This is the blog site of AcKnowledge Consulting and Keith De La Rue.
Main focus: Optimising Sales Force efficiency by effectively managing and delivering the knowledge required to meet customer demands.
How this is done: By building a managed knowledge transfer toolkit.
Keith August 25th, 2008
Matt Moore and I recently collaborated on an article for Melcrum’s KM Review magazine: Closing the deal with the help of knowledge.
A copy of this is now available for downloading on the Documents page on this site.
Keith August 22nd, 2008
My next event - I will be speaking at the Marcus Evans 5th Annual Web Content Management Forum in Sydney on Tuesday 2 September, at the Sydney Harbour Marriott.
The title of my presentation is: Improving your knowledge management performance to gain a competitive advantage and developmental process. As soon as I figure out what that means, I will get my slide pack finished and be ready to deliver it!
But seriously - if you are in Sydney that Monday or Tuesday and would like to catch up, happy to do so. I expect that I will be having some client meetings while I am there, but I should have some spare time around that, particularly on the Monday evening. I’ll be staying at the Sydney Harbour Marriott.
Keith August 19th, 2008
The word is out. This month, Kate Crawshaw is speaking on: “Social Software within the Firewall - Introduction and Tips on Getting Started“. The session is on Wednesday 27 August. See details on the Melbourne KMLF blog post.
Keith August 18th, 2008
“… when you tell people you write, read or listen to blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks and online video - if they give you a funny look, it is now officially them that’s a freak, not you.”
Picked up a couple of recent reports from different places. One was in time to build into last week’s presentation, one not.
Forrester Reports that Corporate Social Networks will Augment Strategic HR Strategies
The reports highlights the use of Social Media for: “… recruiting, alumni programs, mentoring, learning, collaboration, and connecting people…” It also reminds us that: “Professional networks are the backbone of business”.
Fastest Growing US Companies Rapidly Adopting Social Media
“77% of respondents now report at least some use of a social media tool in their business.”
This post highlights that social media adoption is “skyrocketing” in 500 of the fastest growing companies in the US.
Keith August 18th, 2008
In addition to Twitter being an essential information-sourcing tool, and useful for people returning to work from an extended absence, it has also started to occur to me that I am finding it a great way to feel connected while working as a sole consultant. In much the same vein as the people using it on extended leave, it takes the place of the office chatter that you get used to when working in an office full of people. I guess it also needs the same discipline of knowing when to engage and disengage…
When tweeting about this (about 4 hours ago), wonderwebby brought a post from deswalsh to my attention: 5 Ways Twitter Helps Me in Business. In particular: “it is an excellent way of overcoming some of the mental echo chamber effect of working solo.”
The journey continues…
Keith August 15th, 2008
So, I delivered the workshop today - to three great participants! The workshop was: Using social media to harness knowledge within an organisation: Addressing the challenges. We all had a great time, and a good conversation!
I have now also registered with SlideShare for the first time, and uploaded a (very slightly modified) version of the slide pack. Not totally happy with the way it has been rendered, but it seems to be fairly readable. It is also available for download. Help yourself! And thanks to those who contributed…
Also had a great conversation with Ian Farmer of Bullseye. Ian pointed me at a few interesting sites:
Also got a good reference from elsua via Twitter for “Twelve Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss - Don’t Forget about Yourself!” This may be of particular interest to this morning’s participants!
Keith August 14th, 2008
A good day today. Met some good people, and all of the presentations were good.
Great live Second Life demo from Decka Mah (aka Lindy McKeown) to end the day. She also introduced us to PicLens - a cool Google plug-in for image viewing. Second Life is definitely a usable environment for learning, but the interface probably has a way to go yet to be really seamless. One thing to remember - it really works best as a synchronous learning environment - you have to be there at the right time. One neat application - a virtual city for immersive language learning.
You’ve heard of blended learning? Well, with Second Life, you can have “mixed reality”.
Some of us got a Twitter commentary going. See the tweets here - and a couple of rogue ones here.
Chieftech mentioned this site as a good source for info on RSS for the enterprise - he has also blogged about the day.
Lots of other good stuff, but I really need to make sure I am all ready to present my workshop tomorrow. A few parting thoughts that caught my attention, (somewhat paraphrased) from various presenters today:
Keith August 13th, 2008
“Social media has enabled me to feel ahead, not behind as I return to work after 2nd baby.”
- Serena Joyner (on Twitter)
While preparing for my workshop for Key Forums on Friday - Using social media to harness knowledge within an organisation: Addressing the challenges - (breathe in now) I read this great tweet from Serena Joyner on the benefit she has found in Social Networking tools as she returns to work after her second baby.
Serena then directed me to a longer blog post that she has written on this topic, which was inspired by a similar blog post from “wonderwebby” (Jasmin Tragas), who I have only met recently via Twitter.
They each have a number of points to make about the the benefits of social networking, and wonderwebby has a number of additional ones from others as comments on her post. In brief summary, these points (which I have now added to Friday’s slide pack) are:
Keith August 12th, 2008
On my way to Sydney for client meetings, and to present at a Key Forums conference: Enterprise 2.0 for Information Professionals.
Keith August 7th, 2008
Start with a cage containing five monkeys.
Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Also, set up a system of cold water sprinklers over the whole cage.
Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold water. The monkey will leave the banana alone and try to get away from the water. Turn off the spray.
After a while, another monkey will make an attempt with the same result. Pretty soon the monkeys will get sick of getting wet, and will stop any of the monkeys from attempting to climb the stairs, even though no water sprays them.
Keep this up for several days.
Now, remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.
The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. Even the previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.
Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.
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