There was a department re-org at the end of 2010. The project team I’d been on since the summer of 2009 was disbanded and I was assigned to the newly formed Office of Knowledge Management. Looking back, we certainly had the right stuff, but none of us had come from the KM field, proper.

Fast forward to the last week of January 2012. I got the whole team together off-site. We spent four hours in a brand new conference room in the brand new building (pictured) discussing:

• why KM is important to us
• how we want to see our team – and ourselves – advance in the coming year
• what we’ve learned about KM and ourselves in 2011
• what we want to do more (and less) of in 2012.

Me in 3 Words
One of the central tenets of knowledge management is the implementation of systems which allow everyone within the organization to share and access information as they need it. Without this personal empowerment, KM simply cannot exist beyond a line item on a bean counter’s do-not-understand-do-not-care list.

If we’re going to sell the idea of KM to others, we need to demonstrate its value ourselves and scale those processes. I asked the team to share three words they would like to describe them a year from now.

problem solver, teacher, relaxed, knowledgeable, go-to person, approachable, credible, competent, professional, knowledgeable, dependable, expert, expert, helpful, disarming, expert, communicator, mentor

KM in 3 Words
Knowing why KM matters to us, we shifted our focus to reflecting on how KM delivers those benefits to the people. I asked the team to share three words they felt best represented knowledge management.

collaboration, learning, contribution, people, processes, systems, ease of information access, best practices on accurate content, best practices on collaboration, accessible, collaborative, easy, collaborative, just-in-time, easy-to-use, community, accessible, easy

Doing More in 2012
It’s human nature to spot the things we don’t like – the things we should do less of in the coming year – but it’s not so easy to shift into a more positive gear and think about what we need to do more of if we’re to achieve our goals and earn those three descriptors we chose above. This is where the breakthroughs happen.

Here are some of my favorite thoughts from this part of our conversation:

• KM is about teaching people to fish.
• KM is about discovering commonalities in problems.
• KM is about identifying opportunities to re-use solutions.
• KM is about culture-shift; it’s OK to voice problems without solutions.
• KM is about making sure people know why we do things the ways we do.

The New Mission Statement
As we reflected on the struggles of our first year, we began to form a vision for how we will handle our business in 2012. We will gradually shift the corporate culture by empowering people to collaborate and solve problems – together – through intentional knowledge sharing.

Our Mission: We seek to empower people by promoting collaboration, problem-solving, and knowledge sharing.

It’s simple, elegant, and powerful. Those jaded individuals who don’t think we actually empower people know that’s – first and foremost – what we aspire to do. They also know how we seek to do so; by promoting teamwork, problem-solving, and sharing information.

What’s more, not only does this mission statement fully support the larger, more buzzword-addled keyword-rich mission of the entire department, it also serves as a guide for each member of our team. No matter the project proposal, we are ready to help them realize the full power of KM for themselves.

What do you think?
Mission and vision statements tend to get a bad wrap, but what does it take to make them worthwhile? Could you share a meaningful mission or vision statement and tell me why it matters to you?

In the glovebox:

• Community Development: A Simple Content Strategy
• Wyld Stallyns on Community Development
• Social Networking: Is 1 Hour a Day All It Takes?

I'd appreciate hearing what you think about OKM 2.0

Previously, I mentioned a poorly supported community of practice behind the firewall which was showing steady decreases in traffic over time. Fortunately, a small group of early adopters from the business unit approached me about rebooting the community and making it happen. We’ve decided to implement a very basic content strategy.

Ask why
The first thing we did was spend 30 minutes brainstorming why people would ultimately use the community. Once we had a good understanding why people would want to participate, we shifted gears.

How could we present our value proposition in such a way as to make trial of our community easy? We decided we would take turns posting “conversation starters,” discussion threads on timely topics, in the forum.

Schedule
As only three of us were able to attend this first meeting, we decided to come up with three conversation starters; one apiece. For the next three Mondays in a row, we would take turns posting to the forum. Then, each of us would make a point of responding to the discussion, as well as sharing the conversations with other, potentially interested parties across the organization via hyperlink.

Evaluate
We set our “threshold of success” at 9 total forum posts – 1 conversation starter and 2 replies each.  At the end of three weeks (3 February 2012), we will evaluate our progress based on a very loose adaptation of ROI (return on investment).

