H-SIG useful quotes for KM workers
18-Feb-04
Useful quotes for KM workers
Jacques SOUILLOT
souillot.jacques@wanadoo.fr
Our abilities to relax and to let our imaginations hover above the nitty-gritty of our permanent rushing and buzzing might have to be supported. To this aim it could be a start to have a look at some famous (and not so famous) quotes and see if that exercise could not vivify our brains and thinking. Let's have a try!
It would also be nice to share with all the readers the quotes you think can be of some benefit (on various grounds) to the KM people. Remember to keep close to the themes of the the H-SIG,
For those who want to underline a particular aspect of their reflexion related to a quote (several quotes): do not hesitate to develop what you have to tell the reader!
Here is the beginning of a list of quotes, which could quickly grow, could it not?
(Short quotes have been favoured here, but longer ones are welcome...)
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
CONFUCIUS
Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
AESOP
For the more we get out of the world the less we leave, and in the long run we shall have to pay our debts at a time that may be very inconvenient for our survival.
Norbert A. WIENER
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.
Niels BOHR
A known mistake is better than an unknown truth.
Arabic proverb
Knowledge without a moral foundation is meaningless.
Leo TOLSTOY
Grub first, then ethics.
Bertolt BRECHT
Thanks for adding more.
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- Jacques SOUILLOT
- Publisher:
- KnowledgeBoard
- Date:
- 18-Feb-04
- Categories:
- Human and Social, Human Side of KM
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"The important thing is not to stop questioning." - A. Einstein
As a researcher and consultant this is one of my favourite quotes regarding knowledge work.
There ist much more to be found @ http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Knowledge
Regards -REIMAR
The darker side of light
The difficulties we meet in everyday life and at work are not to be ignored. Somehow it is important to be able to assess the influence and the consequences of those difficulties, on the activities we are trying to carry out, so as to reach our objectives.
However we must first make sure that what we see as difficulties are “difficulties”. Depending on our respective cultures something occurring here might appear as a difficulty, whereas when occurring there it is negligeable or can even be seen as an opportunity.
And... it's not just linked to mere geographical conditions...
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.PLATO (427 - 347 BC)
Let's think about it...
As long as 2,500 years ago we were told to be very careful not to mistake the container for its content, not to value technology more than what it enables us to do. But the following quote probably carries a few more meanings...
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.LAO TSU's Tao Te Ching
Peter Drucker and The Leader to Leader Foundation
Peter Drucker dies two days ago at age 94. I thought we should honour him by posting something he wrote:
"The 21st century will be the century of the social sector organization.The more economy, money, and information become global, the more community will matter. And only the social sector nonprofit organization performs in the community, exploits its opportunities, mobilizes its local resources, solves its problems. The leadership, competence, and management of the social sector nonprofit organization will thus largely determine the values, the vision, the cohesion, and the performance of the 21st century society."
The Leader to Leader Foundation (formerly Peter Druker's Foundation):
The Leader to Leader Institute believes that a healthy society requires three vital sectors: a public sector of effective governments; a private sector of effective businesses; and a social sector of effective community organizations. The mission of the social sector is changing lives. It accomplishes this mission by addressing the needs of the spirit, the mind, and the body -- of individuals, the community, and society. The social sector also provides a significant sphere for individuals and corporations to practice effective and responsible citizenship.
That's something else!
Some say there is more to life than business, knowledge, or even wisdom. Could that be poetry?
The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.Native American Proverb (Minquass)
And then there seems to be more to poetry than just words...
Cleverness and wisdom
The quote presented by Mark Outhwaite, 30 August 2005, finds an echo in the following:
You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.Naguib MAHFOUZ (born in 1911)
The Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature of 1988, Naguib Mahfouz was born in Egypt (Cairo) in 1911. He started writing at an early age and his first novel was published in 1939. Many of his novels have been made into films, which are quite popular in the Arabic-speaking world.
Education: no KM without it!
These days everything keeps changing endlessly. That's what we feel. But was it not the same centuries ago? And then there are "things" which seem to be permanent, they look universal: justice, love, solidarity, education...
To train and educate the rising generation will at all times be the first object of society, to which every other will be subordinate. (The Social System, 1826)Robert OWEN (1771 - 1858)
A successful British entrepreneur at the rise of the Industrial Revolution, Robert Owen certainly was one of the most rational utopists we can think of. To a certain extent his views on social, moral, economical and environmental issues constitute the basis of today's sustainable development approach.
More about Robert Owen and schooling: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-owen.htm
Giants will be giants
Since autumn has just started (that is in the northern hemisphere) harvesting and picking up fruits are high priorities on the agricultural agendas.
Great trees give more shade than fruit.German proverb
It could also be added that grass grows poorly under big trees. There must be a saying which expresses the idea, but surely somebody knows of one in a language or another. Thanks for your help!
Common sense is something that should be valued
A quote which is echoing the one by Peter Drucker (August 30th in this thread):
Efficiency is doing more things faster. Effectiveness is doing the right things.Stephen COVEY (born in 1932)
Covey got famous internationally with his very successful book entitled The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989). He still is one of the most influential management gurus in the USA.
What if people don't care?
Sharing knowledge is not something totally automatic, and fundamentally instinctive, except perhaps at the family level...
In order to reinforce the feeling that sharing is an absolute necessity, it has to be backed up by a number of concurrent values: generosity, altruism, respect, trustworthiness, solidarity...
What we must treasure most, it is knowing we can count on others.
Le véritable trésor, c'est de pouvoir compter sur les autres.Massa Makan DIABATE (1938 - 1988)
Massa Makan Diabaté (from Bamako, Mali) was to be a griot according to his family tradition. Instead he studied history. He soon became a writer.
To a certain extent it could be said that his literary work was the transcription of that orality he respected so much, but that he could not master as well as the written expression.
another thought from the mountain top
True wisdom is the art of the question not the science of the answer. anon
Has this been heard clearly?
Here is a dictum which ought to be the motto of quite a number of people (maybe everybody in fact), including, especially, those who are in charge of the most important responsibilities:
Doing things right is not as important as doing the right things.Peter DRUCKER (born in 1909)
Peter F. Drucker was born in Vienna, studied in Austria, worked in London, and really became an international guru in the seventies, teaching Social Science and Management at Claremont, California. He published his first book in 1939: The End of Economic Man, and in 2002 his latest production was entitled: Managing in the Next Society.
The two sides of a one coin
What about reaching our goals in our various activities by taking into account the many (even if it is just two!) influences that they are submitted to? And that means why keep on trying to use the "straight" line when the most efficient one is not the one which looks the most direct? (Remember: space is a dimension where the easiest path is a curve.)
Faith and doubt both are needed, not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve.Lillian SMITH (1887 - 1966)
A widely acclaimed writer, a Southerner, who fought against social injustice and racial segregation.
Diversity and credibility
What could make the preceding quote’s teaching more acceptable for the skeptic? Perhaps simply the admittance of our strong demand for rigor, discipline and honesty in anything we invest our efforts. Indeed “diversity” cannot mean total chaos!
Of course we can only accept what is susceptible to be proven or at least explained rationally. What we are not prepared to accept we should try to understand; nevertheless we ought to try to protect our intellect from excesses of “unhealthy” thoughts. But then what is “unhealthy”?
The thing that most exasperates you is to find yourself at the mercy of the fortuitous, the aleatory, the random, in things
and in human actions - carelessness, approximation, imprecision, whether your own or others.Italo CALVINO (1923 – 1985)
Calvino is in fact telling us that one way or the other all those phenomena are part of our human condition. So let’s acknowledge we are “human” humans.
Do not hesitate to discover more about Italo Calvino: http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/cal.html
Let's not reduce our focus!
With today's means of communication and what is called "globalization", ideas go round the world almost instantaneously. That should imply the expression of a great diversity of opinions, thoughts, ways of apprehending things. Of course other people's words have to be given some room and opportunity to be heard.
A sense of "equity" would seem to be required, some tolerance as well, even some respect. In fact respect should be rule number one, with the extra requirements of listening to and taking into account what is said.
We must openly accept all ideologies and systems as means of solving humanity's problems. One country, one nation, one ideology, one system is not sufficient.Dalai Lama
Diversity enables stability through dynamic processes of flows and exchanges, in a holistic perspective; uniformity causes instability by creating tensions and counter-tensions, which might in some cases lead to chaos, especially when the vision of the bigger picture has become confused or has been lost.
...and a few more!
Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
"Business is a conversation because the defining work of business is conversation - literally. And 'knowledge workers' are simply those people whose job consists of having interesting conversations." David Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto
"Learning is not compulsory but neither is survival." - W. Edwards Deming
Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch.
"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." - Albert Einstein
"Everything that happens to you is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your own life and be taught by It." - Polly B. Berends
"Only those who have learned a lot are in a position to admit how little they know." - L. Carte
"Learning how to learn is life's most important skill." - Tony Buzan
"If you're not learning while you're earning, you're cheating yourself of the better portion of your just compensation." - Napoleon Hill
"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something." - Thomas H. Huxley
"Nothing can be effectively controlled, in the long run, from the top of a hierarchy-- or from any one perspective. People are basically trustworthy. Only workplaces that give their members the chance to learn and add value through their work will succeed in the long run." - Art Kleiner
"It is best to learn as we go, not go as we have learned." - Leslie Jeanne Sahler
"It's a cross functional world - removing/trashing/obliterating any and all barriers to cross-functional communication is nothing short of our single highest priority. However sophisticated the technology, however grand the vision of integrated solutions and great customer experiences the business is doomed without real human communication" - Tom Peters
http://www.knowledgeableltd.com
Some quotes from the "Learning to Fly" community...
Hi Jaques,
I asked a similar question in another communtiy - here are the "pick of the bunch":
"Whoever loves being corrected loves knowledge, but he who hates being corrected is stupid." (Proverbs 12.1)
"Value is in the knowledge flow, not in the knowledge store" - E Sandwick
"I wish we knew what we know at HP" - Lew Platt, Hewlett-Packard
"Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes." - Peter M. Senge The Fifth Discipline
"Knowledge is not power; it's potential power. Knowledge is only powerful through action."
Spanish proverb "Well stolen is half-done"
In a knowledge-driven economy, talk is real work.- Thomas Davenport and Laurence Prusak
It isn't what you know that counts; it's what you think of in time. - Benjamin Franklin
If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is a man who has so much as to be out of danger? -Thomas Henry Huxley
Cheers,
Chris
http://www.knowledgeableltd.com
Another maxim
Criticism should awaken our attention, not inflame our anger. We should listen to, and not flee from, those who contradict us. Truth should be our cause, no matter in what manner it comes to us.Marquise de Sablé (1599 - 1678)
Not that the word "truth" has such a clear meaning today. It might be replaced in this context by "rational knowledge", as opposed to blind ignorance, superstition, deceit, hardly consistent concepts or irrational beliefs.
