Value Adding Knowledge Management Training

I am a great supporter of colleges and universities; they did after all provide the foundation upon which my career has been built.

I was conducting a one day workshop for a mixed audience at the end of which one of the participants made a comment which troubled me.

The first part of the day had been based on Bird Island. As normal the exercise was a huge success and extremely impactful. The second part of the day allowed those present to use our self assessment tool to better understand where their organisation is currently in terms of knowledge management. After that we used the risk calculator to better understand the degree of risk that knowledge management potentially faced in their organisation.

During the wrap up at the end of the workshop attendees were invited to share their thoughts on the day. One attendee mentioned that they thought they had wasted a year of their time studying for a qualification in knowledge management as they had learned more during this session than they had during their formal education.
Now at one level I was very pleased that they had got so much value out of the day but at another I was disturbed that their formal knowledge management education had failed to deliver for them. I can’t share any more details as immediately the session ended someone asked for some advice and by the time I had finished speaking with them the person who had made the comment had left.

All of us involved in the delivery of knowledge management services have a duty to ensure that our experience is transferred to those seek that knowledge.
Of course this could be an isolated incident, unique to one person or one institution but perhaps all of us who are involved in deliver of training and education just need to pause and reflect and verify that we are providing a value adding experience.

Knoco Ltd