Consultancies have had their share of bad press. Whether
that’s because of a lack of sincerity in their offering (as described by a former consultant) or the result of clients who call on outside
expertise without understanding if it already exists within their organisation.
Despite this, the consultancy model appeals to me. With an honest
value proposition, their small structure, resulting lack of hierarchy and
organisational fat can allow them to deliver cutting edge approaches to clients
far more effectively than larger enterprises.
Working in KM roles for relatively large organisations
so far and meeting my fair share of consultants, I’ve always wanted to
experience what it would be like be on the other side. So when I was offered
the opportunity to spend two weeks with a small but respected Singapore
based Knowledge Management consultancy, Straits
Knowledge, I had to take it.
During my visit, I was introduced to the Singapore KM
community and invited to help in client projects. Highlights (of which there
were many) included talking at a community of practice launch, contributing my experiences
at a knowledge retention roundtable
and actively encouraged to understand Strait’s own KM and learning set-up and
practices with the rationale of providing an honest debrief by the end of my trip.
Having my own set of keys to Straits Knowledge allowed me to
come in at any time during the day or night from my hotel room to do lots of
things. Such as… attempt to take arty photos of an empty office as shown below,
help myself to founding partner Edgar Tans stash of roasted almonds (I’m truly
sorry Edgar for not coming clean earlier) and slightly more productively, gain
a better insight into some of the methodologies Straits Knowledge has been
developing and delivering for over 10 years.
The most credible consultants I’ve met tend to possess a
good general understanding of organisations and management consulting while
being especially strong in certain areas. Straits CoP Workshop Facilitation, Knowledge
Audit and Taxonomy Development workshops particularly stood out. I’m going to
talk about the latter two.
Knowledge Audit
I understood knowledge audits as a means of identifying
which knowledge topics were well managed, which ones may be at risk as a result
of poor knowledge management and what actions might be needed to then help an
organisation. Straits Knowledge introduce their own special sauce by approaching
knowledge and cultural audit elements with a bespoke set of cards. The cards have been
created by gleaning patterns of behaviours from real life organisational
scenarios. Their approach allows participants to express their thoughts, while
also providing a structured method for actionable next steps. This video featuring Strait’s
founding partner Patrick Lambe might explain it better.
Taxonomy Development
In my mind, Patrick is also a leading authority in this
area. Prior to meeting him though, I was always under the impression that
Taxonomies were a necessary component of a wider KM initiative, but fell
strictly under the area of information access and navigation. It’s only after
reading his book – Organising
Knowledge, gaining familiarity with Strait’s methodology and how they apply
it practically to client projects that I could see how taxonomies can also act
as an effective enabler for collaboration too.
My Verdict
Singapore is a fascinating place in so many ways and Straits
Knowledge were truly great hosts. Nevertheless, I had been asked to produce a
detailed report on Straits Knowledge and this proved to be a tough task
ultimately.
Edgar, Patrick and Wai Kong as well as being down-to-earth
and honest individuals, were also amongst the most competent KM practitioners I
have ever met. Part of me just felt like telling to them to just carry on as they were doing, but then I thought I’d have a go at picking on a couple of
points anyway!
The first (and don’t laugh) was how a laser printer would provide them with better quality text and images, as well as a time and
cost saving after the initial outlay.
The second slightly more intelligent observation was that while they were highly regarded in South East Asia for providing KM and Learning products and services, they
didn’t appear to have quite the same level of recognition in Europe - essentially because
they hadn’t explored the market here.
I'm pretty sure they’re still using that slow and noisy
inkjet printer, but the idea of a having a U.K presence appealed to them. For the first time, they will be delivering two U.K
workshops on Taxonomy Development
and Knowledge Audits in Birmingham from the 19th to the 22nd of November. I would unequivocally recommend attending these to any KM and IM practitioners
and internal consultants who are able to attend. Details can be found on their website or feel free to contact me for further information.
