Knowledge Management: My Top 5 Articles in Knowledge Management from the Harvard Business Review

1. Ibarra, H. & Hansen, M. Are You a Collaborative Leader? Harvard Business Review, Jul/Aug2011, Vol. 89 Issue 7/8, pages 68-74.

-> My comment: an interesting self-assessment that any top manager should make! Being a collaborative leaders means: 1) connect to different social worlds and different stakeholders; 2) link people, ideas and resources and 3) connect both within the company, between collaborators and industries. Effective collaborative leaders assume a strong role directing teams and assign clear decision rights and responsibilities.

-> Critics:Danger of too much focus on connections and collaboration and too little on execution.

2. Adler, P. Hecksher, C., Prusak, L. Building a Collaborative Enterprise. Harvard Business Review, Jul/Aug2011, Vol. 89 Issue 7/8, pages 94-101.

-> My comment: an article that underlines four key principles to make your company more collaborative:1) defining and building a shared purpose; 2) cultivating an ethic of contribution;3) developing processes that enable people to work together in flexible but disciplined projects;4) creating an infrastructure in which collaboration is valued and rewarded.

-> Critics: in collaborative organizations, players share the costs, risks, and technical challenges of innovating so, who is accountable? Personnally, I prefer my Learning Mix framework, Culture/Structure/Infrastructure/Portfolio.

3. McDermott R. & Archibald D. Harnessing your staff’s informal networks. Harvard Business Review, March 2010, pages 82-89.

-> My comment: the concept of "community of practice" remains popular in the academic litterature but how companies have to make sure that communities contribute meaningfully to the organization and operate efficiently? This article shows the results of a quantitative study of 52 communities in 10 industries, and a qualitative assessment of more than 140 communities in a dozen organizations, consisting of interviews with support staff, leaders, community members, and senior management.

-> Critics: authors should focus on a managerial question I try to tackle in my research "how do you identify and push community leaders?". Creating a community should really start by defining who is in charge of it...

4. Hemp, P. Death by information overload. Harvard Business Review, Sep. 2009, pages 82-89.

-> My comment: my favourite article! Information clearly exceeds what a human mind could absorb in a lifetime. Implications are clear: the work becomes FRAGMENTED (it takes on average 24 min to return to the suspended task) and DECISIONS are taken in a shorter period of time. The survey mentionned in the article is very interesting (Source: AOL, 2007):

15% of Americans say they are addicted to email.
59% of those using portable devices check email as it arrives.
43% of users sleep near their email unit to hear incoming messages.
40% consider email accessibility when they plan a trip.
83% check their email once a day while on vacation.
43% check their email first thing every morning.

-> Critics: a very useful article that offers practical and individual tips to enhance our cognitive ability but how a company can promote behavioral change towards e-mails and other communication chanel from complexity to simplicity?

5. Hansen, M. Nohria N. and Tierney T. What’s your strategy for managing knowledge. Harvard Business Review, March-April 1999, pages 106-116.

-> My comment: a fundamental/classic article that clearly explains both strategies for KM. Codification strategy: reuse of knowledge and Personalization strategy: knowledge close tied to the person who developed it. Companies usually focus on one (80%) and use the other (20%) in a supporting role. The article also shows how to structure the development of KM programs by focusing on 3 strategic questions: