Focused Communications in Knowledge Management

In previous posts I have discussed communications plans and stakeholder management. In this posting I would like to discuss the concept of ‘what is the message I want to convey’ and ‘one message at a time’.

When communicating with fellow humans we have a tendency to want to share with them lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of information, some of which may be relevant to the topic in hand and some not so relevant. We also have a tendency to digress, deviate or drift from the message that we want to convey. The politicians refer to this as ‘coming off message’. I won’t pretend to understand why this happens, it’s just something that I have observed especially when doing knowledge harvest interviews or reviewing interview transcripts post interview.

So if you are planning a communication perhaps it’s worth being aware of this and try to ensure that you focus on one message at a time. At one time I used a text summariser to check the message that I wanted to communicate. I would write the email or document and then have the software read and summarise the content. It was always very interesting to read what the software thought was the message I was trying to get across verses what I thought the message should be. I didn’t slavishly rely on the software to verify that I had correctly phrased the message but it was a very useful second opinion.

The other thing that I have noticed in a lot of the knowledge management articles that I get sent to review is that there is a tendency to push the value of knowledge management to the reader. I know someone who has a very successful business and often says that people buy things that take away an itch or pain not aspirin. What he is trying to convey is that you might have invented aspirin and be trying to advocate its use but unless the person you are communicating with as a need to use it they won’t. If the communication is reserved from, “I have this thing called aspirin, why don’t you try it” to “You’ve got a pain? Try this aspirin, I think it will help” it makes a huge difference to how the message is received. If I have a need and I perceive that what you are offering might help with that need, I will pay a lot more attention to what you are saying.

Perhaps when we are communicating about knowledge management we need to focus more on what the needs of the person we are attempting to communicate with are, rather than trying to push the benefits that knowledge management will give them.

Knoco Ltd