Originally published May 11, 2015

This is my 50th long-form post on LinkedIn. It is a good time to reflect on several other recent milestones.
I now have more than 5,000 followers here in LinkedIn. Thanks to all of you for your continuing interest in my posts.
Links to my KM site and Twitter feed:
SIKM Leaders Community 10th Anniversary
10 years ago at APQC (American Productivity and Quality Center)’s 10th Knowledge Management Conference, held May 5–6, 2005 in St. Louis, I started the SIKM Leaders Community. For more on its history, see A community of practice for knowledge management. Since then, it has grown to 561 members, held 119 monthly calls for knowledge sharing, and discussed many important topics in its discussion board. Here is a list of all calls featuring a presentation.
- 2005–07 Unisys Services KM Program: Paul Rehmet
- 2005–11 Knowledge Enablement in IBM Global Services: Mark May
- 2005–12 Thinking for a Living: Improving the Performance of Knowledge Workers: Tom Davenport
- 2006–01 KM at Cisco Advanced Services: Doug Madgic and Gary Borella
- 2006–02 Building a Knowledge Culture at MindTree Consulting: Raj Datta
- 2006–03 Caterpillar Knowledge Network: Reed Stuedemann
- 2006–04 What blogs and wikis bring to business and knowledge management: Bill Ives
- 2006–05 Making learning & performing routine: Kent Greenes
- 2006–06 Blogging and Knowledge communities — is there a connection?: Jack Vinson
- 2006–07 Eight Strategies for Maximizing the Value of Knowledge Sharing: Sanjay Swarup
- 2006–08 Virtual Collaboration in the Global Enterprise: Brian Gorman
- 2006–09 Discussion on KM: Steve Denning
- 2006–10 How to leverage public education by means of a collaboration strategy: Mike Koffman, Jillian Darwish, and Matt Saddler
- 2006–11 Nurturing Trust — Leveraging Knowledge: Peter West
- 2006–12 Networks and Sensemaking: Themes from Net Work: Patti Anklam
- 2007–01 Demand Driven KM and Ignorance Elimination: Bruce Karney
- 2007–02 Generational differences and their impact on collaboration: Lynn Busby of IBM
- 2007–03 Driving Outstanding Customer Experience to the Bottom Line: Marilyn Martiny
- 2007–04 Modeling Complexity with Value Network Analysis: Verna Allee
- 2007–05 GM Case Study Preview & The KM Domain: Steve Wieneke and Karla Phlypo
- 2007–06 KM for Call Centers: Greg Reid
- 2007–07 Learning and Performing: Rick Wallace of APC
- 2007–08 Business narrative experiences at Anecdote: Shawn Callahan
- 2007–09 The Kingdom of Taxonomy: Patrick Lambe
- 2007–10 Knowledge Harvest Facilitation: Kate Pugh and Nancy Dixon
- 2007–11 Knowledge & Innovation Management: Christian De Neef and Ives De Saeger
- 2007–12 Implementing KM in an ITIL Environment: Stephanie Barnes
- 2008–01 Facilitated Better Practice Transfer: Kent Greenes
- 2008–02 KM Adoption at EDS: Jason Ferguson
- 2008–03 Results from the Fluor Knowvember Campaign: John McQuary and Tara Keithley
- 2008–04 KM at Boeing: Jim Coogan
- 2008–05 Collaboration at Accenture: Stacie Jordan
- 2008–06 KM at 3M: Barry Dayton
- 2008–07 Replacing a Lessons Learned Database with a Visible Learning Process: Steve Wieneke of GM
- 2008–08 Content Supply? Meet Knowledge Demand! The Case for Knowledge Planners: Marc Solomon of PRTM
- 2008–09 Collaborative Networks and the New Enterprise: Hubert Saint-Onge
- 2008–10 Developing, Deepening and Retaining Expertise: Richard McDermott
- 2008–11 KM at ManTech International: John Hovell
- 2008–12 Knowledge Services: A Business Framework for Knowledge Management: Al Simard
- 2009–01 Creating Successful KM Business Plans and Goals: Bernadette Boas
- 2009–02 Impacts of behavior on knowledge transfer and project outcomes: Arthur Shelley
- 2009–03 Building a Knowledge Ecosystem: Raj Datta
- 2009–04 Interviewing Skills for Discovering Unconscious Knowledge: Carl Gaertner
- 2009–05 Adaptive Knowledge Architectures: Andrew Gent
- 2009–06 Managing Knowledge Loss Due to Workforce Attrition: Bill Kaplan
- 2009–07 Understanding our Hidden Diversity: Steve Wieneke
- 2009–08 Sustainable KM: Andrew Gent
- 2009–09 Planning & Running Successful Virtual Meetings: Nancy Settle-Murphy
- 2009–10 Community Metrics: The Novell Approach: Lee Romero
- 2009–11 Using Expertise: The Story So Far: Matt Moore
- 2009–12 Relationship of Learning, Knowledge and Sustaining Innovation: Rick Wallace
- 2010–01 Radical Management: Creating a Safe Space for KM: Steve Denning