My apologies to Madame la Marquise de Sablé if her thoughts are distorted by the above comments.
What would he say now?
"The discovery of the alphabet will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves...You give your disciples not truth but only the semblance of truth; they will be heroes of many things, and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing."
- Socrates, "Phaedrus"
How true!! I used to be an excellent spelling-bee until someone invented spell-checker! And now I can copy and paste and save and duplicate and send SOS to the world requesting help, I find more and more my knowledge is no longer 'store' in my brain but somewhere out there in cyberspace!
So Mr. Socrates, YES, I am quilty of ... "appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing"!
Cindy
Remember Sitting Bull, Lone Man, Chief Seattle...
At least it can remind us that people of good will often share common visions. It is better still when they live together in peace and harmony, sharing and cooperating for the benefit of everybody.
The earth which sustains humanity must not be injured. It must not be destroyed!
Hildegarde of BINGEN (1098 - 1178)
It has to be underlined Hildergarde of Bingen (Germany) was an extraordinary woman: a musician and composer, theologist, "scientist" and polymath visionary, you name it!
AIFIDREK
What is today's workers' main mission?
If it is too complicated to explain, then why not try this plain statement:
Apply intelligence to filter information and deliver relevant knowledge.
H-SIG
Meaning = shared understanding, beliefs, values
Hello Benoit,
Good to see that you manage to apprehend so many of the multiple expressions of man's desire to progress and help his society progress too.
Since you might appreciate reading a text in French about Norbert Alter's ideas on "innovation" , I invite you to visit the following URL:
http://www.cnam.fr/lipsor/dso/articles/fiche/alter.html
It is a review of "L'innovation ordinaire", by Norbert Alter (2000).
At one point the reviewer (B. Lebeaupin) underlines that, to Norbert Alter, innovation requires a collective appropriation of its nature and design.
L'élaboration collective de l'innovation. L'invention n'est au départ qu'une idée. Elle ne se transforme en innovation que si des acteurs parviennent à lui donner un sens.
Which could translate, more or less, as:
Innovation as a collective production. The birth of an invention is but an idea. That invention will transform into innovation if and only if a number of actors manage to make sense of it.
The glow of meaning
Salut Jaques and Cindy, I thank you for this thread of reflexion. I see the nature and the definition of innovation with the image of what breathing is about, in all of its application to life, health and hapiness. Teach your child the awareness of breathing well under all circumstances, and he or she shall always be know the freedom of mindand with the physical balance to adapt to the moment with the creativity as needed by the instance. What else can we expect from the word innovation, but a better and better way to relate and to be relevant here and now, in the authenticity of transparency?!... When viewed with this image of breathing, innovation is the art of flowing with the lead, neither ahead nor behind but with it, so that an innovator is a following-leader-leader-follower. But put the word in the restrictive framework of business and indeed, as with everything else that busuness does, it will take evrything, turn it into nothing and the perpetuate the innovation until another one comes to swallow everything into nothing. No meaning can resist the swallowing powers that the beast is made of. The thought of watching globalization being innovated by leaving its sterring wheels in the hands of the market place is frightenning. The one comforting thought I get from this thread is that I cabn respectfully ask Mr. Sergio Zyman to get away from promoting and supplying self-destruction. The view of true innovation receives a tremendous boost of clarity when we get away from giving the eqivalent of 60 tea spoons worth os sugar in 10 ounces of product at the time. I can hear you say: " those are the market forces. Demand and supply." And I say to this royal decree over the world of business to accept the French counter acting force to demand and supply. In French we say: "The offer and the provision". We dont demnad and cu=ause a supply, we artistacally produce what our gifts allow us to produce, we offer them and we provide them if you need them and accept the price. No command and control attitude and ongoing escape that the laws of the market place decide. Before the market place can ever talk of innovation in its true sense, it will have to invest massively at healing the meaning of life, health and hapiness. Let's start by turning the look of coca-cola into a clear substance poiting to clarity of mind instead of the hype of ignorance...
What's that?
Obviously lots of people today will disagree with this statement by Mr. Zyman (Chairman of the Zyman Group, former Marketing Chief Officer of the Coca-Cola Company):
In my view, innovation is just another word for "giving up". It's saying things are so bad that it's easier to get into an entirely different business than to deal with our problems. And this whole "innovation culture" is just the latest in a long line of business fads.Sergio ZYMAN
As a matter of fact it does not sound quite right. On the other hand it might well contain some truth. But it would certainly be better to try and understand the author's point of view and read his text at the following Url: http://www.zyman.com/rbyi/bs.rbyi.pdf
Business and SD
Sustainable development is not just a mantra used to reassure people. At least it should not be. Some business people do believe it is part of their duty towards society to reach better conditions of work, to waste less energy, less raw material, and so on.
They have systematized their approach to sustainable development, for example through "ECM".
Environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM) is a new way of thinking about manufacturing which focuses on the most efficient and productive use of raw materials and natural resources, and minimizes the adverse impacts on workers and the natural environment.
www.bsdglobal.com is the Business and Sustainable Development site of the International Institute of Sustainable Development, a site clearly aimed at business people.
Humans first...?
We are all convinced today that our economies must aim at more sustainability. We associate the word "sustainability" with "growth" or "development". But are economical processes working just for the sake of the economy? Sustainability is not just a question of economy: what about the sustainability of our communities, societies, cultures?
The ultimate aim of production is not production of goods but the production of free human beings associated with one another on terms of equality.John DEWEY (1859 - 1952)
Famous American philosopher and educator.
Rome was not built in a day...
Hardly anything is done without any difficulty, especially when a kind of perfection is aimed at. With high skills and a lot of patience one can give the impression of working with great ease, but all that has been acquired through intensive training, sometimes for years.
No surprise then to see that in this period of our history which is overflowing with changes and innovation, some competencies can be missing or shallow. New forms of organisation are difficult to implement, new ways of managing still have to progress. It might require some more time before more adaptive forms of dealing with reality develop to satisfactory levels of efficiency.
There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system.Niccolo MACCHIAVELLI (1469 - 1527)
Italian statesman and thinker, he wrote Il Principe ("The Prince"), his best-known work, in 1513. In 1520 he produced L'Arte della guerra ("The Art of War").
Who has ever heard of her?
Much of what you say, Cindy, or even everything you say, must be true. There's bound to be millions (billions?) of people ready to agree with you!
The art of being a woman can never consist of being a bad imitation of a man.
Olga KNOPF
Not much can be found about Olga Knopf. Not a single biography concerning her on the Net! Is it a kind of punishment meant for that 20th century psychiatrist?
In anycase she wrote The Art of Being a Woman! (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1932)
Why?
Hello Jacques,
As a woman I always wonder about these:
Why do women have to compete with men, to outdo men ?
What is so special to be a man and women want to be just like a man?
Why do women use the yardstick that meansure men to measure themselves against men?
Why cannot women have the CONFIDENT to be just a HUMAN BEING?
Competition and winning are both illusions that one can hold on for only 'that' long. Soon, someone will come along and the glory is gone.
I never think of myself as a woman that have the needs to be better than a man. I always see myself as a human being that is looking for a PERSON (or many) who share my visions. Man or woman.
There is a place for everyone. Man or woman. Nothing distress me more than to see a woman being promoted to some position because she is a woman and she is there to fill the quota.
Nothing distress me more than to see a woman being placed on a position that she is incapable to do and fail.
Nothing distress me more is to see married woman with children focus their efforts in building their career ONLY. A woman that worth my admiration would not be that selfish to bring children to this world and deprived them of their needs.
And something distresses me EVEN more is to see a woman grabbing a position and is incapable to produce quality results.
If GOD wants women to be the same as men, GOD would have created only one sex.
Cindy
More than a humorous remark, no doubt!
Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.
Charlotte WHITTON (1896 - 1975)
A social worker, politician, feminist, she became Canada's first female mayor in 1951 (Ottawa). Though extremely famous she has remained a very controversial character. Let us guess which majority of the population was/is not too fond of her!
Time management
Difficult not to mention again and again a few of the greatest thinkers of all times.
Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly.
CONFUCIUS
Craving for efficiency must not lead to hasty decision and botchered action.
Worldwide wisdom?
Did Marco Polo hear the following, he who could have said: Chi va forte, va alla morte!
One moment of patience may ward off a great disaster; one moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.
Chinese proverb
Marco Polo (1254-1324), is the famous Venitian traveller who reached China (then "Cathay"), spent 24 years there, as a friend and confident of Kublai Khan, the Emperor. Today Venice airport is called "Marco Polo Airport".
Same sort of tune (in French)
A statement which might remind you of "Waste not, want not":
Celui qui ne le perd pas possède beaucoup de temps.
You will have plenty of time if you don't waste it.
Bernard LE BOUYER de FONTENELLE (1657 - 1757)
Fontenelle: a French philosopher, nephew of Corneille (the playwright), interested in sciences. He had a great talent at bringing people to ponder upon the developments of science.
Another recommendation of the same type
The "precautionary principle" is an altogether accepted fact in Europe. Indeed it is part of the European culture. So many things happened here in the past which could or might have been avoided, or at least which we could have tried to readjust smoothly, had that principle been adopted earlier! We have learnt the hard way...
So it is not surprising we have developed a strong tendency to prevent precipitation from leading us run amok, particularly when it is bound to affect others, our relation to others, our survival and their survival!
In a knowledge economy, that is an economy driven by a knowledge society, the same could apply to the running of industries, businesses. Precipitation cannot allow for a wide and deep scope of analysis, but it can open the way to violent actions and violent reactions. There is little chance it will allow for the integration of long term objectives.
On the contrary we might suspect precipitation will promote short term objectives, revealing the shallowness of epidermic reactions and the opacity of short sighted views, with potentially tragic, even lethal, consequences. Let us not forget a few of the core preoccupations of our human societies: survival for all, respect for everyone, protection of our environment, decent working conditions for everybody. Any business decision violating those ethical fundamentals must have been taken with too much haste! And the following piece of wisdom must have been "neglected":
Chi va piano, va sano e va lontano
One who goes slowly goes safely and farItalian proverb
Karl Klaus, and Molière, see previous quotes, were saying something quite similar!
A "sustainable growth" principle:
It is generally acknowledged that speed is the main cause of car accidents. The fact is that speed is a very disruptive factor as regards our perception of our environment, leading us to take decisions that might have severe consequences.
