The KM Oxymoron, Misnomers and tautologies
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
In the word of Oxymorons and Misnomers, we have a whole field filled with one.Our field!Knowledge Management.
Simply because Knowledge Cannot Be Managed !
Says This guy
and this guy
and also this guy
oh, this guy too
BEST PRACTICES
How can a Practice be Best? Isn’t time infinite, isn’t there ANY room for improvement? Maybe the environment in which the (best) practice operates is evolved and the so called best practice isn’t best anymore? I’d say, if a practice has truly become a best practice, then it means we need to innovate, as this practice has reached the end of its life and can value no more. Instead, i’d rather use the term ‘Good Practice’, a practice is good but it can always be better but of course, not best 😉
Coming back to our oxymoron and misnomers, here’s a last one for the day.
LESSONS LEARNED
A ‘Lesson’ already entails something that has to be learned. Now, when we say a Lesson Learned, we are saying that the reader or person who participated in the lesson has now received the knowledge transfer. But in Knowledge Management, the lessons learned are given to teach the lesson itself…..Should the phrase be called ‘Lessons To be Learned’ instead? What do you think?
Knowledge Works 
Of course it can be managed — the same way you do “project management.” In project management you cannot literally manage a “project.” A project isn’t a “thing” unto itself. It is a series of processes, in which people participate. And so you manage the people and the processes that are part of the “project.” Same thing with Knowledge Management — you aren’t literally managing “knowledge” but you do manage people that have the knowledge, and manage the processes created by the people using their knowledge. Same thing.