It is said that the memories that you share with your children are often among the most happiest and valuable memories of your life that also pull you back to your childhood. It is an outstanding attachment that can never quite be reinstated. This is why; everyone wants to preserve these memories and love forever by getting their child’s portrait made or designed. It is your attachment that makes a child’s portrait an ideal and unique painting. A beautifully designed portrait is a gift for any occasion as well as possibly a gift that you would like to get. However, most of the parents want child portraiture or portraits either for keeping them preserved or gift someone that may be a friend and relative. A child’s portraits, especially newborn’s portraits, are not only an enduring and classical way to remember the privilege of parenthood, but are also considered as a Father’s Day gift that will likely be fully surprising.

The child’s portraiture that you select to place on your wall is eventually the result of the vision of the professional child photographer. If talking more about these portraits, they require a special type of photography that usually specializes in this job and the photographer that capture the images must have enough knowledge and experience to capture images from all points of view. This is because; child portraitures take a great deal of skill and patience to put a child free from anxiety and relaxed enough to develop an ultimate portrait. Above all, it is clear that nothing brings the memories back to life with more visibly than a beautifully designed and decorated newborn portrait. Moreover, every parent likes the portrait that should be animated and durable and can make a good impression upon visitors, especially when priority is newborn’s portrait and child’s portrait.

If you are looking to take the services of a professional artist, then look no further, just search over the internet and there are many artists out there to choose from. They offer you hand-painted portraits ranging from newborn’s portraits to child’s portrait at reasonable prices; you just have to send your child’s photos. Online artists aptitude and understanding makes them able to capture a true resemblance of baby’s character and soul.

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Visit www.thebrain.com for more information about PersonalBrain. Knowledge Management Software for Thinkers. This demo shows off one of the more advanced features of making mass changes to your PersonalBrain with the Selection Box … computer electronics gadget knowledge management thebrain personal brain mind mapping advanced feature

Help answer the question about Personal knowledge management

Very Serious Question. Please do not answer unless you have personal or Medical knowledge?
Again, this is a very serious question. I have chronic pain from Scoliosis, Kyphosis, Stenosis, & Degenerative Disc Disease.
I've had ESI's at a Pain Management Clinic, take strong pain RX, am Diabetic, recently spent 3 weeks in a "Psych Ward" for Suicidal Ideation, was placed on Antidepressants and Mood Stabilizers. (I was diagnosed w/ Depressive Bi-Polar Disorder). I'm 66. Is there anyone who knows of any other ways to help me? My life seems to be spiraling out of control and I feel I'm too young to be throwing in the towel, although most days, all I can do is lie in bed and suffer. I also have early onset Allztheimers – I am very distraught and discouraged. I worked for 36 years and raised three sons alone and want to enjoy life and my grandchildren. I would appreciate any suggestionns and/or encouragement. Of course, I see my Internal Medicine Physician once a month, a Therapist once a month, and a Psychiatrist once a month and follow closely all their advise.PLs advise.

About Author

The National Association of Professional Child Photographers (NAPCP) offers parents a directory of professional photographers who specialize in child photography and Child’s Portraits. NAPCP’s mission is to provide parents and clients a comprehensive directory of professional Child Portraiture who will fit their needs.

INTRODUCTION

“The basic economic resource is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor.  It is and will be knowledge.”

–

Peter Drucker

A nation’s standard of living is increasingly dependent on the competitiveness of its firm. Competitiveness is vital if the nation’s firms are to take advantage of the opportunities opened up for them. Knowledge management Portal (KMP) has become the latest strategy in increasing organizational competitiveness. It is the most innovative, creative, and important management concept.

Organisations are facing ever-increasing challenges, brought on by marketplace pressures or the nature of the workplace. Many organisations are now looking to knowledge management Portals (KMP) to address these challenges. Such initiatives are often started with the development of a knowledge management strategy. To be successful, a KM strategy must do more than just outline high-level goals such as ‘becomes a knowledge-enabled organisation’. Instead, the strategy must identify the key needs and issues within the organisation, and provide a framework for addressing these.

Every organisation has a unique environment, defined by factors such as:

• Purpose and activities of the organisation, Organisational history
• Overall strategic direction
• Organisational culture
• Size of the organisation
• Geographic spread, Marketplace factors
• Staff skills and experience, Available resources and

For this reason, each organisation has a unique set of needs and issues to be addressed by knowledge management. It is easy to jump into ’solutions mode’, recommending approaches such as communities of practice, storytelling, content management systems, and much more.

Knowledge Management is one of the ‘critical success factors’. Identifying the needs within the organisation, and then design the activities accordingly. Hence KM acts as a vital tool towards gaining organisational Competitiveness

KM Methodology

Knowledge is what I know;

Information is what we know.

Knowledge has become the key driving force in the present day world. It is generally believed that the only source of competitive advantage in future will be the knowledge. Therefore, in this newly emerging environment, organisations are required to develop successful knowledge strategies, not only to compete and win in the market, but to achieve sustainable competitive advantage; this is possible only through KM Portal

In many ways it is technology that has been made knowledge sharing a reality – In the past it was impossible to share knowledge or work collaboratively with co-workers around the globe. Today it is a reality If implemented well and if people are trained and educated in its use, Knowledge sharing technology is good.

Interest in knowledge creation within organizations is growing at an astounding rate. The most effective way to create knowledge sharing culture is first to start practice at your level. The higher up the organisation the more effective you will be changing the culture but even if you are low down the hierarchy, you have an influence. Put in place the knowledge sharing technology and train and educate people in its effective use. The two together, People with appropriate knowledge sharing mindset and the appropriate knowledge sharing technology to support them.

Once the knowledge is created, Capturing takes place where in the knowledge database is created and all necessary data is been stored in the form of documents, Case studies and in various formats to be presented in usable format and there by making use of knowledge in the broader context.

Organizations receive massive amounts of information on a daily basis that they must gather, categorize, interpret and disseminate efficiently (Egan, 1998). Data such as sectoral news or market trends first comes in and needs to be captured. This process must be supported by established procedures of reporting, editing and publication. Filtered information must then be organized in maps. Mapping organizational knowledge is the most crucial activity in providing users with practical access to information.

In certain situations, it can be more than threatening for a worker to introduce knowledge into systems and actively search out that which others have introduced. It can also require a substantial amount of time and effort. Therefore, people need to be highly motivated in order to undertake such work. It is only when a knowledge manager adopts the principle of knowledge sharing for the whole organization that knowledge is shared and reused spontaneously.

Knowledge, in addition to being shared between employees, must be distributed by an organization to its employees. The dissemination of knowledge has a massive impact on the formation of competitive advantage. It is broadly agreed that in order to ensure the proper dissemination of knowledge it is necessary both to lubricate communication and nurture the right organizational culture (Gupta, 2002). Some organizations are beginning to evaluate and reward personnel who share and use knowledge. Such as IBM, Infosys, Buckman laboratories, Accenture, etc

Knowledge, in addition to being shared between employees, must be distributed by an organization to its employees. The dissemination of knowledge has a massive impact on the formation of competitive advantage. It is broadly agreed that in order to ensure the proper dissemination of knowledge it is necessary both to lubricate communication and nurture the right organizational culture. Dissemination also requires the transformation of highly individualized tacit knowledge into more widely shared explicit knowledge.

It is not the organizations which own the best knowledge that achieve competitive advantage but, rather, those that make the best use of it. In order to make the best use of knowledge it should be fully applied to the activities of the organization and this would require that all the other knowledge processes, namely, creation, dissemination and sharing, should be taking place.

 KM Strategy

Developing a knowledge management strategy provides a unique opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the way the organisation operates, and the challenges that confront it. By focusing on identifying staff needs and issues, activities and initiatives can be recommended with the confidence that these will have a clear and measurable impact upon the organisation. To be successful, a KM strategy must do more than just outline high-level goals such as ‘become a knowledge-enabled organisation Instead, the strategy must identify the key needs and issues within the organisation, and provide a framework for addressing these.

Knowledge management strategies and drivers must be reviewed from a human resources perspective. The human resources management department assists the leadership of an organization in identifying the sources of the required knowledge and the best way to capture it, as well as assessing mastery of knowledge among employees and determining the benefits of that assessment to the organization. It also establishes the link between organizational strategy and employee knowledge, identifying needs and narrowing gaps.

Knowledge management can be considered successful if employees understand how corporate knowledge adds value, how it is created, and why it needs to be managed. The role of human resources management can be summarized as follows:

(a) Training and developing knowledge workers;

(b) Developing managers and team leaders as knowledge coordinators;

(c) Building a knowledge-sharing culture.

Research Work Conducted to determine the KM Effectiveness towards Organisational Competitiveness

Objective of the Study

1. To study the effectiveness of Knowledge Management Portal (KMP) implementation in an organisation

2. To study the contributing factors by KM towards Organisational Competitiveness

3. To find the extent to which technologies, practices, tools and process help the organisation to generate, organize and leverage knowledge

Research Methodology

Research Design

Exploratory Research Design

Sampling

Unit: IT Organisation

Size: 100

5 Leading IT Organisations who implemented Knowledge Management Portal were chosen for the study and 20 Project Managers from each organisation was surveyed

Method: Judgment Sampling

Data Collection

Questionnaires

Major Findings

1. 52% of the Respondents approach Co-worker for gathering information for immediate solving of the problem
2. 78% of the Respondents say that the reason for contacting the co-worker for solving the problem is due to Faster pace in getting the information.

1. Majority of the Respondents (51%) says they use 40 – 60% of Explicit Knowledge (Documented/Codified) followed by Tacit Knowledge

4.       56% of the respondent says around 80-100% knowledge sharing culture exists among the team members than sharing among the teams

1. Majority of the Respondents (33%) says Problem Solving skill is developed to a large extent when using KM portal followed by Decision-making Skill (29%) and General Business Knowledge skill (22%)
2. Majority of the Respondents (39%) says they are interested to share Case studies in KM portal for helping others to solve the problem followed by Web sites and Book of Knowledge.
3.  48% of the Respondents Strongly agree that Corporate Intranet is the best Tool to share the knowledge followed by Brain Storming Session and Web Portals.

1. 62% of the Respondents say Important as Reason for using KM portal is, to ease collaborative work of projects followed to improve the use of knowledge from sources outside the organisation (60%)
2. Majority of the Respondents (29%) say Usage of KM portal is Very Effective to improve Knowledge and Skill of Employees.

10.28% say Km improves Clients and Customer Relation and 26% say

     Km helps the organisation to add New products, improve workers

     involvement and knowledge sharing across departments.

11. The Group resisted KM implementation in the Organisation was Management says 32% of the Respondents followed by R & D (21%) and HR Group (14%)

Specific findings related to Objective of the Study

1. Contributing Factors of KM towards Organisation Development

a)       To protect your organisation from loss of knowledge due to employee departure

b)       To improve the competitive advantage of the organisation

c)       To help integrate knowledge with in the organisation

d)       To increase efficiency by using knowledge to improve the process

e)       Improved Knowledge & Skills of Employees

f)        Improved Clients/ Customers relation

g)       Improved Employee Efficiency & Productivity

h)       Increased Flexibility in Development & Innovation

i)         Help the organisation to add new Services/ Products

j)         Improved involvement of Workers in workplace activities

k)       Loss of key personnel and their knowledge

l)         Removal of Information overload problem with in your organization

1. Effectiveness of KM

a)       Knowledge sharing Culture exist in the organisation among the team members to an large extent there by it proves the effectiveness of Km Portal

b)       Effectiveness of KM portal can be measured by the factors contributed by KM towards Organisational Development.

1. Tools and Technologies used by the Organisations

a)       Corporate intranets, Online Applications and Web portals will enable the effective sharing of knowledge among the employees in the organisation

b)       Best practices Repository, Tele conferencing, Video Conferencing, Electronic Discussions encourages effective Knowledge sharing

Conclusion

KM itself has come a long way and has a long way to go from where it is now. It is indeed a long journey and the trip has just begun. Organisations have to sustain competitive advantage. This is possible only through ‘Effective implementation of Knowledge Management Portal’.

A Key success factor in KM is getting optimal emphasis on each of the four focal area People, Process, technology and Content right from the early stages of deployment. The specific emphasis laid on each of these is a function of the organisational culture and business context. A useful way to verify the completeness of an organisational architecture for KM is to check whether it meets the following criteria

 “Knowledge management is necessary for companies because what worked yesterday may or may not work tomorrow” 

“Knowledge Management is the Innovative and Effective Aid to sustain Competitive Advantage”

 REFERENCES

1. Davenport and Prusak, “Working Knowledge, Harvard business
2. Laurence Prusak, Principals of KM
3. Nonaka and Takeuchi, ‘The knowledge creating company’ Number 3 1999 school press
4. Knowledge Management – A source of competitive Advantage – The Business Review, Vol 10,No 2, March 2004
5. Creating Knowledge Edge in Business – The quarterly journal of foundation for organisational research and education, New Delhi, Vol XXII No. 3 (Oct- Dec 2004)
6. Creating Knowledge in Business By Anuradha Padmanabhan, S. Govindarajalu and A. Vasumathi published an article on
7. Prasena, Benjamin Eliway – 2002 in “Knowledge Management, Attention, and Human Capacity and Capital building: An integrative framework and future challenges with in eBusiness environment”
8. Shabir A. Bhai in his article “Knowledge Management – A source of      competitive advantage” published in ‘The Business Review’, Vol 10, No 2, March 2004
9. James Robertson, Published on 2 August 2004 “Developing a knowledge management strategy“

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Dr. John Girard provides a brief overview of knowledge management (KM).

Help answer the question about Knowledge Management

Is Bachelor of Information and Knowledge Management GOOD?
I have searched google and here and don't get any results, so I guess someone here should know the answer or are currently doing this course. How is this course compared to Bachelor of management? What income should I expect compared to other business degrees?

Thanks!

About Author

Faculty in a Leading Management school, Chennai. Research interest includes HR, Knowledge management.

Introduction:

Knowledge Base Software allows you to share information within your enterprise from your website or Intranet with an enterprise-grade knowledge base. It helps to reduce customer support, improving staff productivity and eliminating time wasted searching for information across disparate systems such as shared folders and paper documents.

Hundreds and thousands of organizations, small businesses, universities and enterprise organizations are using knowledge base software. Knowledge based software can be used to cater different needs of the organization that is using this software like:

Knowledge Base Software Features

There are number of knowledge base software are in the market and have many powerful functions. These functions may vary from one software application to other knowledge base software application. But there are some functions that are common among most of the knowledge management software. By using it staff, customers and partners can access information locally or over the Internet and Knowledge Management software’s powerful group-based permission architecture makes it easy to share knowledge with only the people or groups you choose

Reduce in-bound customer support.

Knowledge base software really helps to reduce the in-bound customer support. Mostly, there is an interactive help interface which makes it easy to find the answer of your queries. It will contribute to decrease queries of customers in form of e-mails or calling to your support department. Your knowledge base can also be integrated into your contact/support forms to provide instant answers to customer’s questions as they type, reducing support even further. Active response system in knowledge base software can be integrated into any website form. Customers can easily search knowledge items and attachments. Popular search terms make it easy to find help fast.

Share company documents and procedures

Knowledge based software offers you the facility to share the documents among the staff members whether they are present in one physical location or one hundred, knowledge base software makes it easy for them to share, search, rate and print company documents, procedures and more. Forget email or network fileservers – now everyone has access to the same single version of a document from the same location. Documents are accessible through any computer that is connected to intranet or web. Built in feed back loops help staff to improve their knowledge.

Eliminate staff training time

A company can eliminate a considerable time for training its staff by using the knowledge base management software. If a company provides its policies and procedure in its knowledge base, it will help in quicker staff training. You reduce staff training time significantly and give new staff members a “hands on” approach to learning. You can achieve this objective by uploading company’s procedures and documents which are instantly indexed and searchable. Categories can be password protected and restricted as per the privilege level of a user. All these knowledge items can be printed or exported to different formats as offered by the particular knowledge base software for saving. These knowledge items can be assigned to the new comers for reading and self training purposes.

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Nick Milton of www.knoco.com discusses Connect and Collect in Knowledge Management. Blog at www.nickmilton.com

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What is knowledge management?
I want to know what KM is all about. Can anyone explain this briefly?

About Author

KbLance.com is a PHP Powered Knowledge Base Software that allows users to easily create and maintain a FAQ, documentation system, or complete support knowledge base. For more information . Please check out Kblance website at www.kblance.com

In any business, customer care and management is essential to ensure that you keep your customers happy. After all, finding new customers may be a long and time consuming process, but making sure your existing patrons are happy doesn’t have to be. That’s why employing a range of customer relationship management tools is so important for a business to progress. But what exactly is customer relationship management (CRM) and what does it entail?

Essentially, CRM is a catch-all term that incorporates a number of concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with their customers. This can include the capture, storage and analysis of data gleaned from the customer, vendor, partner or any internal research process. In a theoretical sense, CRM is divided into three key functionalities: marketing, sales and services. Marketing primarily relates to the long-term planning and short-term execution of marketing-related activities within a company. Sales functionalities, on the other hand, are essentially focused on helping an organisation execute and manage the presales process in a more structured manner.

In contrast, services concentrate on effectively managing the customer service aspects of a business, in order to provide first and second level support to customers. These service functionalities could include service order management, resource planning and scheduling, warranty management and knowledge management. Currently, however, one of the most popular forms of service functions for customers is call centre support.

Call centre management is now a crucial component of the customer relationship management activities in a business. Fundamentally, call centres cover the need to add value to a company’s consumer support and help deliver real benefits in the forms of more loyal customer relationships, a rise in sales and indispensable information.

Nevertheless, running a call centre can be tricky. Call centre management requires the effective balancing of efficiency and service; customers will be keen to avoid long queues, so there must be sufficient staff and capacity to handle inbound calls effectively to maintain a high quality of service. Conversely, it is estimated that maintaining staff can form up to 70 per cent of the cost of running a call centre. So a successful call centre management strategy must undertake to minimise the number of staff present without compromising on the level of service offered.

Thankfully, the high demand for call centre management services today means that it’s possible to choose from an array of leading call centre management outsourcers. Leading call centre management outsourcing partners will provide a range of services, including outbound and inbound call support, as well as expertise in customer enquiries, order and payment processing, sale acquisition and retention and basic technical support. As a result, it’s now easier for you to provide your customers with many levels of customer support – and happy customers are sure to generate better business prospects!

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, finalists include the following government programs: * Project Zero, New York City, New York * Access Plus, Pennsylvania * Knowledge Management, Virginia * MassDocs, Massachusetts * Solid Waste and Energy Management, Yukon River Tribes … HKS Harvard Kennedy School award ash institute IAG innovations American government David Gergen Project Zero New York City Access Plus Pennsylvania Knowledge Management Virginia Department Transportation MassDocs Massachusetts Solid Waste and Energy Yukon …

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How to improve diabetes self-management knowledge?

About Author

Elisha Burberry is an online, freelance journalist and keen movie-goer from Scotland. Her interests include travelling, cooking and photography.

Impact of Knowledge Management in HR practices

Introduction

            In recent years, Knowledge Management has emerged as one of the prime concerns of human resource Management (HRM) system.  Before understanding the concept of Knowledge Management, We define knowledge, which is known as information, enrichment, practical skill, acquaintance, etc.  In Knowledge Management point to view, knowledge may be defined as actionable wisdom that results facts, information and techniques in a particular field.  In HRM context, Knowledge Management is creation, distribution and utilization of knowledge at the individual group and Organizational level for the benefits of people improved and affected by it.  This paper express Emerging trends in Knowledge Management faced by HR area.

Knowledge Management:-

            Knowledge Management is a system by which business strategies is excused and create results.    In Knowledge Management there are three basic elements:

i)                    Knowledge creation

ii)                  Knowledge sharing and

iii)                Knowledge utilization

  Why Knowledge Management is important?

