Talking to AI: Three Ideas to Elevate Our Conversations We’re used to asking AI for quick answers, but what if we approached it as a thinking partner rather than just a tool? Here are three ways to shift how we interact with AI—and get more out of it: 1. Make AI Think Outside the Box AI is trained to recognize patterns, but we can push it beyond conventional thinking. Instead of asking for "a solution," try: “Give me three radically different approaches.” “What’s a counterintuitive way to solve this?” This approach unlocks more creative, diverse, and breakthrough ideas—instead of just optimizing existing ones. 2. Extend the Conversation Over Time Let’s stop treating AI like a one-time advisor. Maintaining an ongoing session over weeks or months allows us to: Feed it updates on real-world outcomes. Ask how insights should evolve based on new data. AI improves when it learns from our specific context, making it far more valuable over time. 3. Challenge AI to Expose Hidden Biases AI mirrors the data it was trained on—but it can also help us uncover blind spots. Instead of taking answers at face value, we should ask: “What assumptions is this answer based on?” “What information might be missing?” By doing so, we turn AI into a critical thinking ally, sharpening our own decision-making along the way. Of course, the key to all of this is using AI responsibly—because when we teach AI to think better, we often end up thinking better ourselves. And who knows? One day, AI might just return the favor. 😉 Previous Item Next Item

Knowledge Management in the Age of AI: Looking Ahead In the immediate term, almost nothing changes. Most organizations are talking about AI, some are even experimenting with it; yet, information security and infrastructure constraints hold back any real transformation. So yes, many of us are involved in pilots here and there, but in practice, not much shifts. In the mid-term, AI will reshape the HOW of Knowledge Management. Imagine a discussion with a subject matter expert being instantly translated into a clear, updated knowledge article, dramatically improving the way we capture, refine, and package knowledge. In the long run, the WHAT of Knowledge Management will transform completely. Many tasks will be handled directly, by employees themselves, being knowledge workers supported by AI, without the mediation of KM professionals. With more question marks than exclamation points, yet the direction is clear. And maybe that’s the beauty of it—for me, this uncertainty is not just a barrier, but the beginning of an exciting future. Previous Item Next Item

Trust We all know how important it is to build trust in one another in order to smooth collaboration. Mohamad Faiz Selamat led the Knowledge Management Global Network course of the new collaboration today. We thought we knew it all, yet the session shed light on some new and important aspects: Intimacy and sharing personal information build trust. So even if we are in a professional or formal context, find opportunities to get more acquainted socially and find ways to share something about your personal life! Open minds, open hearts, and open will, enable us to avoid the voice of judgment, the voice of cynicism, and the voice of fear. Each one, and all together, build trust. Trust is much more than interpersonal. Start with self-trust (!!), then add relationship trust (interpersonal). However, on these, three additional waves can take trust to be a key element of success: Organizational trust (alignment); Market trust (Reputation); and Societal trust (Contribution and responsibility). Don't miss any of these. A list of trust behaviors in different contexts was shared with the listeners. Analyzing such a list can help each one of us assess our gaps and more easily find the path to improve. Last but not least, as leaders, always be attentive not only to building trust behaviors, but also to signals and flags that may be symptoms of trust "breakers". Address them before these address you... Previous Item Next Item

The Sharpest AI talk at KMWorld 2025 (So Far) If I had to give an award at KMWorld 2025 for the most concise, sharp, and value-packed talk, it would go straight to Jeff Evernham from ChapsVision. His session on implementing AI agents in enterprises cut right to the heart of what truly matters. Three messages every organization should hear: 1. Start only where business value is clear. Not every use case deserves an agent. Focus where the impact is guaranteed, not where the technology feels exciting. 2. Succeed through vertical focus and disciplined execution. AI agents need rigor, precision, reliability and guardrails. Creativity is good, inaccuracy is not. 3. Scale with grounded, secure and governed AI. Enterprise agents are powerful and must be treated with the same seriousness as any core business capability. Jeff’s practical tip: Work with a KM partner who truly understands agentic AI. It may seem easy to build an AI agent until it fails. Partners with deep KM and AI-agent expertise significantly increase success. And quietly on our side, at ROM Global we support this direction by offering free access to practical AI agents that help KMers work smarter (details: here ). Because in the new AI era, the winners will not be those who build fast, but those who build wisely. Previous Item Next Item

Using AI for Debriefing and Lessons Learned For me, AI is not a replacement. It’s a real assistant - one that makes my work both more efficient and more effective. In every debriefing or lessons learned session ROM Global uses AI to: Deepen the understanding of a specific sub-topic or detail. Summarize what happened - highlighting moments of surprise or deviation. Explore root causes found in other organizations facing similar issues. Lead structured “Five Whys” discussions, helping teams reach the true root cause. Identify possible recommendations addressing those root causes. Refine the lessons - making them practical, value-added (non-trivial), and convincing. AI doesn’t take the human out of the process; it enhances our reflection, learning, and clarity. If you’d like to see how it works in practice, don't hesitate to reach out. Previous Item Next Item

Effective Virtual Online Communication It is so obvious, and yet I never thought about it. When we discuss effective virtual online communication, we should distinguish between synchronous and asynchronous communication. Although effective communication in these two channels may share some attributes, many principles, and tools are relevant only to one of them rather than to the other. So, what are my top 5 for each? Synchronous Communication: Time matters! Make sure to be punctual. Take some time for interpersonal relations; it may seem distracting but it leads to efficiency. Even though synchronous, enable multi-modal channels, encouraging every person to be active and share their ideas most conveniently. Asking questions is a great way to communicate, improving understanding, being on the same page, and fostering non-linear thinking. Provide a secure place to share unbaked thoughts, even mistakes. Please don't take it for granted. Asynchronous Communication: Think smart: choose the proper channels for communication after understanding the needs and analyzing the advantages and convenience of each solution. Be clear! It's easy to be misunderstood when you're asynchronous, especially when people have different cultural codes. From time to time, stop to summarize, bringing everyone back to the same page. Use gestures! They are efficient, require less energy than typing, and can help support the message and make everyone feel better. Only write short messages; people have lives! Previous Item Next Item

Virtual Reality and Tacit Knowledge- can they be connected? Today, during our Knowledge Management Global Network course on Leveraging Tacit Knowledge for Value Creation, Tracy Cosgrove shared her inspiring story about using Virtual Reality (VR) in hospitality services. Key Takeaways on how VR can leverage value creation of tacit knowledge: Tacit Knowledge Transfer: Amplifying Nonaka's Principle, tacit knowledge can be transferred without converting it to explicit knowledge. VR beautifully amplifies this idea. Thank you, Sven Rinke, PhD, for the insight. Sensory: Stimulating sensory engagement, VR immerses experts in virtual environments that stimulate their senses, enabling them to tap into their unconscious and tacit knowledge. Contextual Understanding: VR allows experts to view the world from different personas' perspectives, enhancing their understanding of various contexts and situations. This leads to creating both tacit and explicit knowledge relevant to business needs. Enriched Learning: Blending VR with real-world scenarios enriches our learning experiences, making them more exciting and engaging, thus stimulating our imagination and knowledge creation. Questions: Everyone acts as avatars in VR environments, providing a sense of anonymity and protection. This encourages more questions, which helps listeners leverage their tacit knowledge and understanding (internalization) and enables experts to deepen their understanding while answering these questions. Tracy emphasized that you can use VR technologies without being a technological expert. So, for those hesitating, there are few excuses left for delaying their adoption. Previous Item Next Item

Facilitation - More Essential Than Expected; More Complex Than We Would Wish A facilitator is one who plans, guides, and manages the dynamics of people's contributions to generate value, make decisions, and achieve required objectives. We naturally understand a facilitator's role in specific conditions where leadership is a formal part of the structure of the event. However, facilitation, as noticed by Tami Dubi, is a basic KM requirement, taking place in almost every context and condition. Arthur Shelley led us today in Knowledge Management Global Network's Collaboration course, facilitating us through the journey of deepening our understanding of this topic. Facilitation may seem like a simple task, but unfortunately, it is just the opposite! It is all about balancing the roles of socialization and control. A low level of control can lead to chaos and no results; a low level of socialization may lead to decisions but to decreased results and decreased levels of belonging. The facilitator must strive for such a balance by creating conversation, questions, contributions, creative fiction, mind flex, and... flow. Socialization actions may include: Welcoming, guiding, motivating, encouraging, engaging, asking, empowering, connecting, enabling, listening, clarifying, highlighting, praising, adapting, navigating, coaching, participating, questioning, respecting, remoting, partnering, reflecting, communicating. Controlling actions may include: Planning, preparing, directing, delegating, resolving, "reading" the room, managing (time/resources), challenging, capturing, documenting, summarizing, task-mastering. As much as it sounds impossible and an "art," it can be taught, experienced, and improved. Try it; you won't regret it. Previous Item Next Item

