Sharing, caring way to learning

摘要

"It's good to talk" was the much-quoted slogan of a series of advertisements for UK telecommunications company, BT. Simple, effective, to the point and - well, blatantly obvious. It is good to talk, and while the phone company was emphasizing giving friends and relatives a ring for a chat, rather than engage in a conversation with a business associate to share intellectual concepts, talking is a major component in what has become to be known as knowledge management. Knowing that is the easy bit. Who you talk to, when, what about and what they do with the information you have given them, and how you use your newly-acquired data for competitive advantage is rather more complicated. There is no shortage of advice how to manage such important tools as knowledge acquisition and dissemination, but the fact that it is impossible to get a consensus of agreement on what knowledge management actually means only adds to the complexity of the subject. As with many seemingly baffling concepts which you have to grapple with to keep up with the competition, understanding often follows a calm, commonsense appraisal of what you hope to achieve from them, how those who have used them successfully have gone about it, and how you can adopt and adapt the concept, and hone the methodology and practice for your own organization's advantage. If you had mentioned the words "knowledge management" or "total quality management" to the newly-appointed director of a group of businesses in the north of England, he had have given you a lecture about organizations wasting time and money on courses and concepts which were (expletive deleted!) obvious to anyone with an ounce of commonsense. Brought in to improve the sales, profits and reputation of his organization's businesses in the local communities they served, he soon discovered that the managers - who, every day, did a similar job in similar neighboring towns with similar staffs and grappled with similar problems and challenges - did not actually know each other. Each got on with their own business, did a reasonably competent job and it never even occurred to them that sharing experiences and problems with any of the other managers might be useful - or even just interesting.