2016 current practice

Posted on October 17, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

Want to know what everyone else is planning in KM for the next 3 years? 🙂

Complete the KN-UK annual current practice survey and find out!

http://www.knowledgenetworkuk.com/surveys.html

survey

Posted in Knowledge Network UK | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Passion-based KM

Posted on September 28, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

My son has just started secondary school and I was at his school last night to learn about their “skills” lessons. It sounds fantastic. More than one parent asked if they could come along.

In addition to learning how to learn and revise, and philosophy for children (If your clean clothes are all over the floor, does that make your floor a wardrobe?) they also have one lesson a week to spend on a “genius hour” project.

great-ideas

The kids choose a topic they are passionate about (I imagine my son’s will be something to do with track cycling … just a guess …), research it, follow the project through, then present to their class what they did, why they did it, and what they learned through the process.

The teacher explained how she’d got the idea from Google, which allows its employees to work on their own pet projects for 20% of their time, the thinking being that productivity increases when people work on projects they are inspired by.

After hearing about this, I wondered why law firm KMers don’t use this approach more in relation to KM projects? Instead of giving everyone the same KM targets, give everyone 1 hour of non-chargeable time a week within their targets, for a knowledge project of their choice. If one looks at KM in  the widest sense, including at any project which relates to a part of the knowledge cycle (from knowledge creation, storage and usage, adaption and collaboration, to re-use or destruction), one can imagine all kinds of valuable, innovative ideas sprouting from our lawyers minds – ideas which they will be passionate about and inspired to complete.

You never know, their ideas may turn out to be equivalent to “Gmail” or “Google News” and propel your firm to greatness.

If you have enjoyed this post, please share it using the social buttons below.

You can follow the blog using the button on the top right, or sign up for the busy-person’s monthly summary.

And don’t forget my open training in London on law firm KM.

Posted in KM | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

You can’t manage knowledge!

Posted on September 27, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

Knowledge is different to information and data. It is contained in people’s brains. Accessing it can often be difficult and rather idiosyncratic.

How can we manage what is in people’s brains?

Surely there is no such thing as “Knowledge Management”?

Image result for heads and brains

How do you respond when people say this?

I tell people that it is it’s not “managing knowledge”, it is knowledge-based management: management with knowledge, both as a stock and flow, in mind.

You don’t manage the intangible knowledge itself in someone’s brain, you manage the application of that knowledge for the benefit of your organisation: the creation of new knowledge, the sharing and usage of existing knowledge, the adaption of and collaboration around knowledge, and even the destruction of knowledge artefacts when they become outdated.

But that is too much of a mouthful, so we’re stuck with “Knowledge Management”.

If you work in a knowledge intensive business, like a law firm, I hope it makes sense.

If you enjoyed this little post, please consider sharing it with the social links below or following the blog with the button at the top right, or signing up for my busy-person’s monthly summary here.

If you are interested in Knowledge Management in your law firm, consider coming along to one of my open courses in London. “KM: The Works” is a day-long foundation course and “KM: The Scores” is a half-day workshop on KM measurement. Find out more here.

Posted in KM | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The important thing…

Posted on September 19, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

keep-questioning

 

Posted in quotes, Training and learning | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Lawyers and their personalities

Posted on September 13, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

We had a really interesting session at Bristol’s KN-UK yesterday lunchtime all about personality types and how to understand them, and a discussion about how we could all apply this to help us work more efficiently and smoothly with lawyers and other fee earners.puzzle-head

Graham Mitchell of T2i was, as usual, a very interesting and engaging speaker. If you need an organisational psychologist to help your law firm I heartily recommend him.

 

What were my big takeaways?

  • Personality is a preference: it’s the way people naturally respond to situations.
  • Although one’s preference is clear, even from age 8, it isn’t prescriptive. We can all learn ways to curb our instincts to mitigate the worst consequences of our natural preferences and it mustn’t use it as an excuse.
  • No particular preference is good or bad. They all lead to strengths and weaknesses. The important thing is to understand your personality and adapt how you react in situations, adjust what needs adjusting, in order to work effectively.
  • Although there are many forms of analysis, mostly they revolve around 5 main dimensions:
    • extraversion,
    • agreeableness,
    • conscientiousness,
    • openness to new experiences, and
    • emotional stability.

We also discussed practical ways we could approach working with results/outcome focussed, creative/ideas driven, people/relationship driven and analysis/details focussed people in order to work together more harmoniously, which gave us all some great ideas to put into practice straightaway.

If you are interested in coming along to a KN-UK training lunch, there may be one near you. It is a great, cost-effective way to get local tailored learning for law firm KMers in a friendly atmosphere.

We have events in Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester and interest in setting up a Sheffield group (but we need more people interested there first). All the info about KN-UK is available here.

Sign up for the KN-UK mailing list to keep up to date and watch out for the annual topics survey to make sure that the topics you are interested in are covered in 2017.

And of course – if you have enjoyed this post, please share using the buttons below and sign up to receive the next post.

