Monday 22 December 2008

LtF Chapter 14 - Review of the book

This chapter offers a quick summary of how the book was written and what the authors learned in the process.

Time similarly for a review of this blogging exercise.

Firstly - in purely practical terms - it took a little longer to get through the book than originally planned. Two chapters a week was fine until I had a health blip and a bit of leave. I found it very hard to regain momentum after this. I think the longer time frame made it harder to "read" the text as a whole and the later chapters were less well considered and connected than the earlier ones. Certainly a quick look shows I had less to say as the exercise went on.

I found the process of writing the entries not too onerous and helpful in terms of ordering my thoughts. I plan to go back and consider if any of the ideas I came up with at the time merit further investigation.

Overall the book was very helpful. I have often found KM too nebulous a concept or one that seemed rather faddish in use. The examples in the text and in particular the tools and techniques presented make this an altogether more concrete under taking.

I had some very interesting discussions with colleagues inspired by things I had read - all be it that these rarely happened on the blog. Perhaps the commenting facilities in blogger are too clumsy? I also had the pleasure of being contacted by both the authors and various members of the community of interest around the book.

I also identified a whole stack of other things I might like to read (though this is nothing new).

I am not sure if this is a method I will reuse often but I can definitely see me doing it again on occasion. I plan to continue to use this blog for KM related thinking.

Tuesday 16 December 2008

LtF Chapter 13 - Embedding it in the organization - preparing to let go


This chapter deals with how KM practices and processes can be established and become the culture. It revolves around an example of this in action.

Five stages of are suggested:

Awareness : Start : Consolidate : Embed : Support

These can be related to other models around change management.

A useful point is how the various KM initiatives underway in this area do not use the term KM. This is in line with discussions in the KM community of practice on NHS CfH ESpace. KM surely has to be within the strategy and business planning of others not a discrete entity in itself.

An example is worked through around Operations and exploiting the common factors in diverse business groups. It refers back to various tools like the river diagram and learning gap analysis that this enables. 25 areas of common practice were identified. A useful tip was around using a requirement to both offer and request help (3 of each in the example) as a way of breaking down peoples reluctance to ask for assistance. A form of peer pressure is applied through this encouraging sharing.

The chapter closes with a reflection point - where are the knowledge gaps for your organization. I think that is something I need to think about offline!

Tuesday 25 November 2008

LtF Chapter 12 - Leveraging what we know

Generously Blogger has attributed the last post to the day I wrote the first line of it. My apologies for the long break in the scheduled posts. This post will now appear late also to add to the confusion.

This longer chapter looks at how we can capture knowledge. More specifically it considers the benefit of distilling experience into Knowledge Assets. This reflects the fact that often the same thing will happen in many places so a core message can be defined.

A good area for a Knowledge Asset for most NHS organisations (and their librarians) at present would be around bid processes. While bids are always important the current organisational environment makes successful bidding key. The potential is there to share learning across the organisation around this topic.

Thursday 20 November 2008

Learning to Fly Chapter 11 - Networking and communities of practice

Back to the book after some much needed recovery time.

The chapter considers how people network and the establishment of communities of practice. I like the definition of different types of communities:

  • C of Interest - linked through hobbies, sports etc
  • C of Practice - working together around an area of knowledge and competence (enabling)
  • C of Commitment - networks accountable for acheiving a clear goal (delivering)
The importance of the coordinator role is interesting when again we consider the proposed Team Knowledge Officer role for NHS organisations. Might these people be the ones charged with coordinatoring CoP/C?

The importance of face to face meeting very much chimes with my experience. You just need to meet people from time to time.

I have been involved a few times of late with attempts to create documents collectively. Thus far my conclusion is that (at least in my networks) people are not comfortable with Wikis - people will read but very few will edit.

Generally I think the chapter has some good tips on working in networks and in particular how to keep these running.

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Failing to Post - Chapter 1

Apologies for my failure to post this week. I have been severely afflicted by the dreaded lurgy. I honestly cannot imagine I am going to feel up to completing my LtF posting for a few days. Normal service will hopefully be resumed in the middle of next week.

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Tuesday 4 November 2008

LtF Chapter 10 - Finding the right people


A chapter describing the benefits of having a corporate yellow pages. There is some sound advice about how to encourage participation (include the personal, build organically through champions etc) and some nice examples of how these have been used.

I find it hard to get excited about this. I think this is in great part due to seeing the technical issues that would be involved and the degree of challenge of getting people on board. I would want something that built onto a system that had to exist anyway - the email directory for example.

I think for a lot of areas the people they really need to know are their direct teams and they will know them through constant contact. I am not sure that within the organisation there is the degree of changing project work where people would not know each other. This would obviously be different for specific parts of the NHS.

The NHS Health Informatics Espace might support some of this functionality for health informatics staff but it feels clunky. You can search peoples profiles but have to click into each one to see any detail for example. Equally there are barriers to participation - despite being registered I cannot access one of the areas listed in the top navigation of the site (Sharing Experiences) - not very conducive to sharing!

Quote for the day (found through unrelated reading) "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Samuel Beckett.

Monday 3 November 2008

LtF Chapter 9 - Learning after doing

A weekend at UEA for the annual Pirates versus Old Boys knowledge sharing exercise (ahem). Once again the current students learnt a great deal about how to play American Football through the invaluable method of actually having a go. Best of luck to the Pirates for the season ahead.


Not much to say about this chapter. It is a fairly detailed framework for a larger end of project learning event described as a "retrospect". The key thing I would pull out of it is the importance of linking it in so the information gathered is available to future projects. One place I could see this usefully applied would be in work around Map of Medicine. As pathways are refined and localised there is the potential for speeding up the process by capturing learning after each one is completed.

Tuesday 28 October 2008

LtF Chapter 8 - Learning Whilst Doing


Half term week makes for rapid and quiet bus rides - ideal for zipping through this brief chapter detailing the use of After Action Reviews.

These were developed by the US army during the war in Vietnam as a rapid means to learn in the field. (The image on this page is from the US Military Flickr account and is of an AAR taking place in Iraq). The full details of how these are operated in the army are published online "A Leader's Guide to After Action Reviews".

It boils down to four questions:
  • What was supposed to happen?
  • What actually happened?
  • Why were there differences?
  • What can we learn from that?
It is a quick process - around twenty minutes and to be carried out in the immediate aftermath of whatever you are examining. Most of the documenting is of the actions.

I like these a lot and I am certainly going to try and make use of them within my working life.

I wonder to what extent this sort of practice is formalised in processes around care? It should be happening around adverse incidents and near misses but what about in the everyday? Organisationally we are working on the Productive Ward model. Having a quick scan of the documents there are loops for learning but I wonder if it might benefit from the rapid feedback that an AAR would bring?

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Monday 27 October 2008

LtF Chapter 7 - Learning from your peers


Half distance in the book and another chapter of practical advice around a technique - in this instance "Peer Assists".

Compared to the benchmarking exercises described in the previous chapter I found this technique harder to grasp. Perhaps because the scale of investment in time and people seems that much greater.

The Peer Assist is a means to share experience and knowledge around a topic. It is convened by those undertaking the work and is very much a request for help. It should happen early in a project to allow for maximum gain in terms of applying any lessons learnt. It is suggested that they may well take between one and two days to complete. There is a balancing act in terms of the people in attendance to get diverse enough views that fruitful learning can take place and assumptions be challenged, without things being so diverse that it is hard to know where to start. You also need people at the right level.

12 steps are laid down for planning a Peer Assist and these are explained in some detail. They seem a reasonable framework. Ideally it is suggested that you attend a Peer Assist as a participant before you organise one. So a case of asking around for someone who has participated or of getting in someone externally to run a trial?

Rolling peer assists are described as a means of dealing with larger groups or shorter time frames. Here people rotate in small groups with sharing of background / the issue repeated for each group. I was actually involved in something like this as part of the evidence gathering work for the CILIP Public Health Policy Statement. We used a rotation around four boards to gather views around a number of questions related to how librarians and libraries can / could contribute to Public Health. A scribe in each corner noted peoples comments providing something for people to build on. Unfortunately this was on a very short time frame as we were in a fringe meeting slot at Umbrella so the groups rotated roughly every ten minutes (indicated by me shouting "Bong" at the top of my lungs hence the image on this post!). From experience I can definitely say that a more structured version of this with a little more time available could be excellent.

I wonder if these quick hit type peer assists might be more manageable as a starter within our library networks. The peers could be from outside our network area but it might well be interesting to bring in those from other sectors (public libraries etc) or indeed people from outside the profession. Locally I suspect that the service redesign team will already have skills in these techniques (all be it perhaps under another name).

