Knowledge management in 2019: the year in review

With 2019 having drawn to a close, it’s time for our annual look back over what has been another outstanding year for RealKM Magazine, with a large number of additions to our growing library of evidence-based articles and videos on a wide range of knowledge management (KM) topics and related issues. As has already been happening in the overall field of management and also other management disciplines such as HR, better evidence-based practice is vital for the future of KM.

The past year has also seen significant progress on a number of the seven big new things in knowledge management, while others have evolved in new and exciting directions. These very important new initiatives are shaping the future of KM as an organisational endeavour, professional career, and research discipline.

A big thank you to the people who make RealKM possible

It’s been another year of very intensive activity for RealKM Magazine, with more than 1,000 articles and videos now published (see the lists below). None of this significant effort would have been possible without the incredible support of our greatly valued RealKM Patrons. Thank you so much for your very generous contribution to the success of RealKM Magazine:

• A very special thanks to RealKM Platinum Patrons Stephen Bounds and Dr Arthur Shelley. Stephen Bounds is Executive, Information Management at Cordelta and the founding editor of RealKM Magazine. Dr Arthur Shelley is the founder of Intelligent Answers, a specialist consulting firm with the vision to “Build capabilities and productive relationships through creative learning.”

• RealKM Gold Patron Patrick Lambe, www.straitsknowledge.com

• RealKM Silver Patrons Aprill Allen, Stuart French, Alex Thomas, and Bill Kaplan.

• RealKM Bronze Patrons Amanda Surrey,  Simon Møller, Kristen J Booker, and DCision Consult Sàrl.

• Our RealKM Patrons and RealKM Fans.

If you’ve also enjoyed RealKM Magazine articles or used our evidence-based resources in your work, please consider also becoming a RealKM Patron.

Some of the great highlights of 2019

Progress on the big new things in KM

A year and a half ago, RealKM Magazine profiled the “seven big new things in knowledge management.”  Significant progress has been made with a number of the big new things, while others have evolved in new and exciting directions

I explore this progress and evolution in a recent RealKM Magazine article, and from my analysis, put forward a revised list of the seven big new things:

1. Better evidence-based knowledge management
2. An international organisation to represent knowledge professionals
3. CILIP KM Chartership
4. Working Out Loud (WOL)
5. Open knowledge and open knowledge management
6. Decolonising knowledge management
7. Cross-domain knowledge integration and knowledge co-creation.

RealKM Cooperative established

RealKM was established in August 2015 through the foresight of founding editor Stephen Bounds, who is Executive, Information Management at Cordelta. In early 2019, Stephen formally transitioned RealKM to a community-owned model, with the RealKM Cooperative Limited registered in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) on 2 May 2019. This followed an inaugural meeting on 8 February 2019, at which Stephen Bounds, Bruce Boyes, and Dr Arthur Shelley were elected as directors. Dr Arthur Shelley is Director of specialist consulting firm Intelligent Answers, which is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Event participation

• KM Asia 2019. RealKM was honoured to be invite to participate in the KM Asia 2019 conference on 9-10 April 2019 in Hong Kong. A wide range of thought-provoking presentations and discussions explored the themes of innovation and transformation in knowledge management (KM), as well as providing comprehensive and practical insights into the new ISO 30401 KM standard and KM certification processes. I delivered one of the opening presentations on the first day, where I used a storytelling approach to shed light on serious issues at the interface of technology and people in the aircraft and automotive industries. I was also very excited to report on the development of the CILIP KM Chartership initiative as part of a KM certification panel.

• Melbourne KMLF. Australia’s Melbourne Knowledge Management Leadership Forum (KMLF) is a group at the leading edge of innovative thinking in KM, so I was delighted to be invited to be interviewed at the KMLF monthly meeting in January 2019.

RealKM Magazine: A foundation for evidence-based KM

Since its establishment four-and-a-half years ago, RealKM Magazine has cemented a vital role in the international KM landscape, becoming a key go-to resource for evidence-based KM. A growing number of our articles and videos have been viewed thousands of times, with our most popular article, David Williams’ “Components of a knowledge management system”, recently passing 25,000 views.

The types of articles and videos we publish include:

• Article series that present large research reports and dissertations in more readily digestible weekly parts, or conduct an in-depth analysis of a particular issue or topic.

• Feature articles that synthesize a range of research in regard to a topical KM issue.

• Evidence summaries that present current research findings. These summaries are often based on recently published systematic reviews.

• News items that announce events, book publications, or other significant developments in KM.

