Driving and Life - 13 Metaphors

13 parallels between Life and Driving.
We are already familiar with almost every idea that this analogy/metaphor has to offer. But I still like it packed in the cover of a metaphor.

1. Reduce your speed
Is it really nice to be rushing around and clucking (clutching & braking?) like a mad hen all the time? We need to remember to slow down quickly (heh heh) and frequently enough

2. Don't compete or race
This is a guaranteed way to make sure we lose it or feel stupid as we go about life. By all means, let's do it if we don't mind dents in our mental-makeup

3. Don't compare
Looking at other vehicles (hey, look, a Lamborghini) instead of focusing on the road in front of us. Drooling over what others have rather than driving down our own path joyously. We are bound to crash into something and slip into permanent depression

4. Fuel up
If we're not sure about the what, where, when and how of the fuel we need in order to go about our journeys, it's quite likely we may be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Must identify and store some fuel (inspiration) to help us run

5. Focus on the drive rather than the destination
Constantly worrying about where we need to be rather than concentrating on and enjoying the drive is a pity. Can't help it at times though

6. Don't let others tell you how to drive (But allow for companionship/encouragement/warnings/wisdom)
Sheesh. Sigh. No back-seat driving. Let's claim our lives. Shall we?

7. Don't obsess over the scratches and dents
Hard. It happened. It will be there. Maybe we can get it tinkered at an affordable cost. If not, can we just let it be?
Dealing with nasty co-travelers on the road is more difficult than this but perhaps the same philosophy can be applied there as well

8. Switch on the stereo
Tiddly tumty tum and Tra laa la. Got to energize ourselves and listen/dance to some music. Let's not forget the controls if we happen to be listening to music while driving. Shaking a leg, of course, requires us to stop for a while

9. Master your parking skills
At times, we'd have to make do with what we get and fit our lives into available or unusual slots. In other words, be prepared to play with the cards we've been given. Psst, we can either loosen up and go for it or, sometimes, pay for valet parking

10. Drop off your vehicle for service
Before or after some journeys, drop off the vehicle at a service station. The vehicle probably needs a complete wash/new parts/paint. Relax and rejuvenate at intervals

11. Know the important road rules
Especially the ones related to dignity, courtesy and safety. Let's not jeopardize other travelers' lives

12. Get a trainer or a coach
The right ones might instill some confidence and give us the essential practice and tricks necessary for survival and success

13. Keep the emergency support numbers handy
Do we know how to sort things out and resume our journey if and when there is a break-down? If yes, there's a lot to be proud of and happy about. Else, let's keep the emergency numbers accessible at all times

I declare you free. Run now. Call emergency if you must.

Songs that Life Sings

Life has it all. Think about it; The most fascinating thing about life is life. 

It might play its million songs in the shuffle mode and give you just about everything - surprises, shocks, sobriety, success, serenity, serendipity or stimulation. 

It might play the same old song again and again in a loop and make you think you'd rather be dead (pessimist) or wonder how to get obsessed (optimist) with that one song. 

It may also, occasionally, play plenty of customized play-lists giving us the illusion of control. 

Life is a Roller Coaster Ride

How does one plan for a roller coaster ride? One cannot. All one can do is have some thumb rules. Put on the seat belts, hold on to something stable, laugh off the nervousness, don't look down, scream with all your might when you're scared, claw at the person nearby (if one is sure one will not be pushed off the seat as a consequence) and learn to relax and meditate on the path to becoming a seasoned roller coaster rider. #Life

Chase Cars or Cats?

When life puts you in a situation that makes you feel like a Dog chasing Cars on the road but you'd rather be a Dog that chases Cats, here are some of the things you could do to bark off the blues (in no particular order). 

Chase Cats when life is not looking *chuckle*

Look for Cars with Cats inside them *wink*

Hang out with a community of Dogs that tells you how nice it is to chase cars *make sure you put on a sober expression all the time*

Study, analyze, dissect and write a report on Cars and the differences between chasing a Honda vs Toyota vs Benz vs Ferrari etc *distribute it as a PDF* 

Discuss the ethical issues related to the chasing of Cats, with philosophical Dogs *make notes* 

(Screech. Stop. Run)

Internet and a Child's Brain

Horse Fodder

You can lead a horse to the water but you can't make him drink it. 


In the context of change management, you need to, in today's complex and chaotic organizations, do all or most of the following once you take the horse to the water (which by itself may be a herculean task of perseverance, creativity, patience and flexibility). You need to arrange for....


