 million users.

But in terms of getting buy-in to knowledge, even when knowledge is available, it is hard to get people to use it. Bogue cited real-world examples such as the less-than-100% practice of hand washing in healthcare facilities despite knowledge that it prevents disease, or use of seatbelts despite the knowledge that it prevents dire consequences in accidents.

According to Bogue, it is essential that organizational hedgehogs (who have one area of specialization) and foxes (who know a lot about many things) are identified and enabled in organizations and that obstacles be removed that could prevent them from doing what they do best.

Bogue covered the organizational roles of productivity tools, search tools, affinity groups, working out loud, the perception of plenty versus scarcity on sharing, the paradox of choice, how to motivate people, as well as how to, ultimately, encourage people not to learn but to instead reuse others’ expert knowledge.