More detritus from blog drafts. Interesting. Below is a blog post written in 2008, apparently never published. It still holds true, even though I rarely do what folks might call KM work. I think maybe at this point in my life I might strive to be more of an artist. 🙂 Thus the image of one of my grandpeople doing fabric marbling!
I was reviewing the text of an interview Lilia Efimova did with me as part of her PhD research and there was a line that keeps showing up lately — the association others make of me with knowledge management, and my inability to really embrace the term itself. I clearly embrace the fact that knowledge is an asset in organizations and should be part of the purview of management, but I have never really been able to believe we can manage knowledge. We can use it. We can nurture it. We can create conditions for its strategic application. But like the air around us, we can’t manage it. But we CAN pollute it. Bah, enough with metaphors.
I also stumble with the dichotomy of tacit and explicit knowledge, between wisdom and knowledge. They are a continuum. Yes, there are times when I can certainly “point” to something as explicit. This post is explicit. But my struggle to express myself is not. So is it tacit? Or is it part of the process of thinking, learning, knowing and expression? I can’t tease them apart. They are a whole, but different parts of the whole show up at any one time.
The differentiation between individual, group and network is another one of those places that don’t always slip into three neat boxes. Especially with the impact of technology and what it now means to “be together” with others.
NASA – Quotes Related to Knowledge Management or Collaboration
“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” Albert Einstein