The comprehensive range of new articles and videos we’ve published in just 2019 includes:

Article series

• Evidence-based knowledge management (continuing series)
• KM standard – ISO 30401 knowledge management systems (continuing series)
• #NotMyDebt series
• Co-creative approaches to knowledge production and implementation series
• Top 100 most-discussed journal articles of 2019 (continuing series)
• Critical Eye (continuing series)
• Case studies in complexity series (continuing series)
• Managing in the face of complexity series (continuing series)
• Planning and strategy development in the face of complexity series
• Exploring the science of complexity series
• Getting to the heart of the problems with Boeing, Takata, and Toyota (continuing series)
• Simplistic solutions to complex problems turns behavioural science into a dangerous pseudoscience

Feature articles and videos

• The vital knowledge missing from Australia’s bushfire crisis debates: Part 1 – What can climate history tell us?
• Why the concept of “valuing” knowledge and information can be misleading
• The ethical imperative for diverse viewpoints and debate
• New initiatives begin decolonising research, libraries, and knowledge systems. But what about decolonising KM?
• Inverting investment modelling to add rigour to benefits management
• CILIP KM Chartership takes shape!
• What is organisational culture, anyway?
• Using the “story spine” as a means to access unconscious knowledge and understanding
• Principles for sustained collaboration
• Case study: How polarized debates can be the result of rational deliberation, and how they can be resolved
• When will developing countries stop importing knowledge?
• Does discomfort help to explain the effectiveness of agile and other incremental / cyclic methods?
• How do we liberate agriculture and development from academic preferences
• Active knowledge exchange with users and partners in open innovation: the case study of Xiaomi
• The Ellsberg Paradox and the ambiguity and complexity of decision-making
• The use of euphemisms as a “dark side” knowledge management tactic
• KM + AI = ?
• Facilitating knowledge sharing in higher education institutions
• Post-Truth: A Response to David Clarke
• How could the Light Triad help knowledge management?
• What about ignorance management?
• Is a new conceptual model really the roadmap for BIM-based KM in construction projects?
• Data ethics – making it real
• Nudge initiative creates confusion and undermines trust
• What do you know? And how is it relevant to unknown unknowns?
• Where are we at with the big new things in knowledge management?
• What more could be done to address the persistence of the conceptually flawed Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)?

Evidence summaries that present current research findings

• The psychology behind achieving your New Year’s resolutions
• Fourteen knowledge translation competencies and how to improve yours
• The emerging concept of boundary objects in knowledge management
• A simple decision tree to guide adaptive management
• A reading list and primer on digital disinformation
• How can we know unknown unknowns?
• What does the research say about knowledge management maturity models?
• The interplay between knowledge and power
• An evaluation framework for extra-organizational communities of practice (CoPs)
• Key concepts for making informed choices
• Exploring the knowledge base on KM and sustainability in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Variables that moderate the impact of incentives on knowledge sharing behaviour
• What are the benefits of workplace mindfulness training?
• How useful is neuro‐linguistic programming in organisational settings?
• Understanding and overcoming individual and organisational barriers to evidence-based management
• Co-creation rules of engagement
• How effective are meetings for organisational knowledge management, and how can they be improved?
• Many interventions are used to reduce implicit bias, but which ones actually work?
• Is the theory of planned behaviour an accurate predictor of knowledge sharing behaviour?
• Facilitation insights guide
• The Knowledge Translation Complexity Network (KTCN) model
• Balancing organisational remembering and forgetting
• Some misconceptions of evidence-based practice
• The pivotal role of the owner-manager in knowledge management in SMEs
• The implications of the difference between facts and knowledge

News items

• Evaluating ISO 30401 standard: Part 3 – What are the mandatory requirements?
• Book review – KM Cookbook
• New Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) discipline seeks to improve research impact on complex real-world problems
• New ways of working mean new ways of leading
• SOAS University of London leads the way with its approach to open access
• Twitter initiates a second reform in response to the growing criticism of social media
• MOOC on Ignorance!
• Launch of first national knowledge agenda linked to global Agenda Knowledge for Development
• Need a leadership boost? Check out the new Agile Change Leadership Certificate
• Initiatives address the dark side of academic publishing
• Microsoft’s Project Cortex brings AI to knowledge management
• Global convergence emerges around five ethical principles for AI, but with divergence on detail

Thank you, and best wishes!

Thank you to all of our readers for your great support in 2019, and best wishes for the new year ahead! Our heartfelt thanks also go to our contributors for their outstanding articles.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the RealKM Weekly Wrap newsletter, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. You might also like to think about writing an article.

See also:

• Knowledge management in 2018: the year in review
• Knowledge management in 2017: the year in review
• Knowledge management in 2016: the year in review

Also published on Medium.