Where does knowledge start? How do you start gaining more understanding? It starts with you, or more specifically, when you accept that you are mortal, imperfect – that the world does not revolve around you.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom – Proverbs 9:10
Knowledge can start when you admit that there are things you do not know, that you have the capacity to know more. In short, the possibility of knowledge is born in coming to grips with our own ignorance. What about your organization? Is your business’ past success making it too complacent to learn new things? Does your non-profit focus too much inside itself to see the changes occurring on the outside? Could your local government agencies be too entangled in bureaucracy to realize new opportunities, let alone take the action necessary to act on them? This year, I’m exploring how my organization can improve its knowledge sharing an knowledge retention. Will you be doing the same?
Thank you for posting this, very well said.
Thanks for sharing this excellent blog post. It got me thinking about when our “need to know” impedes our ability to understand and got me wondering how demonstrating a little more trust in others might rework the balance between knowledge and understanding.
Danielle/Sabrina – thanks for your comments.
I am, indeed, beginning such a project and am interested in hearing from other feds who have developed successful knowledge management programs in house.