Testimonials for Implementing a Successful KM Program
From: David Mead
Date: Tue, May 31, 2011 at 8:55 AM
Subject: Thank you
To: Stan Garfield
Dear Mr. Garfield,
My name is David Mead and I was recently in a KMb course with Dr. Michael Sutton at Westminster College. Your text was used as one of the main resources for the course. As students, we rarely have the chance to provide comments and feedback directly to the authors of our books and resources and I'm glad to be able to do so. Throughout my entire MBA program, 2 books really stick out as texts that I found truly helpful; books that I could refer back to for future benefit in the real world. Implementing a Successful KM Programme is one of them.
I really appreciate the focus on people first, rather than technology in implementing a successful KM initiative. I also really liked the fact that there were so many actionable steps. It made it feel more like a workbook that I'd actually use again. Not only was the content very rich and complete, but you also offered several other sources for further depth and knowledge. This text is certainly not a one-time read! I look forward to using it more in the future.
Thank you for soliciting our feedback and for your contribution to the KM field and my education.
Sincerely,
David
From: TJ Craig
Date: Fri, May 13, 2011 at 12:12 PM
Subject: KM Text
To: Stan Garfield
Mr. Garfield,
At Professor Sutton's prompting, I'm writing to give you some brief feedback on your Implementing a Successful KM Programme text. First, I'd like to call out the spelling error in the title, it should be Program...just joking, a little English multi-cultural humour (or humor).
A short bit about me - I am graduating this month with my MBATM degree from Westminster College here in Salt Lake City and I just completed Dr. Sutton's wonderful Can Knowledge Be Managed course. My undergraduate degree was in Computer Science and I've worked in technology since the 1990's when I rose to power during the Internet boom. I'm currently with a Fortune 100 company doing global infrastructure engineering. I previously worked in IT at other large firms, some smaller firms (less than 5000). and in academia at a large state university.
One common theme in my work career, which I only came to realize after Sutton's class, is the lack of KM. Let me re-phrase that to the lack of effective KM. I've been a first-hand witness to many KM initiatives and I've watched them all fall on their face. One firm I worked with spent millions of dollars on supposed KM efforts, and all it had to show is a random collection of arcane web portals containing even more esoteric knowledge.
Your KM text is extremely well-written and keenly organized in a concise manner, exactly what I expect from a KM expert. I resonated with the key concept of not implementing a KM initiative unless there is a reason to do so. A reason is still not enough, it must be followed by a strategy and the Ten Commitments, or Ten Commandments as we call them in class. I've watched KM efforts start from great reasons and high hopes, but seen them fail at the strategy and commitment stages. The text offers a simple step-by-step process to implement KM, all the way from answering the initial question of should it be done, to how to sustain it once implemented.
During Sutton's class, I came to realize what KM really is, or Knowledge Mobilization (KMb), as Sutton calls it. I finally understood the concept of a knowledge nugget, and how all the KM initiatives I've witnessed were dismal failures. Your text helped me realize why these initiatives failed, and offered solutions on what actions can promote KMb success.
Sutton's class and your text changed my life - or at least shifted my paradigm. I hope this e-mail is helpful and please contact me if I can provide any additional quotes or feedback regarding your text or anything KMb related.
Best wishes,
TJ Craig