Saturday, 5 June 2010


Plenty of KM bottle, not enough suck



Remember how I talked about Push and Pull in KM, how seeking is a better initial strategy than sharing, and how supply has to be met with demand?

I heard a great quote recently from someone in a company who is struggling with Pull - who has an abundance of knowledge and experience, but can't get people interested in learning. He said

"You can put the bottle in the baby's mouth, but the baby has to want to suck".

That's the trouble with many KM initiatives - too much bottle, not enough suck. Too much push, not enough pull. Too much supply, not enough demand.

2 comments:

Jackie said...

It's a bit chicken and egg though isn't it? With no push, no one knows what they can pull, with no pull, no one knows what to push. Somehow you need to swing between the extremes to get a great system.

Nick Milton said...

Indeed, we need both, but for me, Pull is the first step. Demand creates supply to a greater extent than vice versa. Over-demand drives up value in any commodity, and knowledge is no exception. I would far rather start an organisation off by creating a pull - creating a knowledge seeking culture - before creating a knowledge seeking culture.

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