Stan Garfield has a scoop! Rather than just talking about Prusak & Fahey's "11 Deadliest Sins of KM" article from 1998, he has talked to Larry Prusak directly to get his current perspective. This is in Stan's weekly KM wrapup: 11 Deadliest Sins Of KM Revisited... is the "question of the week" along with several other topics.
In The Eleven Deadliest Sins Of Knowledge Management (California Management Review Vol. 40, No. 3, 1998, pages 265-275) Liam Fahey and Laurence Prusak list 11 errors made in the practice of KM:
- Not developing a working definition of knowledge
- Emphasizing knowledge stock to the detriment of knowledge flow
- Viewing knowledge as existing predominantly outside of the heads of individuals
- Not understanding that a fundamental intermediate purpose of managing knowledge is to create shared context
- Paying little heed to the role and importance of tacit knowledge
- Disentangling knowledge from its uses
- Downplaying thinking and reasoning
- Focusing on the past and the present and not the future
- Failing to recognize the importance of experimentation
- Substituting technological contact for human interface
- Seeking to develop direct measures of knowledge
Q - (to Larry Prusak): What are your current thoughts about your article "The Eleven Deadliest Sins of KM?"
A - (from Larry Prusak): I re-read the article in question (first time in 5 years) and find it holds up well. I'd rather not comment on the commentators but here is my take on the article's premises.
Larry's Stan also links to recent commentary about this article from Dave Snowden, Vivian Kaye, and me.