Trove KM

I was listening to a news report this morning, while out walking my dog on Sandymount Strand, about the recent floods in Ireland, specifically Newcastle West, Co. Limerick. The local authorities said they would be conducting an investigation into what happened and what could be done in the future to prevent such catastophes.

It started me thinking that while post-mortem on such an event has to be done, would it be possible to do “pre-mortems” on events such as these? This would be gathering information together prior to an event occurring. Often it is difficult to gather together information after the fact. In crisis situations there can be panic or disorganization. In serious events some of the information may be lost or destroyed either explicitly, e.g. documents destroyed in office fire, or implicitly, e.g. physical evidence of infrastructure washed away in a flood. Part of KM is preempting events by the diligent, consistent codification of knowledge. It’s partly risk management but it’s also part of what organisations should be doing in their day-to-day KM program. For instance, if an organization has good data and information gathering procedures and culture this will dovetail with what they are doing anyway.

I thought I had come up with a new term but it seems Gary Klein, for one, had already used the term. Ah well… let’s hope it’s a case of great minds thinking alike! Here’s Gary’s article if you’re interested: Performing a Project Premortem, Gary Klein, Harvard Business Review Article (2007).

Here’s a brief analysis by Shawn Callaghan of Anedote.

I noticed in a comment by Keith De La Rue mentioning “Minority Report” and the concpet of pre-crime and the pre-cogs. Nice connection there.