Posted in influencing, Knowledge Network UK | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Heads of Knowledge Q&A (4) Zoe Huckle, HMRC

Posted on September 12, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

For our fourth interview with a Head of Knowledge, I’m delighted to introduce Zoe Huckle, who is Head of Knowledge for the HMRC Solicitors Office and Legal Services.

zoe-huckle-picture

1. How did you end up as Head of Knowledge? Was there a key factor/turning point in your ending up in this role?

I had been a Government lawyer in litigation and advisory for about 16 years and on my return from maternity leave was looking at a new role when I was asked to take on the first official KM lawyer role at Treasury Solicitor’s due to the fact it was known that I had organised the knowledge in my previous teams. It was supposed to be a two year secondment but was so successful that the role was expanded to the larger department and I stayed for 9 years eventually biting the bullet and applying for Head of KM at HMRC in 2016.

2. What job did you envision having when you were young?

Opera singer!

3. If you could have any job in the world, with no limitations (salary, location, hours etc) what would you do?

Opera singer!

4. Describe your organisation in three words.

Academic, expanding, changing.

5. What is the hardest thing about your role?

It’s a new role so the hardest thing at the moment is getting to grips with the work of the organisation and how it fits together and on top of this persuading people to embrace change.

6. What is the best thing about your role?

Having an overview of a large organisation and how it fits together and meeting very clever, interesting people.

7. What is the biggest change that you’ve witnessed during your career in Knowledge?

I am not a KM professional – I qualified and practiced as a lawyer for 17 years and when I first moved to the world of KM I really hated the language used to describe what people wanted to achieve. More recently, people seem to have returned to the use of every day language which makes it easier to communicate. I don’t want to have to “reach out” to people, I just want to communicate with them!

8. What three things are you focusing on for the next three years?

Setting up a system of knowledge that people are happy to contribute to and take responsibility for; encourage greater collaboration; encourage greater collaboration (yes I am cheating here but that is my focus).

9. What do you think is the most exciting new development coming in Knowledge work/KM?

There are lots of technical developments that make KM easier but I think there is a return to basics, i.e. a recognition that knowledge management is not an end to itself but is there to provide a service to users to ensure they have access to the knowledge or person who has the know-how to do their job.

10. What advice do you have for aspiring Heads of Knowledge?

Remember that the people you are providing a service to often have deadlines that are far more important than the one you are asking them to respond to. Give people a reasonable time frame in which to respond to you and get to know how they work so you can make sure that KM supports them particularly when their backs are up against the wall. Also, retain your sense of humour.

Thanks Zoe. It’s really interesting to hear from Heads of Knowledge outside private practice. And it makes me so happy to see that collaboration is your focus! So often the basics get overlooked.

If you have enjoyed this interview, please share using the social buttons below and follow the blog using the button on the top right, or sign up for the busy-person’s monthly summary here.

And if you are a Head of Knowledge, join in the interview series – it doesn’t take much time and it is so interesting to learn everyone’s stories.

Save

Save

Posted in Head of Knowledge Q&A | Tagged | Leave a comment

Dolly reflects!

Posted on September 5, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

reflecting on failures

 

Dolly knows the importance of reflective learning!

More on reflective learning here, with a free download.

Posted in quotes, Training and learning | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Improving KM maturity levels

Posted on August 31, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

Do you know where your organisation sits in relation to others and their level of KM maturity?

The amount of time you have been “doing” KM doesn’t always correlate to a higher maturity, so how can you improve your organisation’s KM maturity levels?

age is no guarantee of maturity

As part of my KM: The Works course, we talk about KM maturity levels, and in my general research on the topic, I came across these interesting articles from KM World/APQC on how to accelerate your way up the maturity levels.

  • Article 1 – value creation, roadmaps and strategies
  • Article 2 – getting leaders and stakeholders involved
  • Article 3 – standardising tools and approaches, using knowledge maps and technological solutions
  • Article 4 – measurement

Do you know where your organisation falls on the APQC KM maturity levels and do you have a plan to accelerate your way up through the levels? Or do you find maturity levels a distraction? It’d be interesting to hear from you in the comments below.

If you’ve found this post useful, sign up to follow the blog (top right) and/or sign up for the busy person’s monthly round-up.

And the KM: The Works session runs each January, May and September in London. You can sign up to hear more info here.

Save

Posted in KM, Strategy | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

5 most popular posts ever. They may surprise you.

Posted on August 26, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

I started this blog back in 2010 and thought it’d be interesting to see which of my blog posts are the most read *ever*.

  1. Process design and mapping 101
  2. Do something  … do anything
  3. Continuous competence (Part 1)
  4. Knowledge maps
  5. Randomised coffee trials

Is your favourite there? What would you like me to write more about? Let me know in the comments below.

And if these articles interest you, don’t forget to either follow the blog, or for a busy-person’s summary each month, sign here.

Or come to one of my open training sessions on KM Foundations or KM measurement.

Posted in KM | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

KM Foundations

Posted on August 25, 2016 by knowledge4lawyers

I’m running the next of my popular day-long training courses in law firm KM next month

KM: The Works – Thurs 15th Sept 10am-4pm in London

Previous attendees say

  • “7/7”
  • “practical and useful”
  • “well paced”

All the info is here
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/km-the-works-tickets-27300210665 and here http://theknowledgebusiness.co.uk/kmtheworks.html

Next one will be in January 2017.

If you are a KN-UK annual pass holder, get in touch with me about your discount.

Posted in Events, KM, Professional Support Lawyers, Training and learning | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment