Regrounding to the objectives

"You need to reground staff to the objectives of the KM effort" was one comment we received in a recent review of our KM program. Another comment was that we need to "differentiate between the CMS and the KM program, because there is a perception that CMS and KM are the same thing."

I was reminded of these comments today in a meeting. Four months ago we launched an effort to share research information between our technology transfer staff and different research units. We scheduled a series of meetings, with a different unit each month. Today was the last unit I shouldn't have been surprised that we spent the first half discussing the problems that led to the meetings in the first place.

This example reminds me of the importance of regrounding to the objectives at every chance. The objectives remain clear in my mind, because I live and breath this every day. For others in the room, this is just one small part of their job. The kick-off presentation (four months ago) was barely remembered. During the time it took to get the process moving forward the problems remained. Therefore individuals were constantly reminded of the problem, and forget about the solution we were working on. Also, in the interim, the "watercooler network" was active in discuss what is and what needs to be done, further graying the activity we were working on.

Now that the first round of meetings were successful, we need to show how this information was used and remind everyone of why we're doing this before starting round 2.