1. ...other enthusiastic horses to appear at around the same time and drink the water (whether casually or dramatically is debatable)
2. ...these early-adopter horses to neigh in satisfaction once they drink the water and present their experience 
3. ...some leader horses to hover around and appreciate the horses drinking the water
4. ...some yummy free fodder at the exit of the water source
5. ...a short yet convincing video to be played on how to drink the water 
6. ...a pleasant and low-stress environment and ambiance around the water source
7. ...and, of course, clean, hygienic and healthy water ;-)


Feel free to add to the list from your own change management experiences. 

Tube Tales

I think life is like an endlessly long toothpaste tube whose cap may suddenly appear on the horizon and then, what's more, come unscrewed without any notice whatsoever. The tube, meanwhile, will always be squeezed. It is there to be squeezed. There's always something or the other that squeezes it, gently or otherwise depending on how much the squeeze is resisted. (Whoa!) The pressure is bound to result in an excess in one place and a shortage in another.

You may temporarily believe you're free if and when the squeezing ceases for some reason. But, psst, the contents have only been moved to another section of the tube (read life). You live under the illusion that you've solved the problem and can move on to a smooth and unobstructed path. But the so-called solution, in reality, did not clear the problem forever but only moved it to some other place or changed its appearance. ;-) Your solution is now the new problem. Your problem was perhaps the solution to a previous problem. Hang on. This is not pessimism. What I am driving at is that this simply means there is perhaps no such thing as a problem or a solution. Everything is the tube.

When it Rains Ideas

Some ideas are like thunder & lightening followed by a downpour. They shake you up and then vanish. 


Some ideas are like the gentle and cool breeze that you may or may not notice, but they have a subconscious impact. 


Some are like a continuous drizzle, you must accept & live with them. 

The Dance of Work - Part 2

I first bored you to death with my Life and Dance analogy. Now, I march on regardless of how many bodies I've walked over and promise to bore you to further death with my Work and Dance analogy. If you're the kind of ubiquitous person who likes to be bored to death, get up and - I hope you like the pun - dance. Dance till you drop dead and save me from more blood on my hands. Wait a minute. Any idea what on earth I'm talking? I wonder if I happened to bang a delicate part of my head against something hard, without my own knowledge. Or maybe it was something I ate recently. Here's what I shall do - I'm going to look away and rotate my head vigorously, shut my eyes tight for a few minutes and take a few deep breaths. Once done, I'll come back and explain my profound discovery, "The Dance of Work". Get ready to think like never before.

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Taking off from where I left in the previous post, if the Dance Floor is Life, and we choose to focus on just Work (which comprises a significant part of life for many of us) for a moment, there are three kinds of people we'd find (in the way they approach work). 

1. People who like to switch on music of their choice and dance in solitude. In any case, they are oblivious to others who may be dancing with them and an audience who may be watching them dance. Their major intent may be to differentiate themselves, enjoy their work immensely and feel honestly satisfied with their performance and accomplishments.

2. People who insist on company while dancing (music may or may not be chosen by them). They may dance with a crowd or perhaps choose a single partner...but they essentially need more pairs of feet to accompany them. They rarely hear their own tunes and generally stick to a collaborative choice of music. Their major intent is to chug along the river of life and do reasonably well at work while managing their lives outside of work as well.     

3. People who like to dance for an audience and use their feedback to energize themselves further. They might either want to dance alone (more often than not) or dance with a team. They might also choose a tune that the audience prefers rather than choose something that they alone like. Their major intent is to be recognized, rewarded and appreciated for what they do.

Let's leave out the people who are not a wee-bit interested in 'work' and are intent-less wanderers. 

Okay. So what? In the recent corporate annual celebration that I was a part of, I watched a lot of people being awarded/rewarded for their loyalty, performance on the job, values, problem-solving skills, innovation etc. While watching the proceedings inspired me to stretch myself (especially the innovation and values awards) I couldn't help but think about those that belong to the same category/categories but missed out on the awards by a hair's breath for various reasons. Some reasons are pretty obvious and may be wrapped and bundled under a blanket labelled 'Unlucky'. A manager who does not make a special effort to put her worthy team-member in the limelight. The employee's role being a back-stage (non-customer facing or non-sales) one that hardly gets the attention it deserves. Dirty Department, Management or HR politics. And so on. 

