About my Magma consulting activities

As I'm currently reading Things that gain from disorder [Taleb's last book], I couldn't resist to write one or two reflections about the book. First and foremost, it's a nice and pleasant reading. Taleb has a concise style, avoiding boring scientific jargon (in a sense that this book is not a scientific article or academic demonstration) and he jumps quite straight-forward to the concept he wants to explain. But that being said, I'm always surprised how management guru's are referring to philosophy and to Socratic texts to support their views. Take Prusak for example, on knowledge management. He was referring to Aristotle and Plato. Taleb is here citing Seneca and Lao-Tseu as examples, being professional philosophers. But what is mind-boggling with reading Seneca or Confucianism in their historic contexts and then highlight what's still valid in our society? Dominating some passions, mitigating risks in personal life and in business, being able to prepare ...

I read this morning an interesting article about home working policies and Marissa Mayer's decision to bring home working to an end at Yahoo!... See the whole article here We all know that publication, information and news are every day published, always faster and faster, with less and less time for analysis...but honestly, who can believe that Mayer's decision is a full and complete change of mind? In my eyes, it can't be the case for very simple reasons: Who can imagine that an innovative IT corporation is concentrating all his knowledge (normally located in employee's head) in one single place? Who can imagine that Mayer - as CEO - wants to give the feeling that she embraces an old management style and brings Yahoo! (even more) in the past? Who has said that the new HR policy prohibits reasonable home working choices (like one day a week, for example)? Who has even thought that, with all the current technology we have in place, and especially in the IT secto...

If you're interested to get a fresh view on what's knowledge management, just watch this video. It's an interview of Larry Lucardie, CEO of Knowledge Values.

Looking for a knowledge management conference in Europe? Then, save the date for this yearly european conference. 12th European Conference on Knowledge Management - ECKM 2011 University of Passau, Germany 1-2 September 2011 Conference Chair: Prof. Dr. Franz Lehner, University of Passau, Germany Programme Chair: Prof. Dr. Klaus Bredl University of Augsburg, Germany The conference will be located almost exactly at the geographic centre of Europe. Passau is close to the metropolitan area of Munich. According to a statement attributed to Alexander von Humboldt, Passau is referred to as one of the seven most beautiful towns of the world. Passau is spectacularly located at the confluence of three rivers, one of them being the river Danube, the second longest river of Europe.

KPMG International has released an interesting paper on Web 2.0 technologies within the public sector...you can find the document on several KPMG web sites, like on the Belgian site (the official title is 'Dynamic technologies for smarter government' and is available in PDF format).

I'm very pleased to see that the editor World Scientific Publishing Company announces a book about KM and communication for September 2010. Most of the time, we find a lot of books on ontologies, document management, KM strategies with IT connections, but I believe that the academic community does not emphasize enough the communication skills we need to practice KM every day. The complete title of the book will be 'Communication and knowledge transfer: theories and cases in Journalism, Public relations and advertising (series on innovation and knowledge management) and it's written by Seow Ting Lee and I-huei Cheng.

Une information, aussi importante soit-elle, sert peu si elle n’est pas mise à jour, communiquée et exploitée adéquatement par la bonne ressource au moment opportun. Mais encore faut-il qu’elle soit disponible et repérable. À la fin de 1999, pour palier au départ à la retraite de nombre d’experts en agriculture, de leurs connaissances et de leur expertise, le ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation (MAPAQ), de concert avec le Centre de référence en agriculture et agroalimentaire du Québec (CRAAQ), annonçait la mise en ligne d’Agri-Réseau. Dix ans plus tard, Agri-Réseau constitue LA référence sur le Web dans toute la francophonie en matière d’information technique et scientifique dans le domaine. Plus d'information sur l'expérience d'Agri-Réseau

If you're looking for some good management Consulting references, i tried the library of Edward de Bono and Robert Heller. The link to the site is http://www.thinkingmanagers.com where you will find various management articles, classified in well known categories...

If you're interested in practicing or implementing knowledge management within SME's, check the EJKM web site - where all the academic papers are available online. In their current Volume 8, Issue 1, Italian academics folks performed some research within 25 SME's (South of Italy) and they propose a questionnaire about some KM practices. Download the full article on the Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management site !

