John and JoAnn Girard: Profiles in Knowledge

Originally published on October 5, 2018

7 min readOct 24, 2018

This is the 33rd article in the Profiles in Knowledge series featuring thought leaders in knowledge management. It is also the third of these about husband and wife teams. John and JoAnn Girard were co-founders of Sagology, a firm that focused on connecting people with people to collaborate and share knowledge.

John and JoAnn asked me for a chapter for Knowledge Management Matters: Words of Wisdom from Leading Practitioners, and I contributed Chapter 6: Communities Manifesto. I also suggested to them to add chapters by Tony Rhem and Nancy Dixon, which they did.

John Girard

John P. Girard, Ph.D. is a writer, adventurer, and awarding-winning professor who has enjoyed the privilege of speaking to groups on six continents about management, education, globalization, and innovation.

John holds the Peyton Anderson Endowed Chair in Information Technology at Middle Georgia State University. Engaging with students on a daily basis ensures he remains current in the ever-changing world in which we live and do business. His current research interests include knowledge management, social media, virtual business, innovation, and globalization. John is actively engaged in research, having written more than 60 articles and chapters for peer-reviewed or trade journals, magazines, and books.

After 24 years as an officer in the Canadian Forces, John and his wife JoAnn moved to North Dakota. Throughout his military career, John had the pleasure to serve in a variety of command and staff positions in Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, gaining experience as a leader, trainer, policy officer, human resource manager, and project manager in the Public sector environment. In 2004, while acting as Director of Knowledge Management at National Defense Headquarters in Ottawa, he joined the faculty at Minot State University, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

John is a graduate of Touro University International where he completed a PhD in Business Administration and an MBA, and of the University of Manitoba where he achieved a BSc with a Computer Science major. In addition, John is a graduate of Canadian Forces College, Toronto and the Royal Military College of Science in the United Kingdom.

Degrees

Touro College — PhD, Business Administration, 2004 — Dissertation: Toward an understanding of enterprise dementia: An empirical examination of information anxiety amongst public service middle managers
Touro College — MBA, Military Information Systems Technology, 2001
University of Manitoba — BSc, Computer Science, 1993

Experience

Middle Georgia State University — Peyton Anderson Endowed Chair, 2014–2024
Minot State University — Professor of Management, 2004–2014
Canadian Forces — Senior Officer, 1980–2004

Department of National Defence — Director of Knowledge Management, 2003–2004

Profiles

JoAnn Girard

JoAnn L. Girard was the managing partner of Sagology. She has worked on a variety of knowledge intensive research projects, which considered issues such as information anxiety, enterprise dementia, and organizational memories.

JoAnn was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Building organizational memories: Will you know what you knew? an edited volume published by IGI Global in 2009. JoAnn explored social media with a view to determining what organizational leaders need to know in this important domain.

Prior to forming Sagology, JoAnn was co-founder of two successful technology companies. Yacht-club.net developed and hosted web presences for yachting companies in the USA, England, Scotland, Spain, Gibraltar, and Greece. Quid Pro Quo Software developed educational and edutainment software, including their flagship game, Trivia Mania. Before entering the high-tech arena, JoAnn worked in the travel industry and as a school librarian. The experience she gained in these information intensive positions proved especially valuable as she considered the knowledge challenges confronting executives.

JoAnn dedicates most of her spare time to animals. She is a board member of her local zoological society and volunteers as an interpretive speaker at the zoo.

Profiles

Content

Knowledge management is the creation, transfer, and exchange of organizational knowledge to achieve a [competitive] advantage.
We have gathered a collection of more than 100 KM definitions. We have very deliberately provided a broad selection of KM definitions: some are from academics, while others are from practitioners, some are from government, others from the for profit sector, and still others are from the not for profits. We also tried to include definitions from a variety of countries.
Defining knowledge management: Toward an applied compendium

Articles

Presentations

Storytelling and Knowledge Sharing

Storytelling and Knowledge Sharing - Download as a PDF or view online for free

www.slideshare.net

Podcast

Creativity and Innovation with Stephanie Barnes

Videos

1. YouTube

2. Knowledge Management Playlist

Knowledge Management Australia 2018
KM Russia 2014 — KM and Big Data
KM Russia 2014 Preview
KM Russia 2013
Keynote — ICKE 2011 — South Africa
ICKE 2011 — South Africa
KM Middle East 2011 — Keynote
Knowledge Management Matters: Creativity and Innovation with Stephanie Barnes

3. Globalizing home — one millennial at a time: TEDxMinot

4. KSA2 Interview

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Books

1. Author Page

2. Knowledge Management Matters: Words of Wisdom from Leading Practitioners — editors

Download

Simple Ideas that Worked in Complex Environments — John and JoAnn Girard
The Three Eras of Knowledge Management — Nancy M. Dixon
Putting Stories to Work: Discover — Shawn Callahan
Creativity and Innovation — Stephanie Barnes
When They Leave, Their Knowledge (and Networks) Leave with Them — Paul Corney
Communities Manifesto — Stan Garfield
Knowledge Management and Big Date — Anthony J. Rhem
Towards Knowledge Asset Management — Ron Young
Where is KM Going? — Douglas Weidner
Leading Knowledge Flows and Cocreation for Sustained Future Outcomes — Arthur Shelley

3. A Leader’s Guide to Knowledge Management: Drawing on the Past to Enhance Future Performance

Leading Knowledge iBook

4. Building Organizational Memories: Will You Know What You Knew? — editor

Preface: Toward an Understanding of Organizational Memories

5. Social Knowledge: Using Social Media to Know What You Know — editors

Download
Preface: Toward an Understanding of Social Knowledge

6. Strategic data-based wisdom in the big data era edited with Deanna Klein and Kristi Berg

Preface with Deanna Klein and Kristi Berg: An emerging view of strategic data-based wisdom in the big data era
Chapter 3 with Douglas Weidner: Moneyball for knowledge management