KM AI Agents Series – Post #1: Capturing Tacit Knowledge – Smart, Fast, and Practical When people hear about KM AI agents, they often think of one thing: Take a knowledge base Build a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) Let people search it better with GenAI. Of course, this is valuable — and should be done. But if KMers are only mediating business users' simple requests to IT, asking for better search, who needs knowledge managers at all? Real Knowledge Management goes far beyond that. Real Knowledge Management is about enabling smarter—access, capturing and retaining critical—knowledge, driving lessons—learned, supporting change, and — yes — surfacing the deep tacit insights that fuel real expertise. How many times have you looked at a finalized ROCK (Retention of Critical Knowledge) article…and found only documented processes, with no best practices inside? Processes are important, but as Polanyi taught us, the real gold lies in tacit knowledge: How to look at a new problem How to judge a situation based on experience How to balance needs and make the best decision This is precisely where KM AI Agent #1: KiSure—Capturing—Tacit—Knowledge steps in. It guides a structured, smart conversation with an expert — and in just 60–90 minutes, the real insights start surfacing; not instead of us- with us. magic. Just great KM practices, embedded into a smart AI agent. Curious? Explore ROM Global’s current set of KM AI agents here Interested in piloting the software and bringing real KM power to your organization? Let’s talk. It’s not magic – but it sure feels like it. Previous Item Next Item

The New KnowledgeWork - Post 2: DecisionMaking GenerativeAI opens new opportunities for enhancing many aspects of knowledge work. When we began our work in the KMAI coalition, decision-making was quickly prioritized as a key area for improvement. We formed a team led by Kristina Mirchuk, including Dragan Petrov, Larriza Thurler, Alex Bennet (Alex & David Bennet), Israel Fischer, Susan Montgomery, May Rubinstein, Maya Shaked, and myself. Our findings were fascinating: Some decisions are made very quickly and easily, and we likely want to maintain that efficiency. As we learned from Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, there's a good reason we don’t meticulously analyze every decision but rather respond almost intuitively (System 1 vs. System 2). We sought a process to help us make the comprehensive decisions. We quickly realized that AI knowledge-driven agents could be the solution for such processes. GPTs, like those in the GPT store, can serve as coaches, leading us through best-methodology-based decision-making processes. By enabling web browsing, these agents can also act as assistants, providing additional knowledge and information relevant to the decision at hand. For defined processes, one might develop specific AI knowledgedriven agents. However, for the sake of this coalition, we decided to develop a general-purpose AI knowledge-driven agent capable of addressing any comprehensive decision process. Practically, we developed two agents (Dragan and Moria), trained them repeatedly, and conducted experiments and pilots in various organizations, situations, and contexts. The results were astonishing, pushing us towards commercial usage (ROM Global, QME) and a research paper (Larriza, Moria). Where does this take us? We strongly advocate for organizations to embrace the use of AI Knowledge-Driven Agents in their decision-making processes, whether developed internally or by trusted partners like ROM Global and QME. This Shift can make the decision-making process faster, more systematic, and better managed, leading to more profound decisions. For years, decision-making has been crucial yet not systematically managed. We are now in a new era where this can change, and it’s in our hands to make it happen. Previous Item Next Item

Knowledge Creation- the Symphony of KM When we talk about knowledge creation, we’re actually referring to a variety of Knowledge Management (KM) solutions, each focusing on a different kind of learning and creation process. Lessons Learned / Debriefing sessions Where insights from action are distilled into good practices, usually tactical, helping teams refine what already works. Tacit Knowledge Capture Sensitive conversations with subject matter experts, revealing hidden approaches, methods, and tools. These can range from strategic frameworks to very hands-on techniques. Collaborative Learning Structured series that combine conceptualizing, capturing, organizing, sharing, and documenting knowledge on a defined topic, from shaping a new policy to structuring a professional doctrine to addressing risks and challenges together. Innovation Focused ideation processes that create new products, services, or work methods, turning creativity into structured output. Game-Changing Transformation Where knowledge creation becomes re-creation, proposing new value or a radically different way to fulfill existing needs. In each of these, we, the knowledge managers, are not the ones playing the instruments, but rather the conductors of the orchestra, guiding others to create, connect, and compose new harmonized knowledge together. Previous Item Next Item

Why Knowledge Management? Rudolf DSouza, as always, hits the nail on the head by starting with the most critical question. Simon Sinek has taught us to START WITH WHY. Here’s my quick checklist of typical "whys" for KM, because sometimes it’s easier to start with a guide rather than a blank page: Effectiveness & Efficiency Encouraging knowledge sharing and applying existing knowledge in everyday tasks, problem-solving, and process improvement. Future Capabilities & Innovation Fostering knowledge creation and driving innovation. The key to staying ahead of the curve. Onboarding Improving learning curves and shortening the integration process for new hires and trusted suppliers. An essential part of welcoming talent into the fold. Business Continuity Capturing both tacit and explicit knowledge from experts and key roles, ensures the company mitigates risks when people move on. Safeguarding our intellectual capital. Safety Promoting knowledge learning, sharing, accessibility, and application to prevent accidents and ensure a safe environment. Knowledge can save lives. Knowledge is not just about documentation—it's about dealing with business needs, thus helping them improve performance and growth. Let’s always remember the power of asking WHY and keep pushing forward to unlock the true potential of KM in our organizations. Previous Item Next Item