Did we deliver what we set out to deliver? How many people outside our small group participated? Did our actions inspire anyone to pose their own topic? How did this strategy play out?

In our first week, we made our three posts each (the initial conversation starter plus one reply from the other two of us), but we ended up with 15 total posts, six of which were by people other than us. So, at the risk of inciting the wrath of Olivier Blanchard, we calculated our “ROI” as follows.

(15 posts – 3 posts)/3 posts = 400% “ROI”
(6 posts by others – 3 posts by us)/3 posts by us = 100% “ROI”

*ROI is in quotes here because, as we’re not yet tying this social activity to revenue, this is not actual ROI.

Next steps
We’re very excited at how well this is playing out. So far, for every post one of us makes, someone else in the company replies. Will this trend persist?

Before the end of this week, we’ll be meeting again to come up with our conversation starters for the month of February. We’re also reaching out to various members of management whose staff would be part of this community to get their feedback on potential performance indicators we can keep in mind when brainstorming our new conversation starters.

What do you think?
Have you ever tried anything like this with your community development efforts? What did you do differently? How did things play out for you and your team?

In the glovebox:

• Wyld Stallyns on Community Development
• OKM 2.0
• Social Networking: Is 1 Hour a Day All It Takes?

I'd appreciate hearing what you think about Community Development: A Simple Content Strategy

A visceral hankering for adventure and exploration.
Chris Barba brings his own spin to the world. It’s evident from reading his blog that he appreciates the finite measure of time each of us have been given on this planet. Life is truly too short to not live it to the fullest, exploring the potential within ourselves. I remember coming across his site one day and reading a post akin to Nike’s tagline, Just do it, only moreso.

And speaking of Nike, he had a friend challenge him to run a marathon, he accepted said challenge, prepared to the best of his ability, and did it. Personally, I figure I’m only capable of running to escape large predators in the animal kingdom or catch my car if I’ve neglected to set the parking brake, but Chris shared his experiences with the world and the world is better for it.

Additionally, Chris would like to dedicate this post to a good friend of his, James Dowling, who intentionally lives a life of continuous, fresh perspective to uncover the best possible version of himself.

If you could distill everything you’ve learned so far into a single word of advice to yourself, what would that one word be?

Perspective

Why does this one word mean so much to you?

Perspective is the way we look at the world, and ourselves.  It is a constant reminder of what is possible.  More so, a reminder of the amount of possibilities that really exist.  Whenever we look at stories from our past, moments of our present, or potentials for our future, it is through the lens of one perspective.  That’s just the way we operate as human begins.  But, if we remind ourselves that there are multiple perspectives to be seen, that our reality is malleable, then restrictions become unhinged as we discover new potentials.

How does this one word impact what you do (or want to do) with your life?

Perspective has had a profound impact on my life. It has aided in the transformation of a naive outlook on the world to one of accountability.  I mean this in a couple of ways.  One is that the world we see and know is not the only world that exists.  This may seem rudimentary, but at least for myself, whenever I get caught up in my current reality I begin to lose sight of the fact that other ones exist.  We are the ones who can choose complacency or action.  We can transform our current realities, inspire action in other peoples realities, and take forward steps to creating a world full of growth and positive potential.

These may seem like grand steps, but that’s just one perspective (catch my drift).  The biggest impact this word has had on me was to let go and think outside all my predisposing biases and ideas I have already constructed and have a visceral look at the world.  Like a child seeing everything for the first time, everything is fun, intriguing, and serves a purpose.

What has this word done for you so far?

The idea of perspective has done multiple things on multiple levels of my life.  When rough times begin to pile up, I take a step back and look at these issues in the context of the larger scale of my life.  Like a helicopter propelling up off the ground, once you get high enough, those tiny problems begin to just fade away into the big picture.  Perspective.

Whenever I am having a conversation with another person I attempt to suspend my prejudices and truly see the story from the other person’s standpoint.  Instead of just pulling out bit and pieces of information to confirm what I already believe, I try and use every interaction I have as a tool for growth.  Perspective.

And when I tell myself a story from my past or wonder about a possibility of the future I continually remind myself that the information I am calling on is just one interpretation.  Perspective gives us the ability to think outside that interpretation. This mindset shift has helped me to tell a more empowering story of my past and embrace the unknown potential of what is possible in the future.