Le trop de promptitude à l'erreur nous expose.
Too great haste leads us to error.
MOLIERE (1622 - 1673), Sganarelle (I, 12)
Molière (his real name was Jean Baptiste Poquelin) is one of the most popular playwrights among the greatest: his comedies are still regularly performed all over the world. His focus on hypocrisy and vice reveals a deep understanding of people's weaknesses. It certainly makes us laugh, but does it not also lead us to more compassion towards our fellowmen? They have fallen into a number of recurrent traps? Let us learn to be wiser... than we thought we were!
Drying up?
Since this world is constantly speeding up we should take care of not losing our compass. Is one still able to realise which direction one has taken and how far it is one wants to go? One might well have changed directions without being aware of it, or one might have gone past one's objectives without noticing...
What good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way?
Karl KRAUS (1874 - 1936)
The famous pre "Anschluss" journalist and satirist worked in Vienna (Austria), and was the author of "Die letzten Tage der Menschheit" (The Last Days of Mankind). Not always particularly optimistic as one might understand, and with some reasons...
A painter, and a great humanist
El sueno de la razon produce monstruos
The sleep of reason produces monsters.
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746 - 1828)
The author of this quote should be GOYA himself, since the sentence appears in an etching and aquatint of his, Plate 43 of The Caprices/Fantasies (Los Caprichos). He got into trouble with the Spanish Inquisition: the prints were withdrawn only a few days after their going on sale.
Peccato!
Is the following proverb an anti KM statement?
He who knows little knows enough if he knows how to hold is tongue.
Italian proverb
KM is about sharing, that is giving and receiving, and capitalizing, so the general conclusion is quite obvious!However, at times, the information required has a tremendous importance and its quality, veracity, authenticity cannot be dealt with any kind of outrageous amateurism, could-not-care-less attitude, hidden unreasonable agenda.
Let us include some serious risk management principles in our KM! And beware of chatter-boxes!
KM and democracy
If KM is part of the tools of good governance, then it is directly linked with democracy, isn't it?
Democracy is a charming form of governement, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.
PLATO
Freedom and disagreement
It can be quite bewildering to see how virtue and knowledge must converge or else be condemned to anihilation. There are still people trying to warn us to be extremely careful as regards that issue. Let us allow room for debating, and remain cautious in response to every too forceful pressures towards unity or unification.
For real democracy to thrive, people must agree to disagree, but we must also be prepared to advance arguments and facts to back up our views.
Raffique SHAH
Prominent Caribbean journalist - also head of the Trinidad Islandwide Cane Farmers Association (TICFA)
Let's quote Gandhi again!
There are chances you agree with that one, aren't there? Unless...
Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.
Mahatma GANDHI
Another Disraeli's thought
Some two centuries after La Rochefoucauld's statement (see the previous quote), another clever mind tells us to be careful with our tendencies to smoothen things to a relative level of meaninglessness and shut up all perspectives which we might not feel comfortable with.
My idea of an agreable person is a person who agrees with me.
Benjamin DISRAELI (1804 - 1881)
A very creative man in a variety of domains: politics, geo-strategy, governance, litterature, dandyism... A bit disruptive, as regards some of his contemporaries!!!
How true!
The truth of this "maxime" can be quite disturbing, can it not?
We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613 -1680)
French author and moralist, famous for his "Mémoires" and "Maximes".
Simplicity and perfection
"The best explanation is as simple as possible...but no simpler" Einstein
"Perfection is attained not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." St. Exupery
The egg or the hen? Which was first?
What if the following statement is right? Yes, to a certain extent it might not sound politically correct, especially if one is checking for correctness in a kind of manic attitude... But if one is to look deeper than the surface? Could it not then be boldly developed into something like "Where there is no vision, there is no meaning."
Where the speech is corrupted, the mind is also.
Lucius Annaeus SENECA (3 BC - 65 AD)
Roman tragedian, philosopher, and politician
Calm down!
The words of some people who have had some real, broad, deep (and sometimes crual) experience of life can merit some more attention than what is usually granted to ordinary so-called "famous" stars, gurus, reality show opportunists, mass-media manipulators. So the following quote should be pondered upon with some respect:
The purely agitational attitude is not good enough for a detailed consideration of a subject.
Jawaharlal NEHRU (1889 - 1964)
Fought for India's independence, was jailed a few times (seven times!!!), became India's Prime Minister from 1947 to 1964.
-Stop arguing! -Of course not!
A French philosopher very few French people know of (he never wrote a book!) said:
The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert (1754 - 1824)
How true he was/is! Lots of people utter such clever and useful remarks everyday though. The thing is those who hear them do not really notice, and then again since it might not have been the production of a famous person nobody will think of spreading the good word!
Obvious?
This quote does not call for that many precautions to be presented:
There are 40 kinds of lunacy, but only one kind of common sense.
African Proverb
And Asimov was not from Haiti!
Obviously the last Haitian proverb mentioned in this thread finds some echo in the following sentence:
If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
Isaac ASIMOV (1920 - 1992)
THE famous science-fiction writer!
Ignorance cannot teach you much...
Ignorance doesn't kill you, but it makes you sweat a lot.
Haitian proverb
T'is quite true! but knowledge also demands a lot of sweating in the first place. However it is better to invest in knowledge than ignorance, isn't it?
But wise men perceive approaching things ...
Men know what is happening now.
The gods know the things of the future,
the full and sole possessors of all lights.
Of the future things, wise men perceive
approaching things. Their hearing
is sometimes, during serious studies,
disturbed. The mystical clamor
of approaching events reaches them.
And they heed it with reverence. While outside
on the street, the peoples hear nothing at all.
Constantine P. Cavafy (1915)
Grass-hopper
However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?
The Buddha
TRUST: appears in the title of over 20 articles on KB!
The well-known political analyst of John Hopkins University, Professor Francis Fukuyama, wrote a book about a subject which is always quite popular at KB: "trust"! (Trust: the social virtues and the creation of prosperity, Free Press, New York,1997). To him:
[Trust is the] expectation that arises within a community of regular, honest and co-operative behavior, based on commonly shared norms, on the part of other members of the community…Francis FUKUYAMA (1952 - )
We are thus told that "trust" is not a given, and that so as to flourish it requires an environment of proven honesty and high ethical standards. Probably not a very original way of seeing things, but one to be reminded of from time to time...
Sun-Zi
"KNOW YOURSELF AND KNOW THE OTHER SIDE, THEN YOU WILL WIN EVERY TIME."
Sun-Zi
Famous Chinese military strategist,
from Ping-Fa the "Act of War"
Social capital in a highly complex world
It is a remarkable fact that the sharing of values is essential to the cohesion of social groups. The OECD makes it quite clear in its definition of "social capital":
[Social capital is] a combination of networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate co-operation within or among groups.
The Well-being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital
Tom Healy and Sylvain Côté
OECD, Paris, 2001
As a consequence some social groups might have difficulties making friends with other social groups... Sustainable relationships between groups: that calls for tolerance, respect and reflecting on one's system of ethics...
Let’s innovate, in a sustainable way…
This 21st century of ours has already seen quite a few changes. We see some everyday in fact. But let us remember that change cannot be an aim in itself: one cannot promote change just for the sake of change (unless one works in the “fashion” business, of course!).
To change and to improve are two different things.German proverb
And then, perhaps, we would have to check our criteria to assess what “to improve” really means…
Transparency
Let us suppose you are a very trustful person: you always expect people to be sincere, truthful and respectful. What if those people you trust, sometimes rather naively, are not a hundred per cent honest?
A half truth is a whole lie.Yiddish proverb
Sustainable growth has had a long tradition…
Obviously we are living a time of high speed (of permanent acceleration in some respects), quick reactivity and instantaneous decision. It would be marvellous if today’s decisions could take into account the longer term, particularly the future of our children, the stability of our societies; the balance of our environment.
Let’s hope we do not forget to be as wise as our ancestors.
One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.Chinese proverb
Better to talk of the "human race" than of…
Still another way of telling us to work, live and have fun together. Yes there is something like the human race!
We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.
Marcus Tullius CICERO (106 BC - 43 BC)
Another wording…
It is amazing how many ways there are to express an idea. The diversity of styles and references brings us all the facets of the underlying concepts and enriches the whole picture. So here is another quote about “cooperation”, or whatever concepts emerging from the sentence that follows (according to one’s world view):
We don't accomplish anything in this world alone ... and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.Sandra DAY O’CONNOR (1930 - )
Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female member of the United States Supreme Court, its 102nd justice, in 1981.
From the Super Bowl Trophy to...
It will not be repeated often enough:
Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
Vince LOMBARDI (1913 - 1970)
A man of many skills, born in Brooklyn (New York): graduated in business, worked at a finance company, taught various disciplines (algebra, physics, even Latin…) at a secondary school in New Jersey, a good football player, and better still one of the best football coaches ever. Had a phenomenal gift for motivating his players.
KM & Gardening
Hi Jacques,
I really like that quote - simple, elegant and applicable to all parts of life.
Helen
Back to the grassroots!
No need to use sophisticated technical vocabularies in order to “sound” more convincing. It is better to “be” convincing by remaining simple and concise and concrete; or so this saying appears to demonstrate:
Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.
Guinean saying
Naturally one must not be prevented from using technical terms when necessary. Let us admit that our world is getting rather complex or even sometimes hardly understandable. Also one can be bewildered especially at times when word meanings tend to shift slightly or dramatically away from their origin (but this occurs in a formidable manner in the political arena mainly!).
Organizations and their survival
It is always a wonder to discover a new author, a new thinker, a new humanist, so I enjoyed coming across this academic’s thought:
“An organization that continually sees itself in novel images, images that are permeated with diverse skills and sensitivities, […] is equipped to deal with altered surroundings when they appear."
Karl WEICK (Professor of organizational behavior and psychology, University of Michigan)
Through his conceptualisation of complexity and his modelization of organizations as biological systems Karl WEICK is a leader in the rethinking of organization management and … knowledge management…
One of his very explicit titles: Making Sense of the Organization (Blackwell Pub, 2000)
A challenge from CI
CI: Collective Intelligence. For some years this concept has developed dramatically. It is now becoming a central notion within KM itself. It has been used to forage many a field, uncover new veins, reassess a number of perspectives…
Whatever the efforts to improve and optimize the flow of information, the intrinsic limit of hierarchized structures will always show up, with its pawl [appalling?] effects, its dynamics made of territories and prerogatives…The Transitioner (Jean-François Noubel, editor)
For more of this text click here: http://www.thetransitioner.org/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Pyramidal+intelligence
http://www.thetransitioner.org
The Transitioner.org: a wiki with an aim to bring together creative individuals interested in building a fair world. The idea here is to check how collective intelligence and the economy can be developed harmoniously.
