KM is harder than rocket science

Posted by  Mark Schenk —January 6, 2007
Filed in Collaboration

This post from Jack Vinson titled ‘Knowledge management is hard?’ reminded me of a presentation I give at the iKMS Conference in Singapore in November. During questions someone asked ‘why is KM so hard? Its not like its rocket science?’ A gentleman in the audience responded “Hmmm, I am a rocket scientist. In rocket science I can generally find a demonstrably correct answer. You can’t do that with KM. KM is harder than rocket science because it is so ‘soft’”.

KM Singapore Nov 06 smallI also met some great people at the conference. The happy snaps shows (L to R) me with Noor Faridah Rahim, Jerry Ash and David Gurteen. Thanks to Farida for the photo.

Mark Schenk About  Mark Schenk

Mark works globally with senior leadership teams to improve their ability to communicate clearly and memorably. He has been a Director of Anecdote since 2004 and helped the company grow into one of the world’s leading business storytelling consultancies. Connect with Mark on:

Comments

  1. Happy New Year Mark.
    You might want to have a look at this article for a counter view – Call, D. “Knowledge management – not rocket science,” Journal of Knowledge Management (9:2) 2005, pp 19-30.
    Regards Graham

  2. Mark says:

    Thanks for the reference Graham. The article contains lots of good quotes (though quotes from 2000 about KM spend are not very credible) and some valuable case studies. Notwithstanding the title of the article, I think it reinforces the complexity associated with KM rather than providing a counter view.

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