Final follow-up to this post below. Most case studies are useless. I remember being at a major KM conference and a friend asking me: "What's wrong with me? Why aren't my KM projects as smooth and flawless as these presentations?" It reminds me a bit of the argument about unrealistic portrayals of female bodies making ordinary women depressed. If everyone looks like a Hollywood starlet then I must be ugly and useless.
The thing is most case studies as written up in articles or presented at events leave out the really useful stuff. Where did you screw up and why? What were the unexpected events?
However 'real' case studies (warts n all) are very powerful indeed. I love The Mistake Bank. I think that knowledge managers are slowly, painfully building up this base of experience - but we could do a whole lot better - as Patrick has often stated.
The role of theory here is, for me, not fully decided. Dave, Patrick, Shawn, Gary Klein and others, have all done a brilliant job of bringing in research from complexity theory, cognitive science and narratology to bear on real-world problems. More KM practice needs to be built on research. However theory by itself is not enough. It needs to be constantly tested against brute reality.
What I am arguing for here may be impossible: A transparency around KM practice that requires a strong theoretical base, a willingness to experiment and a drive to learn from the work of others.
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"a strong theoretical base, a willingness to experiment and a drive to learn from the work of others" Sounds like a good basis for any KM programme. Are you, in effect, arguing for KM about KM?
God help me yes.
To quote the great Australian movie, The Castle, "tell 'em their dreamin'"
We like to do it to others, not so much have it done to us... I could draw some analogies but nothing that the coming internet censorship would like.
I hope your friend was asking you that with a smile on their face?
Individually and taken at face value with the idea of replication then, yes, pretty useless case studies are.
But taken with the idea that there might be something of use, some aspect that might be adpated, taken into consideration among your own organisation, and possibly along with a slew of other points from other case studies, then together it can all be pretty effective.
Never rely on one source of information, one example, on newspaper, one area, business contact, revenue stream, hard drive back up etc.
You'll rarely hear bad case studies in a presentation (although some of the best presentations I've seen have featured acknowledgements that X Project didn't go too smoothly at times). And even in interviews for case studies you often have to dig deep for the most interesting bad bits, comfortable in the knowledge that the interesting anecdote will swiftly be followed by request to "keep that bit off the record."
I'm pretty sure you know all of this, Matt. ;-)
Matt, thanks for the very nice reference to the Mistake Bank :)
regards, John
Alex - You know I know that you know I know that. The issue is that case studies at conferences (esp. those with vendors lurking around) tend to be more about marketing than genuine learning. The best case study sessions I've been in have been small, very conversational and then continued down the pub afterwards (where people open up). Matt
Presentations that feature, or are led by, vendors or sponsors are often a law unto themselves.
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