Let us hope it is not an absolute rule!
If what F.A. von Hayek says were unavoidable then it would be sad for the future of mankind! But maybe what Hayek means is for us to be careful not to fall victims of that horrific pattern he points at?
...the ultimate decision about what is accepted as right and wrong will be made not by individual human wisdom but by the disappearance of the groups that have adhered to the "wrong" beliefs.Friedrich August von HAYEK (1889 - 1992)
Among the most masterful and insightful of 20th Century economists, this Austrian controversial theoricist was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1974.
Sharing and support
From Ancient Romans to Northern Native Americans everybody (see the previous Persian proverb) seems to agree:
... I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself.
LONE MAN (late 19th century)
Lone Man, better known as Isna-la-wica in his native language, was a Teton Sioux. Teton: (contraction of Titonwan, 'dwellers on the prairie'): the western and principal division of the Dakota or Sioux, including all the bands formerly ranging west of Missouri river, and now residing on reservations in South Dakota and North Dakota.
Sharing and co-operating
It seems to be common sense all over the world and all through history:
It is nothing for one to know something unless another knows you know it.
Persian proverb
And this proverb could prove to be a strong encouragement to envision the Lisbon objectives of a European Knowledge Society with some more confidence. For some it will even evoke related fundamental notions, such as "collective intelligence" for example.
Human diversity
I found this on the net, but despite some effort I cannot find the source - the quote appears in many places on the net, so it must strike a cord....
We could learn a lot from crayons:
some are sharp, some are pretty,
some are dull, some have weird names,
and all are different colours....but
they all exist very nicely in the same box.
Yes, Plautus inspired the greatest!
Even wise Roman emperors took Plautus seriously. As an example, we have the following statement:
We are born for co-operation, as are the feet, the hands, the eyelids and the upper and lower jaws.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD)
Marcus Aurelius stands as one of the greatest intellectual rulers in Western Civilization (see his "Meditations"). He also was recognized as a great military leader, which did not prevent him from being a genuine pacifist as well...
Not a joke!
A serious statement by one of our ever greatest humorists:
No man is wise enough by himself.
Titus Maccius PLAUTUS (254 BC - 184 BC)
Plautus is ancient Rome's best-known playwright. He inspired Shakespeare as well as Molière. Good at puns and gags he also used his gifts in the field of social satire.
He can probably still inspire us...
Knowledge workers and NON-Knowledge workers
Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone.
'But which is the stone that supports the bridge?' Kublai Kahn asks.
'The bridge is not supported by one stone or another,' Marco Polo answers, 'but by the line of the arch that they formed.'
Kublai Kahn remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: 'Why do you speak of the stones? It is onlyt the arch that matters to me.'
Marco Polo answers: 'Without stones there is no arch.'
Marco Polo and Kublai Kahn - Italo Calvino
Invisible Cities, 1972
Intellectual nomadism: a must?
Definitely siding with Alice!
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
Arabian Proverb
Asking relevant questions...
.
The availability of the necessary tools is not a sufficient condition to meet with success. Use, misuse, and abuse: they all depend on the clear definition of our objectives, the consistency of our strategy. Which might imply that uselessness and aimlessness have to be checked! But we would also have to talk about the ethical options...
Alice: ... would you tell me please which way we should go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.Lewis CARROLL (1832 - 1898)
Beyond visions
Since we live in a world of ideas, thoughts and visions...
A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at.
Oscar WILDE (1854 - 1900)
Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet
Visions and sharing
.
.
Nobody can be permanently "happy". Not everybody is lucky enough to have a wonderfully fulfilling job. So what is in store for most people? Maybe they simply want to be respected and have the feeling of being useful...
They [people] don't want to be pushed around, ordered, oppressed, etc., and they want a chance to do things that make sense, like constructive work in a way that they control, or maybe control together with others.Noam CHOMSKY (born 1928)
Language and Politics (Black Rose, 1988)
Action/vision
Could it be that what is at stake is a sense of responsibility? Why "do" something if it is going to be meaningless, perhaps detrimental, to other people or yourself?
Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare.Japanese proverb
And then again not every "vision" proves to be relevant or efficient. Also working in a company which does not succeed in enabling its personnel to understand its "vision" is awfully uncomfortable and can cause some deep frustrations.
that depends
"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than
an idea that exists only as an idea."
— Buddha
That depends ... that's why I wrote 'somewhat' disagree ... did not say 'totally' disagree.
Sometime to put an idea that is 'developed' into action, one needs to be able to:
First 'sell' the idea to oneself that it is going to work ... I am not sure about you, but I need to convince myself that it is a good idea therefore I have to 'sell' to myself first. If I could not convince (sell) myself, how could I convince others the idea is good?
2ndly, if the 'idea' is going to involve others, then the 'selling' is going to be even more complex.
There are many brilliant ideas around, but some people are just not good in 'packaging' it and 'sell' it to the right person.
That is how I see and interpret the saying.
Cindy
action and knowledge
"what if the idea is not such a brilliant idea after all? But the person is a good salesman?" -- read it again, Cindy: "An idea that is developed and put into action" ... does 'putting into action' equal 'selling'? (not in my understanding....).
"The wise see knowledge and action as one."
anonymous, from the Bhagva Gita, cited by David Gurteen
Should I agree with him?
"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than
an idea that exists only as an idea."
— Buddha
Hello Buddha,
I think I have to disagree somewhat ... what if the idea is not such a brilliant idea after all? But the perosn is a good salesman?
Cindy
Zweig #2
The "dramatic" and powerful quote by Helen can probably be recognized in the following:
Only that which points the human spirit beyond its own limitations into what is universally human gives the individual strength superior to his own. Only in suprahuman demands which can hardly be fulfilled do human beings and peoples feel their true and sacred measure.Stefan ZWEIG (1881-1942)
It is certainly much more discursive, explanatory, explicit than the anonymous quote about the "what a ride!". In a way it gives even more credit to that "what a ride!" informal statement.
Stephen ZWEIG was quoted in this thread for the first time on 16th August 2004. Have a look!
Thought-provoking viewpoint
I received this from a friend in Africa -
Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shit...what a ride!"
Unfortunately, the original source was not given, but it is sentiment to be admired!
To conclude (temporarily?) on the subject...
It is probably time to come to a conclusion on the theme of "noisy signals". The following quote is a nice illustration of the kind of temper people can get into when being on the receiving end of polluted emissions.
For God hates utterly
The bray of bragging tongues.SOPHOCLES (496 BC - 406 BC)
The two lines are from "Antigone". The reference to a superior being shows the degree of irritation that can be experienced when confronted with transmissions of valueless, untrustworthy information or distorted knowledge.
As a follow up...
Today everybody has lots of opportunities to make themselves heard. It can be beneficial for the community, it can also become something which has the effect of confusing people, in particular when the messages are not that clear or are hardly meaningful. They can even be totally irrelevant, something which few of us really appreciate.
Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.Edward Roscoe MURROW (1908 - 1965)
Edward R. Murrow was an American journalist of high renown, especially appreciated for his strong sense of humanistic values.
A good joke, Cindy!
It is not quite sure Kahlil Gibran would have totally agreed with your interpretation, Cindy. No doubt he would have felt interested in it all the same (and he too had a wonderful sense of humour!).
Since you are also acquainted with Ireland (my little finger told me), you might have heard this other provocative utterance overthere:
Everyone is wise until he speaks.
Irish proverb
It does not preclude wise people from speaking wisely: t'would be a real pity if it did, in the island of the gift of the gab!
So ...
Hello Jacques,
Therefore can we say KB is a non-ignorant place because most of us are very quiet ... and then I should response less because chattering (writing) is not knowledge?
Interesting.
Cindy
As long as it makes sense?
As long as it makes sense?
At times it is felt that being over-informed might have confusing consequences on people's (our) ability to process information in a serene and objective way.
It would be nice to think we can keep a clear vision of the kinds of communication and exchanges we are exposed to. Some "guides" are ready to help us do some screening (filtering and selecting); but then let us be wary about those who might lead us to unreliable interpretations.
I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.
Kahlil GIBRAN (1883-1931)
Anyway it is always better to check one's sources of information before transforming it into "rational" knowledge or plain beliefs...
Planning for life, a priority?
"How to be successful in 10 lessons", "How to be the leader in your field", "How to ridicule your competitors". Those themes are made less aggressive nowadays. It could be an encouraging evolution or tendency in the eyes of those who do not believe in the virtues of the rat-race.
And certainly we want more collective responsibility, more solidarity, awareness, foresight. Not a new feeling:
Let us put our heads together and see what life we will make for our children.
Sitting Bull (1831-1890)
The Lakota (Sioux) leader's name was: Tatanka-Iyotanka, which translates into English as Sitting Bull (the buffalo bull). The Sioux Chief was a contemporary of President Grant, General Custer, Crazy Horse.
Of course we like cheese, Cindy!
It is also part of our destiny not to be able to make the world abide by the laws we feel are the best. So in some circumstances we certainly have to make the most to adapt to our environment! That can be some evolutionary "mechanism".
At a deeper level this principle might apply to our very self:
The only way to change is by changing your understanding.
Anthony de MELLO (1931-1987)
Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest who lived in India.
Perhaps I should be the mouse ??
A scientist put a laboratory mouse in a box with six rooms. The moust soon learned the cheese was in room three. Therefore, it always ran directly to room three upon being put in the box. One day the scientist put the cheese in room five. Upon entering the box, the mouse ran directly to room three. "Hmmm...no cheese." The moust looked around. Tried room four. No cheese. Tried room five. "Ah-ha! Cheese!"
What would a human being have done? He or she would have continued to return to room three again and again and again -- expecting and then demanding cheese. "Where is my cheese!? This is where it has always been. It's supposed to be here! I want it NOW -- GIVE ME MY CHEESE!!! I have rights you know. Blah, blah, blah." And so the complaining was heard through the night in the now-dark laboratory. Meanwhile, the cheese remained in room five.
So what is the difference between mice and people? Mice get their cheese.
-Author unknown.
The world and its people
Any society determines its objectives in relation to its beliefs. It is all the better when those beliefs are rooted in highly ethical principles. Here is a quote from Hungary as an invitation to put into perspective some of our convictions.
Business should contribute to conserving and restoring the ecology of the natural world and should contribute to the enhancement of the capabilities and self-development of people.
László ZSOLNAI
Dr. László Zsolnai is the Director of the Business Ethics Center at Budapest University of Economic Sciences, (Hungary).
A thought on intangibles
How about this one? Our endless need to measure things could run aground according to Nietzsche...
"Invisible threads often make the strongest ties"
(Friedrich Nietzsche)
Isn't that true?
Even if we might in all honesty admit that our beliefs make up our truths ("TRUTH"), and still advocate that TRUTH is what produces our beliefs, we still have to ponder on the following quote:
Men willingly believe what they wish.
Julius CAESAR (100 - 44 BC)
Nothing but the truth...
Just in case the concept of truth is of interest to any of our readers, here is a quote which might put another light on the subject!
Truth on this side of the Pyrenees, error on the other side.Blaise PASCAL (1623 - 1662)
Or: Vérité en deçà des Pyrénées, erreur au delà
Or: Diesseits der Pyrenäen Wahrheit, jenseits Irrtum.
Meaning: what's true here in France (this side of the Pyrenees -Mountains), might well be seen as wrong in Spain (the other side of the Pyrenees).
But that is keeping strictly to the litteral meaning...
Truth: no wonder people believe in it!
.
.
.
A friend from Canada (P.O. Courtemanche) sent us a quote he felt could start raising a few questions amidst some of the most self-absorbed populations of KM.
In the beginning, there were events.
These events, once observed, became data.
This data, once tabulated, became information.
This information, once analyzed, became knowledge.
This knowledge, once applied, became wisdom.
This wisdom, once absorbed, became truth.
This truth, once shared, became eternal.Dale LEIER
A way of presenting things which says a lot!
Our Canadian friend being from Montréal (Québec) suggested we should have that quote translated into French, and offered the following:
Au commencement, il y eut des faits.
Ces faits, dès lors constatés, devinrent des données.
Ces données, compilées, devinrent information.
Cette information, analysée, devint connaissance.
Cette connaissance, utilisée, devint sagesse.
Cette sagesse, bien vécue, devint vérité.
Cette vérité, partagée, devint éternelle. - Dale LEIER
It sounds even more debatable, or even frightening, when expressed in French!!!
Et pluribus unum... and scientific analyses
The Institute for Intercultural Studies (New York) was created in 1944, thanks to Margaret Mead (and Gregory Bateson -her husband).
The world famous American anthropologist had a few things to say to us. Of course she wrote dozens of books. But today we will concentrate on the following sentence:
If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.
Margaret MEAD (1901 - 1978)
It is probably a good idea to visit the corresponding website:
http://www.mead2001.org/Biography.htmThe home page starts with another quote from Margaret Mead:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
As a reply
Knowledge Management certainly consists of a not so little number of knowledge skills. Then the way you (Cindy) inscribe it in the highly complex and context sensitive world of the Olympics (preparing, organizing, monitoring the games) can lead us to realise that KM might not be reductible to a mere business management methodology. What's more the Earth population is also worth considering!
Baron Pierre de COUBERTIN (the one at the origin of the revival of the Olympics) would probably have encouraged us to go on improving our KM competencies and performances, he who said:
Winning is important, but what counts most is participating.
A thought which tells us a lot about the key roles of motivation and the feeling of belonging in any human enterprise.
KM for Olympic
SORRY -- is not a short quote of some famous people. IS a tedious, lenghty bla, bla from Cindy ...
Yesterday I took a quick glanced on the abstract of an article. I did not read it and I do not have the link here. The 3,4 lines of abstract asked if holding Olympic every 4 years at different locations is wise from the perspective of KM for Olympic. Each time the game is moved to a different locations, the process of KM for organizing the Olympic game has to re-start ALL Over again.
Here are some of my own thoughts.
Sometime in the rush of 'fitting' something into a 'mold' such as KM, we seems to forget the basic principles of Management. And we put on our blinkers and do not see the 'other' perspectives of doing something. To my simple reasoning mind, organizing an Olympic game every 4 years at the same location one is reusing the physical portion of the 'organizing'. The rest are never the same. Therefore how much KM are we retaining? People dies, new people to be recruited and trained, new sport participants, new needs, and even new equipments, new game or new buildings have to be added ... One should not forget there is such body called IOC that is reasonably constant (people leaves, people dies). Still, a larger amount of KM is retained within IOC I am sure.
From the other perspectives, think of the good will, think of 'global training' for the host country of that particular game. How many persons would proudly put on their CV such as -- volunteer translator during xxx Olympic game OR hostess for xxx country ??? And the value of that experience carry the person far. That is KM that is retained. KM in Organization skills, people skills, facilitation skills, langauges, time management, culutres awareness, global sensitivities ... Should we ignore that? Should we deprive the citizens of Greece, Australia, The Netherlands, Japan, UK, Germany, China etc. the real-life chance to teach and learn organization management, Human Resource Development, Human Resource Management, Information management, planning, building, constructions and designs, collaborations, leaderships, team-building ...?
Most of all think about bringing different people of this world, together, to another culture different from theirs. And the imprint and impact of bringing different cultures to the host countries. Both are great learning dynamics.
Olympic is not just about sports. There are much more KM behind Olympic game. Not forgetting the most important element - Knowledge Sharing.
Cindy
Danish proverb
I came across this old saying, allegedly Danish, but probably universal.
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom.
Another, less kind, states that
Even the Gods are defenseles against stupidity.
Nothing to do with KM - but of interest - the Danes have a plethora of proverbs involving food - it made me wonder, is it possible to identify a nation's interests by its old sayings?
Helen
system, the
A friend at the Global University of Povery (Pakistan) sends this quote:
"Take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them (through study, turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own. "Mao Tse-Tung"
"Minimalism" and wisdom
As an echo to the last quote by Cindy, here is one which invites us to be careful not to succumb to overdoses of information. Yes, this is knowledge about knowledge! It certainly implies some skill! and some humility and self-control! But that is the price to be paid to remain efficient. It is something we could call sustainable KM...
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
William JAMES (1842-1910)
American philosopher and psychologist (elder brother of the writer Henry James), who developed the philosophy of pragmatism.
Minimalist
I found this from a blog -- Stonepeace
http://www.moonpointer.com/stonepeace/index.htm
Minimalist
"" I do minimalist blogging here. So that I do not waste my time by glossing over redundant details. So that I do not waste your time with leafing through unnecessary fancy packaging for the real thing. Welcome to the era of short attention span. I think we should minimalise everything in life. There are only a couple of things the world should maximise, that it can't get enough of yet - Compassion and Wisdom.""
Cindy
Keep confident!
We know diversity is essential, and it is its richness which enables the adaptiveness and survival of all systems. In a way we could say that we hardly make enough efforts to secure diversity, whatever the subject, whatever the domain. Stephan Zweig evoked the matter, though from a slightly different perspective:
But in the intellectual world, there is room for all opposing forces: even that which never appears victorious in the real world continues to be effective as a dynamic force (in the intellectual world) and precisely the unfulfilled ideals prove to be the most invincible.
Stefan ZWEIG (1881-1942)
The last bit of the quote (unfulfilled ideals prove to be the most invincible) is a kind of premium to idealism, at least it might help people not to abandon their convictions!
Knowledge vs. wisdom
This quote is one of very many assigned to the scientist Martin H Fischer (1879-1962).
Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.
Martin H. Fischer
Freedom of thought
Our friend Miguel Cornejo published a text entitled In the Name of Free Speech in the columns of the H-SIG (this SIG). And then, by chance, the following sentence appeared lately on my computer screen:
... cognitive liberty is becoming one of the major civil rights issues of this century.
Richard Glen BOIRE
Looking for some contextual information I discovered that Richard Glen Boire was co-founder of the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics in California. The CCLE is a nonprofit law, policy, & public education center working to advance and protect freedom of thought.
Obviously it would be more comfortable to experience freedom of speech and freedom of thought at the same time, wouldn't it?
Furthermore we want the talk and the walk, but we certainly expect the related authentic thinking!
??!!##
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -Einstine
Controversy as a guarantee of genuineness and creativity?
In a way the following quote is linked to the familiar theme of "trust". It also draws our attention to the caution we should proceed with in situations where debate is expected or/and wished for. To a certain extent it confirms the basic feeling that avoidance of abrasive discussion can be sterile or even counter-productive.
Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.
Marie Ebner von Eschenbach (1830 - 1916)
Austrian writer and poet, née Countess Dubsky at Zdislawitz Castle, in Moravia
What's in it for the CoPs?
The definition of the role of CoPs at the strategic and planning level of any organisation raises a few fundamental questions, which at times lead to some rich controversies. An element of reflexion on a related subject was offered to us some decades ago:
A cardinal principle in systems theory is that all parties that have a stake in a system should be represented in its management.
Malcolm Shepherd KNOWLES (1913 - 1997)
Malcom S. Knowles was an American expert in the field of adult education ("The Adult Learner", 1973). He put the stress on the notions of informal adult education, self-direction and andragogy ("andragogy" could be defined as the art and science of helping adults learn).
Common sense and "follow-my-leader" attitudes
The metaphor about the sheep, which was published a few days ago, might have connexions with the following Latin aphorism
Fide, sed qui, vide.
"Trust but take care whom."
Note that it does not recommend to mistrust people, but encourages one to be a bit selective... For blind faith gives birth to sheeplike behaviours (remember the Panurgian phenomenon).
Generally speaking though reasonable people do not want to be led astray (away from what corresponds to their values), or they simply refuse to be taken nowhere!
Then again "obedience" has a charm of its own, so has indiscriminate "imitation", the will to conform...
Looking back on knowledge predictions
We had that extraordinary political economist and philosopher who said:
A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.
Bertrand de JOUVENEL (1903-1987)
He taught at Cambridge, Berkeley, Oxford; published "The Art of Conjecture" in 1967. A great founder of futurology and prospective analyses. What have we seen since 1967?
What to base the metrics of KM on?
To start with what is knowledge and how do we know that it is knowledge? And how do we know whether it is useful or useless?
Knowledge must come through action; you can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.
SOPHOCLES (496 or 495 BC - 406 BC)
Pragmatism is an old school of thinking...
Conversing and discussing (not gossiping!)
De la discussion naît la lumière.
This is a several centuries old French proverb!
What it means? Simply:
From discussion springs light.
And for most of my life I have been told that verbal exchanges are essential to the good running of human activities, and that encompasses either "abrasive discussion" or "social padding" routines. Is it true all over the world?
There is also a little enquiry in the matter at:
http://www.knowledgeboard.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=128211
Thanks to you if you can contribute!
KM and value
I came across this on Tony Geoghan's 'Banjo Hollow' web page and thought I'd pass it on as it is so right:
Knowledge only has true value when it's shared.
Helen
Digging deeper and raising more questions!
We certainly base our reflection on doubt, questioning, as so many thinkers have noticed (see in the list of previous quotes in this thread). Here is another wise sentence on the same theme:
Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.
Kahlil GIBRAN
If St Francis has driven us to wonder what he meant (previous quote: "A man has only so much knowledge as he puts to work") and led us to ask ourselves questions we would never have thought of, it shows the richness of the power of our use of question marks! It also shows it is rather good not to take everything we read or hear as granted, in particular in the domain of KM (!?).
What did he mean? What do we understand?
John (John Davidson, 29 June 2004)
gives us clear interpretations of what St Francis might have meant ("A man has only so much knowledge as he puts to work"). And thanks Cindy for starting the questioning! (Cindy Lemcke-Hoong, 28 June 2004)
Other interpretations are inevitably possible, and a number of readers can certainly give theirs, which might all differ slightly from one another. Since we encourage diversity here, we would most likely enjoy those varied contributions a lot!
The original intention(s) of St Francis, in the circumstances of his life and times, might have given his sentence some other dimension(s) too. Perhaps he was also trying to invite people to show some humility. Perhaps he wanted less talk and more action. Perhaps he wanted people to stop boasting about their superior knowledge when the use of that knowledge might have been questionable, or the truth of that knowledge itself might have been suspicious.
Also what could have been a concern for St Francis is the benefit of that knowledge for society? The sharing of knowledge could also have been an imperative for him, but he could only see it and assess it through its being put into action, into some concrete project?
In any case we must not forget that interpretation is the key to all our intellectual processes (and emotional ones..., no doubt!), even when in the domain of very rational domains and subjects!
Your thoughts?
"A man has only so much knowledge as he puts to work"
I think what is meant is that unless you do something with your knowledge, then it isn't really knowledge.
Remember the dot com boom? Thousands of multi-millionaires with shares in vastly overpriced companies. Most of them are poor like the rest of us now because they never converted their shares into cash. So it is with knowledge. Unless you convert it into action, it becomes worthless.
Best wishes
John
Help me out !!
Hello Jacques,
"A man has only so much knowledge as he puts to work"
Do I understand this quote correctly?
Is he saying 'we only put so much knowledge to work' meaning we 'keep some behind for raining days'
or
is he saying 'whatever knowledge we put in is all the knowledge we processed'?
Cindy
Knowlege and metrics
Quite often we see people insist on the differences between information and knowledge. It could be too much of a theoretical way to apprehend things, at least in the eyes of the more pragmatically oriented KM workers:
A man has only so much knowledge as he puts to work
St. Francis of Assisi (1181 - 1226)
Founder of the Franciscan Order. Patron saint of the animals and the environment
You cannot kid me!
Transparency is one of the key elements enabling the flourishing of trust and respect, and thus of motivation and collaboration. So it should be kept in mind that it is no good to try and mislead people through the juggling with the links between causes and effect.
A man can never have a male child before his father.
African proverb
'to know' has moved
Hi all,
in order to avoid this thread tacking off course, I have cut Chris', Pete's, Helen's and Olaf's comments about the nuances of the word 'know' and pasted them into the new forum Jacques set up here
As far as quotes goes, I'm all shy as I'm new (I am standing in for Stephanie while she is on maternity leave), and Fred posted my favourite "if you think education is expensive..." quote all the way back in May.
Although this one usually pops up in my mind here and there...
"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown."
(Woody Allen)
Far from the maddening crowd
Michel Cartier, from Montréal, is a very active KM expert and already has several papers on KB (mainly "Le coin des francophones" --that is life and cultural diversity!). This is what he says about the process of decision making at the threshold of our new era of knowledge driven economies and societies:
...les preneurs de décision ne regardent que dans leur rétroviseur. La gouvernance ne s'est pas encore dotée de gouvernail.
Decision-makers keep looking in their rear-mirrors. Governance still needs a steering device!
Michel CARTIER (cartier.michel@uqam.ca)
If you feel like reading Michel Cartier's article (in French) go to http://www.knowledgeboard.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=127414. You can also have a look at his "Who's who" entry, go to his website (http:www.michelcartier.com)...
The only certainties we can have these days are ...
Managing knowledge to prepare for any kind of new situation, economic or social developments, new ways of thinking is a big challenge! That is what we could conclude from the following:
The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.
Paul VALERY (1871-1945)
Old Cicero said it all, or did he not?
"By doubting we arrive at the truth" suggested the wiseman. He was followed by many on that path through the centuries. Bertrand Russell put it another way: "what is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out…".
But let us remember:
Dubitando ad veritatem pervenimus
Marcus Tullius CICERO (106-43 BC)
To know or not to know...
In the wake of the preceding quotes making the word "know" the core of wise sentences:
Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.
Daniel J. BOORSTIN (1914-2004)
An information expert (lawyer, historian), at a time director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of History and Technology (Washington). In Paris he was the first incumbent of a chair in American History at the Sorbonne.
What about this one as a tongue twister?
Playing on words is a sport shared on the whole planet. Playing on meaning is also one; it can stimulate our brains, for sure.
Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to un-know.
Richard Francis BURTON (1821-1890)
(Little to do with the late Richard Burton!)
A true citizen of the world (he is said to have been able to speak 29 European, Asian, and African languages and countless dialects), he was knighted in 1866.
Attention George Por
"To master attention is to hold consciousness like a paintbrush and transform one's life into living art." (Vivian Wright)
This is a campaign line George Por (one of the 10 people to have most sudied communal inteligence multiplied by all net interactions) is using to start his pan-europe mentoring tour for leaders who care 10 fold more than others
Emerging Campaign Diary of Por's Evolutionary Leadership for 10 Fold more Human Impacts:
Question George Por free Islington London (June 9, 17.30) email wcbn007@easynet.co.uk to register and know of non-smoking location I've beeen asked to find
Amsterdam July 5, 6 Por with Peter Merry & 2 of the Netherlands' greatest advocates of chnage possibilities
around Europe - wherever leaders want to convene this web of benchmarking and mentoring circles
References:
George talks here
Bloggers can interact here
Contributors to London as first pioneer Collaboration Knowledge City: discuss George here
Sheep
"It’s futile for sheep to pass a resolution for vegetarianism when wolves are of a different opinion."
(Unknown)
"Failure Happens. Give people trust and it will happen more productively."
(Jack Welch - General Electric)
"If you can touch something, it's probably not worth a great deal."
My personal collection of short ones (sorry)
"Teamwork: not permitting others to fail"
Steve Kerr - CLO, Goldman Sachs
"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination."
-- attributed to Albert Einstein.
"The only thing you can count on is change, except from vending machines"
Hilary Price(Feb 11. 2002)
"Trust is the bandwidth of communication."
Karl-Erik Sveiby
"At its essence, every organization is a product of how its members think and interact.
Peter Senge
"Knowledge management fails when people need common information but don't need each other"
Andy Boyd - Shell
"Connection, not collection: That's the essence of knowledge management."
Tom Stewart - The Wealth of Knowledge
"When knowledge gained somewhere doesn't move elsewhere, that's not a learning organization; that's just a bunch of projects."
Saratoga Institute
"Practice provides the rails on which knowledge flows"
John Seely Brown
"The positive development of a society in the absence of creative, independent thinking, critical individuals is as inconceivable as the development of an individual in the absence of the stimulus of the community"
Albert Einstein
"Knowledge has become the key economic resource and the dominant - and perhaps the only- source of competitive advantage."
Peter Drucker
"After twenty years spent walking around in baseball parks, I discovered that the knowledge of the game is usually inversely proportional to the price of the seats"
Bill Veek - Owner of the Chicago White Sox
"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit"
Harry S Truman
"The first job is not to make decisions but to make sense"
Allan Weber
"the ability to learn faster than your competition, is the only source of sustainable advantage"
Arie de Geus
"He who governs least governs best"
Thomas Jefferson
I like that one
"The e-econonomy is the art of grabing the attention of colleagues by going straight to the point"
Pierre Levy
en Français (mieux):
"L'économie du web, c'est l'art d'intéresser les collègues en allant droit au but"
Simplistic views
One of the greatest and most admirable of statesmen (and dictators) emphasized quite openly and obviously what he thought our lowest springs are. Let us hope today's KM workers can outgrow this cynical apprehension of our basic motivations.
There are two levers to set a man in motion, fear and self-interest.
Napoleon BONAPARTE (1769-1821)
Even before the 20th century...
From a most frequently quoted wise, very wise man:
To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
Tom Davenport & Derek Box
The comment by Tom Davenport that "Knowledge Management is expensive but so is stupidity" parallels one by Derek Bok who said, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."
Einstein's take on technology and ideas
I've often heared the idea that technology is irrelevant to knowledge management. This is not useful; technology is an important enabler. Where would KnowledgeBoard be without it? Hence...
‘Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination.’
Albert Einstein
Information, precision and authenticity
At the end of February 2004, we discussed the origin of the saying:
In Africa, when an old man dies, a library disappears
a sentence often attributed to Kofi Annan. In fact an expert in African literature (Bintou Traoré) has just told me that the author of that sentence was a poet from Mali. The author's name was Amadou Hampâté Bâ. He uttered the sentence (in French) at a Unesco conference (around 1960).
Amadou Hampâté Bâ, who was born in 1900, left us the same year he published Amkoullel l'enfant Peul, in 1991.
Yes, why not an index?
Helen,
Happy you like it!
It could be interesting to have some indexing, you are perfectly right. We'll have to think about it!
Sheer joy
I really enjoy reading all these vivid and international quotes. Do we have an index of all these entries?
Do not try to hide it!
What about transparency?
Truth is like a calabash gourd pressed under water; no matter how hard you try, it insists on surfacing."
Christopher OKIGBO (1932-1967)
Nigerian poet who wrote in English, Christopher Okigbo was born in Ojoto in eastern Nigeria, which at that time was still Britain's colony.
Okigbo's early poems reflected the divided cultural heritage of his country, although first influences from Virgil, Ovid, Eliot, and Pound seem to be stronger than the oral literature of the Igbo.
Okigbo died in the civil war in Nigeria, fighting for the independence of Biafra.
a tongue twister
there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know. Donald Rumsfeld
US Secretary of Defence
One from the fashion industry
Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.
--Donatella Versace
Useful quotes
Jacques,
Those remind me of Tom Davenport's quote: "Knowledge management is expensive--but so is stupidity!" (I used this quote on a slide once...it has a really strong impact on people!)
And here's another that I have to say is one of my personal favorites:
"KM in good times means 'knowledge management', in bad times it means 'kill me'."
--David Gurteen
Kaye
Revisiting (common sense) sayings
Thanks for your quotes Helge (10 May 2004 @ 08:39 AM)
A comment on the first one.
It would seem this quote belongs to a tradition based on a generative pattern: a saying which can be modified according to various situations.
"If you think that training is expensive, try incompetence" reminds us of :
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Derek BOK, 1978
PS: Derek BOK served as president of Harvard University from July 1971 through June 1991
I also have a good friend who frequently says:
"If you think knowledge management is useless, try doing without it / invest in doing nothing."
Marc de FOUCHECOUR (ENSAM)
two more quotes relating to training
From the email signature of one of my colleagues (Joan Horbeek):
"If you think that training is expensive, try incompetence"
Luis Alvarez:
"This is the course in advanced physics.
That means the instructor finds the subject confusing.
If he didn’t, the course would be called elementary physics.”
(kindly forwarded to me by Kurt April)
A couple more
I think these two are relevant as well...
There is the world of ideas and the world of practice
- Mathew Arnold
A man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access
- Friedrich Nietzsche
On when to call it quits
I have heard versions of this one in a score of countries. It just points out that some things are done willingly, or not done at all...
... and some are finally not done.
"You can take a mule to the water, but you can't make it drink"
Maragato proverb.
Sign outside of a cafe in Central London
Knowledge is knowing that a tomatoe is a fruit.
Wisdom is knowing not to put in a fruit salad.
Practical KM quotes
Here are a few of my favorites. I tend toward the more practical ones that can be used to further a business case. On the KM community site I lead for our company, I keep a running of list of KM quotes from mostly modern voices. I will definitely take some of these from this thread and add them !
Kaye
-----------------------------
"In contrast to the traditional factors of production that were governed by diminishing returns, every additional unit of knowledge used effectively results in a marginal increase in performance."
-- Yogesh Malhotra in "Knowledge Assets in the Global Economy: Assessment of National Intellectual Capital", Journal of Global Information Management
------------------------------
"The technologies that will be most successful will resonate with human behaviour instead of working against it. In fact, to solve the problems of delivering and assimilating new technology into the workplace, we must look to the way humans act and react.... In the last 20 years, US industry has invested more than $1 trillion in technology, but has realised little improvement in the efficiency of its knowledge workers and virtually none in their effectiveness. If we could solve the problems of the assimilation of new technology, the potential would be enormous. "
-- John Seely-Brown, in "The Human Factor", Information Strategy, Dec 96-Jan 97.
-------------------------------
"Knowledge is power, which is why people who had it in the past often tried to make a secret of it. In post-capitalism, power comes from transmitting information to make it productive, not from hiding it."
-- Peter F. Drucker in "The Post-Capitalist Executive," Managing in a Time of Great Change, Penguin, NY (1995).
----------------------------------
"Knowledge is a social process not merely a matter of transferring a chunk of information from one place to another. To really achieve Knowledge Management (KM) companies need to implement a process of motivating and inciting people to share information."
--Ahmet Aykac, Director, Theseus International Management Institute.
-----------------------------------
"Most enterprises organize their internal (intranet) content by the owning business unit. They forget that if people don't know which business unit owns the information they need, automating that process doesn't help. Taxonomies must focus on use of knowledge rather than ownership of knowledge."
--Kathy Harris, Gartner Group, 2003.
-----------------------------------
"To put it in editorial terms, knowing how a typewriter works does not make you a writer. Now that knowledge is taking the place of capital as the driving force in organizations worldwide, it is all too easy to confuse data with knowledge and information technology with information."
-- Peter F. Drucker in "The Post-Capitalist Executive," Managing in a Time of Great Change, Penguin, NY (1995)
a challenge to Knowledge transfer
No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What every body echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow, mere smoke of opinion…..
What old people say you cannot do you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people and new deeds for new.
Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned any thing of absolute value by living. Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial…..
I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors..
Walden or Life in the woods
Henry David Thoreau
The Future of Knowledge Management
From an article which is still seen as a fundamental piece of thinking in the domain of KM:
The future of management, therefore, lies in strategic allocation of chaos, risk, and uncertainty, combined with predictable and efficient execution of production.
Ilkka TUOMI
This rather reasonable sentence is to be found on this document available on KnowledgeBoard.
It was first published in:
Lifelong Learning in Europe (LLinE), vol VII, issue 2/2002, pp. 69-79
I cannot refrain from quoting this other bit (from the same document):
The capability to flexibly and rapidly reconfigure and generate competencies is becoming a core competence of the corporation.
It has proved to be true, many a time...
"What do we mean by futures?"
Futurologists like new technologies, no doubt they can relish on them. Nevertheless they will not remain blind to the social interactions, collaborations taking place between the various actors.
Success for people, organisations and communities will come from the way they gather and share information, knowledge, wisdom; from their rate of learning, adaptation, innovation; from the quality of their culture, values, relationships; and from design, ideas, creativity.
Jan Lee MARTIN
More by the author of that short paragraph can be perused at
http://www.futurists.net.au/fnewsMarch%202004.pdf
another one...
It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.
(Wilbur and Orville Wright)
dna of this space?
Insight of Jean Monnet's - without whom there would be no EU and no KB : http://www.eurplace.org/federal/monnet.html
"What I undertook in every important phase of my life proceeded from one choice and one alone: to make all men work together, to show them that beyond their divergences or over and above frontiers, they have a common interest"
info know
In the world of knowledgeable management.......
Data is ubiquitous
Information is contextuous
Knowledge is illustrious
Technogy is superfluous
Useful quote not coming too late, I hope
...wisdom is a butterfly
Not a gloomy bird of prey
Yeats, Tom O'Roughley
Through the Looking Glass
Dealing in KM is a bit like trying to modelize what's there, behind the mirror. Except that it is perhaps a little bit more difficult than that. Some will find more than others: see "What Alice Found There".
"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!"
Lewis CARROLL
Sorry for the erroneous locating! It was in SYROS!
ETHICOMP 2004
Challenges for the Citizen of the Information Society
The Seventh ETHICOMP International Conference on the Social and Ethical Impacts of Information and Communication Technologies
University of the Aegean, Syros, Greece
14 to 16 April 2004
Echoes from the ETHICOMP 2004 conference
ETHICOMP 2004 (Athens, April 2004)
From a communication the title of which was
Knowledge Management: The darker side of KM
... knowledge management has a very strong ethical dimension and unless we recognise that fact we are going to develop technology based systems which enhance the power of the knowledge manipulator.
Signed by: Frank Land, Sevasti-Melissa Nolas and Urooj Amjad
Al "Dante"?
From Godlewski, a good friend of mine (who'd rather I did not mention him!?):
... non men che saver, dubbiar m'aggrata.
Dante Alleghieri di Fiorenza
La Divina Commedia (Inferno, XI, 93)
... doubting pleases me no less than knowing.
Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321
The Divine Comedy can be consulted on-line here.
Some 19th century Prime Minister always was inspiring!
We certainly feel he was right, and we obviously share his opinion:
The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.
Benjamin DISRAELI
Becoming a semi-robot
"Becoming a pain-free, all-but-immortal, genetically enhanced semi-robot may be deeply unsatisfactory compared to being an ordinary man or woman who has faced his or her fear of death to relish what is."
Bill McKibben, author Enough.
see http://www.billmckibben.com
I like the above quote and might add 2 words:
,and stories
(I am very interested in anyone views on whether the quality/relevance of stories that get circulated by people through time are as good today as say 20 years ago)
M I Finley Introduction to Thucydides 'History of the Peloponnesian War'
'Greek intellectuals like Thucydides were is dead earnest about their conviction that
man is a rational being. As a corollary, they believed that knowledge for its own sake was meaningless,its mere accumulation a waste of time. Knowledge must lead to understanding. '
On Imagination
Imagination is more important than knowledge...
Albert Einstein
love of the gods
With thanks to C L-E at OST for this pearl:
"Maybe the most important Kabbalistic teaching on love comes from the realm of cosmology, where the biblical mystics introduce to us a beautiful and important idea that enormously affects how we live our lives. The idea in two sentences: The world does not come into being through divinity stepping forward in a creative gesture. Quite the opposite--God steps back in a movement of sacrificial withdrawal in order to create the world. God creates an empty space, and only then, in that space, can the world emerge from the divine womb of being! 'But how can that be?' we ask the mystics. 'Isn't the whole point of the God idea that divinity is infinite and everywhere? How can God just step back?'
'This,' respond the biblical mystics, 'is precisely the mystery of love.'"
--Rabbi Marc Gafni, The Mysteries of Love
one or two
There are those who talk; and those who walk the talk.
When George Bush first came to power I was excited by a speech he made at the annual quality baldrige awards cermony : "America will usher in an era of responsibility"
For me , that particular excitement has evaporated a while ago.
Guess we must all fight our own corners to be free to choose our horses and courses. Dunno how that last line translates into French but then sine "The Arc" is the world's greatest hotrse race, I expect there is a translation.
He has been quoted saying:
At this moment, America's highest economic need is higher ethical standards -- standards enforced by strict laws and upheld by responsible business leaders.
Who is the person quoted?
Bingo!!!
George W. BUSH (2002)
And the balls keep rolling...
Measurements Anyone??
While you and I have lips and voices which
are for kissing and to sing with
who cares if some one-eyed son of a bitch
invents an instruments to measure Spring with?
ee cummings
Where do they speak Yoruba?
Right! It is in Nigeria; where the other regional official languages are?
Right again! Haussa and Ibo. But since the vernacular European language there is English...
You can beat the drums, and I can dance: let us cooperate!
Yoruba saying
Let's move on!!!
It is nice to try being optimistic, it certainly can be quite productive. So cheer up!
States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.
Noam CHOMSKY
Zeno (490 - 425 BC)
When you come to think of it...
The reason we have two ears and only one mouth, is that we may hear more and speak less.
ZENO
1989 a's
1 who wins? Financial manipulators
2 who loses? The Company
Did global systems go big instead of goodwilled? Which is the True KM of the human side on? And if the trust-flows of Global Corporates did measurably deviate from the human side, where did governments go? And where did NGO's go? Where did the human conversation go? Are we all lurkers in giving up on the human side of organisation? and of the human race.
Published Prediction from 1985 for 2005 :"In the emerging networked world of 2005, the difference in incomes and expectations became recognised as man's greatest risk. Nature posed the evolutionary question: would people use the internet to save our world in time? All answers to where civilisation etc of human race would go became known nigh on 2010."
Chris, Black Swan, Fools NoE
A childish pun?
A speaker who does not strike oil in ten minutes should stop boring.
