Elite athletes, by definition, have followed the master’s path to achieve their elite level. And we all know that the better you get at something - anything - the harder it is to continue to make gains. The plateau gets wider and wider, and the improvements at the end of the plateau get [...]
Following on my closing thoughts on re-invention yesterday, I’d like to point you to some thoughts on the subject from Jim McGee earlier this year. Back in February, Jim wrote Get Better at Reinventing the Wheel, which carried the subtitle To succeed with knowledge management, organizations should focus on getting better at reinventing the [...]
While mastery in one area isn’t necessarily transferable to another, experts in different fields can quite effectively share their expertise to help each improve. The story A Hospital Races to Learn Lessons of Ferrari Pit Stop (subscription required) in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal tells the story of how surgeons at Britain’s Great Ormond Street [...]
On 3-4 November, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith hosted the 2006 Frontier Trails BEST Regional competition. (You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the success of the Robohobos at the St. Louis hub event, Billiken BEST.) I’d like to extend my congratulations to [...]
At what point does passion (typically seen as a “good” thing) become obsession (typically regarded as a “bad” thing)? At what point does the achievement of mastery lose its value because you’ve “cheated” to get there? And why are some things considered cheating (for instance, performance enhancing drugs) and some are not (for [...]
While visiting my in-laws this past weekend, I was flipping through some old copies of Birds and Blooms magazine, looking at some landscaping ideas (and the excellent bird photography). On the inside back cover of one issue was a story by a woman who recounted how her grandmother had taught her how to get [...]
Dance, like the martial arts, is one of those areas where you learn some steps, learn a routine, and perform it relatively well, but not be able to actually apply that routine to another situation. You haven’t really learned to dance, you’ve learned a dance.
This is reflective of how organizations go about knowledge management: Some want to manage their knowledge, and some want a knowledge management system. The latter is easy to do, anyone will sell you a knowledge management system. Actually understanding what your organization knows and being able to use it to further your organization’s goals, on the other hand, is a master’s journey that, unfortunately, too few seem willing to take.
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