Wednesday 22 October 2008

LtF Chapter 6 - Connecting sharers with learners

First of the tools chapters - the focus is on the use of self assessment as a means to identify potential knowledge sharing opportunities.

It is suggested that a common language be established through benchmarking. The NHS is full of acronyms, NHS speak and the professional jargons of all the groups that work within it. A way to break through this sounds good.

As mentioned in my last post I spent the afternoon today at an event to launch a toolkit designed to share examples of where NHS Knowledge & Library Services are contributing to NHS goals and objectives. This is very much about making our case in a language that is clearer to other NHS staff. There were some great examples of how getting the right information can change lives and save money. I am not sure if the case studies include any of benchmarking but this might well be an area worth investigation.

In terms of developing a self assessment framework one option would be a stripped out version of the National Service Framework . I suspect we could probably thrash out a smaller subset of things we felt really matter. Based on this framework we would then have a chance to do a lot of the kind of work then described in this chapter. The techniques and methods of illustration are practical. The river diagram is particularly appealing. It is similar to the kind of diagrams generated by the LIBQUAL+ process which uses a circular variant to illustrate the gap between user ratings of a service and the service level they desire.

Trying this all out on health library services would be a great way to learn more about how the process works in practice. This could then be applied elsewhere in the organisation.

The chapter concludes with various examples of the process in action. All in all a very positive read with clear applications.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

LtF Chapter 5 - Getting started - just do it!

Back from leave and taking the plunge straight into Chapter 5 which looks nice and short.


First suggestion - start where the business is. I have this very much in mind as I am speaking at the launch of the Alignment Toolkit tomorrow afternoon. This is an initiative aimed at demonstrating how knowledge services align with, and impact on, NHS priorities. I am looking forward to hearing about examples of being 'where the business is' and am sure there will be some great ideas to follow up.

First reflection point - What do you need to learn? I am struggling to know where to start with this. I can think of many things I could do with learning. Off the top of my head - why do some people use our services a lot and others in similar roles not at all? I have to run a workshop for my Directorate on organisational learning early next year and this would certainly make a good question for debate.

Slightly frustrating to find the book again looking ahead a few chapters discussing a tool we are yet to learn much about (After Action Reviews).

Next reflection point - what is the best environment in your organisation for Knowledge Sharing? I am fairly sure that technology is not going to be the solution on this one. We have a number of technological means of knowledge sharing already in place and these definitely don't reach all parts. The idea of a physical, visual presence is appealing. It would definitely have to be addressed through teams. A case by case approach would be required. The book suggests Knowledge Managers need to be communicators and I would heartily agree with that.

This ends the first section of the book and we move into tools and techniques with Chapter 6.

Tuesday 14 October 2008

LtF Chapter 4 Getting the environment right

Last chapter for this week and we move on to managing the environment in which KM will take place.

First on the list is tackling barriers to sharing. One of these that will immediately ring bells for health folk is that of technology. This is a barrier to a variable extent in the NHS. My organisation has a good
setup technology wise in terms of the base position though our knowledge sharing tools could do with some work (more on this later). However, in common with most workplaces, there is some work still to do on equipping everyone with the skills to make the most of this. Things definitely get more difficult technically speaking when we move to collaboration with colleagues in other organisations in our patch. Another barrier identified in the text is that of a culture of not asking for help - not sure how much this applies in health. Certainly health librarians have a culture of seeking help from peers.


The discussion in the book of systems for sharing at BP sounds like a major set up. However most of use operate in a Microsoft world due to the national agreement. In terms of the Reflection Point the big problem I see in my organisation is the profusion of places that people can share information. By my count we have no less than three organisation wide points where people can share documents. There will then be a multitude of other departmental and team based systems. Resolving these into an effective system with good information retrieval will take some doing but would undoubtedly address issues around information sharing.

The book then turns to processes and specifically working with peers - either to peer review, peer assist or in sharing groups. Some of these remain to be defined. Within the reflection point an example I can think of is work in my organisation to training a group of people to act as catalysts for service efficiency improvement. This is can be a case of fresh eyes / perspectives and sharing knowledge which fits with these ideas.

Considering behaviours we need to think about how people can be encouraged both to seek and offer help. This is something I plan to take up within my directorate structure as there are a number of functions involved in the kinds of roles where we will be more effective if people ask for our assistance. An example of a positive feedback for those seeking help would be to ensure that the quality of evidence in support of a clinical policy was noted when it was submitted for approval. Other behaviours discussed are active listening (helpful) and challenging assumptions (harder).

