To my surprise many people are still trying to implement Knowledge-Management. I thought everybody was convinced that after almost 12 years of failing people would understand there is something wrong.
I was involved from the beginning. Knowledge Management came out of Data- and Database Management. At that time I believed the human was a Machine. I did not believe that at that time. Later I realized this was the paradigm we were using. When you use the paradigm of the Machine the only thing you can do is Program People.
When you Program people you store DATA in a database and you give them the opportunity to share this data. This can be done by search (unstructured text) or by a SQL-statement. When you do this you are simply automating a process.
Funny enough when I listen to the current generation of Knowledge Managers I hear nothing about the most important thing we did at that time called DATA-ANALYSIS. This Art has vanished for some reason. Data-analysis is the art of finding out the MEANING of what people are communicating. My favorite method to do this was NIAM.
There are special processes where Experts are involved. When you automate these processes you are building EXPERT-SYSTEMS.
This is everything there is to say about Knowledge Management.
But people that are busy with Knowledge Management don’t want to automate a process. They are different. They want to Manage the Sharing of Something called Knowledge (or Experience?).
For some reason people are unable or are not willing to share their experiences (“what they have learnt in Practice”). The first reason could be that they really don’t want to do that because their practice is their income. Many people and companies protect their experience by Law and Patents. If you really want to protect your Experience you have to Organize this process.
The last reason could be that they just don’t know what their experience is. This is very normal. It is the big problem in building Expert Systems. You need an other Expert (an Interviewer) to help the Expert to articulate the experience. This is done by Story-Telling.
Personally I think the best way to organize Experience Management is “to Let it Happen”. In the Cycle of Learning there are moments when people really need to Share (Communion). There are also moments when people need to take Control (Agency). Communion and Agency are the two factors that keep the Wheel of Innovation on the move.
Let’s change the Name of the Game of Knowledge Management and call it Collaborative Learning. Its aim is INNOVATION. This is a link to two documents (Text and Powerpoint) I wrote about this subject.
Collaborative Learning is the process of adaptation to the inside (Mental Space) or the outside environment (Physical Space, Social Space) of the learner.
To adapt to the environment the learner has to see a difference. This difference has to MOTIVATE the learner to perform a short-term (a re-flection, a re-action) or a long-term action (a plan).
A short-term action is controlled by the existing action patterns (Experience). When the environment has changed dramatically a long-term action sometimes needs a change of behavior (paradigm shift strategy).
Why is Knowledge Management failing? I give you a few possibilities.
1. People don’t see the difference. They are “Sleeping”. They are completely emerged in their environment.
2. People react and are not able to reflect. The are following their impulses. They are too busy or are already in a state of Stress (Burn-out). When you are highly stressed your body is unable to Act anymore.
3. They know they have to adapt their behavior but are afraid to do this. They have postponed a small change and know they have arived at a turning point. They don’t want to look outside anymore and face reality. They are unable to change their Paradigm.
Now we are back to the beginning.
Why did I change my paradigm?
I changed my paradigm because after a few years I found out it was “not working”. Nobody used the Knowledge Management Systems. It was a waste of time and money. At that time we EVALUATED what we were doing. Evaluation is the step in the Collaborative Cycle where the Emotions are involved.
I know why Evaluation is not often practiced!
When People find out that something is not doing what they wanted to do they start to blame the others. They don’t except that people make mistakes and that learning from our mistakes is the essence of INNOVATION.
Most people are advised by Advisors. They are the specialists in Knowledge Management. Many of them know “it is not working” but they HOPE that someday a MIRACLE will happen. Some of them are also very afraid to lose their jobs. If this would happen a Critical Event would take place.
Funny.
Critical Events are just what you need to Change Your Paradigm.
My advice to the Customers:
1. Automate the Processes You want to Manage. Use methods that have proven themselves. Go back in history to find them!
2. When you want to hire expensive Advisors. Ask them about their successes and their failures. But also ask them How they Manage their own Knowlegde. You will be surprised. Most of the time they don’t practice what they preach! If this is the case don’t hire them.
3. Involve them in your process of Collaborative Learning. Pay them when you Learn from them and Let them Pay You when they learn from You.
4. Facilitate and Organize Story Telling in your Company. Connect “Old” experienced Experts with young people. The Oldies love to talk about their experience. This the normal way in Society. You learn the experience from your Grandparents.
5. Build a Story Telling Game. Organize this as a Collaborative Learning Cycle. I love to share My Experience.
LINK
Since 1915, 
This is what Mondriaan wanted to achieve “Our material environment can only posses a pure beauty (i.e., be healthy and satisfy utility in a truly direct way), if it no longer reflects the egoistic feelings of our small personality: it does not even have any lyrical expression any more, but is purely plastic.” 
I have been involved in many experiments in this area. I worked with 
Space (Place, Location) and Time (the narrative) are connected by a Knot. A knot is a complicated twist in a rope. The twist is needed when you want to close a system in itself. The simplest topological structure that visualizes twisted space/time is the Moebius Ring.
The Institutions, the Ruling Power, are constantly trying to standardize (the Centripetal force). They formulate rules and try to transform the dialogue into a monologue.
Between 450 and 700 the Roman Empire is destroyed by the Huns. It is the time of the Great Deportations. People out of Asia move to the West. They are the ancestors of the Ostrogotes, the Visigotes, the Franks, the Gauls, the Germans and the Celts. 1250 years later they are integrated in what we now call Europe. Between 700 and 2000 the Europeans explore and conquer the World.
Between 1200 and 1450 the Chronotope of the Greek Romance (Tristan and Isolde, Arthur and The Grail) appears. It is the Chronotope of Being and Destiny. “There are a lot of suddenly’s”. Everything happens. The actor in this Chronotope is without identity. He is tested by destiny. When he has passed the test he is not changed. There is no time and space. Time (“adventure-time”) is reversible. The actors are public figures and space is public space. In the narratives we are able to see and hear everything.
This (1450-1700) is the time of the Chronotope of the Adventure. It is the Chronotope of Becoming. The identity of the actor is transforming. He is responsible for his own actions. Life is full of turning points (twists). The actor wants to take control of the outside world. Space becomes “private space”.
The next Chronotope is the Biography (1700-1950), the praise of a public figure who has accomplished something in life. We are moving from the outside world to the inside world of the actor.
Starting in 1950 we are again in the phase of Folk-lore. Western Civilization is moving to a new Centre, Earth.
My father was born in 1909. He lived in a small village in the centre of the Netherlands.
Behind the scene the Jews were also controlling the World. They were the prototype of the Cigar Smoking Capitalists. The NSB was using Socialist Language to convince the poor workers in the big cities.
They use religion, myth, art, culture and history as a tool. The outside enemy is destroying the old values or is responsible for the terrible state you are in.
The Fascist system wants to control the schooling system. The most innocent victims are the children. They are trained to become the new elite that will save the Homeland.
The Media are delivering the message and the independent Media are also almost gone. The Media are commercial and to make money they have to tell the message of the advertisers.
What many people don’t realize is that at a certain stage, called Emergence, Systems change into a Self-Reproducing Entity.
It needs a lot of Energy and other Material Components to replace the old parts. The System has eaten almost all the food that is available.
The Fascists used the Symbol of the 
A few months ago I wanted to make an extensive horoscope to learn more about myself, my ex-wife (Merel Visse) and our relationship. I used 
When I started my company 10 years ago I researched the name Constable. A Constable (Konstapel) is an officer at a Dutch military ship responsible for the canons and the powder.
Military man are also romantics. They love to practice in nature. They love uniforms. They bring them back to the time when war was a romantic affair with beautifull ladys dressed in white dancing the night away. They want to be pilots and don’t want to kill anybody. They just want to be free like a bird in the sky.
War is a product of stress and stress is created when people stop to create and collaborate. They stop to create when they spend all their time to make money. They spend so much time making money that they don’t have the time to spend the money. When they spend the money they buy things that are almost never used like six cars, two houses etc. They buy to aquire status in the group of other people that are spending their time to make money. They are wasting vital resources.