I think “knowledge management” is a bullshit issue. Let me tell you why.
I can give you perfect information, I can give you perfect knowledge and it won’t change your behavior one iota.
People choose not to change their behavior because the culture and the imperatives of the organization make it too difficult to act upon the knowledge.
Knowledge is not the power. Power is power. The ability to act on knowledge is power.
Most people in most organizations do not have the ability to act on the knowledge they possess.
End of story.
Credit: Michael Schrage
Comment:
I came across this quotation from Michael Schrage many years ago, and it has stayed with me ever since. In many ways, it has been one of the driving forces behind my thinking about knowledge management.
We have a remarkably persistent belief that knowledge is power. But knowing something and being able to act on what we know are very different things. I may know exactly what needs to be done and still lack the authority, resources, relationships, confidence or organisational support to do it.
This is one of my long-standing concerns with knowledge management. Too often we assume that if we can somehow get the right information or knowledge to the right people at the right time, better action will follow. It may help, but it is not enough. People can be extremely well informed and still be unable, or unwilling, to act.
This is why Schrage's line, "Knowledge is not the power. Power is power", matters so much to me. The important question is not simply what people know, but what enables or prevents them from acting on what they know.
And I would take his argument one step further. Knowledge is not simply something we possess and then apply. Much of what we come to know emerges through action, experience and conversation with others. The real challenge is not merely getting more knowledge into people's heads. It is creating the conditions in which people can think together, exercise judgement and act.
Posts where this quotation is embedded
- Knowledge Is Not Power Our ability to influence people is power
- The Four Levels of Knowledge Management The relation between Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management
- We Know So Much but Understand So Little It is through conversation we make sense of the world
Image Credits: Pixabay
(Pixabay)Leadership as a practice of convening necessary conversations—ones that often go unsaid. Coaching that supports clarity, presence, and more thoughtful ways of working together.