knowldgWORKS Short Number 2March 25, 2000
Collect Some Wisdom Today
As I make my way to San Francisco today, I have had time to do
some of the things that I usually don't have much time to do. One of these activities I call "Wisdom Collection". Because I receive many publications, just as you probably do, I save up these publications to read in a
batch. Although most of what I do is skim, sometimes an article will attract my attention enough to read it, and this usually pays off because I discover one or more pearls of wisdom that I can take home with me and
save for some future use at some future time.
For example, one of the articles I read addressed to growing chasm between the haves and have-nots in our country and how the gap is growing in a significant way.
And in this discussion the writer points out that perhaps because we are not giving access to the group of people that need information technology the most, namely the kids, that we are missing a tremendous opportunity.
It will be these kids that create the future of our economy, one way or another and do we want these kids to be only consumers of what can be consumed or do we want to engage them in also creating what can be consumed.
Have you ever noticed that a kid can out imagine a typical adult? We are missing an opportunity here because we are not taking advantage of this fertile resource. To me, this is a kind of wisdom – it makes me think
about the possibilities and what I might do to take advantage of this opportunity.
Wisdom can come in tiny little packets, as in quotes that might be scattered throughout a publication. One I encountered today
was, "If you don't make dust, you eat dust" attributed to the CIO of Home Depot. This makes a lot of sense to me. Obviously making dust is a good thing especially in the home improvement business.
On my quest
for wisdom today I read a case study of how one company aligned its information technology efforts to its business efforts. Any one knowing anything about information technology these days knows that alignment is the
name of the game. If you are not aligned, you can't support the business. If you are not supporting the business then you might have nothing to support in the end. At the end of this case study was a neat little
ten-question evaluation of how you tell whether an organization is aligned or not? It certainly is not the $22 million that can be spent on an evaluation of alignment by one of the big five consulting firms, but it is a
quick and dirty evaluation. Oh, if anyone is reading this from a big five, I will be happy to tell you where I found this tidbit so long as I get a cut of the $22 million you will charge for using it.
So what's
my point? Quite simply, collecting wisdom is an important part of managing personal knowledge. So I would recommend this activity to anyone wanting to strengthen his or her personal knowledge management activities. And
when you uncover a pearl, share it with someone and in doing so create a community that can leverage the wisdom that is discovered.
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Published
by Dr. Randy M. Kaplan, and ACCSYS Corporation.
This newsletter is the property of ACCSYS Corporation. No part may be reproduced in any form or media without permission from ACCSYS Corporation. Copyright (c) 1999-2000
ACCSYS Corporation. All rights reserved.