Leadership is another part of the environment for consideration. The questions set by the Centrica directors are good ones. I would be happy to see these in action consistently. Supporting new starters in the organisation with more than just corporate induction seems like another excellent idea. This could be applied within health library networks (perhaps growing from the London Health Libraries induction) and might be a means to address some of the knowledge gaps created by staff turnover.

A number of examples are then discussed: a school, change at BNFL and the UN AIDS programme. I found the school example the most powerful in terms of the examples cited and the impact that sprang from them.

The chapter closes with a recap of the main seven threads to consider when preparing an environment for knowledge sharing / management. I find it interesting that in contrast to the chapter that treats technology first this is relegated to the final point on the list.

I am out of the office for a couple of days either side of the weekend so expect a later posting date for next weeks two chapters.

Monday 13 October 2008

LtF Chapter 3: The holistic model

Freakishly quiet on the bus this morning. This was a good thing as the glorious weekend weather saw me do none of the reading I needed to for today. I did get to try out my new garden waste incinerator which I can heartily recommend. Moving swiftly on to the text...

The chapter looks to build a model that can then be modified to fit other situations. The model described is focused on learning throughout the progression from business objectives to results. Previously captured Knowledge is applied during the doing phase and renewed through and after it.

This seems fairly self evident to me but encouraging people to think in this way would be constructive. Research before actually launching into something is easily missed. Lessons learnt afterwards are far from regularly captured and shared. The how will be interesting. Perhaps a format for structured reflection that is then searchable and shared? I agree that success stories can lead to a positive cycle of sharing.

I think the key would be how you sustain these behaviours. I can see lots of opportunity for good intentions and interesting projects that then falter in the face of other pressures. Staff turnover would also be an issue leaving behind orphaned "knowledge assets" and an induction burden.

A closing quote "When we define where we want to be, all our actions turn out to be congruent with that place" reminds me of Irrationality by Stuart Sutherland. Well worth a read (if rather repetitious) Sutherland would rephrase this as "When we define where we want to be, we tend to ignore the evidence that does not fit with our view".

This chapter still often points ahead rather than including much detail. At least the points to skip ahead to are clear but I am left wanting more.

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Tuesday 7 October 2008

LtF Chapter 2: What is Knowledge Management?

A chapter with a big agenda.

The authors emphasise the cultural aspects of knowledge sharing and present a continuum (devised by Larry Prusak) ranging from Capture (codification of knowledge - documenting) throught to Connectivity (softer cultural and collaboration aspects).

1st Reflection point - where is the largest prize for my organization and where should we invest our effort?

I think it may be that the big reward will come from improving the connectivity type aspects. An enormous amount of capture and documentation is generated both within my organization and in the wider NHS / research settings. Often people do not know where to start with all this, how to cope with the flows of information or locate things they are dimly aware of. I definitely think there would be a benefit to the organisation of my team working to map and make more visible a lot of this stuff. Part of this would have to be about developing peoples skills in coping with information flows.

A definition of tacit versus explicit knowledge follows. Placed in the context of the Wilson article (I think I may refer to this regularly) this seems broadly OK. Explicit Knowledge can be written down (Information). Tacit cannot - it is what we have in our heads.

The importance of maintaining up to date information through the application and testing of knowledge is held up and that a network is a good way to do this (possibly a facilitated one). This is interesting as it points to a potential role for us - for example we can help seed a review of a local policy by supplying relevant new evidence to the relevant person. It might also tie into how we might use the Team Knowledge Officers proposed by the Hill Review?

I think we could safely put librarianship in the People AND Process AND Technology diagram but then you could put most modern work in that overlap. I am not sure how multimedia and videoconferencing would make tacit knowledge more widely available however since the whole problem is that this cannot be readily expressed.

The next section touches on the variety of KM 'solutions' on the market place. A holistic view is suggested with what looks like the Learning by Doing cycle I spend my life handing to student nurses (5 minutes later someone asks for that very book - spooky). The suggestion is that any documentation of this learning should be very brief - sounds reasonable. The learning also needs to be easy to reapply if it is to be used.

More discussion around defining knowledge which perhaps falls foul of Wilson - the example uses some information from frequent flyers - it is hardly knowledge. A barrage of definitions follows Know-how, Know-why, Know-what, Know-who, Know-where and Know when. I am not entirely sure about what to make of this - I guess it provides a set of categories to work with.