• Limitation of Existing initiatives
• Value of knowledge
• Minimize effort Duplication
• Sharing of Best Practices
• Enhanced Innovation

Need for Knowledge Management

1. To generate information for production increases reduction of cost of expenditure, maximizing profit through knowledgeable worker or minds of workers.
2. To improve the natural and human resources through innovative method to reach.
3. To save the Organization from critical capabilities
4. To develop the right source at right timely relevant knowledge
5. To focus the higher quality production and resource allocation
6. To ensure their survival through creation, acquire, maintain, retain and process the new ideas and innovation
7. To share strong cultural behaviours for achieve goals

The Top Five Strategies for innovative HR practices

1.             1.   Provide Job Challenges.
2.             2.   Provide an open environment and culture.
3.             3.   Give a competitive compensation.
4.             4.   Clarity of job responsibilities career paths.

            5.   Continuous training and skill up gradation.

Knowledge Management process or steps in Knowledge Management

1. Identifying the skill and its developments

2.                  Set human capital management

3.                  Human capital approaches

4.                  Responsive ability (rapid align the competencies)

5.                  Creating a knowing enterprise (applied learning Organization)

6.                  Recognition

  Knowledge Management Programme implementation:-

            Knowledge Management is a continuous process.  A Knowledge Management programme has the following elements:-

1. Define Knowledge Management strategy => includes why to share knowledge, what to

                                                                               share, with whom to share, how to share.

1. Organizing Knowledge Management programme=>includes providing budget for knowledge sharing, providing budget for knowledge sharing, choose technology for knowledge sharing, communicating the value of knowledge sharing, adopting methods of knowledge sharing and measuring performance.
2. Reinforcement for Knowledge Management => includes Introducing New incentives and Providing support for knowledge sharing
   1. Create a culture that stimulates knowledge sharing and learning
   2. Ensure that the used needs types of knowledge and system to transfers the knowledge
   3. Knowledge sharing is useful for support Knowledge Management programme
   4. To motivated to be willing to travel and share knowledge with others
   5. Experts must available and help teams to solve tough and unusual problem
   6. Different sharing system for different group of employees
   7. There should be integration of knowledge and organizational practices

Making an effective Knowledge Management  

Role of executives in Knowledge Management

1                    Establishing the need for a Knowledge Management initiative

2                    Ensuring a solid business case

3                    Steering for tangible measures

4                    Creating a frame work for Technology support

5                    Cultivating a knowledge sharing culture and

6                    Becoming the face of an internal communications strategy

Conclusion:-

            In our minds this is all about creating capacity in the management to get the business goals, which we could not hit without some new way of thinking & innovation.  Hence, the Knowledge Management is nothing but focus on information, form a team for utilizing individual knowledge into structural knowledge, make quick decisions, develop the intellectual capital etc.,  A HRM manager identify the strategy to find out human intellectuate which is possible through 3 phases.  i.e. (i) Preparation phase (ii) Acceptance  phase (iii) Commitment phase, it is nothing but identify the experts & develop their intellectual, for achieving the Organizational goal.

Information+ Experience+ insights + judgment =      “KNOWLEDGE”

“What is greater than knowledge?”

“A heart that can se and care”, whispered the soul.

References:-

(i)     Human resource Management (HRD system) by L.M.Prasad

(ii)  Knowledge Management by Sudhir Warier

(iii) Management of change and Organization development by – S.K.Bhatia

      (Knowledge organization)

(iv) The Executive roles in Knowledge Management by Carla O’ Dell

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A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge?
What is the different between -
– A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge 2000 (216 pages) and
– A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) (390 pages) 4th Edition.

Saw that both are still current editions.

Like to know which is the correct to buy. I want to read the correct book to have a proper understanding of the world of PM.