- 2010–02 Rethinking Ourselves (KM People) as Technology Stewards: Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John Smith
- 2010–03 Making a Difference: Removing barriers to knowledge flows: Arthur Shelley
- 2010–04 Knowledge transfer toolkit program: Keith De La Rue
- 2010–05 Idea Management at State Farm: Carol Csanda
- 2010–06 Sharing lost know-how — solve thorny problems with the Knowledge Jam: Kate Pugh
- 2010–07 Knowledge Management and Application Domain: Steve Wieneke and Karla Phlypo
- 2010–08 Social Learning: Marcia Conner
- 2010–09 Using Chaos Theory to Enable Real Time Awareness: Thierry Hubert and Bill Ives
- 2010–10 What intranet innovations can do for KM: James Robertson
- 2010–11 Results through Collaboration and KM at Cisco: Doug Madgic
- 2010–12 A Knowledge Agenda: Managing More than Knowledge: Al Simard
- 2011–01 Net-Centric Approach to Tacit Knowledge Management: Michael Brown
- 2011–02 Student-centred KM strategies: Steve Cayzer
- 2011–03 Why do great KM programs fail?: Steve Denning
- 2011–04 Implementing content rating behind the firewall: Dave Thomas
- 2011–05 Knowledge is Fluid; Upcycling Knowledge: Steve Wieneke
- 2011–06 Integrated Knowledge & Learning Organization; Social Task Networks: Karla Phlypo and Stan Rosenschein
- 2011–07 Culture & Adoption and Content Harvesting: Steve Kaukonen and Stacie Brenkovich of Accenture
- 2011–08 Being the convener: facilitating tacit knowledge-sharing: Kate Pugh and Roberto Evaristo
- 2011–09 Knowledge Transfer in a Digital World — The shift is on!: Kent Greenes
- 2011–10 Social Media in the Enterprise: the future is here — how can we make it work?: Tom Short, Mary Abraham, Peter Hobby, and Kate Pugh
- 2011–11 Breaking free from the old structures holding back online KM: Ephraim Freed
- 2012–01 Social networking with text mining and analytics for KM: Ken Martin
- 2012–02 Aligning People, Process and Technology in KM: Stephanie Barnes
- 2012–03 Reflections on KM Practice — 15 months into a KM startup: Richard Vines
- 2012–04 Organizational RQ: Anne Marie Knott
- 2012–05 From Knowledge Stocks to Knowledge Flows — Opportunity & Challenges: John Hagel
- 2012–06 Knowledge Manageability: Al Simard
- 2012–07 Search Analytics: Understanding the Long Tail: Lee Romero
- 2012–08 Engaging for KM Success: Build, Maintain, Outperform: Jeff Hester
- 2012–09 Graphic Facilitation: Nancy White
- 2012–10 Community Leadership: Curtis Conley and Lori Brown
- 2012–11 Hosted Enterprise Metadata: Russell Manley
- 2012–12 Too Big to Know: David Weinberger
- 2013–01 Getting Beyond Simple Social: Thomas Vander Wal
- 2013–02 Trends in knowledge management: Carla O’Dell and Cindy Hubert of APQC
- 2013–03 Leading Effective Virtual Teams: Nancy Settle-Murphy
- 2013–04 Judgment and Practical Wisdom: Larry Prusak
- 2013–05 Taking Knowledge Flow Management to the Next Level with Social Media: Frank Leistner and Gordon Vala-Webb
- 2013–06 Knowledge Sharing at ConocoPhillips: Dan Ranta
- 2013–07 Learning at BAE Systems: John Hovell
- 2013–08 A win-win: Bridging Theory with Practice via Columbia Capstone project: Linda Hummel
- 2013–09 Organizational Conversation: David Gurteen
- 2013–10 KM and Happiness at Work: Alexis Adair
- 2013–11 Where to Look for Knowledge Management Success: Murray Jennex
- 2013–12 3 Eras of KM: Where Has it Been and Where is it Going?: Nancy Dixon
- 2014–01 Building Community: A Conversation on planning, stewardship, and keeping it human: Catherine Shinners
- 2014–02 When Tacit and Explicit Knowledge aren’t Enough: Steve Wieneke
- 2014–03 Get in the Game: Driving Exceptional Behaviours Through Gamification: Thomas Hsu and Steve Kaukonen
- 2014–04 Best Practices for Knowledge Transfer in Mergers & Acquisitions: Thomas Blumer
- 2014–05 Facilitating ideation with external open collaborative communities: Karla Phlypo
- 2014–06 Enhancing Knowledge Flows with ESN: Gordon Vala-Webb
- 2014–07 Losing Your Minds: Capturing, Leveraging & Retaining Organizational Knowledge: Bill Kaplan
- 2014–08 The Right KM Technologies for Your Enterprise: Tony Byrne
- 2014–09 Knowledge Management: A Benchmark Study of Contemporary Practices: Marcie Zaharee and Marilyn Kupetz of MITRE
- 2014–10 Yammer Groups & Business Value: Does size matter?: Lee Romero
- 2014–11 The Other KM Adoption Challenge: Mary Abraham
