I’ve writtten before about
using blogs (and wikis and RSS) as knowledge management platforms in
law firms, but for my Edge International
presentation last week in London,
I developed the following diagram which encapsulates my thinking on
this:
Three of a firm’s most important functions—Knowledge
Management, Business Development, and use of Existing Resources—are
shown as primary activities, each with some overlap with the others. The
intersections are:
- Where KM meets Business Development, "Scratching the Itch," or being
able to show a client your firm’s thinking on an issue they are facing
at that very moment. - Where Business Development meets Leveraging Existing Resources, "Showing
You Our Thinking," which is not only the most effective but essentially
the only credible way to demonstrate your firm’s all-around smarts
(merely reciting or asserting it cuts no mustard). - Where Leveraging Existing Resources meets KM, "Professional Development."
Blogs support all these indispensable strategic functions, and are therefore
at the universal intersection set.
Update: 1 Nov, 8:20 am Thanks, Malcolm! [A colleague’s take on the above post. Best line: "A resource is an asset with a job."]
Also: Think about your firm’s stored repository of knowledge as something your professionals need to be "fluent" in; and profit will follow.