You can connect with Danny on thinkchooselive.org, or on Twitter.

(I would encourage you to do so.)

You can browse all published Distillery posts here. 

Distilled Thoughts:

• How do our perspectives impact our potential?
• Can you have any tricks for keeping an open mind?

In the glovebox:

• Danny Brown on Integrity
• Kristian Hahn on Don’t
• Kamil Kaluski on Focus

I'd appreciate hearing what you think about Chris Barba on Perspective

Mind Adventure: Atomic Action in Action – It’s Happening!
(01.20.12)

I love the idea of real meetings of the minds. In just a quick series of back-and-forth emails with a business partner at this end yesterday, we both discovered a whole new ecosystem which could (scratch that) WILL rise up out of this current adventure.

John Falchetto: How to Get Clear About Your Goals
(01.23.12)

Here’s my Big 3 for 2012:

1. Penmanshift.com > Complete beta testing, complete with user feedback on program quality and pricing by the end of April. (Note: 7 beta testers signed up and ready to launch on 6 Feb!) Why? Because this baby seems the quickest way to self-employment which will enable me to devote more time to the rest of my business ecosystem development efforts.

Conversation Agent: The Truth About B2B Social Media Adoption
(01.24.12)

Why would anyone want to read this stuff?
How will the stuff we write help them?
How will we know we’ve helped them?
How will our helping them impact our bottom line?
How do we tie social activity to increased revenue or reduced costs?

If we can’t put our finger on why we’re doing something, why are we even bothering to do it?

Craig McBreen: Can We Discuss Personal Branding & the Power of Authenticity?
(01.24.12)

There is a segment of the population which knows me as “Captain Halfass.” They know me as getting way too drunk in Ohio parking lots, almost getting tazed by Houston PD, and “eyeballing” piston ring end gaps in an otherwise $3,000 high compression engine build.

Want to see more TWICs posts? Thank you for inspiring me this week. Keep going fast with class, pressing on regardless, and doing it yourself (or doing what you can).

In the glovebox:

• TWICs XXI
• TWICs XX
• TWICs, XIX

I'd appreciate hearing what you think about TWICs XXII

Originally a comment over on John Falchetto’s site, these thoughts evolved into something more.

“The person who says it is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.” I think that’s an old Chinese proverb, but it doesn’t matter – it’s so true – and it goes well with another one; “I’d rather regret something I did than something I was afraid to do.” And let’s add another one I picked up from a sales book read long ago, “Do what you fear most and you control fear.”

They say it’s impossible.
They say business exists to make a profit. I say business should exist to make a difference. Profit is the result of making a difference. They say you need to build an audience and monetize with advertising. I say ads suck. Nobody likes ads. We’ll monetize without ads thankyouverymuch. We’ll make a difference.

They say it can’t be done.
Penmanshift isn’t quite finished. I mean, it’s pretty much complete; it’s just not perfect yet. There’s a lot riding on this one. Will our beta testers tell us we kept the promises we made up front? Will they tell us it’s something they could see themselves paying for? Will we be able to polish and market it to actual, paying customers?

They say you can’t have your cake & eat it, too.
Will our day jobs get in the way of delivering the level of service we want this program known for delivering? Will this get in the way of Gearbox? How am I going to keep all these plates spinning into the foreseeable future? Terrifying… but getting done anyway.

They can jog on.
It’s hard stepping away from the warmth of the campfire and the comfort of familiar stories told ’round it over hot cocoa and s’mores, but adventure lies in the dark woods beyond. And adventure is the stuff of new stories. We have the tools we need to succeed and I will not be alone in this next adventure. So long as I believe we will be successful and I am willing to do whatever it takes to deliver on our promises, we will succeed.

Going beyond.
Too many of us are bound by golden handcuffs, locked into ideas we don’t believe in beyond the comfort of predictable income. I’d rather scrape by doing something I love with a limited number of believers than stick with the status quo because it’s more “comfortable.” We travel light, our senses on high alert, ready, willing, and able to take on whatever lies ahead.

Are you striking out into those dark woods alone? I’d love to hear how you’re dealing with the anxiety on your end. 

In the glovebox:

• Gimme a Reason
• Update: Evolution of a Blog
• Truly Visionary Goal-Setting

I'd appreciate hearing what you think about In Search of Adventure