Four conditions are suggested as being required to create an environment where KM can flourish (given that the authors acknowledge Knowledge cannot be Managed!). They seem like quite a big agenda from where I am sitting.

The final major chunk relates to how we move from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence. This is quite a widely circulated model and is suggested as a means to embed KM. Later in the book we should meet some tools to help with this.

That will do for today - maybe some fresh thoughts tomorrow. Comments welcome.

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LtF - Chapter 1 Setting the context

A nice short and summary packed chapter to kick off.

The chapter opens by discussing how we go about building knowledge in everyday life and highlights starting with simple questions.

The first exercise is to consider the process around your last car purchase. Hard for me to comment as I have never bought one - I know not a whole lot about them and care little. But the answer to the underlying question - how much effort do you put into getting a big purchase right versus making a decision at work - is more straightforward. I tend to put quiet a lot of effort into researching my options before making decisions. I suspect this is a fairly common trait amongst librarians - we like to look around an issue before taking the plunge.

The rest of the chapter is a summary of what lies ahead. I am not going to rehash it here!

The chapter closes with another exercise - three questions that occur to me.

1. How are they going to define knowledge?

2. How many of the practical ideas are going to be heavily IT based?

3. Why can't school children just sit quietly on the bus?

I suspect that only one of these will be answered in the next chapter...

Monday 6 October 2008

Learning to Fly - getting started

Back from leave and ready to start reading Learning to Fly. I got back lateish yesterday and therefore only managed a quick spin through the first chapter on the bus this morning. Rather than wade straight in I plan to run my eye over it (and chapter 2) again on the way home tonight / on the bus tomorrow morning).

I will probably post my reflections on the exercises denoted by a bird along with other commentary.

Final thought for today - I suspect from the introductory sections that the definition of Knowledge is going to be a bit vulnerable to the criticisms discussed previously.

Happy reading...

Thursday 25 September 2008

On your marks?

My next post to this blog will be about the first couple of chapters of Learning to Fly (the opus by Mrs Beckham of the same name still available for 1p from Amazon I note).

If anyone has decided to join in then you will be very welcome to comment on the post. I have made this as easy as possible so you do not need to register, use your own name (thinks - I can have a debate on my own if needs be) and I have left moderation off so there will be no delay between you typing your nugget of insight and it appearing for all.

Questioning attitudes are very welcome!

Tuesday 16 September 2008

The Nonsense of KM - thoughts and jottings

Apologies for the delayed nature of this post. I started it over a week ago and then various things intervened. Onwards...

When I advertised my plan to read some KM materials (hopefully) in the company of colleagues I received a range of responses. One of these reminded me about my own scepticism regarding the topic. The other pointed me to a paper by Prof Tom Wilson (2002) The nonsense of knowledge management Information Research, 8(1), 2002, paper no. 144.

I had the pleasure of studying at Sheffield where Prof Wilson was for a long time the Head of Department and was pleased to be reminded of a paper of which I had vague recollections.

The paper takes a number of tacks to dismiss KM.

Firstly it examines questions around definitions - particularly that of knowledge. For Wilson lack of clarity around the definition of 'knowledge' has seen the term used interchangeably adn erroneously in place of 'information'. He also identifies an issue in the explanation by Nonaka (see posts past) of the concept of Tacit knowledge being potentially capturable and hence made explicit. Tacit knowledge for Wilson is in line with the original definition by Polanyi - something inexpressible and indwelling where by we acheive comprehension.

He next examines a range of papers found in Web of Science (1981-2002) located by a simple search for "Knowledge Management" in the title. Many of the papers located are clearly identifiable as being related to data or information management and to expert systems. Often the papers were part of theme issues and appeared to have knowledge substituted for information. It would be interesting to see how a similar study would fair with more recent literature? Perhaps there would be fewer papers with KM less in fashion or the papers located would be of a higher quality and not just rehashed papers from other topics. Wilson does identify a weakness in his search in that it only includes established titles - he does how ever examine some of the then more recent KM specific titles. These did not appear to always be of a high standard and it would be good to have a look at these again now to see how many continue to be published and in what form.