Jacob BRAUDE
Yes, we can use funny quotes too! Let's have a laugh from time to time!!!
1989 interview q's
"The character of a company is important to everyone in it, and those with whom the company does business.
Regarding take-overs, always ask 2 questions first:
1) Who stands to make money from the deal?
2) Where does the money come from?"
Sir Adrian Cadbury, 1989 Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes
(Copyright Bold Leadership Interview Series)
One more !!
Sounds like something we do not do enough most of the time?
"And with the best leaders
When the work is done
The people will say
We have done this
ourselves."
--Lao-tzu, China
WHAT OUR CHOICES SAY ABOUT US
Here are five of my favourite quotes, they say much about me and my approach to KM…
“An ounce of experience is worth a ton of theory”
Benjamin Franklin
“The great end of learning is not knowledge but action”
Peter Honey
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best return”
Benjamin Franklin
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do”
Goethe
“When you know something, say what you know. When you don’t know something, say that you don’t know. That is knowledge”
Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)
Favourite quote
"Who knows useful things, not many things, is wise."
Aeschylus
Forme, this summarises the struggle we call knowledge management - it's not about managing every possible piece of knowledge, it's about managing the knowledge that is most useful - and the real skill of the knowledge manager is identifying that knowledge!
Good thread
John
Tao Zhu Gong (500 BC)
The following is the eleventh business principle of the Emperor of Yue's counsellor:
Comradeship and trust will emerge naturally when discipline and high standards are enforced.
Tao Zhu Gong
Ethics? SCSR?
From an EU workshop report
"IST Challenges to Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility"
10th June 2003
IST has a role to play in supporting the transfer of knowledge in a global context but there is still a lack of appropriate ethical standards to support a global labour market.
That workshop was organised and moderated by Mr. Oluf Nielsen and Ms. Tina Mede
DGINFSO F4 Unit for "New Working Environments" on 4 th April 2003 -Brussels, Belgium
Rapporteurs: Fernando Ubieta & Eoin Banahan
It seems we are talking here of ethics and SCSR. A URL is available for a thorough reading of the report:
IST Challenges
SCSR: Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility
life's work
“ Our life’s work is to use what we have been given to wake up.”
—Pema Chödrön
Personally I prefer big questions to big knowledge. So for example, what's the best question you can ask an audience, if you have been given the poisoned challenge of powerpointing at a conference. I like starting by asking people to huddle in groups of three and each take one minute to tell the other two the moment that most changed their life and what they now do differently. (With thanks to mentor Lilly Evans who first revealed this conversation entry to me)
Democritus (460 BC - 370 BC)
Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
DEMOCRITUS
Old Democritus! And he was the one to invent the theory of the "atom"!
A differing viewpoint
One of Terry Pratchett's characters, in his novel 'Interesting Times' says:
"Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized."
From the very famous K. Kalamogan
The illustrious Tamil poet says (sorry for my poor translation into English):
Taboo-less birds
I am seeking
to tell them
about my dreams
Which of course is supposed to mean a lot more than it seems at first glance...
Kalamogan is of course a poet who talks a lot about exile. But do we not feel like exiles ourselves, at times, in a world of deeds and thoughts alien (or so we had assumed) to our humanity.
Coelho on KM
Three quotes from "Brida", a novel by the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho (www.paulocoelho.com.br), carrying important lessons for collaborative aspects of KM:
* "..an ancient German proverb: (...) the Devil resides in the details". (page 180).
* "I was feeling useful, and started to tell him everything I knew. (...) I felt needed, and this is once of the best sensations a human being can experience". (page 220)
* "If you encounter something important in life, this doesn't mean you should renounce all others".
* "(...)Until now, you have exercised your masculin side: knowledge. You know, understand what you know, but you haven't yet touched the grand feminine force, one of the mastering forces of transformation. And knowledge without transformation isn't wisdom" (page 152).
Translated from the Portuguese. Paulo Coelho, 1990. Brida. Editora Pergaminho: Cascais (Portugal).
Nothing is more practical than a good theory
Excerpts from another discussion where we investigated the root of this (or a very similar quote):
" Nothing as practical like a good theory" has been ascribed to the sociologist Kurt Lewin, I believe, but correct me if I am wrong. (Olaf Brugman)
The google consensus is that it was Kurt Lewin. One person seemed to think it was David Hilbert, however. (Joe Firestone)
I always believed & heard this quotation attributed to Kurt Lewin; however recently a friend of mine with an intimate knowledge of Lewin (and he had always quoted Lewin as the author of this quotation) attributed this saying to the german philosopher Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel: "Nichts ist praktischer als eine richtige Theorie." (note the difference: richtig vs. good) I could not yet verify the correct reference, but it's very likely that Hegel at some point made this remark.
Just a reminder
An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.
Mahatma GANDHI
Some rare beauty
I stole this from The Gurteen Knowledge Website http://www.gurteen.com I don't think David minds.
"Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. You must be able to sustain yourself against staggering blows. There is no code of conduct to help beginners. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent."
Sophia Loren
Zen and KM
Hi Jacques, I particularly like this quote:
This is work that is alive,
Effervescent, free, liberated,
Gloriously enlightened,
True, and great.
Do you think it can be attained
By people who shut the door
And sit quietly with blank minds?
- Liu I-Ming
It made me want to find out more about Zen. A trawl on the Net found a delightful site: http://www.do-not-zzz.com/powerd/index.html This led to further reading and the sudden insight that Zen, being about intuitive and tacit experiences, influences KM. Further checking revealed that, naturally, others have had the same notion . For instance, Stephen Denning, at www.stevedenning.com notes:
“ In the West, intuitive knowledge has often been devalued in favor of rational scientific knowledge, and the rise of science has even led to claims that intuitive knowledge is not really knowledge at all. However, recognition of the difficulties inherent in transferring knowledge from one person to another has tended to highlight the importance of tacit knowledge e.g. notably in the writings of Polanyi (1975), and Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995).
In an effort to distinguish knowledge from mere information, some Western analysts have tried defining “knowledge” as wholly tacit (i.e. as capacity in action), thus consigning what others have considered as explicit knowledge to mere information (Sveiby)
In the East, the tradition has been to celebrate the importance of the intuitive, in comparison with the rational. The Upanishads for instance speak about a higher and a lower knowledge, and associate lower knowledge with the various sciences. “
Carl Davidson at No Doubt Research gave a paper on the topic at the conference Knowledge Management 2002:
Key strategies for implementing a successful knowledge management initiative, Auckland,
14-15 October 2002 Zen and the Art of Knowledge Management, which can be found at
www.nodoubt.co.nz/articles/zen_km.pdf . This is a very readable paper, I recommend it
Helen
Let's celebrate Africa!
Jozepha, thanks for your quote:
In Africa, when an old man dies, a library disappears
The fact is I am not so sure it was created by Annan. It could be that it was an African saying (a contemporary one though) and that he used it in an official speech.
The authorship in the realm of oral cultures is quite a different object altogether, anyway! What probably counts most is not the author but the wisdom conveyed by the proverb -what an unfamiliar and wise utterance of a man or woman becomes as soon as it is adopted in a particular culture.
We are then far from an automatic merchandisation of each and every kind of production, whether material or intellectual!
Anyway we must thank Koffi Annan for letting us share this fundamental piece of wisdom, also a warning in terms of conservation of cultural diversity.
One more to add to the collection
Not sure where I heard it but I like it!
"In Africa, when an old man dies, a library disappears"
(Kofi Annan)
Another Quote
“If it leads to compassion, you know it’s knowledge. Otherwise, it is only information.” Gerald Grow
From a Dutch 20th century artist
It could be that trying to take the road leading upwards is a bit tough.
Everything of value is defenseless.
Lubertus (Jacobus Swaanswijk) LUCEBERT
Vaclav Havel said:
Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly.
Václav Havel
Thanks Abdul!
Thanks for your contribution Abdul. Your three quotes are most welcome! Quote number three reminds us that we are still "babies" in the use of technologies, and perhaps that beyond the material use of those, when "growing up" we will have to integrate more abstract and moral knowledge and know-how into our practice of those technologies.
Thanks again, Jacques
Some other gems I know of ...
“Knowledge is experience, everything else is just information” Albert Einstein
“I not only use the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.” Woodrow Wilson
“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.” Buckminster Fuller
Quotes - I think this one is very apt
Jacques, here's another for the collection.
A complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.
B. H. Liddell Hart (The Ghost of Napoleon)
Helen
music
Jacques, you are right about music etc. I have some nice ones for you: http://goiaba.blogs.com/goiaba . In the left column, you can find the Goiaba web radio :).
Cheers!
These hit a chord
"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." - James Thurber
"We are smart enough to realize we are stupid, and stupid enough to make the problem of becoming smarter hard." - Anders Sandberg
"Nobody ever came up with a great idea all by themselves." - Thomas Edison
"..not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein
Temple....NOT....Temper
Hi Jacques,
I knew something was not quite right, but I was not able to go back and edit.
Monks are after all human. Therefore once it is over the safe number of 2, the tension,the mistrust begins.
Cindy
Pink Floyd, 1990, Dark Side of the Moon
Yes, Olaf, "Money". The Pink Floyd said it all.
And the song by Liza Minelli "Money makes the world go round", in the film "Cabaret"!...
No doubt, KM workers must not forget to relax and enjoy music and songs.
Which does not solve the problems of our poor contemporaries and NGOs, we have to admit...
Communities of monks, surely, are thought of as examples of good practice!
Are you saying, Cindy, that life in a temple can be not so smooth?
Would that imply that the functioning of communities need to be backed up by stronger rules than is generally advocated?
But your example is of course a caricature, is it not? Thanks for the parable anyway.
The biggest knowledge issues according to NGOs working in international development
Said several NGOs working in international development co-operation, being asked in a survey about their most pressing knowledge needs.
"MONEY!"
And of course, being without money doesn't make potentials, resources and knowledge not very productive. To invert this viscious circle should be at least the objective of KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT. Transfer, associative concerted action, levelling. Etc.
Knowledge Sharing or Water Sharing?
Imagine you are in China 2000 years ago. In a temper. The monks fetched water from the stream for cooking, washing, watering the vegetable patches etc.
Here is the story:
A monk who lives on his own would fetch water according to his needs.
Two monks would share the burden of fetching water from the stream
A temper with three monks would be one without water.
Sounds a bit like managing a CoP?
Cindy
More change, more of the same?
These days, as "scientism" is questioned, what about the following?
The man was a great basketball player and an extraordinary coach... and he wrote a few wise books, about basketball, of course, but also about life. He certainly had a few wise things to say.