Hugh McKellar, KMWorld Editor in Chief, weighs in on the future of knowledge management in the current issue of KMWorld. He summarizes a report by TFPL produced following its annual CKO summit last fall. (I’ve ordered the hardcopy report which is available for free from the TFPL web site.)

Two of the three key findings that Hugh reflects on are:

KM is shifting back to individuals, encouraging “knowledge-conscious behavior.

The role of change management in the impleentation of new technologies: “cultural mismatch is an excuse for poor implementation”

The third goes straight to the heart of my work: relatedness. Though stated in the context of outsourcing, he paraphrases the key learnings as:

• Study and understand all relationships—don’t risk losing highly connected and competent people (and this certainly addresses knowledge retention and loss),

• Build relationships with partners and users across the organization,
• Embrace the value of relationships in order to learn and grow, and
• Concentrate on both internal and external partnerships.

Amen.