The data-information-knowledge-wisdom hierarchy seemed like a really great idea when it was first proposed. But its rapid acceptance was in fact a sign of how worried we were about the real value of the information systems we had built at such great expense. What looks like a logical progression is actually a desperate cry for help. Read the HBR article further here...

Have you seen some OECD resources that are available on their innovation and KM site? Check the directorate for education ( click here ) and you will have all the recent publications available (for free, of course).

A common term to different business topics (knowledge management, organizational development, learning organization strategies) are linked, and even often based, on the principle of the modern philosophy of ' phenomenology ' [where each individual understands and reads the reality thanks his own schemes of time and space]. To my understanding, I always understood that the community business translated that old concept in the more explicit and understandable term of mental model. I copy you here an interesting link to a specialized portal. Check the site of Gene Belliger by clicking the picture.

I'm happy to regularly post here about the multimedia content that is made available by all the universities in the world (when you think on the impressive amount of courses, information and knowledge that is available in the labs, the cupboards and the computers of all the research centres of the world !). A special mention for the New Jersey Institute of Technology which is proposing on iTunes the HRM 301 (Teacher Naomi Rotter) series about Organizational Behaviour. In a nutshell, you have there about 25 lectures (movies) about learning processes in organizations, Decision Making in the Organization, Leadership etc. Have a look within iTunes > iTunes U or make a simple search query on New Jersey Institute of Technology...

I mentioned earlier the Architecture Journal n°15 from Microsoft, where the monthly focus is on the role and definition of what's an architect (in software development, in business roles or in systems). And a good initiative has been taken by the IASA ( International association for Software Architects ) for trying to streamline the profiles, the core competencies that are needed etc. I believe they are right with that kind of exercise, because every job category needs some basic foundations - which are currently lacking in the software architecture world.

MS Office SharePoint Server 2007 standalone training made available! Microsoft has had a good idea with proposing standalone courses around web development, presenting the whole course track with Knowledge Management topics. Clearly, this means that the education material has been made available with a human readable lingo, with clear concepts like "Collaboration", "Enterprise Content Management" or "Search". There is also a good mix between readings and video sessions, just to see theory in practice. You can download the MS SharePoint Server 2007 standalone training version right here

Top ten Architecture articles and tutorials - December 2007 A good selection of technical articles and some documentation about the important software development shifts that are happening with Agile and SOA concepts. Check this out on the IBM side: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/architecture/topten/ar-toptendec2007.html Check also a special edition of the Architecture journal on the Microsoft side, with the edition 15 "The role of an architect" ( http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/arcjournal/default.aspx ) Happy reading!

I mentioned earlier on this Blog the MIT (Sloan Management School) resources that were very interesting and helpful in a life long education track. Check also regularly the Podcast the school proposes, where you will have hundred of good listening session (listen to the Intellectual Capital series from Intellectual Capital: Alan White's World View ).

Have you seen the Web 2.0? No? If you want to guess what could be the site of the future today, just check the MIX community site, with a very clever M I X of web development, architecture, new UI concepts and a lot more on http://sessions.visitmix.com/ This site gathers a lot of new web trends (I discovered it thanks to the Microsoft architecture center) and proposes a lot of presentations and good content. Check it out !

If you wonder how to keep your important emails attractive and eye-catching, take a look at Chip Heath's article in the McKinsey Quarterly briefing. Six basic traits are advised: Simplicity . Messages are most memorable if they are short and deep. Glib sound bites are short, but they don’t last. Proverbs such as the golden rule are short but also deep enough to guide the behavior of people over generations. Unexpectedness . Something that sounds like common sense won’t stick. Look for the parts of your message that are un common sense. Such messages generate interest and curiosity. Concreteness . Abstract language and ideas don’t leave sensory impressions; concrete images do. Compare “get an American on the moon in this decade” with “seize leadership in the space race through targeted technology initiatives and enhanced team-based routines.” Credibility . Will the audience buy the message? Can a case be made for the message or is it a confabulation of spin? Very often...