But what I have been thinking about are the subtler aspects of such a situation. Many a time, I've observed that the people who belong to the first category deserve to be recognized for their good work but tend to be ignored simply because they are in an isolated spot and are performing in solitude or doing a so-called 'thankless' job (especially when it is not a customer-facing role which, by the way, may by default put the person in the limelight). Also, in a more dangerous scenario, organizations assume that such people will always be happy because they are intrinsically motivated. There will, however, come a time when such a person takes a break and looks around and realizes he has been dedicated and successful but has received no reciprocation whatsoever and begin to feel horribly cheated. The second category will also look for appreciation and recognition but they may be equally happy just getting along with the stream of people, receiving regular pay-hikes and incentives. The third category of people may, arguably, be able to take care of themselves as their focus is anyway on the audience and on gaining appreciation. 

Two twitter moments in this regard for me were:

"The corporate world reserves most of its respect, recognition & rewards for the people who make the money or fight a fire."

"The people who persevere are sometimes forced to do nothing but persevere. But it ought to be better to die persevering rather than give up and live a dead life?" 

Wow. Just realized that this post has actually turned out to be somewhat gloomy! I do feel strongly about such things - Justice, Fair play, Politics, Perfection and what not. Sigh. 

Entrepreneurship is perhaps the closest answer to many of these questions. Be the change you want to see!~

The Dance of Life - Part 1

Subjecting oneself to a different experience is almost always eye-opening if not enlightening. Actually, I am so glad I did something different yesterday. More often than not, I hate parties, crowds and noisy places. I find most of them to be a meaningless affair, not that I look for meaning in everything around me. ;-) But there are some occasions when I manage to stay sane in such an environment and engage myself in a few constructive or hilarious conversations. (My life, I suspect, swings largely between two key, yet paradoxical, dimensions of life - philosophy and humor). There are also a few rare occasions when I discover that I am in a mood to actually tune into the heart-beat of the crowd and feel its however meaningless or mindless excitement. 

I'd however be lying if I say the same thing about organizational events. To be passionate about one's work, it is not enough if one just loves the domain or function one is in but should also be able to identify with the organization's objectives and feel its pulse. A meet to celebrate annual achievement in business brings together various divisions of the organization, its leaders and its complete - live - story. These are the times when one gets to see the whole picture, the near future, connect the dots, be inspired by those in the limelight and so on. While I enjoy the overall experience of understanding the organization better and stepping deeper into its alleys and junctions, I generally prefer to scoot when the party reaches its end and people shift to the 'pure entertainment' mode. Going back to where I started, which I fortunately had the sense to put down in writing so I don't forget, yesterday was an exception. (Poor imitation of Woody Allen, I know)

I was lazily digging a fork and spoon into some regular rice grains and veggies when I noticed that people were warming up to the loud dance music that was being played in the conference room. There was a small wooden dance floor waiting for people to tap their feet on it (or perhaps stomp their feet on it). As usual, one person took the initiative and started responding to the music and gradually a huge crowd joined him and was soon swinging away in various directions in utter disharmony. I decided to join the small group of people who were watching the scene with rapt attention and amusement and soon enough some ideas popped into my suddenly awakened analytical mind. I thought the dance floor, interestingly enough, reflected our lives in so many ways. At least for me, it had a lot to teach.

You're not the one playing the music, but you still decide to respond to it through your dance. Incidentally, what is it about free-style spontaneous dancing that demonstrates that no one could possibly enjoy life the way you do? :-) What next? The music keeps changing constantly and does so unannounced. You have plenty of options. You're either immersed and happy enough to adapt to the change, followed by a change of dance-style to suit the new music & rhythm while still enjoying yourself, Or you could complain or scream at no one in particular (or everyone around) about the change of music and make a fuss and generally be annoyed, Or you could let it stun you enough to sadly freeze you to the spot. Think about it. And then, you could choose not to enter the dance floor at all and simply watch things from outside and still be happy. It's simply a choice we make. 

Getting back to the dance floor, if you're watching from outside, you'll find it to be an absolutely diverse and versatile environment. Dancing dinos. Dancing mice. Dancing peacocks. Dancing clowns. Dancing tortoises. Dancing ostriches. But they are all participating in the Dance of Life in the first place....doing it in their own unique way and, what's more, genuinely enjoying themselves. Some of them on the dance floor inspire 'outsiders' to join them through their sheer energy and enthusiasm while there are others who make an explicit effort to drag and cajole others to join the fun. Once on the dance floor, you may have other insensitive participants stepping on your toes or even nudging you out but those are to be tackled accordingly. You either move to a different and more comfortable place, or just ignore the interruptions as long as you can or perhaps nudge your way back in or maybe send out a friendly or hostile warning to the intruder. ;-) If you're tired or need to focus elsewhere, it's always OK to take a break and get off the dance floor and return when you feel up to it. The really dominant and ambitious ones wave to the person playing the music and ask for a specific tune. If you're one of the participants and don't like the new tune, the game gets more complicated. You can either deal with it on the same dance floor or maybe even create another whole new floor for yourself! Whew. I think this brings my analogy to a safe and logical end. 