An attempt is then made to examine what the major consulting firms are saying about KM - on the theory that they are likely to be selling this. Wilson concurs with the views presented by some of the independents working in the field including Sveiby who he quotes as saying "I don't believe knowledge can be managed. KM is a poor term, but we are stuck with it". Moving onto the big corporates he tends to find them either selling IM systems in KM clothing, or not defining terms or moving on to other things.

Wilson then turns to the syllabi of major business colleges to see how they are approaching the topic. He finds little evidence of anything substantive or distinct from Information Management.

A discussion follows around the extent to which KM is just "Search and replace" marketing for old IM software. There is also a much clearer explanation than I gave of the tacit knowledge definition question.

In the concluding discussion Prof Wilson points to an interesting example close to home. "I've been told that the NeLH uses the term 'Knowledge' because in the NHS information=data". I have certainly encountered this issue.

So what to make of it? Certainly it is a convincing paper. It would be interesting to see how the literature developed over the intervening years and indeed how KM may have developed. Given the issue around 'information' in the NHS we might well make a case for trying to turn the K term to our advantage. If KM is marketing puff then why not make it a useful marketing puff for ourselves? I certainly look forward to going on to read Learning to Fly to see whether there is something more than the nonsense identified by Prof Wilson.

PS Interestingly I note that Blogger has kept the date I started the post rather than acknowledging the date I published it - bug or feature? In this case it shows up over a week of delay!

Thursday 11 September 2008

A reading list elsewhere

One of the blogs I read regularly is Tame The Web - a world of enthusiasm and good ideas. The blogger Michael Stephens is a big advocate of all things 2.0. You can borrow a copy of the Library Technology Reports issue he wrote "Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software" from WHP (though it is currently being read by one of my team).

His
latest post is a reading list for a course he runs in his role as a
library school professor.



One of my favorite things to do is read current technology-related or cultural books and apply the concepts to how libraries might adapt or tap into the trends. This semester we’ll try it as a group.

Very much chimed with what I hope we can do here. More than a few things on the list I would like to read though only one I have "Good to great".

Tuesday 9 September 2008

Nonaka and Takeuchi - urm?


I mentioned in a previous post that I had already read Nonaka and Takeuchi "The knowledge creating company" . In fact I have read it twice. I gave it a go not long after I started in the NHS and I reread it earlier this year. You can access a chunk of it via Google Books.

I would have to say that I am yet to get to grips with it. To give you an idea try this summary / review by a software programmer. I am fairly sure I won't come up with a better one. The key is that "Knowledge creation is the process of making tacit knowledge explicit". This book did much to popularise the concepts of tacit and explicit knowledge.

I think I get a bit lost in all the theory in the book - garbage can models, sensemaking, Schumpeter, Hayek and so on. I tend to follow the arguments at the time I read them and then they drop away from me.

There are some great stories in the book - particularly about generating new ideas. One thing that I liked was the concept of redundancy. The idea is that you have more information than you immediately need - something most librarians are invariably involved in supplying.



Wednesday 3 September 2008

First Set Text - Learning to Fly

The text I want to consider first is the book Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organizations by Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell.






It has a good reputation, is by a UK author and was recommended by my director. As of this post there are copies held at three other LHL services (NWP, KI and WHP) all be it not all of them being the 2004 revised edition I am using. Using "What's in London's Libraries" there are a few copies available for loan via the Public Library route. Failing that it is in print and available from £13.99 new (www.amazon.co.uk) or less for a used copy.

There are some 14 chapters and a number of appendices. For the purposes of this exercise it is my intention to read and reflect on a couple of chapters a week.

To give anyone who fancies joining in a chance to get hold of a copy / allow me to clear a few things first I plan to start in October (to be more precise week beginning 6th October).

Please note if anyone wants to read Learning to Fly by Victoria Beckham instead please feel free to update me with any key conclusions for health librarians.

What is the plan?

I need to get to grips with Knowledge Management (KM).




While KM is hardly a new buzz term it seems to be one that is now impacting in the NHS. If nothing else it is cropping up frequently at meetings I attend (not just those populated by librarians). I have the K word in my job title and KM in my job description. I also need to prepare a strategy for my service and feel that KM should potentially be part if not at the heart of it.

I have a basic idea about KM concepts (tacit and explicit knowledge and so on) and have read a few texts - for example - Nonaka & Takeuchi "The Knowledge Creating Company" (available via WHP if you feel like having your mind blown).

I plan to use this blog to reflect on my reading (hopefully with colleagues) and see what might be brought into practice.

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Hello world!

Welcome to an experiment.