Welcome to Week 14!

Hello! I hope you all had a great Wk 13!

Week 14 is our last week with any new content. The readings are light, and designed simply to give you a few final tools to take into your last week.

I chose to pull this "central" piece of KM to the end and in this manner to kind of make a big deal about it. You see, I hate measuring stuff. I hate that so much about KM seems to revolve around it. Yes, I use the word, "hate." Why do I hate measurement?

1. Measurement depersonalizes human interaction and phenomenon.

2. Anything that depersonalizes human interaction, makes it colder, robotic or otherwise less sincere, is the most common root of organizational friction and problems. With a common over-reliance on metrics and stats, people distance themselves from making more balanced decisions and doing more effective work.

3. Creates a sense that one really has insight, when in fact what they really need is analysis (any would help) and context. This is right up KM's alley; data are nothing, information is a little better, knowledge through context and application is golden.

"Bob, your Q1 was just not as good as it needed to be. We have to let you go. Bob, you know how it is, it's just business."

"Body count numbers indicate we are winning."

Before I am burned at the stake by men in dark suits, I'll yield and say that OF COURSE having some sort of idea about what you're doing, have done and will do is desired. The "so-what" of measurement is to gain real insight. IF and only IF data are really applied in this manner, then MAYBE "measurement" becomes useful.

So, maybe it's a bit TIC to say I "hate" measurement. What I hate is bad measurement, over-reliance on numbers, work as numbers study versus really talking and interacting with people, etc.

Having said all that, our Myers-Briggs test from way back when tells me that other people are however different from me. That is good! That there are people who LIKE stats and such means I don't have to. We need them; we also need people to analyze the stats, we also need people to use the information to create real insight that then drives some sort of actual work and coherent action. We then people to supervise that and so on.

Wikipedia on misuse of stats:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misuse_of_statistics

H2MA:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Measure-Anything-Intangibles-Business/dp/11185392...

(please do not feel you need to buy this book, it's just the holy grail book for many on the subject, you should be aware of its existence and study it a bit -- I'll post more about it on my tumblr)

H2MA 2:

http://www.howtomeasureanything.com/

The special project is due 12 Dec at 10pm MST.