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January newsletter |
| Professional
Manager
Newsletter January 3, 2001 Volume 10 Issue 1, January 2001, page 42 The World Bank has immense influence. It lends tens of billions of dollars every year. Economies depend on it as a lending machine. Its global reach links those with fundamental needs to those who can provide both resource and expertise.
The bank naturally has its own assumptions, structures and ways of working
and view of its role. To make a shift in its self-image from transferring
money to transferring expertise would have stunning implications. Surely
this could be considered the ultimate in knowledge management?
Author Stephen Denning tracks his own path as he and his colleagues reviewed and implemented the idea of knowledge management for the benefit of external clients as well as internal members of the bank. This is highly interesting in itself. However the book moves to the next level as he considers what was central to the transformation process. The element that really ignited action proved to be a story he told. “In June 1995, a health worker in Kamana, Zambia, logged on to the Center for Disease Control website and got the answer to a question on how to treat malaria. Our organization doesn’t have its know-how and expertise organized in such a way that someone like the health worker in Zambia can have access to it. But just imagine if it had!” The story took on a life of its own. It linked the future to the present, left the analytical detail to the imagination, had the reader emotionally identified with the outcome, energized and thinking creatively about how its lessons could be applied. What is that makes up such a springboard story? The author vividly and openly shares with us his experiences within the bank and outside as the new knowledge management processes are supported, developed and embedded. He includes other springboard stories and, most importantly for his readers, the nature of effective springboard stories is generalized. You will find yourself working up your own and trying them. Here is a powerful tool for managers of change. One picture is worth more than a thousand words. A well-told springboard story jump-starts the actions that reports fail to inspire. Stephen Denning has given managers a new way to make things happen. Sheila M Evers MIMgt The
Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations
Professional
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