The Dance of Work - Part 2. Coming next.

What Organizations can Learn from Talent Reality Shows

Why do I always have to start off my posts with an introduction to what I do/did and why I do/did it and so forth. Why can't I just plunge into what I want to share rather than get gregarious about the context? I suspect that contexts are really boring for most people however essential or important they are from a knowledge perspective. Ignoring the contextual pre-post introspection on contexts, here's what has been on my mind of late. 

Being a music aficionado, I enjoy watching music-based talent reality shows. Apart from enjoying the overdose of music and being amused by some of the occasional drama therein, what I really am in awe of is that most of the participants demonstrate radical improvement and phenomenal growth over a period of few/many months.

I think it's a great thing to genuinely identify, nurture and showcase talent to the world. It is true that most of the participants are already worth a lot but even diamonds need to be polished! As these thoughts sank in, it suddenly occurred to me that there must be something - actually, a lot - that organizations can learn from these shows about training, learning, induction and ramping up. I am not too familiar with international talent reality shows but I'd like to believe most of these points are universally valid.

I think the top reasons why talent reality shows manage to help their participants achieve exceptional growth are:

1. Mentoring and Training: Most reality shows engage full-time mentors and judges who spend a significant amount of energy on mentoring and training the participants. When organizations hire new employees, how serious are they about assigning appropriate mentors and monitoring their efforts?

2. Regular Practice/Focus (weekly, daily): Most talent shows involve daily or at least weekly practice, rehearsals and live performances which results in obvious improvements in participants' skill levels. How much of relevant hands on 'practice' do new employees get once they join an organization? Are they put on projects immediately? Do they get to work on pilot or internal projects if they are not assigned customer-facing projects?

3. Constant Feedback and Public Recognition: This is very important. I find that most talent shows spend a lot of time in giving the participants immediate, precise and clear feedback, suggestions and recognition. Sometimes this is from the judges and mentors and sometimes from the audience. I think this is an area where organizations don't do so well. Even the annual appraisals are rarely handled the way they ought to be.

4. All Round Development: In most cases, talent shows are great platforms for the participants to be exposed to various new dimensions of their subject. Even if the participants are only good at one or two aspects of the subject under question, by the time they are through the show, they undoubtedly pick up a lot of new information and learn about other aspects of the subject. For example, in Music reality shows, participants are exposed to all genres of music which improves their confidence and contributes to all round development. How many organizations have a clear and structured plan to ensure that their employees go through projects and experiences that develop them in many spheres of work and life?

5. Inspiration via the Gurus and Achievers: Talent reality show organizers, as far as I've observed, make an effort to bring in popular Gurus and achievers occasionally and put the participants in front of them. This may be an effort to improve the TRP of the show, but ignoring their intentions for a moment, it is true that participants find inspiration from such an exercise. Meeting achievers can change lives at one extreme or can at least teach new employees something very critical at the other. How many organizations take this up seriously and facilitate touch-time for new employees with the 'Stars' and Leaders of the organization?

6. Support from Family (Boss, colleagues, mentors): Most of the participants who make it to the top are the ones with enormous support from their family. How much of support does an organization provide? What do the new employees' manager, colleagues and mentors do to make it easy for them? Also, how much of importance is given to the employees' families and their work-life balance as they struggle to make the transition? 

7. Positive Team Dynamics: This is a versatile combination of healthy competition, team camaraderie, mutual support during all phases (low or high) and the very presence of a community of similar Talents. What could organizations do to establish such a beautiful culture and environment?

8. Fun Quotient: Every talent show worth its salt will have a prominent fun quotient. It's hard to imagine such a show being sober all the time. There is, for example, likely to be a person or two with a sense of humor or someone who imitates others on the show and so on. In the organizational context, teams with such 'humor glue' characters may do much better than others.

