Shared calendars as an example of alignment with individual incentives

One of the aspects that hampered knowledge management (KM) initiatives in the previous century had to do with the separation of work and KM activities. First you did the actual work, then spent some time doing the KM bit. Some systems forced you to do the KM bit first, trying to increase the probability that it got done. KM required individuals to invest time in making information useful in a larger context, on the basis of top-down categorisation schemes that had to be learned. The approach didn't gel well with human nature and plenty of people found ways to circumvent it.

Consider for a moment the near-ubiquitous electronic calendar as a good model of interaction. It allows you to organise your time without requiring extra effort compared to a paper organiser and it even offers some handy features: You can reschedule appointments without using an eraser, you can create repeating entries easily, it will remind you of upcoming meetings, it can synchronise with multiple devices. But the real benefit of using electronic calendars is evident at the aggregated level: Using shared electronic calendars drastically reduces the time required to schedule meetings with colleagues.

Crucially, the benefits are there without the need for additional effort on behalf of individuals to make the information useful to the group or the organisation. The same principle is the driver behind the new breed of collaborative tools.

A good collaborative architecture provides a platform that works for the individual - a place to work with, store, contextualise, search and exchange information - while offering an unobstructive way to make the information useful to a wider group. A spectrum of opportunities for participation is opened up, from discovering relevant information and co-production to refactoring, syndication and mash-ups [link to FT article behind paywall].

We are moving away from old KM (with its separation of work and the places you put work) to better support for knowledge intensive processes (SKIP?). Skipping onerous tasks associated with KM is more in line with human nature. The tools themselves are simpler and the benefits greater.

Tags: collaboration knowledge management support for knowledge intensive processes KM SKIP collaboration architecture human nature calendar shared calendar participation