KM is …?

By Toby Brown on July 10, 2008

I vacillate back-and-forth between intense frustration and mild curiosity when faced with the task of defining knowledge management (KM) for law firms. When talking with lawyers about KM, the most frequent response I get is quite curious. “KM? It’s about time we get into KM. It’s absolutely necessary to a firm’s success.” But then when I push for the person’s definition of KM, it’s typically vague or overly narrow. So … how can something so misunderstood be so universally valued?

As law firms approach KM and work to bring it into the practice, they will have to answer this first question. Attempting to implement something you can’t even define is a recipe for failure. Money spent will be money spent.

The reality of this situation is likely akin to the old ’10 blind men with their hands on the elephant’ story. Everyone can explain how KM will benefit them in a specific way, but they can’t describe the parts of the elephant they can’t see.

Perhaps the real task in defining KM is helping each person understand how their piece of KM fits so nicely into the bigger picture of KM. Finding the common threads and shedding light on them may well be the best path to a sound and useful definition.

As Dad always said; “A challenge is just an opportunity in disguise.”

Look at All the Lonely People . . . Where Do They All Belong? Apparently, on a blog.

By Lisa Salazar on July 10, 2008

According to a SelectMinds survey “Workplace Connections
& Their Impact on Retention, Recruiting, and Productivity,” 83% of workers rate relationships with co-workers as a critical reason for joining and staying with their employer, and alternatively, one in four people quit a job due to feelings of isolation.

If you haven’t heard of SelectMinds, they offer social networking solutions for corporations. At a hefty price tag.

But I say, why pay for something that you can get for free? Heck, look at us “Three Geeks and Law Blog.” We put it up in 15 minutes. And “zero” down.

I will say, though, that the SelectMinds survey had some interesting stats:

87% of the employees surveyed by SelectMinds say they are most productive in their jobs when surrounded by colleagues with whom they have a good relationship/rapport.
Social networks allow people to gather and evaluate information more quickly: over half (57%) of all workers believe that expanding their professional network will help them do their job more effectively.
This remains especially true among older workers: employees ages 60 and older are more likely to ask for input from an experienced colleague or friend when trying to answer a work question in a hurry than are their younger counterparts.
More than three-quarters (77%) of workers age 20 – 29 believe that the social aspects of work are very important to their overall sense of workplace satisfaction, compared with 67% of their older colleagues.
Nearly half (46%) of the GenYers rate the availability of support/networking programs as a very important factor in their decision to join and/or remain with an employer.
83% of workers rate trusted relationships with co-workers and suppliers as a critical reasons for joining and staying with an employer.
Without these relationships, today’s workforce is ready to walk out the door; approximately one in four (23%) employees reports quitting a job due to feelings of isolation.