9. Tangible Rewards or Opportunities: I am not sure if I am underrating this aspect by putting it toward the end of the list. :-) I think an underlying growth motivator for most participants (however passionate they are about the skill itself) is the huge reward or promised opportunity at the end of the show. Is it clear or guaranteed in organizations that an employee will get a pay hike or a promotion or a wonderful project opportunity if she puts in her best?

10. Rules: To be more specific, talent shows have clearly defined rules that are however flexible in unique or unforeseen circumstances. The teams largely stick to the rules but the organizers are, I've observed, ready to make room for unique situations and bend the rules when required. Do organizations allow for such flexibility?

And here's a clarification I simply need to make lest I lose my wonderful non-existent reputation. (After all, I was the one who tweeted this recently - Give me 10 reasons why we need 10 reasons for everything.) I just happened to find 10 reasons, OK? I had no special schemes up my sleeve to make it to the common and ubiquitous "10 reasons why blah the blah" list. Believe me. And, more importantly, don't forget to leave your thoughts on organizations that are at level zero with reference to the list above.

The Logic of Analogy

On my mind this morning.....if you can churn out accurate, interesting and thought-provoking analogies on the spur of the moment, you will make a great trainer/coach, be capable of influencing people, sound intriguing and convincing, make for an entertaining speaker, and even stimulate more ideas. So, how can we possibly become good 'analogy generators'? There are two things that occur to me -

a) read a lot - vertically (specific subjects covered in depth) as well as horizontally (variety)
b) learn to be creative, that is, learn to make connections where they are not so evident!

On the other side, interestingly enough, even force-fitting an analogy between two unrelated fields may lead to surprising and exciting discoveries or perhaps - once in a long while - result in an innovative idea worth pursuing. Analogies can, I believe, create new paradigms.

Observation: I have noticed that Spiritual thought-leaders, more often than not, make good use of analogies. I guess they are forced to do so. Otherwise, they are likely to be perceived as vague and assumed to be in the realm of abstraction!

What is (are) your favourite analogy(analogies)?

(How to) Make a Dash for it....

Dashchunds making a dash for it. :-) How cute, eh? Inspires me to imagine....and attach a meaning to the picture. PS: pic sourced from here

- Discover what you want from life

- Pump in all the energy and enthusiasm you can and make a dash for it, but be careful not to run down others on your way ;-)

- Be positive and confident and put that grin or smile on your face as you run down the track (Avoid looking at others and just go your way ;-))

Lighting up Life....!

Just occurred to me. If the Sun as in the day is a metaphor for brightness, happiness, joy and the good times and Moon as in the night is a metaphor for the not so good times, the sorrows and the challenges.....why can't we take the analogy forward and learn from the fact that the Moon may not be luminous....it may not generate its own light....but it does a pretty decent job of reflecting the light from the Sun!! So, during the bad times, one should look up to the Moon and do what it does. Reflect on the good times and use it to 'see' things from a better perspective! Use the light as inspiration for working harder and keeping the spirit intact....! :-) And what's more....it's not the day but the night that sports those other twinkling stars that have the capacity to enchant us endlessly. The Sun is too bright to let us see the other stars that are further away and transmit less light all the way to the Earth. These are the smaller joys/miracles of life. Life is meant to be celebrated....irrespective of whether it is day or night! What? :-)

A Beautiful Vision

I recently attended a conference on "Women 2.0" (revolving around Women in the Technology Industry) on the occasion of Woman's Day - March 8th. Missed a few sessions in the first part of the day but caught up with some sessions in the afternoon. Quite a few interesting topics like Entrepreneurship, Juggling Professional & Personal Life, Feminine Leadership, Skill Building for Women, and Innovation were on the agenda in the afternoon.

To be honest, I guess I was not fully engaged all the time as the presence of a friend forced me to indulge in some chatting and giggling as well. But what I want to share here is something on innovation (a topic that gets me enormously excited, all the time, every time).

The session on Innovation was a panel discussion involving 3 women with many patents to their credit, a HR head, and a facilitator from an Innovation Consulting firm. As I sat listening to them, the facilitator revived my interest in the Aravind Eye Hospital (I've heard and read about it many a time and also got to read a really huge case study/story on this a year or so ago). She spoke about how Dr. Venkataswamy (the key person behind Aravind Eye Hospital) got innovative and learned from an industry nowhere related to the medical field** and succeeded in making a difference to many poor people across the country. She also mentioned about the availability of a video of the story on YouTube, that I'd not heard about before. (In case you're interested, I found it to be here). The video is nicely done and worth your time.

Two things about the story that strike me as fascinating and wonderful are that one can be inspired by something that is seemingly ridiculously irrelevant (the process of conducting surgical operations a la McDonald's business operations :-)) and Dr. Venkataswamy's thought at the end of the video - "Intelligence and capability are not enough. There must be the joy of doing something beautiful". Now, I am going to take the liberty of adding that "beautiful" here means something that touches people/society....something related to the welfare of people/world at large....something that one will feel proud of....something that makes life better, for many people!

** As I've reflected before on this blog, we should not underestimate the power of analogies in the area of innovation.

Enthusiasm

Methinks, Enthusiasm is a fire that must rage on.....unextinguished by silence, indifference and unjustified criticism. It must however embrace genuine feedback as a fuel.

KM - People, Process or Tech?

I have been quite silent in the online KM forums – that I am a so-called part of - for sometime now, due to reasons I don’t have to waste your time going into. This is probably the beginning of a phase where I may get active again or maybe not…depending on how much time I want to spend thinking and listening versus talking.

Anyways, I found some time to answer this question on Linked In.

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I think the answers that we have here are all thought-provoking and nice ones to consider. Based on my experiences so far, I'd have definitely chosen People....but I love the answers that point towards Processes too. Having said that, let me add that I've seen most people slip through the cracks in processes somehow or the other. It's difficult to design a perfect process. And people will always find a way out if they don't like or believe in what they're being asked to do. Anyway, here's how I look at the three –

http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2007/05/body-mind-soul.html

Let me just add one more dimension to this discussion. I think you ought to decide what to focus on after studying the context - the business environment in your organization, the focus areas for your KM plan and so forth. For example, if you're in a conventional organization that isn't too tech savvy, then you need to focus on technology in order to make people feel more comfortable with your KM tools...

Good Food; Bad Food

It occurred to me this morning, that…

Information (food for thought) when served on the plate called context leads to knowledge, if the person who is offered it, takes it and processes (digests) it. It helps the person place it well (pun intended :)).

But information passed on without the context is almost like gossip. No one knows where it came from, where it ideally ought to be placed and whether it is true or not. It is like junk food that spoils the person’s digestive system, leave alone providing nutrition. But more often than not, it is likely to be placed on the person’s own (the one who takes it) plate, which may be very different from the original plate intended for it.

OK. Vented. Now, it’s your problem to digest this post! ;)

CUDdling up to Knowledge Repositories

Knowledge Management in a way, and I guess unknowingly, takes some of its lessons from cows. But I wonder if it takes the complete lesson or stops midway. If you’re wondering what kind of crazy cud I am chewing, here’s the full post for you to digest. :)

Cows grab grass not with the intention of digesting it immediately but storing it in specific areas in their alimentary canals meant for this purpose – the esophagus, to be precise. Apparently this is the case because some microbes help in easy digestion by processing the food while the latter ‘rests’ in the esophagus. The microbe-processed grass is then transferred back to the cow’s mouth when required and subjected to some heavy chewing and then actually digested.

Good knowledge repositories ought to be designed on these lines. Not as a place where unwanted artifacts are blindly stored and not reused at all or are stored and reused later without any value addition whatsoever. It ought to be a place where the artifacts are stored and brought to the right people’s notice so they keep it dynamic and add value to it by commenting on it, simplifying it, appending to it some additional resources etc. So, when it is actually picked up by someone for application, it becomes easier to ‘digest’ and is a lot more ‘tastier’ than it was. Is your knowledge repository akin to a cud-chewing system? If not, it may be time to Moo(ve) it. :D

Meanwhile, here are some hilarious cartoons that I discovered on ‘chewing the cud’.

Analogy for KM

I have a favourite analogy to make busy business managers think about the need for KM. And that is:

If your destination is the customer…
The road map, the business strategy…
The vehicle, the organization…
The champion, the CEO
The engine, the employees…
And the wheels, the business processes…
What is the fuel that your business runs on?

"Knowledge!"

Now, you decide whether this 'fuel' has to be managed or not! :-)

I recently posted this in response to Patrick's question on how to get management buy-in for KM, on his blog, and he said this in response. Hmm.....!! Food for thought!

So, how different would we think and how different would our approach be to deal with KM if we believe that we cannot manage knowledge directly? Is this similar to the school of thought that says KM is about connections rather than collections? Like I'd mentioned earlier, to my mind, collection-based connection is more like it!

I want to take some time and ponder over this a little....