Jargon
If you want to know what a philosophy degree's really like, then Johnnie's probably the man to tell you.
I was particularly hopeless at the jargon. To win a philosophical argument with me, all you had to do was to suggest that I was being solipsistic (or pretty much any such term). I'd stare at you blankly, because I had no idea what it meant but didn't want to admit to such professional ignorance. Secretly, I'd sneer at your pretentious use of language, but you'd never know that.Certainly rang some bells :)
But it also made me wonder what the jargon words were that should be forbidden at all possible when talking to people about KM initiatives.
Knowledge sharing is obviously one. As is knowledge capture. In fact "knowledge" probably should go full stop. "Creative abrasion", "deep dialogue", "identity management", "paradigm shifts", "out of the box", "emergence", "power laws", perhaps the whole top-down/bottom-up thing, "blogs" (but only because it's such an ugly word), "knowledge harvesting", "thought leaders". Definitely "knowledge workers".
I suppose, in short, anything that would find its way into a "bluff your way in KM" book. Any others? Not to say that these words don't mean anything, just that they smack of jargon.
Anyway, Johnnie's solipsism example made me think of a student in my seminar group when I was getting my degree. We'd been having a particularly fruitless term discussing whether we could prove we exist, and in pretty much the last seminar the tutor said, slightly huffily, "Well presumably none of you think you don't exist?" At which point the bloke, whose name was a mystery and who hadn;t spoke a word until then said, "I'm not sure. I'm really not sure." And we never saw him again. Sensible feller.
Comments
Eugh. 'knowledge harvesting'? sounds almost as painful as 'creative abrasion'....
Any jargon that implies that knowledge is something which can be transported, controlled, dissected or reconstituted as if it were a thing rather than a process, just has to go. A bit like 'change management' I'm not convinced you can manage change; just like any intervention in a complex system, you never quite know what the results are going to be and you just end up parachuting cats into Borneo.
Posted by: Green Fairy | November 17, 2005 3:54 PM
mmmm, ok, I agree that some words and phrases can get over-used, become cliche, and lose their impact... but certain words provide a radically alternative perspective from a dominant discourse and therefore allow you to break free and so have a place... it's just when we get desensitised to that that we have to step back, or something...?
Posted by: Carol | November 17, 2005 5:52 PM
Yes I agree that "certain words provide a radically alternative perspective from a dominant discourse" and do actively strive (failing often) towards a more participative and inquiring and mode of speech (and action)...
But just to re-state where I was coming from, the very idea that you can 'manage' knowledge (as opposed to information) and 'extract' or 'harvest' it, implies knowledge is a 'thing' capable of abstraction from a person without any loss of value. I'm not sure I think that's true at all. Therefore language which implies this, I would seek to challenge. If that makes any sense. h
Posted by: Green Fairy | November 30, 2005 1:43 PM
certain words provide a radically alternative perspective
Very much agree.
implies knowledge is a 'thing' capable of abstraction from a person without any loss of value. I'm not sure I think that's true at all.
And very much agree :)
Posted by: Piers | November 30, 2005 2:59 PM
Re: "Therefore language which implies this, I would seek to challenge. If that makes any sense"
Yes, it does make sense! How better to challenge it through some new and exciting vocab entwined with stimulating ways of communicating it through a variety of high impact media, and then, before it becomes cliche maybe change it again...
Posted by: Carol | December 5, 2005 5:50 PM