- 2014–12 The Yin and Yang of Knowledge Management: Al Simard
- 2015–01 Doing More with Less: The Impact of Strategic Capability Mapping on Enterprise Resource Allocation (Sales, R&D, Manufacturing): Roberto Evaristo
- 2015–02 How Great KMers are Innovation Conveners: Kate Pugh
- 2015–03 Key cultural practices & dimensions that drive services differentiation: Doug Madgic and Andre Karamanian
- 2015–04 BAE Systems KM: US & UK perspectives: John Hovell and Andrew Muras
- 2015–05 What can KM learn from Sports Science?: Cory Banks
Weekly KM Blog Archives Restoration
I recently began restoring the archives of my Weekly KM Blog, which ran from 2006–2008, first on Line56 and then on hp.com. The precursor to the blog was my article Setting up a KM Program: A wealth of resources and guidelines, which was published on February 8, 2006 on Line56. Here is a version with updated links.
Priorities for setting up a KM Program
- Put a strong KM leader in place, and ensure that the KM team has only strong members.
- Balance people, process, and technology, with a project leader for each category.
- Establish a governance and collaboration process to engage all regions and functions, and to formally manage and communicate on all projects — appoint KM leaders in each major country, region, and function.
- Hold annual worldwide face-to-face meetings to get all KM leaders informed, energized, and collaborating.
- Communicate regularly through newsletters, training, web sites, and local events.
- Get the senior executive to communicate regularly about the importance of the program and to inspect progress against goals.
- Engage with other KM programs, both internal and external, to share ideas and practice what you preach.
- Focus on delivering tangible business benefits.
- Deliver regular improvements to make the KM environment effective and easy to use.
- Focus on three basic goals, and stick to the basics — participate in a community, collaborate using team spaces, and search for and submit reusable content.
KM Strategy (Tips for starting a KM or ESN program)
- Get all employees to actively participate in knowledge sharing and reuse.
- Capture key information on all work performed so that everyone will know what others have done and whom to contact for further details.
- Reuse intellectual capital on each new project.
- Make it easy for employees to find the information they need to do their jobs.
- Measure and reward knowledge sharing and reuse.
Goals of Knowledge Management (KM Benefits)
- Avoid redundant effort.
- Avoid making the same mistakes twice.
- Take advantage of existing expertise and experience.
- Make it easy to find information and resources.
- Communicate important information widely and quickly.
- Provide methods, tools, templates, examples, & data to streamline business.
- Make scarce expertise widely available.
- Show customers how knowledge is used for their benefit.
- Stimulate innovation and growth.
- Make the best problem-solving experiences reusable.
KM Resources
- Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organizations by Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell
- Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know by Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak
- Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performances And Results from Knowledge Workers by Thomas H. Davenport
- The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative by Stephen Denning
- Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know by Nancy M. Dixon
- CompanyCommand: Unleashing the Power of the Army Profession by Nancy M. Dixon, Nate Allen, Tony Burgess, Pete Kilner and Steve Schweitzer
- If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice by Carla O’Dell and C. Jackson Grayson
- Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations by Thomas A. Stewart
- The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-first Century Organization by Thomas A. Stewart
- Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge by Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, & William M. Snyder
- Ark Group: Inside Knowledge
- destinationKM
- Gurteen Knowledge-Letter
- Journal of Knowledge Management
- KMWorld
- KnowledgeBoard Newswires
- K Street Directions
- Melcrum KM Review
- Montague Institute Review
- Steve Denning’s newsletter about organizational storytelling