OD

I've been pondering the concept of Knowledge Management (KM).  Experts in the field such as Dave Snowden have long been debating whether or not KM has outlived it's purpose.  Many people wonder if it ever had a real value proposition, as there are many large organisations who spent millions on KM, but received very little of the value they anticipated.  In part this is due to the unfortunate confusion of Knowledge Management with Information Management as well as the over-focus on IT and normative approaches such as Communities of Practice (COP) which have proven to be unsustainable in the long-term.

One of our focus areas is retention, specifically a complex approach to retaining key staff.  Many organisations refer to this as "talent management".  This is a very hot topic currently, especially in light of great skills shortages here in SA and elsewhere.  Although I see the necessity for a retention strategy, but there is a part of me that believes that the whole idea of managing 'talent' creates more problems than it solves.