Stan Garfield’s New Weekly Knowledge Management Blog

Stan Garfield has been writing a weekly KM blog through Portals Magazine. Now he is switching to new KM blog through his employer, Hewlett-Packard. Stan is the Worldwide Consulting & Integration Knowledge Management Leader for hP. It is nice to see the company sponsorship. The blog has a number of features. As the description says there is a, “weekly entry including books, blogs, web sites, and answers to questions on knowledge management. Topics include knowledge sharing and reuse; collaboration and communities of practice; and people, process, and technology elements of successful KM programs.”

So the blog is multi-dimensional. In response to a question Stan listed 15 recent requests he has received for help, indicating that it is still a vibrant topic. He concludes with a great comment, “The main problem I see is that people often want to start by rolling out a tool. I advise them to start by identifying the two or three biggest knowledge-related challenges their organization currently faces, and then addressing those challenges by designing processes that can be integrated into existing work processes. Tools can be part of the solution, but shouldn't be the starting point.”

I could not agree more and I am amazed to see organizations still making this mistake. I was recently asked through a friend to propose on a project for an organization that had purchased a community platform tool, as they thought the first step was to select a tool. Then they thought the vendor would help them set it up. How they want someone to come in for a few days with a recipe on how they can build community using this tool they have already bought. I suggested that the first step was to determine the business reason for building this community and my friend agreed. I am waiting to see the response to this. Perhaps I should send them to Stan’s blog to see what someone with a great depth of experience has to say.

There was also a link (via Jack Vinson) to good review by Sarah Elkins on a new KM Book, Introduction to Knowledge Management: KM in Business. I recommend putting Stan’s blog on your list and RSS reader if you are interested in knowledge management. It is a good way to stay current in the field. business blogs

Comments

[Sarah Elkins]

Thanks for the mention! It's always interesting to me what different sorts of things draw the most attention. In my blog, the biggest comment/trackback draws so far have been the book review, and an entry on user experience. On the wiki of a team I'm on, it's a chocolate chart.