About Author

Submitter’s (Author) detail

Name : Mr.S.Sundararajan
Designation : Faculty of Management Studies & Research Scholars
Institution : Periyar Institute of Management Studies (PRIMS)
Address : PRIMS, Periyar University, Salem – 11. Tamilnadu.
Pin: 636 011.
Tel.No (Office) : 0427-2345766 Extn.237
Mobile No : 093671 53253
E-mail : rajanmba2003@yahoo.co.in / mahaphd2007@gmail.com

Professional project managers seeking certifications often discover that there remains so much more to learn about the subject. Some managers bank on the power of actual experience to strengthen their know-how; however there is something that the knowledge of structured approaches offers that mere hands-on experience can’t. Given the many learning opportunities available, how can program and project managers choose the right path that will further improve their skills?

Improvement and Skill Building, One Step At A Time

We, as individuals, need to employ the principle of continuous improvement. We have a broad culture of self-help and personal improvement, but not everyone has adopted the approach, and almost everyone could do even better. Just as so many practice personal self-improvement with the assistance of self-improvement books, motivational materials, attending motivational seminars, and more, it is virtually the same thing in the realm of project management skills. Advanced project management skills simply are taking everything we know, and then some, to the next level by becoming aware of new ideas and incorporating them into our own best practices.

Continuous Improvement

Let’s look at an example of how we can improve our ability to run meetings. We all know that the best way to do this is to practice, but, then again, it must be good practice. It is true that practice makes perfect, but “perfect practice” is what brings home the bacon. If we find ourselves in meetings on a regular basis, the best way to improve those skills and become a more “advanced project manager” is to try to raise our awareness, apply, adopt, and internalize one or two new ideas for continuous improvement on a daily basis.

For example, in meetings, setting a time limit for the meeting is a good technique. If you have not been doing that, or if you are not satisfied with how effectively you have been doing it, simply try to adopt this one single technique, master it, and integrate it into your common best practices. You might then want to tackle the idea of improving something like facilitation skills to enable everyone to contribute in an optimal way in solving problems in meetings. The key is to mark an area for improvement, to seek information on it to acquire one or two practical objectives, and to begin to put into practice.

Advanced project management training can help greatly in this process of personal and professional continuous improvement. Firstly, this will help us recognize and deal with different types of issues. It can heighten our awareness of what happens in certain situations and how to cope. It can help us to become aware and to develop strength at exercising many nuances of soft skills in our day to day project management practice.

Getting beyond meetings, project managers may identify any of the following areas and more for self improvement in the journey to more advanced project management skills:

1. Improve understanding of project and organizational finance.
2. Learn more techniques for communicating with people from different cultures.
3. Develop a deeper understanding of the unique perspectives of the various workforce generations that might make up your team.
4. Identify opportunities for leveraging outsourcing on projects, and also identify the risks and pitfalls of the outsourcing approach.
5. Adopt a more thorough understanding of issues surrounding telecommuting, and techniques and pitfalls in this evolving environment.
6. Build more advanced consultative skills for working as an external consultant, having worked within a single company for many years.
7. Become more effective at managing technical employees, a unique workplace challenge.
8. Broaden your scope of understanding of project management by expiring related methodologies, Bodies of Knowledge (BOKs), and frameworks, such as PRINCE2 or Six Sigma.
9. Seek to better understand the evolving field of knowledge management in organizations.
10. Develop a formal understanding of the strategic planning process, which provides the input to portfolio management and guide project and program selection.

This list of 10 possibilities for advancing one’s project and program management skills is actually a short one. When it comes to advancing project management skills, the sky is the limit, and the opportunities are virtually endless. There are a nearly infinite number of different types of challenges that a project or program manager faces, and whether by reading books, listening to selected speakers, taking classroom or online courses, and even hiring a coach, there is a lot of opportunity to improve, and many ways to do it.

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IBM’s Richard Warrick continues with an overview of IBM’s implementation of KM best practices. … IBM KM knowledge management best practices km institute

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Is money more important than knowledge for a management graduate?

About Author

John Reiling, PMP, PE, MBA is an experienced Project Manager and Engineer. John’s web sites, Project Management Training Online and Lean Six Sigma Training Online, provide online training in Lean, Six Sigma, and related topics. John writes regularly in his Project Management blog, PMcrunch.com .