SMR’s August 26th post described the work of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) in helping Pakistanis, as the flood disaster moves into the post-disaster recovery phase. Pakistani Floods: KM/Knowledge Services at Work provides strategic knowledge managers with a dramatic example of how KM/knowledge services – as a management or functional discipline – comes [...]
Collaboration is too important to neglect. Whether managers create a collaborative environment where collaboration “just happens,” or if strategic efforts are made to ensure that people collaborate, it’s now clear that the successful organization is one in which collaboration is a critical building block. Some years ago, Edward M. Marshall – who might have been [...]
Knowledge sharing is critical in disaster relief programs and post-disaster reconstruction and development. As learned in recent major relief activities (e.g., the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in New Orleans in 2005, Haiti on 12 January of this year), the whole success of putting life back together for victims of natural [...]
For the nay-sayers about the role of social media networking in our lives (are there any still left?), here’s an eye-opener. And it’s just about what’s happening in one country. Businesses. Organizations. People. We’re all going to be part of this. All of us. Thanks to Dale Stanley for alerting us to this one. But [...]
When we stop to give some thought to strategic learning and the role of training and development in the company, it’s easy to get side-tracked by searching for definitions, concepts, frameworks, and all those other distractions that strategic knowledge managers work with on a daily basis. Here at SMR International, we recommend cutting through the [...]
We’re all agreed, aren’t we, that managing the company’s strategic knowledge is not a job for amateurs? The executive who has a title of something along the lines of “Director, Knowledge Strategy” or “Chief Knowledge Officer” is expected to be pretty proficient in knowledge management/knowledge services. Any strategy management role in a company is demanding, [...]
For several years, nonprofits have been trying to figure out how to bring the benefits of technology to developing countries and to others who do not have resources to participate in the technology revolution. [And as a personal aside: Did I say "revolution"? Can it still be a "revolution"? We've been living with computers since [...]
A colleague finds himself in a strange professional situation, perhaps a classic management conflict. In the forward-thinking company where he works, he has been assigned to take knowledge development and knowledge sharing to “the floor.” His colleagues who manage strategic learning feel that it’s time for KD/KS to go live, so to speak, and everyone [...]
Africa has long been a part of the world that worried international leaders, and while enormous strides were made over the last few decades, there continued to be a sort of reticence or quiet reluctance for embracing the business potential the famous (and condescendingly described) “dark continent” had to offer. Bringing Western management methodologies was [...]
A study being undertaken at SMR International seeks to identify and publish steps leading to the development and implementation of a corporate social responsibility strategy. Just as they identify and share the elements of organizational knowledge strategy (and indeed of strategies for many other functions), organizational leaders must identify and examine steps to take to [...]
SMR International is a New York-based management consulting firm focused on change and its impact on people, organizational effectiveness, and knowledge services delivery within the larger enterprise. Through consultancy advisory services, learning and training programs, and publications, SMR International helps institutions and organizations explore alternative future programs and then assists in crafting these visions into functional definition. Learn more at About SMR International.
