Friday, 28 January 2011


"I don’t know how" - fixing the knowledge gaps that cause the pain


Pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have blogged already about how powerful it can be to use Knowledge Management to remove the managers' pain points, to “take the thorn out of the lion’s paw”.

But how do you find the pain points, that KM can fix?

Quite simple – you ask them what it is that they don’t know but wish they did. What are the business "I don't know"s that are keeping them awake at night?

You will get answers like these

I don’t know how to .....
  • Sell Chocolate in rural China
  • Halve the water use in my brewery
  • Close down, maintain, and start up my refinery in just 3 weeks
  • Avoid agglomerates in my Polyethylene plant
  • Reduce my well costs by 25%, and still drill safely

These are the pain points. These are the thorns in the paw.

If you use KM to answer these questions, you remove the pain, demonstrate the value, and make powerful high-level allies!

1 comment:

Ivan Webb said...

Note the connection between knowledge and action: "I don't know how".
This leads to a fundamental KM question:
- What to do when I don't know what to do?"
Many years ago a class of 10 year olds and I worked on this problem and came up with a really practical answer - it made a profound difference to the learning of many students. For details check out http://t.co/exu2IGi

Ivan Webb (Tasmania)

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