Knowledge development

Knowledge strategy is hard. Even explaining what knowledge management is can be difficult, even to a friend. Guy St. Clair, accompanied by Shannon Spangler and Anne Kershaw, will walk you through how to get started managing knowledge during a panel discussion at #AIIM14. To get ready, understand the difference (and why they are each important) between knowledge management, knowledge strategy, and knowledge services. 

Guy St. Clair is recognized as an expert adviser in KM/knowledge services and in building the organizational knowledge culture, with a special emphasis on knowledge strategy development. He is well known as a speaker about the role of knowledge strategy and knowledge services in organizational effectiveness. Building on his KM, knowledge services, and knowledge strategy development expertise and experience, Guy contributed to the creation of the Columbia University IKNS program, advising the university on curriculum development, marketing and industry outreach, and student enrollment management. Guy teaches Management and Leadership in the Knowledge Domain in the program. Follow Guy on Twitter:smr_knowledge and connect on LinkedIn.

A friend confronted me with a sweet challenge the other night.

“Guy,” she said, “a lot of people know you teach about KM and knowledge services, that you’re considered a kind of evangelist for knowledge services.”

“How nice,” I thought a little egotistically. “I like being recognized for my professional efforts.”

I might even have made a comment along those lines because then I heard my friend continuing:

“Here’s the thing, Guy,” she said. “I was telling someone about you and your work, and she wasn’t sure she knew what I was talking about.” Uh-oh. Now I was caught, and I began to get a little uncomfortable. “Just what is it you do?” she asked, and it was clear she expected a response.

Trying to be a good conversationalist, I asked back: “What is it you want to know?”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” she said. “I need to know three things: You talk about knowledge management – which you call “KM” – and knowledge services, and you talk about knowledge strategy. Why? What’s the connection? I’m not sure I know what these things are.”

Fair enough. I would start with some quick definitions. But my friend continued (she’s very smart, and she’s successful – she runs her own business). “And when you work with KM, knowledge services, and knowledge strategy, how do you get started?”

I wasn’t going to get out of this one (not that I really wanted to – I love this kind of conversation).

Here’s how I responded to my pal’s challenge (I said something along these lines):

First, I rearranged the questions. It’s all about KM – about managing an organization or a company’s intellectual capital. But we can’t “manage” something like that. All we can do is work with it, figure out what services we can come with so people can work with the knowledge that they create in the workplace, and how they can share that knowledge. In fact, we have a little acronym for knowledge development and knowledge sharing. We call it “KD/KS.”

So it’s about KM. But not about just KM. It’s about all three (KM, knowledge services, and knowledge strategy), and I try to describe them so there is an interaction, so we can see how they all come together.